My maternal grandfather was born and lived for his entire life in a small, but ancient, hamlet in Herefordshire. Nestling between Ross-on-Wye and Hereford itself, Sellack is a
geographically-large parish (recorded in the Domesday Book), with a very old pre-Reformation church (dedicated to the Welsh martyr Bishop St Tysilio, AD 640) which keeps up the unique tradition of Easter pax cakes. It is built alongside the winding and beautiful river Wye. The small homesteads are clustered around the orchards of the local cider brewers, Grove Common and the convergence of two Rossto-Hereford roads, known as Pict’s Cross, where a war memorial remains.

The local school where my mother and aunt were taught closed in the 1960s. As children in the 1960s...