Cathy Lawrance nee Holmes
Catherine Ann Holmes was born in Goadby Marwood in the spring of 1932, the daughter of John Holmes and Hilda Haywood. She grew up in the village and spent much of her time helping out on the family farm.
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In 1955, Cathy married Stanley Lawrance and the couple moved to Melton Mowbray. Cathy qualified as a secretary and worked for solicitor's in Melton and in Grantham. She was later employed by Shouler & Son's Auction House and then Grove Primary School. In 1981, following the death of her parents, Cathy and Stan moved back to Goadby, living at Holmwood, the pretty bungalow built by her parents close to Manor Farm. Cathy remained in Goadby until the death of her husband in 1995, following which she moved back to Melton Mowbray.
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Today, Cathy lives in Melton but regularly keeps in touch with her many friends in the village. She is an invaluable member of the Goadby Marwood History Group. Cathy’s greatest passion is gliding and she is a keen member of Buckminster Gliding Club, based at Saltby Airfield. Cathy enjoys taking a glider up as often as she can and we have her to thank for many of the aerial photographs on this site.
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See Cathy piloting a glider (YouTube 2010).
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Click on the images to enlarge
Recollections of Cathy Lawrance in conversation with the Goadby Marwood History Group, June 2019
My family first came to Goadby when my grandparents, Frederick and Catherine Holmes nee Rippin, moved to The Manor on Main Street in about 1924. It was purchased from Mr Carter and the purchase also included Manor Cottages and The Lodge.
My brother, Michael, and I, were born at The Lodge (now derelict) on the outskirts of the village. Our family moved to Manor Farm, which at the time was an empty property, around the mid-1930s shortly after I started school – I had a habit of playing truant!
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After we left, Tommy Turfit moved to The Lodge with his wife and family. One of Tommy’s daughters had the same name as me, Catherine.
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I recall John Hubbard was a good friend of our family. He lived at The Hollies, opposite Manor Farm, and he taught Michael and me to ride. I was so keen I used to ride one of our pigs around the crew yard so my father finally relented and said "right, it's about time we got you a pony".
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​One day, when we had a batch of ducklings in a pen on the farm, I had been told not to climb in but they were so cute I couldn't resist. I accidentally stepped on one and squashed it and got a severe telling off. I was sent to my room, but I was so angry I jumped out of the window onto the farmyard below.
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Michael and I used to go to the school in Goadby but the school closed in September 1942 and we moved to the school in neighbouring Waltham on the Wolds. We cycled to school everyday although for the children who attended Scalford school a bus was provided.
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My grandparents’ house, The Manor, was requisitioned by the army during WW2, it initially housed conscientious objectors and later was used for German and Italian POWs, some of whom worked on the farm. It was managed by the Caseys who were husband and wife.
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I went to Sunday School at the Rectory where Rev. Collyer lived, but during the war we had to go to the Methodist Chapel instead because Rev. Collyer became a chaplain in the army and left the village for a while.
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After leaving The Manor my grandmother, Catherine Holmes, lived in Manor Cottages (where David Hadley lives today) with her daughter, Katherine Lucy known to the family as ‘Kit’. Kit was my cousin, Joan Gardner’s, mother.
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Kit married Harold Knapp. They later lived at the new bungalow, Gorse View, built in the 1970s. Today, Joan, lives there with her husband, Dave Gardner. Kit’s sister, Julia Mary Holmes, known in the family as Mary, married Albert E Foister and they lived in Goadby, possibly at Manor Cottages.
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I remember Eunice Titmuss did housework for the Robinsons at Ingelbrook, next door to Manor Farm and she claimed the cottage was haunted. Mrs Robinson was a teacher at Scalford school.
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I also remember when young John Pizer was working at Manor Farm and he found an ‘object’ in the hedgerows up by the main road. He brought it back to the farmyard and hit it with a hammer to try to find out what it was. It turned out to be an unexploded ordnance device. John was killed and the hammer was later found lodged in the roof at Ingelbrook.
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My parents, John and Hilda Holmes, built their bungalow, Holmwood, in the early 1970s and moved there from Manor Farm. Ron and Sylvia Fitton and their three children (Karen Jackson’s family) moved to Manor Farm after my parents built Holmwood. They lived there until Julia and Ed Chester bought it in 2004.
