Woods Ware China at the Serving Hatch

Maud When the squire of Bradbridge Manor finally took the decision to sell up and move to Eastbourne, it came as a great relief to his wife. Several of their genteel neighbours had already taken themselves off to milder climates, putting their heirloom furniture up for auction and selling their homes off to the Youth Hostelling Association, or to private schools. The Dukes of Devonshire and Rutland kept their Derbyshire residences going, but it had been a strain – Chatsworth, Hardwick and Haddon were all millstones around their necks.   The Hooper-Dakindales of Bradbridge however were ready to throw in the towel. Maud Hooper-Dakindale, the squire’s wife, had a great friend in Gertie Lampton, late of Wye Grange. Gertie had taken off to the New Forest six months previously. Her husband had developed gout and their son and heir had been last seen in a Belgian trench in 1916. Wye Grange, previously a burden with no new generation to pass it on to, was shortly to become an agricul