Villagers tell their own stories        

Jack Ankers & Don Archer were farmers in the village throughout the 20th Century, & they recorded their  memories in 1999 for the Millennium. Jack lived at Lynwood , his family owning the Kings Arms for many years. Don Archer & his family lived and farmed Top Farm for most of the 20th Century, the house has  since been renamed Prior House

Jack Ankers    

Who says rabbits can’t climb trees

Village Characters

Village Deliveries

Trees & Wildlife

Don Archer      

Memories of Cleeve

Dialects in the Vale

Horses on the farm

The Railways

Other Farms

Moving Farms & the Village Elders

The blacksmith, the quarry & the carpenter

Mrs Howes Sweet Shop

Growing food, holidays, the baker & the shoemaker

Oaks & Elms

Field Barn

Charlett’s House

Funerals in Cleeve Prior

Bernard Smith still lives in the village today. Having been evacuated to the village during the second world war, he and his wife Shelia have fond memories of the Sheaf family & Bay Tree Farm. He starts the story by telling how his mother bought the cottage they still live in today.

How I came to live in the village

Going to school during the war

After the War

The Mayor of Cleeve

John Sheaf Horses & Me

Bay Tree Farm