The Smiths and The Gordons at Itchenor, 1917

Jan and Cora Gordon spent late WW1 summer holidays at the Itchenor cottage of their friends, Doris and Ashley Smith. Accounts of the 1917 summer holiday exist in the diaries of both Ashley Smith and Jan Gordon. A painting by Jan Gordon of this area can be seen here.

My friend Roger Jones, walking down Itchenor High Street this week, took the following picture of Ashley's old Itchenor cottage.

9, High Street, Itchenor, rented by Ashley Smith from 1914. 
My thanks to Roger Jones for the photograph!

Ashley described the modifications he made a century ago: "I dug out the cobbles in front of it – made a fence and a portico with two seats over the door and then I planted honeysuckle and a climbing rose tree. Cottagers from around came to look." From the photograph it appears that the roses are still going strong one hundred years later!

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