Lives in Cricket No 20 - Maurice Tompkin

with Nuneaton Town. He was known as ‘Fairy’, not in a derogatory way, but because he ‘floated down the wing’. Countesthorpe is a long straggly village. The original nucleus was around the parish church; the arrival of the Midland Counties railway and station half a mile to the west led to the building of rather larger houses in that area. In time, the two sections joined. A divide existed though, with the station end referred to as the ‘bread and butter end’, and the church end the ‘margarine’ end, to indicate the relative prosperity of those who lived there. Those from the posh end tended not to play with those from the village. The Tompkins’ home on Cosby Road, just past the station, was very much at the posh end of the village. Also, perversely, at the posh end was the Leicester City children’s home, always referred to as the ‘Cottage Homes’ because the children were brought up in the large individual ‘cottages’ in large family groups supervised by ‘house parents’. There were two schools. As with the cricket clubs, a religious divide existed. The Church of England school, situated opposite the church for the children of those who attended the parish church, and the council school on Foston Road, for those who attended the Baptist or Primitive Family history and background 10 Sunny times. Family holidays were often spent at Hopton on Sea near Great Yarmouth. Here Percy is pictured back left and Maurice back right (playing a straight spade), and Flo front right, with family friends, the Rastalls, and their children.