It seems wrong, even now, to call her Florence as she was always known to everyone as Mrs Childs! She lived in Virginia House for many, many years having moved there with her husband and staying after his death. They were a farming family from near Beaminster and continued to run a smallholding from the field and orchard beside the house.
Virginia House, Shipton Gorge
Mr and Mrs Childs are buried together in Toller Whelme, the family home. After Mr Childs died, she lived on alone in the house almost until her death. She had by all accounts had a hard childhood, having been brought up by her father and archetypal wicked stepmother, or so she described her. Eventually she eloped with her husband over the hill to Toller Whelme and never returned! She was indeed one of those great village characters that epitomise the old farming traditions and ways of the mid 20
th century.
