Hillam Historians receive many interesting queries and communications from all over the world through this website. It is our window to the wider world, a constant source of unexpected treasures.

After an initial contact through the site, a fascinating exchange of correspondence has developed between Francis Nelson and Paul Scholey. This will be reported more fulsomely in the April-May issue of the Hillam News.

In the interim, perhaps you can help put some names to faces in an old Hillam photo which Francis has sent us – or maybe add some other details. This will help our Hillam News report to be as accurate as possible. The photo was taken on Mr Lyon’s 70th birthday in about 1947/48, at the planting of the current Ringtree. Francis’s own list of names is as follows.

Left to right are Mr Frank Poole, clerk to the parish council, Mr Bill Brookes, grocer and parish councillor, Mr Dick Gundill, chauffeur and groom to Mr H L Lyon, Mr Walter Turton, pensioner, Mr Joseph Leach, farmer and county councillor, Mrs Olive Wood, ex-ATS girl, Mr Jack Nelson, joiner, Constable Newsome, the local bobby, Mrs Stevenson, widow, Mr John William Nelson, county council road man, Miss Ethel Stevenson, Mrs Gundill, Mrs Elsie Turner, née Orton, with her daughter, Mr Arthur Nelson, Hillam postmaster, Mrs Mallard, wife of the local water bailiff, Mr H L Lyon, Mr Arthur Leach, farmer and parish councillor, Mrs H L Lyon, Mrs Hilary Leach, another lady, Mr Herbert Buck, retired farmer and churchwarden of St Wilfrid’s, Mr Frank Gill, gardener to Mr H L Lyon and organist at the Methodist Chapel Hillam, Mrs Edna Meredith, Mr Alan Meredith, the last principals of Rose Lea School.