The Holloway's at Talbot Village, a family history.

The Holloway's at Talbot Village, a family history.

The Holloway family have a long history of being at Talbot Village, going right back to it's very beginings.

Between 1850 & 1862 the Talbot sisters had built the Village Cottages, Farms, School and Almshouses, and then turned their efforts to building the Church.

For this, they needed some land and at the time (the 1860's) Henry Holloway owned land adjacent to the school, that he was farming with two of his sons, Richard and Henry (Harry). Although the sons were planning to build a farmhouse where they were farming, it is recorded that the sisters purchased some three acres on which to build the Church from father Henry and then subsequently built two cottages for themselves near what is now the Kings Arms public house at Wallisdown.

So that was the beginings of the Holloways at Talbot Village, but the first family member to take tennancy of one of the "Village" cottages, was George (son of Richard in the previous paragraph) in 1906, when he moved into No4 Talbot Village (now 58 Wallisdown Rd). George's eldest son Reginald Richard was sadly killed just before the end of WWI on 7th August 1918, and is burried in France at Merville Cemetery, where his home address of No4 Talbot Village is inscribed on his headstone. He is also comemorated on the memorial at St Marks Church. When George passed away in 1939, his younger son Leslie took over the tenancy and remained there until his passing in 1994, so the family were living in the cottage for some 88 years.

The second cottage the Holloways took tenancy of was No 1 Talbot Village (now 28 Wallisdown Rd), when in 1942 Edward and his wife Violet moved in with their children, Kenneth, Audrey and Richard. Edward sadly died just six years later, due to complications caused by injuries sustained while serving in WWII. His wife Violet remained in the cottage until her passing in 1977, so another 35 years of village living.

The third cottage to be occupied was when Audrey Freeman (nee Holloway), daughter of Edward and Violet moved into No 9 Talbot Village (No 122 Wallisdown Rd) in the 1970's with her husband Gordon and children Alan, Jane and Doug, where they remained until the early 2000's, before moving out due to  age and the difficulties of looking after an old cottage with an acre of ground. They did however stay connected to the village by taking a flat on the "New Talbot Village"

The fourth and final cottage to be occupied by a Holloway was when I, Philip and wife Susan took over the tenancy of No 2 Talbot Village (No 38 Wallisdown Rd) on 1st October 1978. Here we raised our children Jennifer and Alexander, who like family before them attended St Marks School and enjoyed growing up with the freedom of an acre of garden that backed out straight into the woods. 

We never expected to leave the village, but due to family circumstances, we finally gave up our tenancy in 2020 after 41 years, and so ended a long Holloway association with the village after some 160 years. It was sad and a bit of a wrench, but things move on and we now continue our involvement with the village by volunteering with the Talbot Village History Group and by doing some conservation work with the Talbot Village trust.

Written by P Holloway