 
  
                        Edna when married ... and (R) Edna as a younger woman ?
                        Edna was Sylvia's next eldest sister after Mavis, some
                        12 years older. 
                      
                          Michael Hill, Mavis' eldest son, as a baby. 
                      
                          Michael Hill aged about 7. 
                      
                          Edna & Gordon in front of her dad's (Harry's)
                          shed.
                      
                          A wedding pic. Whose? L to R ... Gladys, Edna, Grandma
                          Susannah Holt
                          (nee Bannard),
                          Mavis, with Michael and Alan tonguing in front.
                          location ? perhaps the old Methodist chapel in
                          Highfield St, near the
                          Co-op.
                      
                      
                      
                          at the back of 208 Highfield St, Coalville, Harry
                          Holt, and daughters,
                          Mavis, Sylvia, Edna, 
                          and Edna's eldest son, Alan, c.1945 or towards the end
                          of the war.
                      
                        
                      
                          we think this may be Philip as a baby, Mavis &
                          Percy's son.
                      
                          Rodney Saunders, page boy, perhaps at his Aunt
                          Sylvia's wedding. 
                      
                          Alan Saunders. 
                      
                          Tom Sawbridge, Uncle Tom, of Loughborough. 
                      
                          at Skegness, two unidentified ladies, and Grandad
                          Douglas Manderfield
                          of Shepshed.
                       
                      
                          Michael Hill & Valerie's wedding, Earl Shilton, c.
                          1963
                      
                        
                      
                          an enlargement of earlier photo above.
                      
                        
                      
                          Gladys & Tom .. c.1942 
                      
                          Gladys & Tom's wedding .. 1942 
                      
                          Gladys & Tom's wedding: 3 Aug 1942.
                          left to right: Ann (Tom's mum, nee Clarke), Edna,
                          Charles (Tom's dad),
                          Tom & Gladys, Harry Holt and Tom's sister, Grace.
                      
                        
                      
                          Neighbours at 208 .... Violetta Holt, Mr Chambers, Mrs
                          Chambers, Henry
                          Holt
                      
                        
                      
                          Henry Holt, bandsman, Snibston Colliery Brass Band ?
                      
                        
                      
                          Douglas Manderfield, father of Violetta, 
                          at one time, Superintendant of Shepshed Methodist
                          Chapel,
                          with two of his grandaughters, Sheila Manderfield,
                          & Dorothy
                          Manderfield.
                      
                        
                      
                          Harry Holt, with youngest daughter Sylvia, c.1945, in
                          Sleaford
                      
                        
                      
                          Sylvia Holt, c.1945, in Sleaford, aged 15.
                      
                        
                      
                          Sylvia Holt, c.1945, possibly 15th birthday studio
                          portrait.
                      
                        
                      
                          Sylvia Holt, aged about 9
                      
                        
                      
                          Sylvia Holt, aged about 7
                      
                        
                      
                          Sylvia Holt, aged 4
                      
                        
                      
                          Mavis & Percy's wedding.
                          L - R ... Harry, Sylvia, Percy, Mavis, Edna, friend,
                          Alan, Robert, Michael (with tongue again!)
                      
                        
                      
                          The only grandma I knew, Gertrude (Gerty) Holt,
                          nee Toone, at the back of 208, c. 1965.
                          "Hello, me' little flower !"
                      
                        
                      
                          Harry Holt, at Glady's & Tom's first home in
                          Beacon Rd, Loughborough
                      
                        
                      
                          Michael Hill, as page boy to ... ?
                      
                      
                      
                        
                      
                          Private Henry (Harry) Holt, 204379
                          served in both the Leicestershire &
                          Northamptonshire Regiments.
                          from the charcoal/pencil portrait that always hung
                          over the sideboard
                          at 208.
                          Served in the army 1911 - 1919. 
                        
                      
                        
                      
                          Susannah Holt, nee Bannard, of Northamptonshire, c.
                          1926
                      
                      
                      
                        
                      
                          
                          Able Seaman Jack Hill, RN, & Mavis' Holt's
                          wedding, late winter, 1942.
                          Jack was a DEMS gunner. in the Royal Navy, lost at sea
                          in the last days
                          of 
                          August 1942, torpedoed on an American tanker whilst
                          'on loan' to the US
                          Navy.
                          He died having never seen his son, Michael Hill, born
                          in February the
                          following year.
                          If you click the photo, it brings up a separate page
                          that tells their story.
                      
                      
                      
                        
                      
                          Harry (Henry) Holt in about 1923. You'd never guess
                          from this that this
                          man
                          had been through four years of unbelievable carnage on
                          the Western
                          Front.
                          Had been a machine gunner, and mowed men down in their
                          hundreds.
                      
                      
                      
                        
                      
                          And Violetta, nee Manderfield of Shepshed, 
                          the earliest photo we know of her, as a young woman.
                      
                        
                      
                          A wonderful photo, Violetta with two of their
                          daughters, Edna (b.1918)
                          and Mavis (b.1923).
                          This places the time as being roughly late 1923, when
                          Violetta would
                          have been about 33.
                          She died in 1941, aged 48, when her youngest daughter,
                          Sylvia, was just
                          11 years old.
                          Jack, her daughter Mavis' new husband seen above, was
                          lost at sea the
                          following year.
                          Having survived the carnage of the First War, Harry
                          now lost his wife,
                          and his new son-in-law,
                          all at the height of the Blitz on Britain. He must
                          have thought his
                          world was coming to an end.
                      
                      
                      
                        
                      
                          The Coalville Plate, showing main collieries of the
                          Leicestershire
                          coalfield, 
                          and dates of operation to closure.
                      
                      
                      
                        
                      
                          Coalville Clock Tower, c.1965.
                          Jack Hill's WW2 memorial is enscribed on the base
                          panels,
                          along with those of Harry Holt's many World War 1
                          friends.