Peggy Wotton MBE

(1932 – 2020)

Memories in the words of her brother Gilbert.

Born at the Globe Inn at Appley in June 1932, Peggy was one of six children, all of whom were born in the same bedroom and delivered by the same nurse and doctor.  She had two sisters, Mary and Jean and three brothers Gilbert, John and Tim.  Our Mum and Dad, Bertha and Daniel Enticott, worked so hard to give us all a good start in life.

From an early age Peggy was good at most things, she could play the piano by ear, she loved tennis, hockey and drama.  She was very clever at school and could have gone on to greater things having attained her matriculation certificate (that is equivalent to University entrance), but Peggy did not want to leave her home and family so instead she took a job as a dentist’s receptionist. She bought herself a Raleigh Superb bicycle which she used for the next ten years to cycle to and from work in Wellington.

Her life and work in the community started at a very young age and was probably a sign of what was to follow.

As a young teenage girl in 1945 Peggy earned the role of Homecoming Princess and amid big celebrations at Appley Croft field, was tasked with handing out envelopes with money to the returning service men to help them after the war.  Peggy handed two envelopes to Mrs Pritchard of Lower Brimley Farm whose sons did not return.  What a thing for a young girl to do.

It was at the local youth club where Peggy met her husband to be, Bill.

Peggy, Bill, Bill’s brother Edward and Fred Scadding formed a band, ’The Appley Four Mile Band’, aptly named as that was the farthest they travelled to perform.  They played at harvest suppers, festive occasions for friends and family and of course at home at the pub.  If you could hum the tune, Peggy could play it on the piano and in no time at all, the band would follow.

Peggy and Bill were soon married, and their son Nick was born. From then Peggy became a devoted mother as it was soon clear that Nick would not enjoy good health, but they tried not to let this get in their way. As a family they enjoyed life, sharing interests and all becoming involved in the community in different ways, while running the Post Office from their home.

Peggy’s involvement broadened into the Parish, the Church and the School and it was her will to succeed that saved the school from closure. 

On December 31st 2005 Peggy was awarded the MBE for services to the rural community.  How proud we all were of her achievement and it was an honour for us to be able to say that our sister had an MBE.

Peggy spent the last years of her life without Bill or Nick who have both passed away, but with good neighbours, friends and family she was still very much in touch with all the things that mattered to her.

Thanks to all of you who kept in touch.  Special thanks to Tim’s family for the invaluable visits and of course a big thank you to John and Kathy and to Rachel and Ian for everything they did for Peggy.

God Bless you.

We hope you will dream of us as we will dream of you.

Gilbert Enticott

Peggy and Stawley School

I have known Peggy since 1974. She ran the Shop and Post Office at Greenham with her husband Bill (who delivered the groceries to the surrounding villages, serviced lawn mowers and garden machinery and drove the school bus among other things). They were the centre of the community and knew everything about everybody, including, it seemed, every child’s birthday.  She greatly missed Bill when he passed away. She was awarded her MBE for services to the community but always maintained that it should have been jointly awarded to Bill as well.

She attended Stawley School and never lost interest in the School and continued to support it as an active Governor until her sad demise (she was recently made an Honorary Governor).

We often recalled our campaign against school closure, going over old times and I thought you might like to hear of the first campaign.

This is a photograph of the action committee outside the Department of Education.

From left to right to left they are: me, Bill and Peggy Wotton; Di Willis, Chair of the Governors,  (formerly of Greenham Barton); Sir Edward du Cann, a keen constituency MP and very much opposed to school closure, (formerly of Cothay Manor);  and Reg Herbert, from Kingsmead.

In the early eighties Somerset County Council announced without warning that the original School buildings were ‘structurally unsound’ and  ‘unreparable’, much to the dismay of the people of Stawley. Thus a temporary classroom block was to be erected in the playground and the old school buildings would be sold. (Interestingly the old school buildings are now two highly desirable residences showing no sign of structural deficiencies!) It subsequently became apparent that the SCC wanted the pupils to attend a new school to be built in Milverton. Strong representations were made to SCC to no avail and an action committee was formed to fight the closure.

An approach was made to Edward du Cann for assistance and he was very helpful and arranged for a group to see Baroness Young in the Houses of Parliament.

Funds were raised by the community and a car was hired (a Ford Granada no less) to travel to London. The Baroness listened carefully to the submission and was given a written document giving the case against closure (this was enormous, almost entirely filling an A4 lever arch file and contained statistics, maps, photos, projected populations and more).

Then  Sir Edward gave us lunch in the House of Commons and gave us a guided tour of the House including his offices, which had a balcony over the Thames. Afterwards he lent us his chauffeur-driven Rolls Royce to view the Christmas lights in Regent Street. What a day!

A couple of weeks after our return from London we heard that the proposed closure was refused as the SCC had not provided the required number of Notices around the Parish (a technicality but scuppered  by Bertha (Peggy’s mother) but that’s another story).

However, jubilations were short lived as the SCC immediately launched another closure procedure – this time with the correct number of notices (but again…..that’s another story ).

I hope you will find this of interest and is a small reminder of Peggy’s dedication to the community and in particular, the School.

John Hannon

The Wottons at home

For 18 years we have been neighbours to Bill, Nick and Peggy.

When we arrived we lived next to the village shop and post office, the  milk delivery was down by the garages and people came up and down the steps in front of the house. We became used to Bill leaning on our garden fence looking out over Greenham, Nick fixing his car, and the general comings and goings of the Wotton household. 

After Bill and then Nick’s death we were more frequent visitors to each other’s houses.

So many conversations over a cup of coffee or a glass of sherry about the state of the world, Peggy’s gradual acceptance that new people were moving in to the area, her hope that these newcomers would know that the Stawley Primary School was still open due to her Mother’s pressure to prevent closure. Her interest in the Globe, her childhood family home. She cared enormously for the wellbeing of the Parish with all her decades of memories – events, people, family – and she never lost her ability to fight for what she wanted.

In later years our grandchildren have all included Peggy in their lives. She was a feature of their stay in Somerset. Not least because she was a source of chocolates!

An abiding memory is of Peggy and her pink hoe used as a walking stick as she took her exercise “five times up and down the driveway” – always pleased if she met someone at the top to have a chat with, doing bits of gardening as she went up and down.  As she became less physically able and spent most of her day sitting in her porch, she liked the gate between our houses to be open so she could see our comings and goings and any   grandchildren could freely visit her.

We miss her presence. Her house seems a little lost without her.

Rachel Oliver and Ian Williams