One of my earliest Easter memories as a family (in 1946?) is climbing up to the top of Newbold Comyn Hill come rain or shine (baby Margaret in a pushchair) to attend the Easter Sunrise Service on Easter Morning at 6 o’clock! A large cross, decorated with fresh flowers, had been fixed to the Beacon, which was not alight I hasten to add!

We then hurried home for a breakfast of decorated boiled eggs, then rushed to church for a Glorious Easter Celebration. My sisters Julie, Margaret and I had spent most of Good Friday painting the eggs, and we were quite upset to learn that they would be plunged into boiling water.

Of course the rest of Easter Day was spent arguing over who had the best chocolate egg. Later in the day we were given the eggs, strictly rationed so as not to eat too much at once.

Easter Monday was the day we went on the family bike ride for a picnic – it usually rained but that didn’t deter us. After tasty sandwiches and sausage rolls, cake and a banana, and lemonade or cold tea, we played rounders or French cricket; dear Daddy showing us how to fly our kites, which inevitably got stuck in the trees. We generally couldn’t retrieve them, so we cycled home in the rain singing to cheer ourselves up. Altogether a Happy Easter was had by all eggs, oops sorry, by all of us.

Wendy Green