Jane Lona Edwards (nee Pope), messaged in September 2020. She and her husband were due to come back to the UK but Covid prevented them visiting. Her Facebook (FB) message was as follows:
“So lovely to see that village and community life is thriving. Great to see Beryl Price and Joan Davies in the photos. Thank you for letting me join the FB group. My mother has most of our photos of St Hilary, the Bush Inn before it was extended into the barn on the left which is now a bar (snug); Little Hall cottage before renovations; Church Cottage was just that – it withstood the walk way through to the Grange; just fields past the Bush. We could all tell so many stories.
Villagers weren’t happy when Wendy Cottage was renamed Ochiltree. My friend Krista Dowdall (parents Vincent and Maria) lived there for many years. It was updated when they sold.
In 1977 there was a village carnival for the Queen’s Silver Jubilee. The main event was in the field behind the vicarage – also the local cricket ground. Owned by Mary & Ralph Thomas I think. I remember we had our photo taken with the vicar, a young gentleman, in front of the apple and pear (village hall). I went as the Queen with Lisa, my aunt Bobby’s corgi dog”
In October 2025 Jane provided more information about her family:
“My grandparents Joseph and Sarah Pope, with their children Joseph (Joey) aged 8, Arthur aged 6, and Eileen 4 years bought Church Cottage around 1935/6 after his discharge from the Royal Signals as Regimental Sergeant Major in 1934/5. They came home from a 7 year posting to Rawalpindi (now Pakistan) near the Khyber Pass. Having married Saran Denby of Church Cottage, Sully in 1926 at Sully church they embarked on their journey to India in 1926. Joseph and Sarah Pope came back home to Cardiff with three children 7, 5 and 3 who have never set foot on English soil. They had been brought up with servants and a very colonial lifestyle.
Grandad Joseph passed away around 1963 and Sara Nanna Pope around 1970. Church cottage was sold in 1966.
My brother John was born in Church cottage in 1963. My parents Joey and Lona Pope moved to Llantwit Major in 1966 where I was born and they moved back to St Hilary in 1972 to 2 Church Crescent. I was christened and married in St Hilary Church.
My dad’s cousins Blodwen (Booby nee Pope) John and Karen Le Boutier lived at number 1 Church Crescent when old Mrs Frederick passed and Edwina (nee Pope) Dilwyn, Stephen, Suzanne and Christopher Williams lived at number 6. Edwina and Bobby’s parents Charlie and Phyliss Pope lived in the house near the Old Vicarage and old Mrs Clay’s house. So, the Pope’s were very much a St Hilary family. Our playmates were our cousins.
The Pope family came over from Somerset in the 1850s for the coal mines. Joseph Pope was born in 1897 in Aberthin – one of 22!
And all the boys that went to the 1st and 2nd World Wars came home. Joseph Pope having left the army in 1934 was called up again in 1939 for the 2nd World War. He served at Paschedel during WW! And Egypt during WW2”.
October 2025