Friday 17th January 2014
Danny Howell writes ~
Most people who read this blog will know that two months ago I instigated a project to find and restore a dog’s grave on Copheap, Warminster. The grave was for many years a well-known landmark for local people, ever since some soldiers during the First World War constructed it after one of them accidentally shot the dog.
John Featherby, who has recently taken up residence in Warminster, has contacted me with a story concerning his mother and the dog’s grave and it is a story that has a little sadness attached to it.
John writes ~
My mother’s maiden name was Catherine Baker. She was always known as Kitty. She was born in Scotland in 1919 and was sent to a convent school in Warminster while her father was working for Reuters away in St. Helena sometime in the 1930s. It was only just before she died six years ago my mother told me she had been in school in Warminster before the Second World War. I have no further information but I believe the school might have been St. Monica’s School at Vicarage Street. She told me of this only in 2006, by which time she had been widowed (twice) and moved from Kent to live in Andover, where I was working.
After I retired I moved in with her, to look after her because she had suffered a heart attack and needed help. I used to take her out for day trips in the car, asking her to tell me where she wanted to go. One day she told me about her schooldays in Warminster. She had, as far as far as I can recall, never mentioned it before. She could remember very little about Warminster but said she could never forget being taken with the other girls in a charabanc on to the downs above the town to visit the grave of a dog. This grave had become a local landmark and many people came to lay flowers there, but she could not remember the story behind it.
She never came back to the town until I brought her here a few days before she died. She had a lovely day here but we never found the grave. She was so disappointed not to identify the site but asked me to find out for her. I failed to find anything out although I did find a grave at Westdown Camp which clearly was not what she did remember. She died soon after visiting in Warminster, in January 2008.
I have recently moved to Warminster and was interested to read the article about your attempt to locate and restore the grave on Copheap. After reading the article I am convinced that the grave at Copheap is where my mother went as a child to lay flowers, just as you did.
You have my permission to pass on my mother’s story to your readers and supporters. I hope it jogs a few memories of local people. Perhaps you can even fill in a few gaps in my mother’s story. I don’t even have any dates for the time she was at school here but having just moved here myself I hope to have more time now to ferret out more information. She said she was very happy here.
I hope this information is helpful to someone who might remember those times. I would like to find out more about this myself and wonder if I can be of any help to you? I am certain that my mother would be delighted to know the grave might soon be recovered and restored. Do let me know if I can contribute in some way to your efforts, for example, sharing the cost of the new cross you propose – in memory of my mother.
Best wishes and good luck, John Featherby.
Danny Howell responds ~
Thank you John for letting us know about your mother’s search to find the dog’s grave again. I must admit I shed a little tear reading it. What a pity your mother passed away when she did before we put this project in motion. Thank you for offering to contribute towards the cross. It is very kind of you and I think your offer of doing so in memory of your mother is a lovely idea. I hope your mother’s story will prompt others not only to relate their memories about the dog’s grave on Copheap but also help you fill those gaps in your mother’s story. I believe St. Monica’s School used to publish a year book with items contributed by the pupils as well as reports of school events and sports. Maybe we can trace one which mentions your mother? I hope so.