Maureen Garrod and Rosemary Westley (née Addley), identical twins, have lived in the village since they were very young. They moved from Kent to the village with their mother during the second world war after their father, Arthur, had tragically been killed in Italy while serving in the army. They moved into one of the cottages in Spring Terrace at Church End. Their mother, Gladys, then married George Purkiss (Maureen has always said he was a wonderful step-father), the farm foreman at Hall Farm and who lived at 23 Spring Terrace. Maureen and Rosemary both went to the village school until their mother, unhappy with the poor quality of education they were receiving there, moved them to West Wratting school. Maureen married Philip Garrod, also then living in Spring Terrace, and Rosemary married Bertie Westley, then living in Willingham Green. It’s a very romantic story – the sisters were married in a shared service on the same day in Weston Colville Church – August 16 1958. For many years Maureen and Rosemary were responsible for many of the wonderful displays in the annual flower festival in the church, and they were also responsible for the floral arrangements at the 100th anniversary celebrations of the village school in 1969.
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