Finding Fairacre
Earlier this month, my husband and I spent a day in the beautiful countryside of West Berkshire, meeting up with Jill Saint – the daughter of Dora Saint who wrote as ‘Miss Read’. It’s no secret that I’m a huge Miss Read fan and this visit promised to be something very special indeed.
We met Jill in Chieveley – the village where Dora lived after the war – and, after a fine lunch at the local pub, the dark sky that had been glowering at us on our journey from Suffolk cleared to become a perfect Miss Read ‘blue and white day’.
There is a very pretty churchyard at Chieveley and the blossom was out and there were cowslips and buttercups everywhere. The village gardens were all bursting with bluebells and wisteria, and Jill pointed out the pretty cottage where she lived with her parents for many happy years.
A short car ride took us down the country lanes leading between Chieveley and Peasemore, the exact route Dora Saint would have ridden on her bicycle when supply teaching at the primary school.
We parked by the village church which looked like something out of a J S Goodall illustration with its proud tower and steeple.
And the village school where Dora Saint taught was just behind it. It’s a private home now, but you can still see the school bell and imagine the children laughing and playing ‘splash ’em’ in the playground just as they did in the Fairacre novels.
It was then a short walk to a very special place: a long brick and flint wall…
But it wasn’t just any wall. This was the wall which readers might remember from a story called The Lucky Hole. Published in The Observer in 1953 and included in the collection Tales from a Village School and the recently published Mrs Griffin Sends Her Love, The Lucky Hole tells of the custom to leave small items like a coin or a sweet in a hole in the long flint wall for the local children to find. It was this story which caught the eye of publisher Robert Lusty at Michael Joseph Ltd, and he was the one who encouraged Dora to write her very first novel, Village School.
I love how this humble hole in the wall inspired a short story that then led to a book deal and one of the loveliest series ever written. I adore the Fairacre series and I feel truly thankful to this wall for leading to its creation.
Unlike Miss Read’s ‘Thrush Green’ which was based on Wood Green near Witney in Oxfordshire, Fairacre isn’t based on one particular village. However, I felt as if I’d found a little piece of Fairacre in Peasemore that day.
And, of course, you can’t visit the lucky hole without leaving a little something inside it. I wonder how long it will be before the next visitor finds it …
Lovely photos and evocative descriptions! Many thanks for sharing your day, Victoria.
I loved this blog. My imagination could not have described it better, the old school, the church and of course the wall. You and Jill looked as if you were having the most fun day!
Although I live in Massachusetts my sister lives in Somerset and is a huge fan, so I shared this blog with her . More than once we have found ourselves reading the same Miss Read book, and the same page!
xo
Love these photos. I want to make a pilgrimage to these villages. I scrolled down and loved the post about your chickens! Besides my pilgrimage, I also want to live where I can have chickens!!
How kind of Jill to give you a day like that. Thank you for sharing it – it made me feel like I was there.
How fantastic to spend a day with Jill Saint. I have been a huge Miss Read fan for over thirty years and I love Dora Saints books. The one question I would have asked which I have always wondered about was ‘Did Miss Read have a first name?’
Thank you again for the blog. Sue
I keep hearing about all the articles that Dora Saint wrote for Punch and other publications. I began reading Miss Read about 40 years ago and would love to read her articles. Is there any hope they can be published. I read Miss Read books over and over again.
Such beautiful photos!! I am a huge Miss Read fan. Thank you so much Victoria, for the blog and the lovely descriptions.
How wonderful! Thank you so much for directing me to the Miss Read posts, Victoria. They are lovely. I had forgotten that I was quite “local” to all these villages and will re-read the books with a new interest.
Just rereading all my Miss Read books again. Lovely photos and stories. Thank you.
I too love Dora Saint’s books and reread them often. I went to a Village School just like the one in Fairacre, it rings so many bells with me . We were lucky to have had so many delightful stories, and feel her characters are so real.
I love the Miss Read books and also Dora Saint herself – she lived an exemplary life and was successful at everything she turned her hand to, an inspiration to us all. Her two memoirs A Fortunate Grandchild and Time Remembered are my favourite autobiographies.
I love all Miss Read books….but especially the Fair acre saga. Words can’t describe the joy they have given over many years….just came across this blog by accident…more joy!
Oh how I have loved Miss Read and all her wonderful stories. She has made me a true Anglophile with a love of the Cotswolds and village life. Thank you for your blog; a real treat to be among other fans.
Seeing these photographs really evokes Fairacre Village. For years I thought it really existed but does that really matter, it exists in our imagination. Miss Read is my favourite author and As someone once said, her books are the ones you turn to when feeling out of sorts. Thank you for these lovely photographs
Thank you SO much for referring me to your page…..it is wonderful to see these places ! Lovely to have these real pictures to go along with my imagination…….❤️
I have enjoyed the Miss Read books for many years, and often re-read them. Have just found ‘Mrs Pringle’and enjoyed that one again. Fairacre reminds me so much of my own primary school and the first one I taught in, many years ago. Thank you Dora Saint.
Thank you for this wonderful post. I have every book, and as a first grade teacher, I find joy and inspiration in Dora Saint’s lovely writing. Children and teaching are the same in many ways, no matter where or when.
Miss Reads books are my most favourite books. I am truly addicted to them. I have reread them countless times and will continue to do so. Every christmas I reread all of her christmas stories I especially love ‘No Holly for Miss Quinn and the Christmas Mouse’ two of my many favourites. Thank you so so much for this blog.
sitting here ‘blubbering’ Dora Saint was a friend of my mothers back in the 1950’s when she lived in Chievely, many a day would include Mum stopping the bycle with me in the carrier seat and having a
chat’ with ‘Miss Read” as she hung out of the upstairs window at Chapel Cottage :}
What a splendid treat to spend time with Jill Saint and visit the Chieveley locations. I’ve just reread No Holly for Miss Quin and The Christmas Mouse which led to me finding your blog post. A number of years ago I used to visit Chieveley for dog shows but at that time, I didn’t know of the Dora Saint connection or I would have been wandering round the village having a good look. I very much enjoyed seeing your photos.