LIFE IN CAVES AND WOODS

Greymouth Evening Star, 20 May 1938, Page 11

LIFE IN CAVES AND WOODS

SEVEN HEALTHY CHILDREN LONDON, April 3A family which for nine years has lived a primitive existence in hoppers’ huts, chalk holes and woods in Kent figured in a case at a Canterbury juvenile court yesterday, when seven healthy-looking children were taken before the justices as being in need of care and protection. Air. A. K. Alowl, for the N.S.P.C.C., said that on March 19 the mother gave birth to her twelfth child in the woods near Whitstable and was sent to the infirmary. When the children were being taken away by Inspector Ward a thirteen-year-old boy ran away and had not been seen since. The mother was the widow of a farm labourer, and since his death 11 years ago had been living with tw r o men. Dr. E. T. Etheridge said he found the family living under two shelters eight feet by five, made of sacking stretched over twigs. He could have pushed the whole lot over with one finger. Inspector Pritchard said when the family were living in the woods near Dover he had to drive through snowdrifts seven feet deep to reach them. They were (lien living under Hie same conditions as described by (he doctor.

Mr. Mowll, the doctor, and other witnesses paid warm tributes to the wonderful way in which the mother had cared for her children, who were well nourished, very clean. perfectly healthy, and compared favourably physically with other children of their ages. The magistrates ordered the children to be sent to approved homes.