Sarah Baldwin was researching her family tree and wrote asking about her great grandfather and great grandmother (William Charles Welham and Annie Welham). She knew they lived in East Walton from around 1901 until at least the 1940s and that William was a Game Keeper. Annie's grave is easily found on the north side of the Church, but none is to be seen for William.
Sarah initially assumed that they lived in Keeper's Cottage. Enquiries locally revealed that they lived in what is now known as "Post Office Cottage", the left half of the Post Office building.
One villager remembers "Billy" Welham as always to be seen in jacket and plus fours with a bag over his shoulder and shotgun in hand. She recalls him raising a family of maybe ten children in the cottage and believes that he died there in 1943. She assumed him to be buried in the local church yard. Some of Billy's grandchildren still live in Westacre and there are other Welham gravestones at East Walton up to the 1980s.
Later, Sarah wrote again saying she now knows that "Annie and Walter Welham did indeed have 10 or more sons and daughters, who I believe all grew up in East Walton. The oldest was called Dorothy, who was born in 1895, then Emily born in 1900. There also may have been a daughter called Edith. The youngest child would be my Grandmother, Hope, born in 1916."
In the days when the Welhams lived in the left-hand cottage, the post office was approached by a path directly across the front of the neighbouring cottage. Where the white van is there were a range of outbuildings, including a wash house and further out, kennels. Later, either beyond, or replacing the kennels, a garage was built. This completely hid the post office from the main road. At that time, the new entrances were created onto the "East Winch Road", which some call "Lynn Road".
Page updated: 11 February 2005