A wonderful photograph of Tony and Mary Parsons on their wedding day 25th October, 1952.
[Many thanks to retired Lieutenant Colonel Pat Parsons, for this photo]

Tony and Mary's Wedding Venue - St Laurence's Church, Bourton-on-the-Hill, Gloucestershire.

St Laurence Church, Bourton-on-the-Hill and also the inside looking down the aisle to the Altar.

On the 25th October, 1952 Charles Anthony Parsons married Mary Caulfield at St. Laurence's Church, Bourton-on-the-Hill.

Tony was born on the 6th May, 1924 and Mary was born on the 1st January, 1919
When they married they would have been 28 and 33 respectively.

Their parents were:-
Charles Roy Parsons and Joan [Allday] Parsons.
Frank Caulfield and Mary Ann [Devlin] Caulfield.

I have it in mind Tony saying that they had their reception at the Swan Hotel in Broadway but this may be wrong.

They had two children:-
Timothy Parsons and Patrick Parsons.

Woodford House, Knightwick - An Aerial View.

Woodford House from an aerial photograph, 30th March, 1970. [Many thanks to retired Lieutenant Colonel Pat Parsons, for this photo]

Not sure if Tony and Mary married before moving to Knightwick or after moving here. Their first house in Knightwick was 'Shortlands' a bungalow on the left hand side on the A44 from Knightwick towards Worcester.

Dr. Parsons (in 1952) went into partnership with the resident doctor, Dr. R. H. Clarke, who was Company Commander of Knightwick Home Guard during the war years and who had previously served as a Surgeon Lieutenant in the Royal Navy, and, lived at Woodford House.

Both of them had wonderful hobbies and enjoyed the idyllic life of the countryside. In the photograph you can see the hedged in pathway which led to the corrugated patients waiting room, on the right hand side of the house. They had a giant ordnance map of the area on the wall, so if you were bored with waiting, you could have a look at where you lived, and anywhere else around Knightwick. Patients were invited through the side door of the house from the waiting room, to a room set aside for the surgery. It also housed a small pharmacy as Knightwick would have been quite isolated for getting to a Chemists.

In the photo the waiting room no longer exists, to the far right you can see the new surgery, which Dr. Parsons had built. Having done this he could then return the old surgery into a lounge and remove the old tin waiting room.

Dr. Roger Heine Clarke retired (in 1961) and he and his wife Marjorie B. Clarke [nee Wakeling] moved away. Dr. Parsons carried on for a while on his own, eventually he could see that the practice was to big for one doctor to handle and went into partnership with Dr. Tony Collis.

To the left you can see Knightwick butchers, I knew it well when the Stephenson's were the owners. The Crowther brothers also owned and ran it and this photo may have been taken while they were in residence. The building is in fact part of the old pub the Flying Horse. Today there is still a butchers in the same building, run by John and Mark Champken.

Tony loved fishing and had the wonderful river Teme running past the back of his house, and caught lots of Trout and Grayling on fly there. He also loved to take a dip and swim there, especially when it was very hot days.

He and Mary both loved their garden, and spent many happy hours there. When I was young Art Bennett was the gardener as it was much to big for Tony to look after and do the hectic job of doctor of Knightwick, Doddenham, Broadwas and Clifton!!

Even so I still managed to have many days out with him and even a trip to Spain which was amazing. Never to be forgotten times with a great man, my mentor, and one of my best friends.

 

Tony Parsons - At School.

Tony Parsons holding the football, at Old Hall School, Wellington Shropshire, in 1937 [age 13] [Many thanks to retired Lieutenant Colonel Pat Parsons, for this photo]

 

Mr. Paul Denmam Fee Smith was Headmaster at Old Hall from 1926 until his death in 1958. He was a previous pupil of the school, and took the post of Headmaster at the age of 25. The above is a coloured postcard showing the Old Hall School at Wellington, Shropshire, the residence of the Headmaster. It would have been like this when Tony Parsons was a pupil, and Paul would have been his Headmaster during his years there. Many of the school photos were taken here.

 

Tony Parsons - Fishing for Snook

 

Tony Parsons, catching Snook [Many thanks to retired Lieutenant Colonel Pat Parsons, for this photo]

One of Tony Parsons favourite hobbies was fishing, I love this photograph of him in his halcyon days catching Snook.
The Snook were caught in Belize, when he was stationed there as a Captain in the RAMC.
The Royal Army Medical Corps is a Specialist corps in the British Army which provides medical services to all Army personnel and their families.

The common snook (Centropomus undecimalis) is a species of marine fish in the family Centropomidae of the order Perciformes. The common snook is also known as the sergeant fish or robalo.

Tony loved fly fishing and went to many places on fishing trips, but even better for him was the river Teme, that passed by Woodford House giving him great sport, when ever he had time, during his busy and hectic job as the local GP.

Tony and Mary Parsons

Tony and Mary Parsons at Bournemouth [Many thanks to retired Lieutenant Colonel Pat Parsons, for this photo]

Tony and Mary worked hard but still managed a very often hectic social life. They enjoyed their lives at Woodford House and very often had parties there for friends and family.

Tony had ill health towards the end of his life and they sold Woodford House and moved to Clifton, to a bungalow opposite St. Kenelm Church. Tony died in 2006 at the age of 82 and Mary made it to 100 years of age. Mary died in 2019 and her ashes and a little headstone commemorating them both can be seen at Knightwick Chapel to the right of the Church doorway.

Knightwick lost in Dr. Parsons someone who can never be replaced, everything he did for his patients was done above and beyond expectations. One of his loves was Dermatology which is the branch of medicine dealing with the skin. It is a speciality with both medical and surgical aspects. A dermatologist is a specialist doctor who manages diseases related to skin, hair and nails and some cosmetic problems. Tony spent one day each week at Worcester Royal Hospital where he treated patients with these problems. [I was one of them as I often had dermatitis break out all over my hands]

One thing I always loved when out and about with him would be his diagnostics of someone he might see, say for instance while waiting for traffic lights to change, he would see someone and say, they've got so and so wrong with them. I used to say "how do you know that?" and he would go into detail about what he could see and why they had such and such wrong with them.

Lastly I would like to thank their son Patrick for the help he has given in allowing me to use all the photos and for a lot of the information about his parents.