February 15, 1913

This is the Straw House, in Worksop, England, a National Trust house in Nottinghamshire, (the East Midlands). It is an example of an English middle class house, home to a successful grocer and his family. That family included two sons, William Straw, junior (1898-1990) and his brother Walter Winks Straw (1899-1976).





We learn from Nicola Thwaite‎ who works in the National Trust Libraries, about a book she recorded in the Straw family library, a book titled Birds in the Hedges. This book has not been digitized by Google, but there is a copy in the Library of Congress, and it is apparently a book of piano music, dating from 1881.

I was interested in that book because of an incident Thwaite shared, a story about a "local pet show", in this case, The Worksop Band of Mercy / Show of Pets. The book was a prize, and is inscribed "third prize presented to Walter Straw for kitten"

The date of the pet show where Walter Straw's kitten won a prize was February 15, 1913.