Our daughter was home at the beginning of the week with our grandchildren, she expressed an interest in seeing some old family documents.
Among the papers were the letters home from my husbands uncle, he was in Normandy 1944/5.
Sadly he never came home.
In the letters to his parents he kept mentioning “Littlebeck” he was asking when his parents would return and for how long, he wrote of his longing to be there with them again.
Last night we found Littlebeck on an OS map and this morning set off to hike around the area.
It’s between Goathland and Whitby in a secluded valley.
It’s hamlet with a Methodist chapel and a handful of houses, we were intrigued with the families connection and couldn’t figure out where they would have stayed, the only link was they were strong Methodists.
The hamlet is beyond beautiful, we walked and then went to the tiny chapel, there was a service starting so we stayed.
The service was led by a local farmer and his wife, they made us so welcome as did the 10 strong congregation!
It was so lovely to be in a Church where the family would have worshipped and a place that was clearly so special to them.
We learnt that the farm which has been in the same family for generations was a place of retreat for Methodists and they had a very strong connection with Hull, the farmers wife is going to dig out the visitors books from the era and see if she can find them.
My husband had never heard his parents or Grandparents mention Littlebeck so we can only assume it had been too painful for them to return without their son.
It was a very special Sunday.
