William Henry Keen

(By Frank William Veness, grandson)

William Henry Keen was born 29 June 1847, in Blockley, Worcestershire, England, to William Keen and Elizabeth Manton.

I was very young when he passed away, but my memories are that of a kind and loving man.
He used to walk around with his hands clasped behind his back. this seemed to be one of his favourite positions.

We lived in one of his cottages and our back fence adjoined a vacant block of land next to his residence.

We had an entrance through the fence and played played a great deal on the vacant block.

Grandfather worked in the brickyard in Lang Street, owned by his father.

He would purchase quite a number of common bricks, which we stacked near the front fence. There must have been 10,000 bricks in all. We made cubby-houses of the bricks, building walls and making rooms. it is a wonder that we were not killed, but I do not remember ever having any bricks fall on us.

He made us a merry-go-round on the vacant allotment. it was just a post in the ground with a iece of 4"x3" as a top piece with a seat on one end. he used to push Ken and myself around and around (we were about 5 and 6 years old at the time), like a horse or bullock grinding wheat. This was not long before he death on 20 August, 1922.

There was a Peppercorn tree on this allotment which gave lots of shade. We had a railway sleeper supported by bricks which made a great seat under the tree. It was on this seat that I gashed my right eye, which has impaired my sight to this day.

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