In the 19th century the Heathers were boat builders, oar and skull makers on the Thames at Isleworth. When this became uneconomic, William Heather retrained to become an electrical engineer. Around 1910 he relocated to Liverpool, to practise his newly-acquired skills on the building of Wavertree Garden Suburb. Census records show that he lived away from his London family for a while until they moved to one of the newly-built houses at 30 Heywood Road, where Bronwen Muriel was born on 2nd September 1916. Bronnie was the youngest of five siblings and the only one to be born after the family's move to Liverpool.

Bronnie was a tomboy who spent her time with her brothers Reg and Charlie. Their older sister, Connie, seemed to be regarded by the parents as the watchkeeper over her younger siblings. Reg and Charlie used to take Bronnie to the cinema, but when they took her to Anfield William gave them extra money so that she could be in the section less likely to expose her to bad language! Ron, the first child, married young and moved to Birmingham when Bronnie was still small.

Bron and Wally (Walter Titherley Holles) married in the early days of WW2. After some time as an anti-aircraft gunner, Wally was posted to India and then Burma, where he contracted some tropical lung disease, which stayed with him for years after. During the War, Bronnie lived with her parents in Heywood Road, but she got a job in the offices of the Automatic Telephone and Electric company in Edge Lane. This meant that, when Connie, married to Albert Pitcher at 6 Fieldway, said that number 4 was for sale, Bron was in a position to pay a deposit on the house in which she was destined to live until well into the 21st century. One day Wally came back in uniform to Heywood Road, and Bron was able to tell him that they had a marital home.

Wally's lung problems did not improve and he died in 1953. He was a lovely man with a great sense of humour, and very popular locally and in the family. Bron was active in the Music and Drama Society, where for many years she was the soprano soloist in their productions at the Inny. In her sixties, she played a part in a pantomime which involved her going across the stage on a skateboard! She was also a very competitive member of the crown green bowling club, travelling to all parts of Lancashire, Cheshire and North Wales to play in matches.

Bron lived at 4 Fieldway for the rest of her life, surrounded by the wonderful neighbours that 'Suburb' society somehow engenders and enjoying the company of long-standing girlfriends at regular pub lunches. Her neighbours have said that it was a privilege to be the friend of this strong and independent woman. Until her last few years she attended family weddings and birthday parties hundreds of miles away from Liverpool.

Bron's 100th birthday party (pictured here) in the Church Hall at St David's, was arranged by her three nephews, Vic Pitcher, son of Connie, David Heather, son of Reg, and Neil Heather, son of Charlie. They did not ask Bron to speak, but after Vic's toast to her health, Bron stood up and delivered a wonderful speech without notes, naming and reminiscing about those present whom she had not seen for some time and speaking of happy memories over many decades. After her 100th birthday, Bron's short-term memory deteriorated and she needed increased support in her daily life. The rocks on which Bron lived her life had been Fortress Fieldway at number 4, the company of old friends from the Music and Drama Society and the Bowls Club and the quiet attention of truly wonderful neighbours. Towards the end, Bron's neighbours provided extraordinary humanitarian aid, knowing Bron's aversion to going into a care home. Their love, loyalty and unshrinking friendship enabled Bron to remain living independently until her very last days in the beloved home that her father helped to build.

Bronnie Holles was an indomitable character, with a sense of humour that never deserted her, and even in her last days she would crack jokes with the paramedics who had come to patch her up after a fall in the home. She demonstrated the personal qualities of her generation - wisdom and financial prudence in wartime, resilience and self-sufficiency in decades of widowhood, pride in maintaining her beloved home, joy in participation in the local community and the company of her many friends, and much of this will have been engendered by the community in which she lived every one of her 101 years.Wavertree Garden Suburb has a character of its own that engenders to this day a community spirit of neighbourliness that was the aim of the enlightened planners of over 100 years ago. Long may it last!

David Heather
Berkshire, March 2018