If a child was not well she would take a gift, perhaps a book, and would maintain an interest in the family until the child recovered.
If someone was in hospital, she would write to them and keep the village informed about the patient.
At Christmas, every household would receive a gift from her. Some examples of her generosity included a sack of coal, tins of tea, tins of fruit and other useful items.
She also organised Whist Drives and Bring & Buy Sales for St Dunstan’s Blind Charity.
Constance organised and collected for the Knapton Hospital Contributory Scheme. This was an early form of today’s BUPA scheme which helped towards the cost of treatment at the Norfolk & Suffolk Hospital.
President of the Women’s Institute
A Magistrate at North Walsham
Church Organist
and > > > > >
Sunday School Teacher
School Manager for Knapton School
< < < < < Organiser of Knapton Hospital Contributory Scheme
Benefactor of St Peter & St Paul’s Church
Constance was a most gracious benefactor of St Peter & St Paul’s and to commemorate this, there is a plaque on the wall of the church in her honour with the words, “in thankful remembrance“.
quick link | Plaque
For many years she played the organ at Services and took weekly choir practices.
Together with her companion, Mary Leather, they ran the Sunday School which at the time was held in the Parish Rooms (now known as the Village Hall) and all the Christmas and Summer Sunday School parties were held at Knapton House.
Constance also allowed the Village Fete for several years to be held at Knapton House and helped to organise the events
Constance could often be seen driving her Lanchester car around the village, apparently at a very sedate pace.
Perhaps Constance may have been seen driving one similar to the one below
A Lanchester Ten, 1936
A Men’s Club was held in the Parish Rooms and a suggestion was made to have a Billiard Club. Miss Robinson kindly allowed the members to use her billiard table in one of the wooden outbuildings which has long since been demolished and was opposite the Coach House In 1949 she offered to donate the table if the men of the village would raise the money and build a club house.
The villagers set about holding many money-making events until they had saved enough to build their own Club House. Mr David Cargill, a local farm owner, leased the club a piece of land next to the School House in Hall Lane as a suitable site for the building. There were enough men in the village with the right skills to complete the work and in 1953 it was opened for business.
It was a men only club but of course exception was made for Constance (and Mrs Wild who cleaned the rooms and supplied the necessary refreshments) who would go to the Club House at the end of the Season and present the winners with their winning trophies.
Unfortunately, due to lack of support the Club closed in 2011 and the land reverted back to the Cargill family.
Building the Mens Club in 1950s
Constance lived on at Knapton House until her death in 1968. She was mourned by all of the villagers that she had cared so much about and she was laid to rest in the churchyard of St Peter & St Paul’s church in Knapton, beside her brother and sisters.
She was much loved and there are many commemorations to her around the parish.
< < < This Commemorative Plaque is in St Peter & St Paul’s Church
This commemorative stone is in the bus stop in Knapton Green > > >
Miss Robinson’s constant companion through the years was
Mary Florence Leather
Mary supported Constance until her death in 1968
We do not know when Mary came to live in Knapton but it was possibly around the 1920’s
When Constance died, Mary moved to 14 Marshgate, North Walsham,
where she died in 1973
She is buried in the churchyard of St Peter & St Paul’s Church, Knapton
close to Constance Robinson’s
.
Mary Florence Leather was born in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada on the 23rd May 1881.
Her father, Henry Richard Leather was born on the 14th October 1852 in Hunslet, Yorkshire. According to the 1881 Census taken in Hamilton his occupation was given as Mechanic Engineer, age 28 years.
He married Mary Clarissa Russell in Portsmouth, England on the 18th September 1880 and the couple must have sailed just after this event to Canada because 9 months after the wedding their daughter was born in Hamilton. Their son, Charles Richard Leather, was born in 1883 but Henry died in Marion, Ohio, USA the following year, on the 12thFebruary 1884.
Mary and her two children subsequently returned to England because the 1891 Census shows them living at Connaught Road, Portsmouth.
When the 1901 Census was taken the family were living in a house on Ordnance Row, with Mary Clarissa’s occupation given as Boarding House Keeper. Mary Florence had no occupation given and the son Charles was a Merchant’s Clerk.
On the 1911 Census the two women were living in a 6-roomed house in South Lane, Woodmancote, Westbourne, Sussex. They were living off private means.
Mary Clarissa Leather of Westbourne, Sussex widow died June 1917
Probate London 22 February to Mary Florence Leather spinster
Effects £480 14s. 8d (now worth abt £20,000)
An excerpt from the Probate Records:
Burial
On the 7th February Mary Florence Leather was buried in Knapton Churchyard.
How well we all remember her, who, until a few years ago, Miss Robinson’s constant companion, was so much a part of Knapton life, both in the village and in the Church.
Here in the Church we recall her constant care for Altar linen, Alter flowers, for vestry and sanctuary, her work with the infants in the Sunday School, but it would be difficult to enumerate the many ways in which she was part of the daily life of Knapton and Knapton Church.
She had reached the age of 91 years. Her grave too, is now in Knapton near Miss Robinson’s.
