An ancient wonder was my PLAYGROUND

Jean Grey thinks back to a happy childhood in a home full of history

- MISHAAL KHAN, EMMA DUNN

Thinking back to her childhood, 91-year-old Jean Grey recalls with fondness the pleasures found in the little things, seen through innocent eyes. But Jean’s playground was unlike that of any other child’s. She was living in one of the most remarkable places in England – Stonehenge – but realises she didn’t understand its magnitude or importance at the time.

‘I was only four when we moved there, and didn’t know what it meant as a place,’ she says.

It was 1934 when Jean moved into a cottage at Stonehenge Bottom, on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, with her mother and father, Emily and John Moffat, and 18-month-old brother, Ian. ‘As a child, it was home and where my family was, and that was all that mattered,’ she says. ‘There wasn’t a sense of history for me. It was somewhere I played and lived, and it was wonderful.’

Her father had served in the Royal Air Force, and before the family moved to Wiltshire, they’d lived in Stockbridge, near an RAF camp, until cuts in the armed services led John to take a job as custodian of the stones. He kept the monument maintained, cutting the grass and making sure no one damaged the giant monoliths.

They weren’t roped off like they are now. For Jean, playing among the stones became a normal part of her life. Living in an isolated area, there weren’t any other local families around or children to play with, and Jean’s brother was still a baby, so she learnt to keep herself company.

‘The stones were my playground and I used to climb among and around them on my own,’ she recalls.