My Grandparents
Frank & Beryl Moon
Quite a time after making my first bear I started designing my own patterns, back then my bears were very different. They had massive ears and massive feet! There was a local bear shop where I had made friends with the owner through our shared love of bears! I took a few bears in to show her and to my delight she suggested selling them! I was over the moon, at that point not occurred to me to sell the bears, it was just a hobby!
So in order to sell my bears I needed a name.
I wanted something different and yet something that was close to my heart, I got Mum on the case and almost in the same breath we said "Shantock"
“Little Shantock” (the not so little yellow house) was a special place to me and my family as I was growing up. My Grandparents built the house brick by brick in the mid 1960’s, with help from my Mum, Aunt and a few friends. It holds many fun filled memories for me, from swinging on my very own green swing, to the blossom falling from the big cherry tree, eating cakes in the summer house, picking fruit from the fruit cages and visiting my Grandfathers honey bee’s at the top of the garden.
That's me with our dog Beren in "Little Shantocks" garden, you can see my green swing in the background and the tree was the home to a imaginary fairy!
Sadly "Little Shantock" had to be sold when my Grandfather was terminally ill, my Grandmother (the most wonderful woman I have ever known) could no longer cope with the acre of garden and such a large house, so it past on to another family who I know love it as much as we did. I often think about days spent there, days spent playing in the sunshine, making mud pies, helping my Grandmother bake cakes for tea, I can still hear my Grandfather's laugh (he had an amazing booming laugh)
I still miss them both everyday, I wish that they had lived to have seen one of my bear, alas they did not, but naming my business after Shantock seems the most fitting way to honour their memory and their love.
xxx
.JPG)
