Part Two: Dippie Dixon, Sgt Hounam, the Australia Connection and the Chestnut Tree !

As you know, my ‘If this tree could talk’ series is a growing sequence of stories about the history of Rothbury, which links places and people to particular trees. Recently I wrote about the magnificent Horse Chestnut by the Rothbury war memorial and about Dippie Dixon’s son, William, and Sgt Robert Hounam. In my original story, which you can read in an earlier blog on this site, it was thought that neither William Dixon nor Robert Hounam returned to Rothbury – I have since discovered that this is not the case with Robert Hounam. It was so delightful to be contacted by family members of Sgt Hounam. And to be able to put these folk in touch with one another was a great pleasure. You can read a little more about Robert, Rothbury's War Memorial, and the War Memorial in Burnie, Tasmania, in the current edition of Over the Bridges: http://overthebridges.org/

This is Mrs Philpotts which is now a B&B in Burnie. The house was designed by the grandfather of Robert's daughter, Joan. Joan married Harry Philpott, and this is where they lived.