ALAN WHALLEY'S WORLD

IF you happen to be a bred to the bone Billinger, there's more than an even chance that your name is Frodsham . . . or at least that there's a fair splash of 'Froddy' blood in your family veins.

One who had a big hand in establishing that local dynasty was Sarah Frodsham, who has gone down in local legend as the village's mother of all mothers.

For the incredible Sarah was blessed with 20 children - every one of them a single birth!

Like the old woman who lived in a shoe, Sarah must have had a tough time in providing for her giant brood, crammed inside a small stone cottage in a corner of Billinge, just off Main Street, which was known as The Square.

The head-to-toe sleeping arrangements must have presented a mammoth challenge and meal times run on a rota basis.

Sarah, who also had 40 grandchildren, died in 1933 just a week off her 65th birthday. A local newspaper report of the time said: 'She had been looking forward to drawing her old age pension.'

Which is hardly to be wondered at, after a lifetime of scrimping and saving to make ends meet.

And it was certainly a packed funeral service with 18 of her surviving children (aged 18 to 43) plus their own families, in attendance.

I was made aware of super-mum Sarah via a fading snapshot and a yellowing newspaper cutting kindly provided by one of the old-time character's grandchildren, Marjorie Simpkin.

Marjorie, a livewire personality now pushing 70, was the popular landlady of the village's Brown Cow for more than 32 years, retiring in 1990 to a pleasant little bungalow in Ross Close, within strolling distance of the traditional old pub.

WONDER if anyone ever matched Sarah's super brood? If you know of any other remarkable local families, please drop me a line at the Star.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.