Leonard Gowings was appointed UPPA Secretary & Treasurer in 1920 and it is thanks to him that we have the Accounts Ledger and hence much of the history of the houses and their owners. As a Collector of Rates & Taxes; a very thorough record was established which has subsequently contributed substantially to the compiling of this history.

This record of the family; who lived at Millside; is in the words of Leonard's daughter Margaret (Peggie) - now Mrs Margaret Millett - who became a RADA trained actress

James Prince (1838 - 1913) with son Philip Raymond (1884 - c1960s)

My grandparents, James and Elizabeth Prince, came to live at what was then known as 'Rose Cottage' after their marriage in 1876. Their first surviving child was Dora Louise, born in 1880. Next came Violet Winifred, born 1881, Raymond born 1883, and finally Maggie Primrose born 1887. Also living there at the time was James Prince's aunt, Elizabeth, aged 72 and a domestic servant , Margaret Jones, aged 33. My grandmother died at the comparatively early age of 44, leaving Maggie Primrose barely a year old. Margaret Jones took over the care of the house and children from the death of my grandmother in 1888. She was Welsh and quite untrained and did a valiant job. I thing my grandfather became more or less a recluse from that time on. His aunt, Elizabeth, became senile and had to be sent to the local Asylum to live. My uncle Ramond emigrated to Canada when he was seventeen or eighteen and never came back. My youngest aunt, Maggie Primrose, was lucky enough to have been given an education at a well known school in Edinburgh, by relatives who were sorry for this motherless family. She learnt to speak perfect French and German and had several excellent jobs in Europe and was not really living at Millside at all. My mother, Violet, first became a pupil-teacher and then went to a teacher training college in Oxford (nothing to do with the University). When she had qualified she found a job in Stepney in East London and boarded with the family of one of her fellow teachers.

Violet & Maggie Prince

From about 1900, therefore Millside was occupied only by my Grandfather , my aunt Dora (Always known as Daisy) and Margaret Jones. My Grandfather had worked as a Collector of Rates and Taxes from the time he first came to Upton Park, and continues to do so.

My father Leonard Gowings lived and worked in London, where he met my mother. I think they were married in about 1910 and continued to live in London. He had a varied and interesting life, but the only part of it that is relevant now is the fact that - quite as a coincidence, he had taken a training in Rates and Taxes. I was born in 1913, the same year that my Grandfather died. My family then came to live in Millside and as he was a very fully qualified Collector of Rates and Taxes, my father was able to take over my Grandfather's job in Chester. My Aunt Daisy stayed on with us, and so did Margaret Jones. My sister, Isabel Mary, (always known as Molly and I was always Peggie) was born in 1920 and the family was then complete. We both went to a Dame School in Abbey Square, Chester, though at different dates of course, which was run by the youngest spinster daughter of the late Canon of the Cathedral. I am sure it was pure 'Jane Austen' the eldest daughter was the housekeeper, the next was a music teacher and Miss Hilda ran the little school, partly in the Georgian home in which they lived. We got to know every corner of the cathedral, which is something I shall never forget. Later, for the next four years, I went to the Queens' School, Chester which I also much enjoyed.

My father was a talented tenor singer and was much in demand for concerts, many of them in Wales, but also in much of the North of England. He had sung in several of the London city Church choirs and had also helped to start the Chester Operatic Society and sang in all their productions. In 1927, therefore it was decided that the only way to pursue his career as a professional would be for him to move to the centre of things - to London. So we all moved there in 1927 and of course, sold Millside.