An Edwardian Childhood: The Making of a Naturalist

Margaret Hutchinson was born in 1904, and grew up as part of a large Quaker family living in an old farmhouse on top of Marley Heights, situated between Fernhurst in Sussex and Haslemere in Surrey. The family lived a life of self-sufficiency, the only machine on the farm being the children’s toy steam engine. Shopping expeditions by pony and trap were an adventure, as were visits to grandfather, Sir Jonathan Hutchinson, F.R.S., the eminent surgeon and founder of Haslemere Museum. Margaret Hutchinson was a member of Haslemere Natural History Society for seventy-four years and was widely respected as an amateur naturalist. From 1931 to 1955 she ran her Froebel Kindergarten school ‘Yafflesmead’ at Kingsley Green. The charming chapter heading sketches throughout the book are her own. Many of the evocative photographs of the family were taken by ‘Aunt Kitty’.