The supergran who has 100 grandchildren
WINNY Stokes admits she has a job remembering all her grandchildren’s birthdays but it’s little wonder given that she has 100 of them. Matriarch Mrs Stokes, 90, had 14 children – seven boys and seven girls. That generation went on to have 34 of their own. And so on…
Thus the newest arrival, weeks-old baby Hunter, brings the total number of great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren to a staggering 66.
Winny, a widow from Gloucester, says: “I just couldn’t believe it when I was told I had 100 grandchildren.
“I married my husband Ken when I was about 20 and we lived with my mother and father but we had to move as before long there were five of us living with them in that house. The children would sleep in double beds. It was okay and they were comfortable, until they got bigger.”
Winny’s brood – who are now aged between 52 and 72 – grew at such a rate they were forced to top and tail in bunk beds. Family holidays meant hiring a 52-seater coach. “There were too many of us to take on holiday so we used to go on days trips to Barry Island.
“After Ken passed away I organised a coach trip to Blackpool for around 20 years or so. The coach was always full and there were around 52 of us.”
One son, John, died when he was just three hours old while another, Tony, died of a brain tumour 13 years ago, aged 51.
Winny recalls her firm-but-fair husband was a stickler for timekeeping and the children would be locked out if they arrived home after their curfew.
“When the children got older they would often go out. But if Ken told them a time they had to be back and they were late, he would sit on the doorstep with his watch.
“When one of them didn’t come back he would bolt the top of the door so they couldn’t get in.”
But unbeknown to Ken there was a piece of board at the top of the door which would come away easily so the children would simply put their hand inside and slide the bolt open.
“Ken always used to accuse me of letting them in but I didn’t know how they were doing it for years,” Winny confesses. “They were just always in the house in the morning as they seemed to know a way to get in.”
Given the size of their family, the children often wore cast-offs but Winny always made sure every one of them was well turned out.
“I used to knit all of the time,” she says. “They had all sorts. I knitted cardigans, jumpers, bootees, the lot. They had handme-downs of course but they always had nice clothes.
“If we went anywhere nice or up to the fair, they would always be well-dressed. Ken would sit the boys down and scrub their knees and grease their hair and I would always get the girls ready.”
DINNER times were equally eventful. Having so many children meant it was tricky to cook something that everyone was guaranteed to like. But whatever the meal, noone was allowed to leave the table until their plates were cleared.
Daughter Tracey, 54, says of her eclectic upbringing. “Dad would get all the children up on Sunday and they would get the bathroom.
“The cleanest children would go in the bath first, so the girls would go in first and the boys afterwards.
“There was always moaning from one or the other complaining that they did not want to get in the bath with one of the others because they picked their nose or something.
“Growing up it was chaos and happy. Never a dull moment.”
And that was certainly the case when one evening a soldier came to call for sister Dotty, who’s now 67, to take her on a blind date.
Tracey says: “Dotty answered the door and saw the soldier and thought he wasn’t her cup of tea so she called to Janet (another sister, now aged 65) and said there was someone at the door.
“Well that was it, Janet went on a date with the soldier and they went on to get married.”
She adds: “As kids we all used to bargain with each other. We would swap the food that we didn’t want. Sometimes I would just whisper to my brother Peter and tell him that I didn’t want my potatoes and that he could have them.
“He was always hungry and would sneak downstairs and get bread and sugar and take them up to his room.”
Despite her family growing considerably over the years, Winny says they all remain close and live near each other.
“They were all good children. They still are,” she admits. “They come and see me a lot.” in Winny Stokes had seven sons and seven daughters and the generations have just kept on swelling