A WOMAN now living in Essex is desperate to hear anything about the mother she only knew for a brief period in her life.

Margaret Crawford is certain she lived with her mother in her family home either in the Forest of Dean or Welsh border area until she was three or four years old, which would have been around 1956.

But she told the Review she fears her mother is dead. She would nevertheless like to learn anything she can about her and meet any relatives she might have.

"I believe that I lived with her for the first three years of my life, but after that she became unable to look after me," she said, adding that she no longer knew her mother's name as it had been kept from her in her growing years by her father and stepmother.

"I don't know exactly why. However I do know that about this time I spent a great deal of time travelling around in the back of my father's car as he visited engineering firms in the Midlands."

Margaret's father, Norman Crawford, was born in Newcastle in April 1926, and in later years was an agent for an American shipping company.

"It is possible that severe illness prevented my mother from looking after me and it is possible that in late 1956 or 1957 she died, which is why I went to live with my father in Newport," she said.

And she says she has a few vivid memories of her early life. "I can clearly remember Christchurch, near Coleford," she said. "In particular I remember the garage, which was then owned by Cliff Jones.

"I have been back to Christchurch and parts of it seem very familiar to me.

"I also have very clear memories of the A4136 Gloucester to Monmouth road, but I can't remember in which direction my house lay."

She also says she remembers seeing a picture of her mother's house – it had a Georgian-style front door with a cantilevered porch roof above which was a niche with a small statue, possibly a Madonna and Child. It might have been a vicarage.

The name "Braithewaite" might have been mentioned but the true story of her past was never revealed by her stepmother and other family members even though her step-grandmother often urged that the past should be revealed.

The Review will pass on any details.