Robert Mann

 was a young boy who lived at Number 1, Gallows Gate Road His mother ran the boarding (although she preferred guest) house there. He was about 13 in 1940, and had close cropped ginger hair and ruddy cheeks. He was a bright and active boy, with an ambition to make something out of himself. Exactly what changed every twenty minutes or so.

This lack of specific ambition allowed him to chop down the old oak tree in the backyard that was feeding on the ambition of the other residents.