MY LIFE IN

BY KATHLEEN ALICE BAKER

This is the life of Kathleen Alice Baker nee (Lawrance) An amazing lady with an abundance of memories about her life in Stanstead Abbotts

Kathleen was born in Amwell Terrace, London Road, Ware on the 13th July 1921; her parents were Francis Lawrance and Georgina Violet Heeks. At five months old her family moved to Stantsead Abbotts where Kathleen has lived ever since.

She loves living there and at the age of 91 wishes to recall all the good and sometimes not so good memories, as life was hard in the early 20th Century.

1 2 A Brief History of Stanstead Abbotts

The Village’s name was recorded as “Stanstede” at the time of the Domesday Survey in the late eleventh century. In the twelfth century the manor passed to the abbot of Waltham Holy Cross. By the fourteenth century the suffix “Abbatis”, “Abbotts” or Abbot formed part of the parish’s name. The abbey continued possession on the manor until its dissolution in 1531. The neighbouring parish of was originally called Thele when Margaret Lovetot was Lord of the Manor (her father having no sons). The name changed to Stanstead St Margarets a couple of centuries later.

There are three churches, the main parish church of Saint Andrews, Saint James, and Saint Margaret’s.

The most enduring local industry of the village is that of malt production. The fertile soil in and neighbouring counties to the north and northeast produced abundant quantities of high quality barley that could be turned into the finest malt. This Hertfordshire grain could be sold at a premium at market. Packhorses were used for moving the grain from the farmland to the malting towns of , Ware and Stanstead Abbotts sited along the . Their strategic location between the fertile growing areas and London combined with the benefit of a navigable waterway to London led to a flourishing local malting industry.

3 Chapter One: My Life as a Child

I came to live in Stanstead Abbotts at five month’s of age when my father Francis Lawrance was offered a job as manager of the John Page corn and coal business. I had two brothers Sidney and Stanley when we moved there, one more brother Alan was born six years later.

The Business was just over the brow of the bridge at no 77 The High Street, Ten Ton trucks brought the coal to St Margaret’s goods yard and had to be unloaded onto John Page’s lorry and brought back to his yard ready to be sacked up for delivery round the village and surrounding areas. You were only allowed so many days to empty the trucks otherwise you had to pay three shillings a day for what was called demurrage, if they worked hard enough they could empty a ten ton truck in a couple of days.

My father had occasional help from a man called Ted who was based at the Ware Branch, they would shovel the coal into sacks and put them on the scales, it was a very hard and heavy job, they would then put the sacks on to the cart ready to take it out to customers, and this was called hawking. They would then have to get the horse out of the stables and harness it up and put it in the shaft ready to deliver the coal around the village and then on to and Widford. Very often they would have to come back and start all over again.

When it was harvest time they would have a truckload of steam coal which was full of large heavy pieces for the combines, you wouldn’t want to drop a piece of that on your foot. These would be delivered to John Palmer the farmer at Olives Farm Hunsdon, the family still live there today. The furthest my father went was to The Bell Public House in Widford where they would stop and have a drink before coming back.

The shop sold corn for chickens, chaff for horses and dog biscuits. Bird seed had to be weighed up and put in brown bags, everything in those days came in hundred weight sacks.

My mother, Georgina (known as Vi) used to go out on her bike on a Monday to collect the money, we were left with the woman who used to come in daily to look after us, I remember she was paid half a crown a week.

My father eventually bought the business from John Page so myself and my brothers were known as the "coalmen". There was another smaller coal yard opposite run by Joe Huttlestone, he lived in a little house near the archway beside The Rose and Crown.

There was a nice girl who lived down the road called Dinah Bennet she used to take me out in my pram for a walk to save my mother doing it, then there was Elsie Moles who lived opposite who came and did some cleaning until she decided she would go and get a job at Addis’s in Hertford where she could get more money. Lizzie Burgess from Riverside took over the cleaning job for half a crown a week.

4 We all went to the Countess of Huntingdon’s Congregational Chapel on a Sunday Morning, and then again in the afternoon for Sunday School. My friends and I would then take a walk up to the old church to see if there were any snowdrops to pick, we were once caught as I was getting through the fence, I caught the buttonhole on my coat and got a good telling off, but never mind it was good fun! We finished Sunday off by going to evening service, my Mum and Dad were in the choir.

We would also take a sack and go up the to the dell in the folly and slide down it, and then go back for the evening service at 6pm, the parson was Rev Higgins he lived opposite the Chapel, if you walked along the road a little further there was St Andrews Church, then Hill House where Mrs Croft lived with her son and daughter, John & Phyllis, they were very nice people she used to come to our shop for her dog food. Then a little further along was Warrax House where Mr & Mrs Barlow lived and further on still was Easney Mansion where Mr H Fawel Buxton & family lived; he paid for the erection of St Andrews Church and the construction of the Parish Hall.

5 Later Easneye Manor became an orphanage for children bereaved by the bombing of London in World War 11.

I went to St Andrews school in Roydon Road in 1926, which is still there; the teachers were Miss Lovick, Miss Stevens and Miss Felstead. Miss Lovick lived in the village but Miss Stevens came by bike all the way from Eastwick, she taught the infant’s age five years old, we used to write on slates with slate pencils. Miss Felstead came from Ware by train and taught the elder ones, she also taught them to knit and sew. Other teachers were Mr Trelerran and Mr Oldhouse who would think nothing of throwing his ruler at the ones that were being noisy.

There was a big stove in the end room but it could not warm the room up. The Headmaster was Mr Taffy Jones he lived in the School House, the Head Mistress was Miss Dawes and she in a house by the station just over the railway line. My two brothers went by train to Longmore School in Hertford. We used to have a sports day that was held in the field opposite the school which belonged to Mr Hurford, he also was a dairy man, one of the village girls worked for him taking milk out before school.

As children we used to go fishing for tiddlers down at the maltings wharf and under the bridge. We walked to the 'Iron Bridge' near Amwell to go swimming, that’s where everyone learnt to swim in those days, we would take a bottle of lemonade which you made out of crystals. I can remember a time when the river Lea was frozen over and people were skating on it by the lock, one of the girls of Cockman had a fit while there and somebody got the lock keepers wheelbarrow and took her home. It was a long walk from the village to the Iron Bridge but nobody worried about it in those days - it was life.

My mother had already taught me to knit at the age of five, and I loved doing it, I still knit every day and it has become my favourite hobby, my grandmother also taught me to crochet at a young age. I joined the Brownies for a while and my brothers went to the Scouts. In 1932 when I was eleven, I got run over by a car, I was picked up for dead and was taken to the County Hospital for a week, but I’m still here to tell my life story at 91 years of age.

When we were kids we had a big yard to play in, and that was where I learnt to ride a wooden bike. We kept chickens in the yard, one was a cockerel which always went for my Brother Stan, I don’t think it liked him. We also played whip-a-top to see who could get it furthest from the bridge in the High Street. I had some good friends, one I still keep in contact with today, most of the others have passed on.

I can remember when the Haileybury College Cadets used to walk from the College in wearing army uniform and multi-rifles on their shoulders. They were going on exercise on the 'common' (Cappell Lane) in the morning and then back in the afternoon playing music as they were going through the village. I bet not many people that are my age will remember that now.

The Chapel Fields were where we used to play as children, and walk through to Finlay's Farm. It has all been built on now with flats and houses and a new school. I

6 was very surprised when I was told that they were going to build up there as the fields were full of springs and were very steep.

Chapter two: My Teenager Years

In the 1930's when we left school most of the girls went to work at Allenbury’s in Ware which is now Glaxo Smith Kline, others went to Swains envelope factory at Ware or Addis' of Hertford. I wasn’t allowed to go out to work, I had to work at home. I was cleaning and washing for seven people as my father’s mother had come to live with us. She had her room made into a sitting room come bedroom. There were fireplaces to clean and lay every day, before you did the washing you had to fill the copper then light the fire underneath, if it went out you had to pull it all out and start again.

The toilet was outside in the wash house, ironing was always done on Tuesday then out to play if I was lucky, you did not get wages when you work for your parents - they expect you to do it for nothing. I also worked in the shop at the front until I got fed up with it all and I decided I would get a job and go into service, which I did and went to Roydon. I had half a day off on a Thursday and half day off on a Sunday once a fortnight. Then I stayed at a friend’s in Bengeo and met a very nice boy, he came and saw me on a Thursday, it was his half day off also as he was a bakers rounds man for the Co-op. I stuck at my job for 5/- a week for eighteen months and gave in my notice only because the Lady of the house did not like me having a boyfriend. I then had one or two more different housework jobs one for Mrs Delma-Morgan she was the wife of one of the teachers at Haileybury College. They were very nice people, they had a nanny and a cook called Iris. Then I got a job at Hailey House where the Barratt’s the sweet makers people lived, but I still got poor pay, 2 shillings and sixpence an hour if you were lucky, then the wage gradually increased to four shillings and sixpence. I then went to work in a factory but I did not like that.

7 My Mum and Dad My boyfriend Gerald and I were still together at this time, then came Christmas and my mother did condescend to ask him to spend it with us and then on Boxing day he did not feel very well and went back to bed. When he got up the next morning we told him he would have to go the doctors, he agreed and said he would go if he could come back here, after that he never went back to his home, he stayed with us until we got married.

We were together for some time and then got engaged, we got married when I was twenty, he was two years older than me. Gerald Baker was a very lovely fellow, and we had the first seven years of our married life living at my parent’s house.

Before we were married Gerald joined the fire service with my father and brother, and they were a lovely bunch of chaps to work with. The fire Station was in Roydon Road opposite the Parish Hall, My husband helped to clean the engine down ready for our wedding day to be taken from the church to the reception, he had no idea at all at this time that this was what it was going to be used for.

We were married at St Andrews Church and the reception was in the Parish Hall, we didn’t have a honeymoon as we could not afford it, bur never mind we were happy. One or two of the evacuees came to the wedding as we had become very friendly with them, Gerald's sisters and brothers came, and his aunt and uncle, Gerald’s brother Reg was in the RAF, but managed to get leave I think it was a 24 hour pass.

8 My wedding day 4th August 1941

The Old Fire Station Roydon Road

9 Chapter Three: Adulthood Years

I had more jobs when I was married, one was with Davies and Timmins in Hertford Road, it was known as Gilsons at one time. We were making and drilling screws for guns etc but did not like the forewoman, and so I did not stay there long.

When the war came my mother and I belonged to the Fire Watchers and go out when there was a raid, we would sometimes stand on the bridge and watch London burn night after night. I was talking to a friend about seeing London burn and he could not believe that I had actually been able to see that, he did not realise how the trees have all grown, you could not see it if happened today. My father was Captain of the Fire Service, after a while they had a fire engine with petrol instead of one that was horse drawn.

During the war my brother Stan was in the RAF, his wife Muriel and I worked up at Hill House in Cappell Lane for Mr Croft. When he was home on leave I went up there and did her work for her so she could spend time with him, whilst on leave another time I worked for Miss Natalie Croft at St Margaretsbury. She used to breed chickens and have them in an incubator which was interesting, her incubator was like a little chest of drawers where you placed the eggs until they hatched.

The Airmen from Hunsdon Aerodrome used to leave their bikes in our yard before they went off on the train, we charged them one shilling in those days and that went to the boys at the front fund which Mrs McCrackenell organised. then they picked up their bikes the next morning. They were a lovely lot of fellows, one of them used to meet his wife for the evening and they would sit and play rummy, their names were Steve and Ivy and she came from Chingford so it was easy to get home.

You could stand in the yard and hear the planes start up. I also remember the doodle bugs coming, once, my husband was off sick and we could hear three doodle bugs coming up the High Street it was very frightening Another time I stood talking to some people under the archway to the river and saw and heard another lot, you daren’t move, it was just as though you were stuck to the ground. Another time my Father, Mum, myself and Mrs Porter were coming from Ware on the train, (we had been to the Goggle Factory in Star Street at the back of The Angel Pub) where we used to put the binding round the goggles for the Air Force. We did not realise that there was a battle going on overhead until we got home and was told, another time there was an airman lodging at Riverside Cottages with Joe Lovick and his wife. One day he had been on flying manoeuvres and when they came back they normally did the victory roll, sad to say the day came where they did not come out of it in time, that was another crew of men gone.

I had a friend called Grace staying with us while living in the High Street, her husband being in the army, she stood on the sacks of coal Dad had weighed up ready to deliver on Monday, there was a lot of planes going over and I remember her saying to me "They're going off, how many will come back?" I felt sorry for her later because when she wrote to me she said her husband Len had been taken a prisoner of

10 war in Japanese hands. Grace was working at Unilever as chief woman engineer while Len was in the army, she lived in South Ockendon in and we met through a friend of my brother Stan who was in the scouts. He was a nurse at the South Ockendon Mental Home, we lost touch after the war, I know Grace had two sons Roger & Philip. If Roger is still alive he would be about the same age as my daughter Geraldine.

During the war we used to go to Robinsons in the High Street and queue for oranges and any other fruit we could get if you were lucky, the rations were very poor; if you bought bread you could not have flour. Coal was also very short, we had one customer who used to walk down to the goods yard at the station to see if any coal trucks were in, if there were she would worry the life out of us, I used to tell her she wasn’t the only one who wanted coal.

There was a Mrs Tew who lived down in the Riverside Cottages who had a lot of evacuees living with her and her family. I think they came from Hastings, they were very nice kids and very friendly, there were more children billeted in the village with other families. We had one of my uncle Jacks daughters Rosie come and stay with us, Uncle Jack was my Mum’s brother. Rosie was a funny skinny little girl but was different when she returned home! We taught her how to knit and crochet whilst she stayed with us, the family came from Earlham Road in Streatham. Uncle Jack had eleven children in all, Lily the eldest was his first wife’s child, and she had a glass eye because she had an accident and fell on a stick and it dug her eye out. Uncle Jack used to visit us some weekends, he would go and collect conkers to take back to London, and he would paint and spray them and put then on a stick of some sort as he was a florist.

On my wedding day he made my bouquet and all of my button holes, he was supposed to have come down early but didn’t arrive until 1pm, I was beginning to get worried as he was very late, when de did arrive he still had to make the bouquet and the buttonholes by 2pm. The reason for the delay was that he had made all of the flowers and somebody else asked if they could have them and he agreed and sold them, so he had go back to the market and buy some more, that’s why he was so late. I'm pleased to say they were finished in half an hour, they were made of red carnations and red roses and they were lovely.

I can remember the floods in 1947 as my husband was down at Amwell Lane helping someone to get out of the eaves of a bungalow with his wife, after that he and my Father went down the Riverside where Mr & Mrs Cadmore lived with their son and daughter Albert & Doris next to the railway line. Mr Cadmore was very ill so they had to get him upstairs as he had been staying downstairs, youngster Albert was floating round the kitchen in the bath thinking it was fun! Doris eventually became my Brother Alan’s wife. Where they lived has been knocked down now and rebuilt as luxury flats, and the same more or less happened to the goods yard and the allotments by the river. My husband had one there until someone picked all his onions one year, he also had an allotment down Amwell Lane next to the railway, but of coarse everywhere has been built on now.

I have seen a lot of alterations in the village and round about, there was also an air crash which ended up at St Margarets Bury it was a Canberra, there is a piece of

11 it stuck in the tree in St Margarets Churchyard, that was sometime in the 1950’s, my husband was one of the first to go there, there were no houses built on that area of Road then so you could run straight across the road. There used to be Chaplins the rose growers where Van Hages is now and the Chaplins Rope Works down Gypsy Lane that was a nursery later on. Miss Harvey lived in the old vicarage at Great Amwell, she kept cats. They have put a roundabout up at the old cross roads in Amwell to save so many people being killed, but there are still many accidents where the drivers come down the slip road too fast and go round the roundabout.

In 1948 my parents told us that we had to be out of the house by the end of July because the lease on the house would come to an end by then, had my father told us that the previous year we could have applied to McMullens for the lease ourselves, but it was too late. My parents gave up the coal business and sold it to Harry Stocker from Hunsdon who had a bungalow built for he and his wife in St Margarets by the prisoners of war, he was to run it alongside his coach business which his wife Lou ran for him.

My parents were going to move to Ware and thought that we would go with them. Luckily our Councillor Mr Steven Woodhouse helped us after we explained our situation, telling him we really did not want to go to live in Ware in a two up two down as we had our eldest daughter Geraldine born on the 23rd of July by then. I used to get her up and bath, and feed her then put her in her pram all nice and clean then my brother would come in and pick her out of the pram with his coalie hands, I would have to change her again before I could take her out for a walk.

We eventually learned that we had been allocated a house in River Avenue, but that wasn’t ready in time. There were only two houses being built in River Avenue and about six in Folly View and two more in Fieldway, we moved into No1 on the 19th June 1948.

When we came here we had electricity for lighting but it was not switched on yet so we had to have a hurricane lamp standing on my baby’s high chair, we had gas so we could cook a meal. On the Monday they switched the electric and it was lovely. There were no roads made up until they had built all the houses, my neighbours moved in at least two months after us, they would come up to the house to get it to how they wanted it. I would just get Geraldine to bed and they would start scraping and hammering, but they turned out to be good neighbours, Jack has been dead about twenty years and Mary passed away last Nov 2011 she was 97 years of age.

Then the next two houses were built and Mr & Mrs S Jackson moved into no 3, Mr & Mrs Long moved into no 5 very friendly people. Mrs Jackson had one boy John and three girls Eileen, Lorraine, and Vanessa. Mrs Long had two boys. The rest of the area was green fields. Building continued; prefabricated houses were built called Airey houses, two burnt down whilst they were being built! They said these houses would be only temporary probably only for about 10 years but there are still some standing to this day, others have been bricked over with double glazed windows and doors and look very nice, one of these in Emmas Crescent is where my brother Stan and his family lived.

12 Mr Atkins owned quite a few houses in South Street he was the chemist. Several of the firemen lived in South Street, Mr Lee, Charlie Parker who lived with his mother, Tiggy Sibthorpe, Charlie Young and Tommy Godfrey who worked at French and Jupps Malt Making firm. Other fireman were Mr Charge who lived in the High Street near Clarks the Greengrocers, together with all these were my brothers Syd and Alan, my husband Gerald and my father who was the captain.

Mr Jupp who owned the Maltings was a very tall man, he came in to our yard quite a bit as my dad did the occasional job of work for him, one job was to get wood faggots for the furnace which was on the other side of the river bridge alongside the Maltings House where Mr & Mrs Franklyn lived. This was next to the Railway Tavern now known as the Jolly Fisherman, managed by Mr & Mrs Heesom, when the Heesoms retired from the Railway Tavern they moved to Stanstead Road, Hoddesdon where they had two bungalows built in readiness for their retirement, one for themselves and one for their daughter. Mr & Mrs Franklyn moved to Amwell Lane and the Nook Café when they retired from Maltings House.

Before we moved to Fieldway we had bought all our furniture and stored it in my husbands shed that had a little fire place in so that kept everything aired, we used to save our money and go out once a month and buy different bits and pieces which one needs for a home, the big furniture come from Fordham’s opposite the clock next to the old picture house in Hoddesdon.

When people get married these days they want everything in the home when they move in to it, not like in our day and age we just had what we could afford and be thankful for it. We had to work hard to get what you wanted then save for the next item, there were one or two clubs you could pay so much a week into so as to build it up ready until you had money to buy presents for Christmas, I think they called them diddlum clubs! You could pay sixpence a week or more if you could afford it. My dad ran a club like that for years in the Rose & Crown on a Saturday evening; you would see the men go in for a drink and the women to pay their club. I always remember one of the Mole’s boys (he was a very tall man) when he was drunk he would jump off the bridge into the river and swim, they called him Ratty Mole! Another time I was looking out of my window which was opposite the pub and a man was swinging his wife around the bar by her hair.

Although I had the two girls to look after my mother expected me to go over every week and clean her bedroom for her, so I would put the girls in the pram and go off to Ware, opposite where they lived used to be a gypsy caravan, now there is a garage there.

When Geraldine was old enough to go to school she went to the one in the village, our second daughter Carol was born on 7th March 1951 who also went to the village school. I made all Geraldine and Carol’s dresses, kilts, jumpers and cardigans and taught them to knit and sew which is a very good hobby.

My husband used to keep pigeons and belonged to the Ware Pigeon Club with his dad and his brother, he later became secretary of the club and he organised some lovely evening dinners. He won many trophies, one of which was for the longest

13 race with the first bird home. We were the first to be allowed by the Council to keep them in our back garden at Fieldway. My husband used to put the pigeons in the basket and take them to St Margarets station to put them on the train to , the porter at Buntingford would rest them for about 10 minutes before releasing them and they would find their way home. The girls used to sit up the garden on the steps of the shed with their dad and watch for the pigeons to come back. Then just as Sainsbury’s built the depot at Buntingford the railway decided to do away with the line, so the people from and Mardock Mill had to find another way of getting to St Margarets for the trains to London. The old Line which ran from St Margaret’s was then made into a country walk that ran right through the Easneye Estate and Watersplace, we used walk through Easneye and go through the common and on to Finlays Farm.

After living at Fieldway for a time it began to get more people on the estate, and has now grown a lot, you used to know your neighbours then, but I’m afraid to say you don’t these days, people come from far and wide to live here.

The baker used to come round on a horse and cart, and also the milkman, they came from the Ware Co-op yard where they had the depot, the bread was made at Ware, my husband delivered bread in Bengeo where I met him then they transferred him to the Hoddesdon depot in Amwell Street. They had a large shop there for clothes, shoes and groceries, he then delivered in Hoddesdon and down Essex Road into the Fish & Eels pub area. There were a lot little wooden shacks in those days, now they are nearly all brick built houses and the nursery where they still grow cucumbers and tomatoes. Now Essex Road is a built up area containing Sainsbury’s depot and many other factories, and down Ratties Lane is the power station.

In the 1950's when my husband left the Co-op he went to work for Chaseside Engineering at Mead Lane in Hertford, he worked his way up to be in charge of the tool shop, he was there until the company moved to Blackburn, but he was the last one to see them shut the gates with a Mr Cheeseman who was working there also. The firm took all the workers to Margate for the day, I remember we had one of Dye’s coaches and that broke down in the Blackwall Tunnel, I have not liked tunnels ever since, I always sit with my fingers crossed even to this day.

When he left there he was out of work for two weeks which he did not like as he had never been out of work before, he used to go out in he mornings to try and get work, and then I would go with him in the afternoons, he went to one place in Roydon and one in the area, he could have started there, but in the mean time he had been to Merck Sharp & Dohme also. He had debated about the one in Harlow, but after a few days he had a phone call from Merck’s to ask him to go for an interview on the Monday, it was the same money there as was offered in Harlow which he had to travel to too, the wages were £12.50 per week so he said he would take the job at Merck’s in the Hertford Road, Hoddesdon. He started there on May 8th 1964 and worked his way up to be foreman in the packing department, the working hours were 8am to 5pm, while there we had some nice evenings out at the Grosvenor Hotel and also the 'Talk of the Town' for dinners and entertainment after. We would have a social evening on a Tuesday in which we used to play darts etc, we even learnt to dance there, we were just getting into it when the instructor decided not to do it any more so that was the end of that.

14 Gerald worked there until his retirement at the age of 65 he had been there for nearly twenty years, at his retirement they gave him a farewell gift of a reclining garden chair and a garden strimmer and also a weeks holiday along with many other workers. It was at Paigntons Holiday Camp and we all had a very lovely time, the company fetched us from home and took us to the works by taxi then put us on the coach, we had lovely weather, and they were a lovely crowd who worked there.

We bought our first car off a friend, it was a green Ford Popular, it was a lovely car, we went out at the weekends in it, just around the countryside, after a while we asked the council if we could have garage built on the side of our house, when we got the permission my husband said he would build it himself, he made it in the kitchen at evenings and weekends and it is still standing today.We were the first to have a garage now everyone has done away with the front gardens and have their cars freestanding, I have still got part of my front garden left.

In the meantime Geraldine left junior school in the village and went to John Warner School in Hoddesdon, when she left school she went to work at County Hall Hertford and my other daughter Carol went to Ware Grammar School for girls. From there she went to Ware College and whilst there she was awarded student of the year and won a bursary, with the money she went to Turkey. When she left the college she went to work for Liberty’s in Oxford Street for six months, then she went freelance with a Mr Ken Carr doing paper sculpture and lamp shades. While Geraldine was working at County Hall her dad was at Chaseside Engineering and used to pick her up and bring her home when she had finished work at 5pm.

Geraldine met her boyfriend Ian while out one evening, a very nice chap, eventually they got married on Oct 8th 1966, they have two lovely sons. Ian came from Hertford Heath. After they got married they stayed with us for nineteen months until they found a flat in Hertford Heath, after a while they were allocated a house in Rushen Drive and lived there until 2004 later they moved into a bungalow in Postwood Green in Hertford Heath, it backs onto the woods which is very pleasant. They have two grandsons and one granddaughter. Mark the younger son and his wife Caroline have two boys and they live in Church Langley, Harlow. Paul the elder son and his wife Michelle have a little girl called Grace and live in Hertford Heath. All three Great Grandchildren get on well together and love to go to Geraldine and Ian’s home.

My other daughter Carol met Peter who she married in Maidstone in 1973; she had one son and one daughter, so now I have four grandchildren, three grandsons and one granddaughter. Carol moved from Kent to North Wales were she still lives, her children were born in Kent. Joe the son lives and works in Wales and Jessie her daughter lives and works in London, she has her own little shop in Columbia Road selling art and textiles and also teaches sometimes.

15 Carol, Myself, Geraldine and Jessie.

When my brother Stan came out of the RAF he worked at De Havilands at Hatfield for a while then he moved on to work at Chaseside Engineering and then on to Addis of Hertford, after working at Hertford for some time he was sent to work and managed the Addis factory in South Africa around 1958. Stan and his wife Muriel would come and visit when they could get time off if they could afford it. They took their daughter Wendy with them but Brian their son went into the Merchant Navy and when he got leave he used stay with his grandmother (my mother) in Ware or come and spend time with myself and my family. I think he missed his mum and dad a lot!

16 His daughter Wendy has never been back to not even to have a holiday, my daughter and his keep in touch by telephone. Muriel my sister-in-law died of cancer several years ago.

From the Navy, nephew Brian came to live with me for a while and then moved into his dad’s old house in River Street which was left to him by my father, he then exchanged it with somebody in Crib Street, Ware, until he moved away to South Africa to live with his dad. Whilst he lived in Ware he worked as a chef at the Sainsbury’s Buntingford Depot, County Hall and Tesco’s at Delemare Road, . Sad to say he died of cancer several years ago, and his dad, my brother died in 2010, this leaves only Wendy, her husband and family in South Africa.

Young brother Alan’s wife Doris died some years ago, and Alan died in 2002, they left two sons Nigel and Keith and a daughter Edwina. Alan used to work for Peachey’s the builders, and then as a window cleaner, then later on as a driver for St. John’s Ambulance.

My brother Syd and his wife Doll took over the Station Café when Mr & Mrs Wagstaff moved away and stayed there until the goods yards were to be developed. They then moved to Norfolk where Syd died in 1989 later his wife moved back to Ware to be near her son Tony and his wife Diane who lived along London Road, Ware. Tony and Diane came to my 90th birthday party which Geraldine and Ian put on for me; there were about forty family and friends there which was very nice it was lovely to see everyone.

We all four of us were left a house each when my father died, they were handed down through the family. Alan was left a house next to Stan in River Street he sold it, and bought the house they were living in at Stanstead Abbotts; Syd lived in his house on Musley Hill next to the one that was left to me, but I would not move to Ware, I was happy in my house at Fieldway.

So sadly I am the only one of the original Lawrance family left now, that’s life!!

I lost my dear husband on December 9th 2000 but have carried on as he would have wanted me to, I have a very good friend called Valerie she also organises our coach trips out and thanks to her I have been twice to France twice and Belgium with our friendly coach driver Peter Malyon and his wife Pat, who have a sixteen seater mini bus.

Friend Valerie, and Peter took me to Belgium for the day for my 90th Birthday which was a big surprise, we saw the Menin Gate where all the first World War soldiers names are inscribed it certainly opened my eyes. My husband would never go abroad so I really appreciated that, it was a lovely day out and very enjoyable. When we went to France we went to the hypermarket, a very big place! Some thing’s were expensive but others much about the same as here, Valerie looks after me with the money side of things as I am not used to shopping with euros.

17 I have always been able to do my garden but find I cannot do the bending now, so I have a nice man who comes and does it for me on a Friday afternoon for two hours, he is keeping it nice for me, I can’t expect the family to come and do it as they have their own places to look after. Geraldine and Ian take me shopping on Thursdays and if I don’t feel too good I just pick up the phone and they come straight away.

I have some happy memories of Stanstead Abbotts and some very good friends. I belong to the evergreen club for the over sixties which meets in the Parish Hall every Monday afternoon, this includes people from Great Amwell, St Margarets and of course Stanstead Abbotts. We have refreshments and play bingo, some play whist and others take their knitting or embroidery to do. I have been going ever since my husband died, it breaks up the week - especially if it is dull and wet it gets me out and I meet people I’ve known most of my life. We have nice outings once a month during the summer months and we have garden parties.

The rest of the week I content my self reading and doing what I love best knitting and crocheting.

Chapter Four:

A Tour up and down The High Street of old Stanstead Abbott’s

18 The first house over the bridge on the left is where I lived as a child at No 77 the High Street, this was John Page’s Coke and Coal Business. There was a bungalow next door to us now gone, where Mr Hill the gardener for the Dixon family lived. They lived in a big house called Willowthorpe now a care home, situated behind us.There was Mrs Neaves Grocers next to that, I remember going to Mrs Neaves and was asked to get half a pound of bacon cut on No 7 slicer as dad would only have it cut this way. Next in line in the road were four cottages, Mr Anderson lived in the first one and then Mr & Mrs Howard and daughter Queenie the second, Mr & Mrs Tom Christmas lived in the third, Tom was very stuttery if you did not look at him while he was talking he spoke quite normally, very nice people, then came Mr & Mrs Barnes in the fourth, then there was the butchers shop under the name of E.T.Hall, he also had an abattoir behind the shop Next door to this was a cottage which Mr & Mrs Holland lived in and that had a stable door where you opened the top and the bottom stayed closed, then there was a small road which took you to the allotment’s and the local cricket pitch, it was also the back way to the cottages in the High Street, which were next in line. In the cottages there was a little green grocers called Mr Clarke’s they used to call him 'Donkey' Clarke, he had two daughters Ivy & Eva. Then there was two more cottages and a bigger house and then the Blacksmith’s that was owned by Mr J Salmons. It had a little furnace in a corner where he made the shoes for horses, when he nailed them onto the horses the smell was awful, the business eventually got burnt out but in the time to come it was repaired and Mr & Mrs Sweeney took it over for a greengrocers and fishmongers.

Next was an archway, now gone, with another house on the right of it, and the people that lived there was Mr & Mrs Woodcock and they had a daughter called May, next door to them was a sweet shop come tearoom which belonged to the Harwood family who lived in the big house called Walford House. This still stands back off of the High Street. When the Harwoods passed on, Mr & Mrs Hurford a dairy man from Roydon Road moved in with their son Ralph. Next door to this was another little shop which was the gas shop which my father fell through the ceiling of this shop putting out a fire as he was Captain of the local fire service.

Next was another house where another Mr & Mrs Lawrence lived, nothing to do with our family, then there was Arthur’s Court down the alleyway off of the High Street with I think three or four more houses, My brother Alan lived there for some time. Next was The Town Mead (which is now the car park) where we used to have a fair once a year and the floods nearly always started from there.

19 1947 Floods in Station Road/Amwell Lane

Next was Nellie Martin’s, she had a sweet shop and grocers where the children used to spend there pennies or halfpenny’s on the way either going to school or going home.

Next was Mrs Harwood, who had a little draper’s store, it was the front part of her house, the back of it was a small dairy, then there was Catesby’s the ironmongers, which later became Anderson’s ironmongers & hardware shop, later this became known as Stanstead Abbots Stores, this is now the Doctor’s Surgery.

Next was the Post Office run by Mr Groom and his family, next to that was a passage way to the back of the Post Office. The house next door was eventually turned into a hairdresser’s and Nat West Bank.

Next to that was a large house called Stanstead Hall built in 1752 where the Rev.Gausen lived when he was the vicar of St Margaret’s Church, next to the Hall was a big house where Mr & Mrs Cheshum lived in the top floor flat, they had garages and sheds below them, the house later altered and became Barclay’s Bank.

Then Mr & Mrs Robinson had a bit of a shop where he sold a few eggs, next was three more cottages where Gertie Springham and her sister Nellie lived. Gertie sold fruit and vegetables and fish and she always had a large block of dates not like you buy them today, they used to be three old pennies a pound.

Next door to that was The Red Lion Pub, which is reputed to have been a monastery in 1538. In 1918 it was called The Red Lion Hotel and was run by

20 C.H.Harper, meals could be bought for 3/6 shillings a head in those days. There was a billiard room, and a stable yard at the rear. The river ran through the grounds of The Red lion which was called the Millstream.

If you turn left and go a little way down Cappell Lane and you will come to The Prince of Wales Pub which was right next to the old chapel.

That’s one side of the High Street, before they altered that end of the village there was a little bridge by the mill and the river called the Mill Stream ran under the road through the backwater into the River Lea.

There is the Clock House on the corner of Cappell Lane which had stable doors; Mrs Hewitt lived there who used to look after cats. The Clock House is a listed building now and although it is a residential home it used to be the Baesh Grammar school founded in 1635.

Turn right into Roydon Road also known as (Vicarage Road) and on the left hand side, pass some cottages, you will find the Schoolmasters House, next door to that is St Andrews School which I went to as a child. Next door to that is the Parish Hall.

On the right hand side you will find Abbott House and the school allotments, then the shed that used to be The Fire station. Next were more cottages belonging to Jupps the Maltsters and then the Mill and more cottages.

Coming back up the High Street was The Pied Bull Public House managed by Mr Ketterinham and his wife they had a family of five children, Peter, Bill, Derek, Peggy and Maurice a very nice family. This is now a residential home called Pied House, this also had a large turning area for coaches.

21 Then comes Batchelor Hall, Mrs Davis lived there with her bulldog, next was the Village Club down an alleyway, now called The Stanstead Abbott’s & St Margaret’s Village Club, where once a year the children of the village had a tea party and entertainment, at the end of the day we were all given a bag of sweets, an orange and a voucher for a shilling.

Then there was at no 6 High Street Mr & Mrs J Vyse the Butcher’s on one side of the passage and the other Nat West Bank before it moved to the other side of the road near the Post Office. Then comes Frank Andrews the Harness and Saddle making business where he also sold and repaired cycles, I bought my first cycle from him and have still got it in my shed.

Then there was the bakers which was Mo Wrays he made lovely doughnuts, next was the house which Mr & Mrs Cranwell lived in with their family, then there was Hodginsons the Drapers where the children used to go and spend their vouchers from the Village Hall party. Then there was Rene the hairdressers then the Doctor’s Surgery which was previously in a front room of a house further up the high street, the Doctor’s has now moved across to the other side of the street to where Andersons the Hardware Store used to be.

Next to that is Glenmire Terrace which goes down to the Millstream there’s quite a few houses down here.

Then there are some more cottages no’s 16-22 where the Mrs Lynsell lived and Mr & Mrs Philips, then two others, next came Mr & Mrs Butcher who was a greengrocer and fishmonger, Mrs Sweeney previously had this and then moved to where the Blacksmiths was. Then another house and next to that was Millers, there were several of them in the family, one of them had the shop on the opposite side of the road before it was the Gas Shop, it was more of a junk shop than anything - it was full of dust and cobwebs. Next was Parkers the butchers shop.

Then there was Millers Lane where Mrs Hurlock lived also Derek Miller, Sam Millers son, I think he lost his eyesight while only a boy and had a guide dog, he still lives there today. There are a lot more houses and flats in Millers Lane now.

Next is the Old Oak Public House owned by the Wray family but is now known as the Lord Louis, and then there was the butchers also owned by the Wray’s, Bob Wray being the butcher.

Then Burton’s the newsagents, that was run by the son as the father worked on the railway as a signalman. Next was the house and dairy where Jack & Elsie Harwood lived, they had cows at the back in a field which went down a long way, in the front of the house at one side of the opening he had two petrol pumps, this was not all, he also had a pony and trap on which he used to deliver milk to customers, my brother Stan used to go out with him sometimes.

Next comes Mr Wiltshire who had the shoe shop, you could get a good repair done by him, his sister served in the shop. Then of coarse came the Enfield Highway

22 Co-operative Society shop not like it is today, Mr Meassres, Mr Conyard and Jim Heady were the main staff in those days.

Next there was Mr Hitch he was a builder and undertaker, he had the use of one of the sheds in my father’s yard. Then comes Mr & Mrs Owen she turned the front of her house into a drapers shop, and there was Alec Walsingham the Barber, and another house and then Emmie Akers selling cups of tea when she could. Then there was Mr & Mrs Jones the baker and little general store.

Next came Mrs Russell who had a Drapers and haberdashery business. Next is South Street and the village chemist, the street is much more built up now, they have got the boat yard down the bottom near where Hankins Lorries used to be. Mr Sydney Atkins kept the chemist shop in those days, then when he gave up Mr Drinkman took over, he later went to Ware and bought Woollatt and Coggins chemist in the High Street.

Some of the people that lived in the cottages next to the chemist were, Mr & Mrs Reed, Mr & Mrs Gilbey, Mr & Mrs Tyrell, Mr & Mrs Lovick, Mrs Webb, Mr & Mrs Searles, in the next few cottages lived Mr & Mrs Albon, and Mr & Mrs Moles.

Then came the Sweet and Paper Shop under the name of Mrs Imms, then The Rose and Crown Public House now demolished, going under the archway from the High Street, you approached the riverside where the Maltings were. They dried the barley here ready to be cooked in the big ovens on the other side of the river, they always said when the malt smelt it was going to rain... It is cooked at the Roydon Road Maltings now, the rest of the properties are let out as offices etc.

Then Riverside Cottages, the last one was Archie Miller, he used to catch otters, he would not be allowed to now, he also made his own coffin and sometimes slept in it, he was a very nice old man, and you could go down there and get a bunch of flowers if you wanted them at any time.

During the summer there was always a party of Londoners come down by Charabang for the day, they would go along the river in old Bill Kits boat to Rye House which he called Mirella, when they came back they would go in the Rose & Crown and have a good drink and knees up, then back to London they would go.

That is all of the High Street both sides done.

There used to be nine pubs four butchers two bakers and three grocers in the village in years gone by.

We only have the co-op for groceries now, no hardware store, (apart from the Chandlers at the Marina. ed), no butchers, no green grocers, no fishmongers. No coalman to deliver for you, this the modern age now everything is mechanical and electrical. There are still hairdressers and a barbers shop, one is where Wrays the butchers used to be, another near the Co-op is where Wiltshire’s shoe shop was, this is where my husband used to buy his boots they used to cost 12 shillings a pair in those

23 days. The other hairdressers is the on the other side of the road in what used to be Maud Millers tea Rooms.

We still have three pubs, The Red Lion, The Lord Louis, and The Jolly Fisherman. Neaves the grocers has become a restaurant, Robinsons is now a restaurant and Nellie Martins is also a café. Where Mrs Imms newsagents was is now two shops, one a newsagents and the other a sandwich bar. Where the Rose and Crown was is now a row of three houses. Where I used to live in the High Street has been made into a 4 or 5 bedroom house with 2 or 3 bathrooms. Where our shed used to be a church was built which was later pulled down and in its place two houses have been built overlooking the river - where my husband used to fish - there’s nothing left of our yard. Willowthorpe which was a large house and stood on the river bank has been turned into a Nursing Home for the elderly.

South Street

24 Chapter Five: St Margarets

Saint Margarets started life as the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which is recorded c.1300. In 1316 a college of 4 priests was set up to pray for the Lord of the Manor and his wife Margaret, which led to the change of name. The organ in St Margaret’s is believed to be the only remaining William Allen barrel organ in working order.

Mr Masters the Station Master lived in the Railway House near the garage. The garage was owned by Alty Brown, down by the side of the garage was a road which led you to a nursery where you could buy lovely tomatoes and cucumbers, later on a wood merchant under the name of Glikstens took over the place, and then Woods the paint people from London went in to business there. Then came the Rubber Raw firm, I also remember them putting detonators under the tall chimney to blow it up, the Rubber Raw caught fire one day and everywhere was covered in black smoke, that was a long time ago.

Mr J. Wells lived in the big house called Lichfield by the railway line. Mr & Mrs Pearce lived on the corner of St Margarets, she was a Red Cross Nurse with her sister Miss Bryant who lived on the other side of the road in a little cottage. Then in Hoddesdon Road on the left there was the Public House called The Crown Inn (House up a Tree), this was run at one time by Mr Payne and then Mr & Mrs Emery they were a nice family. It has now been made into a house, a little further along was another cottage called the Ancient Lights where the McKenzie family lived.

25 Further on there were more cottages and another clock house where I knew the people who lived there as Mr & Mrs Tennant, on the road further along was Smith’s Hay & Straw Farm and around the corner was a Pumping Station on the Hoddesdon Road. Coming back was the barn which belonged to Mr Croft, then there is St Margaret’s Church and opposite there used to be Nigel Coppins Nursery, when he retired he sold the ground to an agent who has built a estate there.

Back across again the St. Margarets vicars house was built and the houses by the New River, just before you get to the church there is a piece of aeroplane embedded in one of the trees opposite the church door the plane crashed down in the grounds of St. Margaretsbury one evening.

There was a barn just past the church and some Saturdays they used to have dances in it, a little further along they built a house with the living area upstairs and the bedrooms downstairs this was near the New River as you went around the corner of the pumping station.

Opposite the pedestrian entrance to The Folly was the big house by the New River Bridge and a cottage where the gardener lived, the big house was lovely inside, I worked there for a time, the owner also owned St Margarets playing field, the big house called St Margaretsbury is let out in apartments now and a school is occupying most of the other parts of the grounds.

Next going down Amwell Lane there was Mr & Mrs Paxton who kept the Nook Shop and tearooms, when Mr Paxton retired he had a bungalow built on the corner of Amwell Lane which is now the telephone exchange which used to be in Roydon Road next to the Five Horseshoes Pub.

26 Further along was a few houses down Gas House Lane, and then the Gas Works run by Mr & Mrs MacLaren. In front of that were three cottages belonging to the Gas Works, further along Amwell Lane was the Amwell Pumping Station where you could stand and watch the pumps go up and down, further along still was the memorial and then over a little bridge to Riverside Cottage.

Then there is St John’s Church and opposite is George IV Public House. Next door to the pub lived Mr & Mrs Spicer. On the other side is Amwell House and opposite that is Well House where Captain Rodney and his wife lived, around the corner came Sheepcotes Farm and further on the Concrete Utilities firm owned by Mr & Mrs Marques.

That’s how I knew it in my early days; sorry to say nearly everywhere has been built on as time goes by. Kathleen Baker.

Well! Some may vividly remember all or some of these things Mrs. Baker describes, it certainly was a trip through the Village. Many faces, times of change; exciting and frightening; times of fun and times of sadness. Certainly a memorable time and I would like to sincerely thank Kathleen from us all for sharing them. We are most grateful. Stanstead Abbotts Local History Society. RD. 2016.

All contributions to SALHS gratefully received.

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