Chapter 28 Reminiscences – People and Places
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Chapter 28 Reminiscences – People and Places There was once a musical, later a film, called ‘Brigadoon’, about a mythical Scottish Highland village where its entire community awoke for one day every hundred years. Talking about this one day to Joan Marriott, we tried to imagine what it would be like if all those folk our generation knew, quite suddenly appeared. Those characters had helped to shape our lives and had played, in some cases, no small part in helping to make our friendly community what it is today. Old Homes Lottie Kent (97) and her sister Phyllis Sawyer aged (92) were two of eight children of George and Sarah Dudley. They well remember their early home in one of the cottages at the end of Splash Lane. Today these cottages are two dwellings; however my generation will remember them as four. How did they cope? Folk in those days were resourceful. Mr Dudley bought and erected a wooden hut on the opposite side of the lane for the boys to sleep in. At that time their father, George, was horse keeper for Mr Darby. Four out of five of the Dudley boys had worked on one or other of the local farms. Mrs Dudley with her two sisters, Mrs Kate Neal and Mrs Louie Woodward were members of the Pywell family who have lived in this community for many generations. Sheila Crane (Favell) is now the only resident of Sutton to have been born there. Although she moved to her present home soon after she married Gordon, she was born at a house called ‘Cross Keys’, reputedly a pub, which stood at the junction of Manor Road and Nene Way. At that time, Sheila says, most of the village and the surrounding land belonged to Mrs Graeme of Sutton Grange who was quite a stern lady, being a daughter of Canon Hopkinson. Washing to be hung out on Mondays only and no bonfires to be lit the Fig 28a. Four cottages in Splash Lane, now converted to two. As well as Mr church side of the railway bridge! and Mrs Dudley bringing up their large family in one, Mr and Mrs Jack Cliffe Incidentally, Canon Hopkinson gave raised their family in one of the small cottages. Jack was the local chimney St Kyneburgha’s church their bier which was used for the first time at the funeral of the Rev Merton, a vicar of Sutton. Margaret Brown (Hill) was born in a thatched cottage in Main Street, Ailesworth, opposite Maffit Road. That early home was demolished, and Margaret moved from there in 1953 when she was four. The cottage had no running water; therefore all water had to be carried from a x tap in a neighbour’s yard. The toilet, which was shared, was, as in most cases at the bottom of the garden. Eliza Ward, an elderly lady, lived in part of the cottage, and Margaret recalls, mulled her glass of shandy by putting a hot poker in it. On Monday, 29th September, 1958, a fire destroyed a barn next to Margaret’s former Fig 28b. An X marks Margaret Brown’s (Hill) first home in Main Street home. Later the barn, the thatched cottages Ailesworth, the part nearer the barn was the home of Mr and Mrs Manning. Iris their eldest daughter still lives in the village. 283 and four brick cottages next to the Chapel were demolished for redevelopment. Damage to the cottage, which was also part-occupied by the Manning family, could have been much greater but for the efforts of Claude Sharpe (Margaret Sharpe’s late husband) and Doug Parker, who used fire extinguishers to douse the thatch. Mrs Lily French (Thompson) was commended by the fire crew for closing the barn doors, thus cutting off the oxygen supply. I live in the house in which I was born 69 years ago, 15 Stocks Hill, formerly 4 Cow Lane. My parents were the first to move into the new house on Good Friday, 1929; Mr and Mrs Frank Hammond moved into theirs on Easter Monday. Vera Gross (Hammond) was also one of the first children to live in the new houses at 1 Cow Lane. Her father, Frank was the goalkeeper for Castor and Ailesworth football club for many seasons. His trade was that of a crane driver at Baker Perkins. Vera too, worked there, in the offices. After the war she married Johnny who left his native Poland during the German occupation. They then moved as newly-weds to Thorolds Way soon after those houses were built. At first there was no electricity or water in the new Cow Lane houses. I well remember the pump, near our front garden, which did on occasions run dry. This meant carrying buckets from Mr Salmon’s pump at the bottom of Church Hill. Mr Harry Coulson whose parents, too, were the first occupants in the new houses remembers Joe Samworth, (who gave his name to Samworth Close) as being the only man he has seen using a pair of yokes on his shoulders to carry his buckets of water from the same pump. Joe lived where Peter and Norma White currently live. At 6 Cow Lane, a Mr and Mrs Woodward and their family resided. Mrs Woodward was also a Pywell. I do remember that our back door house keys were interchangeable. Mr Alf Woodward and Mr Sid Pearson were the only veterans who were ‘Old Contemptibles’. (The small expeditionary force in 1914-15 which held that thin red line at Mons was dubbed by the Kaiser ‘That contemptible little army’). Mr and Mrs Pearson and family were residents of the Long Row, a row of terraced cottages on Peterborough Road, Castor, which were demolished in 1976. Peter Jarvis was born at Belsize Farm (Castor Parish) in 1936, the third and youngest son of William (Arthur) and Faith. Arthur, his father George, and his three brothers, all worked at Belsize. In 1947, Arthur took over the tenancy of Home Farm whilst brother Jack carried on working Belsize. The two other brothers left farming. On Arthur’s death in 1967, Peter and his brothers, Toby and Stanley, took over the running of Home Farm. Belsize continues to be farmed by Jack’s son, Dick, and grandson, Trevor. Rene Foster (Goode) - my sister - was born in the Police House in Peterborough Road where Steve Walker and his family currently live. Our grandfather was the village policeman. In 1922 the Peterborough Road house was a very modern dwelling into which our grandparents had moved from the former Police House situated at the corner of Port Lane. In those days this corner house, presently owned by David Rager, was then two dwellings, the other being lived in by a Mr and Mrs Ted Kingston. Ted had a small nursery garden. Sadly, in the 1950s, Mrs Kingston died in a fire that destroyed part of the house. Later Rene moved to one of the cottages on Castor Green where Liz Freeman now lives. Here again, this was two dwellings, where our sister Jean (Trundle) was born. The other cottage was lived in by Mr and Mrs Charlie George and Charlie’s brother Arthur (Jessop). Rene’s first home after her marriage to Arthur (Jim) Foster was part of Manor Farm House in Castor, the part nearest to the Green. The previous occupants had been two Italian prisoners of war. When our father was stripping off old wallpaper he came across old newspapers which had been used as lining paper, some dating from the late 1800s. The loo, down the garden, was a vault type which pre-dates the bucket. It had two adult seats and a child’s. Almost everyone had an outside bucket privy, often at the bottom of the garden; the buckets were emptied weekly by a Mr Hill and Mr Gibbons. It was an unenviable task but a very necessary one. Later a Mr Baker took over. The purpose-built horse-drawn cart was called the night-soil cart. I have seen a photograph of one in Norfolk where it was called the Honey Pot. Peggy Stapleton (Lunn) was brought up by her grandparents who lived at the far end of Main Street, Ailesworth, opposite the link road to the Helpston Road. When Mr and Mrs Lunn first came to the area they lived in a cottage on Castor Fig 28c. Mrs Lizzie Ward, with her Green. Mr Lunn worked at the Limes Farm for Dick Longfoot, later working for sister Gertie Taylor cleaned the church, and for many years trimmed and filled Harry Longfoot at Green Farm. After leaving farm work Peggy’s grandfather 36 paraffin lamps until 1936, when the worked as a roadman. His beat was from Ailesworth to Wansford. At that time church was lit by electricity. there were at least two roadmen for each village. Paths and gutters were swept 284 every week, grass verges surrounding the villages were cut with scythes and the drains were cleared. George Ward and Charlie George were roadmen in Castor. However when a funeral took place at which Mr Will Cooke was the undertaker, George was required to pump the church organ bellows, and Charlie would be a pall bearer. Raynor Snart was born in a small stone cottage at the far end of Main Street, Ailesworth, the home of Mr and Mrs Wilf Dudley and their daughter Greta, who were friends of Raynor’s parents. The cottage, now with its white walls, is next to Mrs Chanell’s house; 69 years ago it was the last dwelling on that side of the street.