Summary (courtesy of Essex Sound and Video Archive)
[00:00:00] EB confirms that she was born in 1919. Lived in Witchtree Cottage, now Howlands Cottage, on the Bumpstead side of Hempstead as a child. Had three bedrooms, kitchen, sitting room and pantry. Big rooms. Killed their own pigs, cured and hung hams in the chimney. Kept chickens, sold eggs. No fridge. Grew own fruit and vegetables in the garden, kept fruit in sheds. Did pickled eggs. House was thatched, plastered walls, brick floors and open fireplaces. Had copper in kitchen, made own bread.
[00:05:00] Passage between boys’ and girls’ rooms where they kept clothes. Four boys, four girls. Got water from the well, from fountain during a draught, from land ditch during winter. Used oil lamps. Sewage emptied once a week. Refuse was burnt. Dug holes to bury glass bottles on Good Friday. Monday was washday, Tuesday ironing. Weren’t allowed out until 12pm on Saturdays, after housework. All had own jobs. Boys helped in garden.
[00:10:00] Eldest brother, Jack, did a lot of gardening. Next eldest left school and worked at Lee’s sweet factory in Thaxted. Rode motorbike there. Jack also worked as a cowman. Bert worked at church army, Hempstead Hall. EB went to the village school. Talks about the houses passed on her way to school: parsonage, flint cottages, vicarage, thatched cottage where her aunt lived, The Firs, Bellropes, old post office. Mother born in cottage near The Chase, then moved as a baby to Witchtree. Father of her brother’s wife, Nancy Harding, owned the mill. Recalls that during the Second World War, part was made into house for evacuees, part as a shop. School building had infants, middle and top rooms, partitioned with curtains. Heated with a torch stove.
[00:15:00] Went to school with friend Nellie Halls. Took sandwiches for lunch. Talks about walking through pipes to Cook’s View. Went fishing. Remembers teachers Mrs Pilcher, Kathy Acker, and Winnie Foster. Good at maths but didn’t like school.
[00:20:00] Left school aged 14. Went to church three times on Sundays. Went gleaning for corn for chickens during holidays. Never went away; just to aunt’s. Never ill as a child. Mother had low blood pressure; had to help her a lot. Walked to Clare for a doctor. First job was at Field Farm, then at Saffron Walden, three days a week for 6/8. Then at worked at Warner’s for church army captain until she was called up for war work.
[00:25:00] Remembers her first dress, red satin with cape sleeves, short, to go to a whist drive and dance at the village hall. Aged 14. Didn’t have much spare time after starting work. Cycled to sister at Dry Drayton and sister near Braintree. Brother had a motorbike, then a Morris Minor; not many people had cars. Mother went shopping in Saffron Walden every October. Vicar ran a clothing club. Remembers the village wagon and later Wiffen’s bus.
[00:30:00] Mother had provisions delivered. Baked their own bread, also had a baker from Bumpstead. Talks about meetings at the school, heating. WI meetings once a month; most women in the village attended. EB only 16. Had cooking competitions, jam and cakes, buttons in matchboxes, picking wild flowers.
[00:35:00] Had to learn to cook at home. Made cakes on Sunday mornings. Had to take sugar and cocoa for drinks at school. Remembers WI dinners, photos in local papers. Comments that WI is more organised now. Talks about the Fosters and the whist drive.
[00:40:00] Continues talking about whist drive. Had a youth club, made toys, joined with other villages. Remembers making a white rabbit. Had a football club; cup finals on Easter Monday in meadow opposite Witchtree. Charged a penny for people to put their bikes in their yard. Had a cricket club. Cycled to other places for whist and dances. Sometimes went dancing four times a week. Wartime dances on Monday and Thursday at Radwinter;called ‘the hops’, 3d and 6d.
[00:45:00] Money bought the recreation ground. Went out with Len, a boy from Wenden. Went for walks and cycled to the pictures. Two cinemas in Haverhill and two in Saffron Walden. Got engaged in 1942, married in 1946. Most people engaged for two years.
[00:50:00] Remembers weddings before the war; bought everything new. Sisters Nora and Lil married in 1938 and 1939; lovely dresses. EB bought wedding dress from Cambridge. Made sister Olive’s bridesmaid dresses in 1947. EB had wedding breakfast in Witchtree, Lil and Nora had village hall. Did catering themselves. Remembers the church tower being built, and the Jubilee at the church army. Had new dresses, dance at Hempstead Wood, also the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. Talks about the well, someone falling in. Remembers tanks around in 1938.
[00:55:00] Brother built his own radio; crystal set. Knew the war was coming. Talks about bomb dropping on Star’s Green. Recalls policeman’s house at the bottom of Rooster’s Lane. Talks about church and chapel and harvest festival run by the Salvation Army; could buy vegetables for a penny. Salvation Army captain Mr Walmsley lodged with her sister-in-law.
[01:00:00] Talks about German and Italian prisoners of war helping at Engelman’s. Recalls men from Saffron Walden hospital, called them ‘tramps’. Comments that everyone helped one another then.