And finally...some random memories of a wonderful place
I
HAVE kept in touch with school friends, John Nottage and Sampson Suckling's
son Phillip (who now lives in Doncaster) and with one of the evacuees,
Kathleen.
Phillip Suckling remembers the building of the Rossiter tennis court because
Mr Rossiter lost an invaluable instrument which enabled him to get the
corners for the marking-out of the court absolutely at right angles.
On the Sunday he told the Sunday school and offered a prize of six pence
(2½p - worth much more then) to any child who found it. So after
the end of Sunday school they all careered down the field and hunted diligently.
It was never found. Covered by new soil, I suspect.
On my birthday when I was 11 my father gave me a precious watch and I
lost it in the field while we were playing games. A man, who was present,
prayed to a saint appointed to find lost things and went straight down
the field and found it. Joy and thanks but also being a good protestant
who does not pray to saints, I thought that was a bit of luck! And perhaps
it was, and perhaps it wasn't.
Candles are always magic with the light they shed losing
itself in dim or dark areas. The mystical, the romantic, the numinous.
This was obviously most manifest in churches. In
Wethersfield Church there still is the Candelabra which was pulled down
to have the
Eric displays his skill
on the tennis court
candles lit and then pulled up to give light to Chancel and Sanctuary.
This only happened in my time at Great Festivals and as choirboys we competed
for the joy and privilege to be the Taperer and to light the candelabra.
Pipes were smoked by many young men rather than cigarettes.
Eric, like other young
men preferred a pipe
A beater at a pheasant shoot lost an eye and was compensated with £5. No court case. He was quite pleased.
The post - very few telephones existed in the Village so letters and cards and parcels were sent in large numbers and telegrams for great occasions and for urgent matters. Postage was really very cheap. We had three deliveries a day with no 1st and 2nd class mail. At Christmas for several days we had six daily deliveries. Masses of parcels came in the days leading up to Christmas. Very exciting for us children but left unopened until Christmas day. So great was the influx that carts and vans were hired by the post office to help in the delivery from, I presume, the Braintree depot.
Tailor - unlike most villages we had our own tailor who worked from his own home just outside the main housing and on the road to Shalford. He made suits to measure and ladies dresses to order.
Scythes - although hand pushed mowers had been invented a century before, scythes were still used for the edges of cornfields and one of the manor tennis courts was scythed so skilfully that it was as low as a mowered court.
Wonderful years, wonderful memories of a wonderful place and wonderful people.
