A story, a hymn, knitting and a sticky bun
The New Room
The thatch and timber New
Room with the Rossiters		   THE New Room was a beautifully light room, but the four large windows all along the front were most primitive. When we first went to Wethersfield, Mother at once started a Mothers' Meeting to which there was a good and steady response. It used to be held in an upstairs room of Mr Digby's Tavern but as soon as the New Room was built in our garden, the meeting and Sunday School were always held there.
There were rush -seated chairs, paraffin stoves to heat it, and a little collapsible harmonium - and there for years a weekly meeting of 20 to 30 women would gather. Mother read to them (a good interesting story book, with  Christian teaching in it). Also they could chat, and knit, then a devotional period when she taught them a bit more of what God's word is all about. They sang hymns like “What a friend we have in Jesus” and “Tell me the old, old story” - then ended up with a cup of tea and a sticky bun.
Ruth, who spent many years in China as a missionary and died in her late 80’s, retained a remarkably detailed recollection of daily life at Wethersfield vicarage.Ruth: Mother had someone living in to help with us all - in fact two domestic helpers I think, but this situation didn't last long, and for the next five years or more, all the local help she had was one woman. Dear Mrs Marshall - "Marshie” as we soon came to call her. She had recently been left a widow with four children, Ethel, Ted, Fred and Hilda, all about our age. Marshie came to live in one of the cottages called Sandhills and she somehow worked to support herself and her family - she really was tough - quite brusque in manner, but we came to love her.
She used to come and do our washing each Monday. Not as simple an operation as in these luxurious days - no water laid on - and a huge old-fashioned "copper" in the scullery which had to be filled with water from the pump and then a fire had to be lit underneath it to heat the water. She worked right through the morning and we brought out her meal to her when we had our dinner.
"Just put it in the oven, there's a good girl," she'd say and when at last she could leave her work and sit down to enjoy the meal, she invariably ate the pudding first and finished with the meat and vegetables. She liked it best that way. If any of us dared to go into the scullery while she was washing she'd send us packing with a flea in our ear and she found us - especially the twins - a lot of "young timers". She was a good friend and helper and I don't know what Mother would have done without her.

With Marshie
Rossiter children
with 'Marshie"
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