Memories of Childhood in Little Sampford

As remembered by my Father, Frederick Brook of Clock House Farm

by Dorothy Lee (1980)

INTRODUCTION

Frederick Brook was born at Clock House Farm on 5 March 1905. His parents, Ernest Brook and Blanche Bass were married in September 1903 and moved to Clock House Farm the same year. When he reached the age of 75 in 1980, his daughter Dorothy decided to record her father’s memories of childhood at Clock House, as she realized how rare it was for people to be still living in the house or parish in which they were born. During the next year or two she also recorded other local people. Mr Brook’s memories form a valuable record of a very different rural world, and we are very grateful to his daughter for allowing the Recorders to reproduce it on the Sampfords pages of the website.

MY FATHER’S MEMORIES

We sat by the fire in the front room at Clock House where my Father was born well over 70 years ago, and where his parents had lived after their marriage. I asked him if he could recall his earliest memory – it was riding on the cross-bar of his Father’s bike, he said, when they regularly attended chapel at Finchingfield.  He presumed that after the age of five years, he had to walk, as at that age he had to walk to Finchingfield School with the other local children every day. Most dinner hours were spent at the shoemakers, having heel irons and toe clips put on – this was a Mr Richardson by the Causeway. At about the age of ten onwards my Father often had to take the horses to the Blacksmith in Great Sampford, after school.

When the First World War started the ‘new’ time came into force and many people objected. The clocks were put forward one hour and the ladies especially hated getting up earlier. Upon returning from school there was a hot meal waiting, which usually consisted of ham or a joint and home baked bread. Most food was home-produced ham, chicken, eggs, bread, milk and butter. The bread oven was heated with faggotts, which were cut down during the winter from the hedges round the farm. There was a certain stone at the back of the oven which turned white when the oven was hot enough – at that stage, the ashes were cleared out with a long-handled shovel, and the bread or pastries put in by means of a long-handled wooden ‘spoon’. Bread was usually made once a week, but occasionally every fortnight. My Father just remembered the hams being smoked in the chimney of the cottage ‘along the road’ (Waterhall Cottage). The old lady who lived there always had two or three hams hanging in her large old fashioned open fireplace. They were wrapped in several layers of old cloth, tied with string and hung up for as much as six months, by which time about two inches of soot had collected on them!

There were five or six cows on the farm – my Grandfather used to do the milking at 8 am and 8 pm – my Father remembers him going out to the cowshed after tea, carrying a hurricane lantern. Then the milk had to be put through the separator in the Diary, and finally all the dairy utensils had to be washed and left clean for the next day. On Saturdays when my father was a little older, he was expected to help with household chores - make beds, shake mats in the yard and clean up, and even be ‘nursemaid’ to a younger member of the family – as he remembered, there always seemed to be a baby in the house (he was the eldest of five children). There seemed no time for games or sports with other children in the village. At the age of ten he drove a horse and cart to Thaxted - to begin with, he followed a neighbour, Lizzie Claydon from ‘top of the hill’ who was also going to Thaxted. He fetched feed stuffs and coal from Mr Lowe. There was very little motor traffic at that time, just the big old steam plough engines. They consisted of two big engines with water cart, plough, cultivator, drainer and living van. They made a strange sort of ‘ringing’ sound as they rumbled along at about six miles an hour. My Father admits he was quite terrified of these monsters and when he heard one approaching, he had to pull his horse and cart into a gateway out of the way. Kings of Chesterford who were millers, sometimes went through Sampford with an iron-wheeled Trojan. The surface of the road was very rough - granite, with many pot holes. But a horse and cart could negotiate these quite well whatever the weather.

Whenever the threshing machine or engines were at work on the farm, my Grandfather had a truck-load of steam coal delivered to Thaxted Station. Then it meant several journeys with the horse and cart to fetch it home – this had to be done within two or three days. There was a total of nine or ten tons in each railway truck. On reaching home, the coal was unloaded through a small window in the east wall of the house into the coal room. This little room is still there, next to the sitting-room, but has not been used for many years.

The river always held plenty of water in those days – when the engines were working water had to be pumped from the river. There would be two horses with the water cart. If the weather was very hot in summer, my father remembers fetching icy cold water from a spring near the little footbridge, to help make the butter.

I then asked about life in the evenings – it seems that draughts was a favourite game, and for music there was the lovely old phonograph. My Grandfather bought it form Walbro’s in Saffron Walden (near the Post Office). My Father vividly remembered this trip – as he came out of the shop he saw the proprietor change the beautiful brass horn for a small black one, and told my Grandfather. With that, there was a bit of an argument it seems that the phonograph in the window was a demonstration model only – however, my Grandfather refused to buy the phonograph unless he had the brass horn with it as he’d seen in the window. He won, and this lovely old instrument was brought proudly back to Clock House in the trade cart. There must have been many happy evenings spent playing the lovely old cylinder records.

Every Tuesday, eggs, chickens and sometimes rabbits were taken by horse and cart to Saffron Walden market. Just before Christmas was a busy time, as there were chickens and turkeys to be plucked. For two or three days, local women (including an old Mrs Burton) were employed to do the plucking. My Father recalled the kitchen at that time with feathers and fluff flying everywhere. His mother had help with the weekly washing - a Mrs Coe from Hawkins Hill used to come - she also cleaned the cutlery.

On Sunday mornings the family regularly attended chapel at Finchingfield, and the afternoons were spent quietly at home – or perhaps walking round the farm in the summer. Sunday tea was much enjoyed with Grandparents at Howletts Farm – my Father remembers especially his Grandmother’s delicious home-made cakes. After tea, the animals were fed and if the evenings were still light, the family would walk through West Wood, picking bluebells in springtime. In those days there were many more meadows everywhere. Between Howletts and West Wood there were meadows, and of course at Clock House there were meadows by the river and at the back of the house, where the cows and horses were kept.

Pigs were killed on the farm – a Mr Stock used to come for this job – apparently the pigs were simply caught, tied up and then had their throats cut. There would be a copper full of boiling water and the hairs were then scraped off. Two pigs a week were killed and taken to Mr Coe at Thaxted, who then took them along with others to the butcher in High Road, Leytonstone – a Mr Chapman. One or two pigs were kept each year for home use. A Mr Simmonds of Wethersfield was the butcher, who called every Saturday with a large joint of beef for the Sunday meal. There were always bullocks kept on the farm – they had to be kept three years before they were fit to kill – then they were really fat animals. There were two working horses on the farm, and then in 1913 ‘kit’ arrived - a cob which had previously belonged to the Leytonstone butcher. When he no longer delivered by horse and cart, my Grandfather had her on the farm, where she was kept busy going to and from Thaxted Station, which was built in 1913 and became very busy. Often horses and carts would be queuing up for passengers, on the train, as well as carrying coal, corn and hay.

In 1919, as the war ended my Father left school at the age of 14. More than anything else he wanted to learn engineering. He was never happier than when he could visit Mr Chapman’s yard at Bardfield to get repairs done to farm implements. But it was a difficult time, and he was needed on the farm – cleaning out pigs, fetching straw, feeding horses when the men came home to dinner etc. In October and Spring, Mr Portway used to come round with his threshing tackle. My Father’s job was to do the ‘shorts and chaff’. Eight to ten men were needed when threshing was done. The ‘shorts’ had to be put in the elevator to go up to the stack with the straw, and the chaff had to be bagged up and taken up a ladder into the old thatched barn. Chaff was mixed with mangels and Swedes (grown on the farm) and fed to the horses. Another job was to fetch the mangels and put them into the large old grinder, turn the handle, and then the slices would fall out below.

I asked my Father about working with the horses – he began by harrowing in the corn behind the drill. The drill was pulled by two horses with two men, then my Father would go behind with another horse (sometimes borrowed) and the harrows. After that he used horses for cutting hay, rolling, ploughing and cutting corn with a binder. Then there was the job of setting up the sheaves of corn into stooks, and carting sheaves with a wagon. In 1921 the first tractor arrived on the farm – it was a Fordson Model F, with iron wheels and strakes. It was one of the first in the area. After that, my Father did extra jobs on other farms. Harvest took from four to six weeks – there were long hours with no half days on Saturdays. Sunday working was not allowed, except of course for feeding the animals.

Were there any difficult farming seasons with regard to the weather, I asked. My Father didn’t remember any, at least he said it always seemed fine at harvest time. Several relations and friends always came to stay then, and were able to give a hand in the fields, pitching sheaves on to the wagon, etc. There was always time to sit and have tea in the field (or ‘fourses’) as it was called - mugs of tea with home-made fruit cake. When each field was cut, there was great excitement towards the finish when rabbits used to run out in all directions. The workers all tried to catch them – it was great fun. The straw stacks were thatched by James Stock. Cows were kept on the farm until 1953 – butter was sold at the door and any surplus was sent to Walden market.

At Clock House cottage there lived an old man by the name of Sammy Stock. It was rather a tiny, poor little cottage - just one living room with a back kitchen and earth floor – even the chickens were sometimes seen inside! Sammy often spent Saturday evenings at ‘The Fighting Cocks’ enjoying his beer. He would come home singing merrily. His dog could hear him coming over the meadows - it jumped on top of its kennel barking and rattling its chain. On reaching home, Sammy would either begin playing his accordion or records. If anyone annoyed him he could be heard miles away, swearing and muttering to himself. He lived all alone after his parents died, then one day he suffered a stroke, and my Father found him lying on the doorstep.

At the top of Hawkins Hill on the left were carpenters and undertakers by the name of Phillpot. My Father remembers the saw-pit in use – one man stood down in the pit with a long saw, and another man up on ground level – they sawed up large oak trees from Spains Hall wood. The wooden case and stool belonging to the clock at Clock House, was made by the Phillpots. At ‘Woodside’, the cottage on the right at the top of the hill, lived the Claydon family. They had a small sweet and tobacco shop there. Also they owned two or three ponies and traps, and the field opposite where they grew corn. Mr Richardson the shoemaker at Finchingfield, who was a cripple, lived at Mount Hall. He used to ride on a little black pony to the top of Hawkins Hill on his way to Finchingfield.

One of the first cars my Father drove was an open ford Tourer. At the age of 17 he was allowed to drive alone – of course in those days there was no driving test – the only practice he’d had was getting the car out of the shed for his father. On my Father’s 17th birthday, his Grandmother came to tea, and he then drove her home for the first time. He often drove the Parson (Mr Swabey) to the station, or to church services. At that age he was allowed to drive the tractor on the road too – he was 16 when his father bought the first tractor. For some time, both the horses and the tractor were used, but eventually in 1953 the last working horse was sold. In 1928 my father bought another tractor which he used for contract work for different farmers in the village. By then his two brothers had left school and there wasn’t enough work for all of them on the farm. He did work such as ploughing or cutting with the binder for the Ruggles-Brises at Spains, Harold Marsh, Mr Tiser and Mr Harding all at Great Sampford, Mr Schwier at Tewes, where the pasture was all ploughed after the sheep were sold. It was a two-furrow plough and only two or three acres a day was worked. The charge for this was about 17s 6d per acre – the farm workers wage was then about 30 shillings for a six day week. Although my Father would have loved to play cricket for instance as a boy, there never seemed the opportunity. Life consisted mostly of work – even when he had a bicycle the main object of having it was to enable him to get home quicker and get on with the work.....

(c) Dorothy Lee 1980