An Old Man's Memories

I was born in 1922 in the village of Mundford.  My Father was the village policeman. The village was then a self-contained society and provided all the necessities of life, including a doctor, blacksmith, carpenter and general store. When other needs arose we hired a taxi or cycled the ten miles or so to Brandon, where there was then a train station that enabled us to get to Norwich or Kings Lynn. My Father policed the area for which he was responsible on foot or on his bicycle.

The social life was so much superior to that today and in many respects I believe we were much happier. There was no TV and radio was still in its infancy;  citizens had to make their own entertainment. A cricket club, soccer, and bowls in the summer provided sports at a very low cost. Pubs provided beer, conversation and the occasional game of darts. The village was surrounded by miles of open fields or woods. Generally we could walk where ever we wished in the countryside except in the few places that were marked as private. In spite of the lack of a formal "social security" the old, infirm and sick were looked after by their neighbors and the rest of the community.

My home life was different from that which most children experience today. Our main source of heat was the big cast iron cooking stove in the kitchen.  Oil lamps and candles provided illumination in the evenings, and a large "tin bath" was brought in from the outside "washing house" and stood in front of the stove for the weekly bath. Evenings were spent sitting around the kitchen table playing games, reading or just watching the flames in the fireplace. Water was carried into the house in buckets from a pump out in the yard, that also provided water for several other homes. The most common fuel was coal and outside was a brick building, the "coal shed" that held almost enough coal for the entire winter. Each morning the "coal scuttles" were filled and stood beside the stove and fireplace while the ashes were removed and dumped in the garden.

Also out in the coal shed was a separate area containing the "copper", a large cast iron bowl about four feet in diameter, heated by a coal fire underneath. Every Monday morning my Mother carried buckets of water from the soft water tank, that was filled by the rain on the roofs, that she poured into the copper and then lit the fire underneath. Once on the boil the clothes and linen were thrown in and washing was done for the week. then all hung outside on the "clothes line" to dry. With no inside bathroom, another section of the "coal shed" contained the toilet that was emptied every few days into a hole dug in the garden. With no refrigeration, food was stored in the "pantry", a small room lined with shelves and with a window to the outside so that it could be kept as cold as possible.  Food of course had to be cooked or consumed promptly, at least in the summer. This meant that most food had to be locally produced and purchased each day, which is why every village had it's own bakery and butchers shop. Milk and other dairy products were delivered straight from the farm.  Major purchases of clothes, hardware and similar items, usually came through the mail order stores or during the next visit to the nearest town, which was usually once or twice a month.

Like every other family in the village we grew all our own vegetables and vegetables and fruit were bottled for use during the winter. Each fall my Father dug by hand the entire garden which he then spread with manure from the local farm. In the Spring he planted the seed for the coming growing seasons. Potatoes, carrots and other "ground" vegetables were piled into a heap for the winter,  stored under a layer of straw and then covered with soil to keep them free of frost damage. When this pile was opened, sufficient vegetables were taken for use during the next few days.  We always had some fresh vegetables throughout the year. Fruit trees and bushes provided apples, pears, black currents, raspberries and plums, most of which were bottled or made into jam. Every fall we would go around the hedgerows and gather the wild fruit, that was also made into jam.  A cupboard in the kitchen was filled with jars of fruit and vegetables before the winter began. The butcher in the village provide fresh meat throughout the year although without refrigeration the choice of cuts was often limited. A local milkman also brought cream, butter and eggs. Very little of our food came from the store in the village which sold only the basic ingredients such as flour, sugar and a limited variety of tinned goods and also a few commonly used items of hardware and clothing.

My happiest memories were as a small boy with freedom to wander anywhere in the surrounding fields and woods. I remember the windmill that stood in the adjoining field. I remember when the nearby "Hall" was on fire and my Father was burned by the molten lead melting from the roof and hitting him on the shoulder.

The last time I visited Mundford I could find little from my memories except for the local pub.  There is a picture of the local school and my father on my web site http://home.comcast.net/~woudyet/