A Stream Clean Enough to Eat From

My grandfather's family, the Barbers, who were farmers, lived in Alton House at one end of the village until my grandmother died. My mother remembered the tension on butter-churning days when the milk wouldn't 'turn.' I believe my maternal grandmother, Ethel Kitchener, was born in Soham but I am not sure where. Her sister, when married, lived at the other end from Alton House in a small semi-detached cottage close to the stream, from which I well remember getting watercress to eat in sandwiches for tea. When I visited a couple of years ago the houses were both looking well-kept and prosperous and ponies were grazing on what must be common land near my great-aunts' house.