'swabies' Itchel Lane Crondall

A Memory of Crondall.

There was a huge house with 5 acres of land, about 1/4 mile up Itchel Lane, on the left hand side as one walked up. The house had a 'wendy house' that looked down the road and was just visible through the hedge up the side of the property. The wendy house was used for the Army to stay in during WW2, such a shame they broke the stove. As a girl I spent many happy hours playing there. The big house was built by an expat upon his return from the tea plantations of the century before last, he returned to the plantation every now and then, and left servants in charge whilst he was away. There were stories of a murder that happened in the house during one of his journeys. Stories of the house being haunted emerged from this happening. Dr Crawshaw, our GP, could certainly sense something uncomfortable in the master bedroom and it was always a very cold bedroom. A gentleman called Mr Ford Young and his wife, eventually bought the place and his 4 children grew up there. The family named the place 'Peperstiche'. Eventually, as the family grew up left home, The Ford Youngs built a new home in the kitchen garden, they named that place 'Peperstiche' and we bought the old house with its raft of out sheds and huge garage with rooms above it. We also purchased the 5 acres of land that surrounded the house, some stretched from the field next to the wendy house, right down to the houses opposite Canes Farm at the bottom of the road. There was another large field at the other side of the property. Dad turned that into a veg garden and what a feast of strawberries we had every June. A lady called Mrs Day came to be our cleaning lady for a while, she had 2 little children and I remember playing with them during the holidays. Mum also hired a chimney sweep, Mr Mc Millan, as there were a number of chimneys in the house. In time, he became the gardener as well and his daughter became the cleaner. Eventually Dad got planning permission for 4 houses in the field below the house, the entrance to this little Cul de Sac went through a large chalk pit. At the very bottom of our land there used to be an old kiln that I believe was called "Swabies", we used that name to name our house.
In 1964, we moved to Brunei and the house was left in the care of the gardener/chimney sweep and his daughter. Unfortunately many of our possessions went missing over those years, including some valuable original bird paintings by Peter Scott. In 1966 Dad decided against returning to England so the house was sold. I believe it was sold for 20,000 pounds, a profit of 15 thousand. I wonder what that property would be worth today. In fact, I wonder what happened to the property, I heard that the house was dived into smaller apartments; something I can well understand as it was huge. During the years that we were there, I went to Clare Park School (eventually becoming a boarder there) and my sisters started at Clare Park but ended up at the village school. I remember one of the little cottages close to the shoe mender was lived in by the Bucham family. I crashed my bike into their wall one Saturday afternoon when I was racing to catch the 3.00pm mail pick up for my father, I swerved to miss the bus that was turning left from 'The Plume of Feathers' into Church Street. I remember a pond at the bottom of Itchel Lane, as one was walking toward the village. It was so much fun sliding on the ice in winter. I also remember the swings and playground area on the parkland below the church. We just had to cross the road from the bottom of our field to connect with the little walkway that led to the playground. The Post Office, run by Mr and Mrs Birch had a chewing gum machine attached to the wall outside, one penny per pack and the 4th pack was free. A marvellous use for Sunday School collection money! Wadhams Store was the big grocery shop in the village and they sold the nicest bread ever. There was a Congregational church, a little further past Wadhams Store and a young gentleman used to hold a youth night every Friday. It was so much fun to join in the games and to share the fizzy lemonade, a treat we seldom had. Of course there was the Anglican Parish church at the top of Church Street, such a magnificent building. I taught at the Sunday School there for a while in my teens, I remember a pair of brothers who were named Peter and Paul. Mrs Cane from the farm was the main leader of the Sunday School. Somehow, her cat a beautiful white cat with one blue and one green eye, but unable to miaow, adopted us. It seemed that every time mum opened the kitchen cupboard, out would step 'Jimma'. We took turns in returning him down the road, but in the end, Mrs Cane asked us to adopt the cat as it clearly wanted to live in our house. I have so many fond memories of those few years spent in Crondall and I would love to hear what has become of it all today. If anybody can fill me in, please do, for I am now retired in New Zealand

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