New Farm

A Memory of Edmondthorpe.

I attended Edmondthorpe village school from 1947 to 1953.
I live at New Farm with my grandparent Harry and Ethel Gresham. My mother Betty Bratby, nee Gresham, my two brothers Jim and Tim Bratby, uncles John, Harry and Paul. A lodger Frank Lay.
At the beginning we had German prisoners of war working alongside my uncles on the farm, along with villages we helped get the potato harvest in. My great-grandparents lived just down the road in a farm labourer's cottage until they died. The farm had milking cows, sheep, bullocks, veal calves, and grain crops.
The school had just one teacher, Mrs Rochester, who taught all the eleven children, age ranges from 4 to 11. School dinner we had Mrs Allwood who cooked and served. I can remember some name of the pupils. Dawn Clark, Marline Meadows, Rita Meadows, Aubrey Barrett, David Barrett, Jim Bratby, Denis Dickinson, ? Clarke, Carol Walker, Roger Walker.
Local people Walker, Clark, Barrett, Allcot (who kept the post office until taken over by my Auntie-in-law Catherine Gresham), Ginder, May, Meadows (Mr Meadows was a level crossing gate keeper), Marriott (farmers), Allwood (farmers), Bryant, Post lady.
That is all I can remember at the moment.