Upper Day House

A Memory of Church Preen.

The women of my father's family decided to go to Shropshire to get away from the bombs in London. There were about 7 women, mostly Harts, who went & rented Upper Day House with their children, about 10/11 children. The farm owner was called Percy Chester. These were town women who knew nothing about farming. My mother, Evelyn Hart, tells me that Percy Chester asked her if she knew about stock (animals)! They did learn some arable farming tho' Mum remembers planting & harvesting potatoes. There was no running water, the farm had a well & a pump. Mum used to tell me about the ducks which lived on the farm. She said they were Khaki Campbells. Each day they would set out over hill & dale, returning in the evening. Not all returned. Mum said they did not seem upset that one of their number was missing, probably eaten by a fox. They just waddled home at the end of the day showing no emotion! My brother Mike, who was about 7, set fire to a farmer's barn which was a very serious offence. When asked why he had done it he said he had watched his brother Ted Hart & cousins Jimmy Hart & Geoffrey Greenwood playing with matches (they were 13ish} & so he pinched some matches & attempted to light them. He ended up getting all the boys into trouble. My brother Ted attended a grammar school. He had a 3 mile walk to the station each morning to catch the train & then a 3 mile walk back at the end of the day. He got very tired. Since there were no men around my older, unmarried Aunt Betty thought Ted should do the work of a man, chopping wood etc after his long day at school. There were family rows, Mum said Ted was just a boy & wouldn't permit him to do the work. Eventually the family left Shropshire, Mum & the boys went to Fetcham where they spent the rest of the war & Aunt Betty & Aunt Eleicha went near to Stansted Abbots. Mum did remember seeing Coventry burn while they were in Shropshire. The sky was lit up as the Germans bombed the town. Brother Ted became a geologist, he returned to Shropshire to study the rocks & fossils during his degree course. He worked for an oil company. Soon after the war Ted & two of his cousins, Geoffrey & Jimmy, cycled all the way from London to Shropshire. They had loved it there, as did Mike. Michael had attended a Dames school while living at Church Preen & Mum worried that his education had been very poor. There were only 2 classes for all the age groups & she was worried he hadn't even learnt to read. Fortunately he had, but I think the war must have disrupted the education of many a child.

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