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By Ted Janes

When I heard of the death of Lady Margaret Bateman, aged 102, I got to thinking of the first time I met her and the years we worked together - a remarkable woman.

In the late 50s my wife and I ran the Village Youth Club and I attended the Village Hall AGM to repudiate criticism that the youth were causing damage to the Hall. I left the meeting having strongly made my point as the elected Chairman, proposed by a Mrs M Bateman (not yet a Lady).

I soon found, in this new position, that the job was not very easy. A quartet of ladies, namely Miss Fagge, Mrs Frederick, Miss Fletcher and Mrs Bateman has set themselves, very commendably, as custodians of the hall. I had to be very firm and made it plain that, if I was to remain Chairman, things would have to be conducted a little more democratically.

Like many organisations even today, the post of secretary fell vacant and no-one could be found until Mrs Bateman volunteered. As Chairman and Secretary, we worked harmoniously and happily for several years. I got to know what a kind, considerate and caring person she was, and of course very generous. The old hall benefited greatly from her generosity, as did the Sports Club, Lacey Green and Speen Schools and many other charities she supported. But it was never Margaret - always Mrs Bateman and never Ted - always Mr Janes.

About this time, I was also Chairman of the Parish Council and several times I pleaded with her to sell or give the field that is now Roundlands and Eastlands estates for a playing field, but to no avail. However, the fact that the estate includes some old people's bungalows was through her initiative and she did give a good strip of ground at the back of the old Hall without which it is doubtful the new Hall could be erected.

She retired with her husband to a village near Petworth in Sussex around 1970. I thought the village had lost a good friend but, almost to the end of her life, she retained an interest in Lacey Green and, I believe, a nostalgic affinity.

By Robert Bateman (son)

Ted's words catch the essence of both of them. As I recall, their constructive relationship did include a few political debates. I am sure that my mother would have felt honoured that Ted was willing to record his generous thoughts. If the tables had been turned and she had outlived Ted - not very likely given the age difference - he is one of the people for whom she had sufficient regard to consider writing something in memoriam. If she had, she would have shown similar respect and would also have been conscious of the perceived social separation to which Ted alludes. This is now an anachronism and she was never really comfortable with it, as I am sure her remaining friends in Lacey Green realized.

However, she came from a well established Lancastrian family, which had owned and managed a mill in Rochdale since the late 18th century, and certain habits were inbred. Her family were founders of the Rochdale Methodist church and there are records of her great great Grandfather meeting John Wesley around 1800. Her attitude to supporting the community in which she lived also stemmed from this background. Her generation was the first to leave Rochdale, although she married a Rochdale born and bred man - her husband was the son of the family doctor.

When she died she had 15 grandchildren and 21 great grandchildren, living throughout England as well as in Australia and the United States. Two of her grandchildren went to the Lacey Green Village School.

By Paula Burke

I first met Margaret Bateman very soon after I came to Graffham on Easter Sunday in Church, where she was a Church Warden, and I thought then what a welcoming and pleasant person she was, I can?t remember the date but it must have been well prior to 1981 because I have been told by one of her sons that she mentioned in her diary that we were good friends then.

We worked together over the Church Sale, which she used to organise and later I took over from her. She was full of energy and verve, knew everybody and was tactful and well-liked by all. When I was organising the Sale her husband, Sir Geoffrey, was the Treasurer, and we three used to get together in the evening after the Sale (it went on into the day much later then) and the three of us, strengthened by smoked salmon sandwiches (he was a fisherman) sorted out which stalls had made how much (interrupted constantly by anxious stall holders on the telephone wanting to know their totals). When she and I could not entirely agree over the arithmetic of the monies in the bags, Geoffrey put a placatory hand in his pocket.

To the end of her life she was always fun to be with, highly intelligent, and with a sharp but always kindly eye for other people, and a keen awareness of what was going on around her. Her generosity, sense of humour and gratitude for all that was done for her, and her true loving kindness made her greatly beloved.

Addendum from Geoff Gomme

I believe I can now add a little to the story. I very much doubt if it would have been worth spending all the time and money on the cricket ground and its facilities if Lady Bateman had not purchased it for the village. When I first played there the pavilion was a small wooden hut with hardly room to turn round; the toilet facility was primitive to say the least, and the sheep had grazed the field the day before a match. Now it is a large, airy place with everything needed for players and supporters alike.

Thanks Lady Bateman - and let's not forget Sir Geoffrey, who I'm sure played a big part.

Apart from that, I've learned over the years of many other kindnesses the lady dispensed - not only in Lacey Green but in the surrounding villages as well. I'm not going to name any of them - I couldn't name them all, anyway - and I'm sure she wouldn't want that. She did it because she saw a need. Rest in peace.

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Born in Rochdale he qualified as a Doctor at Oxford Kings University in 1929.

At the start of the war he was consultant ear, nose, and throat surgeon at St Thomas's Hospital (1939-71). He served with the Royal Air Force during the war, reaching the rank of wing commander, before returning to the bomb damaged St Thomas's.

His department developed a popular training programme, which launched the careers of many British and foreign graduates. He was president of the Association of Otolaryngologists in 1970-1 and of the Visiting Association of Throat and Ear Surgeons of Great Britain in 1966. He was consultant surgeon to the army 1966-71 and consultant adviser in otolaryngology to the Department of Health and Social Security 1967-71.

For his contribution to the Nightingale School of Nursing he was one of the first men to be awarded a Nightingale badge. He was chairman of the rebuilding committee, which completed its work when he "topped out" the north wing in 1974.

His interests included tennis, golf, and fishing. He left a wife, daughter and three sons.

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By sons Roland & Jeffrey

Our mother was born to Edith and Albert Currie on 26th May 1929 in Aston, Birmingham. During the Second World War she was evacuated to Hynham Court, the estate of Sir Hubert Parry - composer of "Jerusalem". Mother went to Rugeley School, but air-raids and doodle-bugs proved preferable to draughty dorms and over-cooked cabbage so she returned to Birmingham. Even so, she left an impression behind her - on a return visit to Hynham Court many years later, an ancient gardener still recognised the by-now grown-up evacuee.

Mother was awarded a scholarship to Aston Commercial School in 1942. Rationing and home-made blazers made little impact on the girls who went fruit-picking for the war effort, sleeping in tents and sharing in-jokes as well as the once-weekly baths.

Rather than heading to one of the London music colleges to further her singing, piano and violin, Mother, now trained as a touch-typist and secretary, joined her sister working at an automotive engineering firm. She became the personal assistant to the eccentric MD, more-or-less running the company as he had a tendency to disappear on "minor" errands only to return having bought a car, piano or house instead.

Despite not going into music professionally, considering the times, she was daring in other directions - rather than holidaying, like their colleagues, in such sedate places as Bournemouth the girls went to rationing-free Ireland, went cycling in Holland and the South of France. Mother also joined the Birmingham Music Society - an amateur operatic society with semi-professional standards - she took a leading role in at least one production.

Through the Birmingham International Youth Hostel Group she met our father, Bill; they married in 1958 just before our father's posting to Cologne. That step led to a major change as life for an RAF officer's wife meant moving around not only this country but also Germany - where the French she learnt at school was often used in tandem with the German she picked up living there. Whilst on that first tour of duty her eldest son, Roland, was born in 1960. Four years later, back in England and stationed in Suffolk, her second son, Jeffrey, was born.

In 1970, our family finally settled in Lacey Green. As Roland started at Wycombe Grammar School and Jeffrey at Lacey Green's primary school, Mother's life revolved around her children and a growing involvement in village life.

Our father was always keener with a hoe and spade than a paint-brush and wall-paper scissors; so while her house remained stubbornly un-decorated, Mother was roped into watering and picking duties. This lead to the frequent challenge of just how to present the inevitable glut of vegetables in ways that might encourage her sons to eat courgettes for the 6th day in a row; the stove groaned regularly with bubbling preserving pans, what didn't end up as jam or juice filled the freezer instead? some is probably still there to this very day.

Having to describe Mother's occupation to someone recently, the term "house-wife" was suggested for her - but dusting, hovering and cooking were not at the core of our Mother's life despite her enthusiastic devotion to brown bread, brown rice and brown pasta. Mother was so much more than that. She helped raised funds for the new Village Hall; for Bucks Assoc for Blind she sorted through piles of jumble, often trawling antiques fairs with items she felt should raise more money; she raised awareness and money for research into the Reynaud's disease which so badly-affected our father; she joined the Women's Institute; helped start, run and sing in St. John's Church Choir; joined the Princes Risborough Music Society, Lacey Green Productions, Lacey Green Singers and, most recently, St. Mary's Singers. She found time to succeed in nominating her good friend Madeline Forrester for the MBE in recognition of her work with the blind; she encouraged and taught people to sing whilst also keeping up a voluminous correspondence with friends and family across the country and all around the world. She embraced modern technology and became an enthusiastic e-mailer as her disabilities increasingly confined her to her home.

When her life became a more constant struggle, she appreciated the invaluable help of many of her neighbours such as Freda Dormer, Mary Lawrence and Helen Titchen. She refused to move to a retirement flat and leave the house, the village and the community of friends she had known for so many years. She preferred to stay where she was and keep her spirits buoyant and her wit sharp and manage as best she could with her two sticks and a lot of dogged determination.

We will remember her as the mother who loved music and was always singing, who quietly made sacrifices to help us through college and life and who made us into the people we are today.

By Rosemary Mortham

Madeline and I first met about 35 years ago. She and Julia Beaumont had decided to re-found the St. John's Church Choir, and I was asked to join them. Madeline already knew that I enjoyed singing, as I belonged to the Princes Risborough Music Society, of which she was already a member.

What neither Julia nor she realised was that I was completely ignorant about music. When it came to singing anthems, I was totally lost. Madeline had to give up a lot of her time to teach me. Her help was also essential to Julia, who was full of ideas, but lacked much background knowledge.

The church choir flourished and a number of young people joined, including Madeline's son Jeffrey. It was not long before Julia decided to branch out into musicals. The first was Jerusalem Joy, a cantata for Easter. In spite of the comparative inexperience of the choir, she arranged for us to visit our French twinned village of Hambye, to give a performance there.

It was a visit fraught with problems. Most of us spoke little French, and our hosts spoke no English. Madeline and Bill were able to help, as it turned out that Hambye had been occupied by the Germans during the war, and they could converse fluently in German, having lived and worked there for some time. On the way home, the coach broke down, and we spent the night parked on the edge of the road. Uncomfortable as this was, it proved to be a great bonding experience for the choir.

On our return, Julia and Madeline were encouraged to teach us another musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. This required a larger cast than the church choir could provide, so extra people were recruited locally. From this group was to develop both Lacey Green Productions and Lacey Green Singers, part of Madeline's legacy to our village. Madeline became a founder member of Lacey Green Singers and remained a member for most of our 26 years. It is nice to think that she was able to sing with us until the end, even though she was no longer able to stand.

I was one of the many people that she encouraged and coached. Although she was a very professional soloist herself, she was always generous in helping others to improve their singing, and attempt to sing solos themselves. Possibly one of her greatest successes was in teaching her husband Bill to sing bass. For many years they sang together to entertain groups, especially the local blind club, which was organised by her great friend Madeleine Forrester.

Bill had retired early, and for a long time he and Madeline became very active members of the community, participating in most village activities, and being founder members of the Horticultural Society. We often wondered if Bill had a premonition of the Raynaud's and Sjorgrens Syndromes which were to blight the end of his life. It was a bitter blow, but even so, they both faced this with a very positive attitude, throwing themselves into finding out as much as they could about the disease, and supporting fund raising into research into its causes and management.

My family was lucky to become friends of Bill and Madeline, and enjoyed many meals at their home. Madeline was a good cook, using the fresh produce from Bill's allotment. They were an intelligent couple, and one of them always won the quiz which we used to have after our New Year's Eve Party.

I was most grateful to Madeline when the time came for me to start singing alto. She seemed to sing this with ease, but I found it nearly impossible. She would sit beside me and sing the notes into my ear until I learned them. If I went wrong, she would give me a look which I will never forget! She was always patient and generous with her time and help, not only to me, but to many others. This is the thing that those of us who love to sing will remember about her. She knew what a joy it was to make music, and it easy to understand her request that Thank You for the Music should be sung at the service.

By Jean Gabbitas

Newcomers to Lacey Green, seeing Madeline as she had become, would have been surprised to learn that this was the same lady, who most afternoons could be seen striding out on her constitutional along Main Road and Pink Road; and seeing her painfully crooked arthritic hands, would not have known that these same hands had for so many years played the piano to accompany the many friends to whom she gave singing lessons.

I myself benefited in this way; for, in the very civilised gap between sending my first three children off to school and being blessed with the fourth, I would go each Tuesday morning to Madeline's, and she would patiently rehearse me through the choral work Mozart's Requiem in preparation for the evening session with Princes Risborough Music Society.

I have been asked this afternoon to speak on behalf of the Women's Institute, and our appreciation of her as a lifelong member. Like myself, she joined as a young housewife with her two sons in attendance at the village school. She entered into all the usual activities, like baking scones and tea loaves when it came to her turn to prepare the refreshments.

She also enjoyed the intellectual pursuits, some of which remain on record. Her research into village history by interviewing elderly residents of Loosley Row and Lacey Green is recorded in the WI publication "The Chiltern Hundreds". She would speak to me about this with much glee, and seemed to me at that time an expert in the family trees and marital connections of the original village families.

Furthermore, together with Kathleen Turner, she volunteered to carry out a detailed survey of Lacey Green and Loosley Row, as far as Bradenham turn, as part of the "New Doomsday". Together, they explored, interviewed and recorded industrial and social activities. This nationwide survey was collected and recorded, and we have some of their findings in our WI photograph album.

Madeline would turn her hand to poetry, and write in support of the many campaigns carried out by the WI, for, as you all know, Madeline took a keen interest in current affairs, and held strong opinions.

Finally, two specially memorable contributions must be mentioned. A few years ago, while still in good voice, she entertained us at our Christmas lunch with Songs from the Shows, which she sang beautifully and with great expression.

And last, but not least, I must tell you that the WI will never be quite the same. For, once the Village Hall piano was abandoned, we had to sing unaccompanied and Madeline always gave us "the nte" for Jerusalem, which we all sang in memory of her at the service.

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Past Residents

Introduction

When travel was an ordeal due to lack of means and consequently its mode, together with the time it took, people were mostly content to live and die where they were born, only moving, out of necessity. Our public footpaths developed because people tended to walk everywhere.

Families, in the absence of modern contraception, tended to be large and there were a great number of marriages between different members of the same family. With such numbers it is not surprising that several of those families are still around today. You will come across their names time and again throughout the History pages.

1851 Census

A copy of the first census of 1851 denotes the name and age of each person who abode in each of the 63 houses on the night of the 30th March 1851 and their relationship to the head of the family. There were 307 residents, average age 23.

Note that houses were simply numbered and the first four related to the, now lost, village of Coombs. The only trace is in local names such as Coomb Hill. Loosley Row appears to be excluded from this list.

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Movers and Shakers

by Dennis and Joan

Saunders

William Saunders and Louisa Lacey

William Saunders, born 1813, and Louisa Lacey, born 1821, were to play a significant role in this parish. Both were born in Saunderton parish which encompassed Bottom Field where they started their married life at the Rose and Crown public house in 1839. (The parish of Saunderton still does run part way up Little Lane to Loosley Row and Lacey Green.)

They were married at West Wycombe and had twelve children:

1841 Ellen.
1843 Emma.
1845 George. Born at Speen Farm, married Sarah Ginger - See George and Sarah Saunders
1847 Benjamin. Born at Speen Farm, became a labourer, married Jane Ginger, later hung himself.
1851 Ruth died 1851
1851 William. Born Speen Farm, married Bethia Janes. See William and Bethia Saunders.
1854 Jabez. Born Speen Farm, there a labourer but drowned in Dirty Wood pond Hampden Bottom, married Susan Hickman
1856 Ruth. Born at Speen Farm, married Anderson. Lived Woodway, became postlady.
1856 Johnnie, married Corah Ginger.
1860 Thomas, married ? Seward
1862 Albert, married 1st Sally Montague, 2nd Polly Montague.
1864 Mary Ann, married Arthur Tilbury from Naphill

Louisa died in 1870 aged 49. At some point she had had an accident with a trap but we do not know if this was a part cause of her early death.

(Speen Farm is now known as The Home of Rest for Horses).

Suicide was not unusual. Life was hard with little prospects. Farmer`s sons were, as a rule, expected to labour on the farms for their keep only. The stronger characters who had made it were not easy to live with or to follow. This could be daunting for son number one and hopeless for the others. Older daughters often found themselves stuck looking after younger children as more babies came along.

William and George were both to carry the Saunders name forward. For more details see their own profiles.

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William Saunders and Bethia Janes

William Saunders was born at the "Rose and Crown" public house in 1851. The area was then called "Bottom Field", Saunderton. He married Bethia Janes, the daughter of Henry and Mary Janes. Henry was a shop keeper and kept "The Spratt" public house and was a shopkeeper in Loosley Row. He was also a baker, his descendants keeping up the tradition in Lacey Green; he built a bake-house in Lacey Green at the top of Goodacres Lane.

William's parents, also William, born 1814, farmer and publican and Louisa, born 1822, had 12 children. They were both from Saunderton parish which runs from Risborough right through to Saunderton station.

William and Bethia started their married life at the "Rose and Crown" but he too was also a farmer. For many years Pound Farm nearby at Saunderton Lee was in the family (rented?) so that may have been where his land was. He supplied hay and straw to London and went to London on the train from Princes Risborough to collect his money. One night on his return he was robbed in Risborough, so after that Bethia would go to the bottom of the garden to the railway line which ran behind the house and he would throw the money out to her.

They moved next to Smalldean Farm, in Smalldean Lane. They had 7 children. He was still also farming Pound Farm at Saunderton Lee when he bought Stocken Farm in Lacey Green in 1911, for £3,400, 167 acres, 1 rood, 24 poles or thereabouts, including the farmhouse and two cottages (Graham Cottages built on the main road by the previous owner Mr.Forrest in 1885) It was a sign of the difficult farming times that Mr Forrest had paid £8,250 for it in 1877. There had been terrible weather starting in 1870 right through the first world war. (See "weather conditions").

William produced hay and straw for which there was a ready market in London. There were still a great many horses in London and small dairy herds of a few cows for fresh milk consumption. He did have a team of horses taken from his wagon at Holtspur on the A40 during the First World War for the army, leaving him stranded with a loaded wagon at the top of White Hill.

He always went to Thame market on Tuesdays and Wycombe market on Fridays. He did a lot of dealing, often buying and selling on without taking the stock home. William couldn't read or write and Bethia went with him to do the writing. He bought young horses from John Baillie, Theobalds Road, London, usually keeping them in the field behind Hillcrest House where he had built a barn, sadly no longer there.

The field grew a lot of mushrooms and he kept a little pony and trap so he could rush across it to stop people mushrooming. He had purchased the field below Goodacres Lane, called "Hillocks" and gated it across so that he could drive the horses across the lane into their field. This would block the way into the other field down there - "Glebe Field" - causing considerable inconvenience and a lot of mud. Many bad words were exchanged. It is said that on one lane he met another trap and being unable to pass, the two sat there best part of the day. He would never change his clocks for summertime, calling it "Fool's Time".

Sometimes the families would be asked for Sunday lunch; they often arrived an hour early or late having forgotten this. And he was remembered swotting flies which particularly annoyed him. He also had a donkey and trap and a horse and trap.

William continued to farm Pound Farm and would shout instructions down to them from near Lacey Green windmill. He had a very loud voice and so had the donkey which would bray loudly if he left it. William was very much the boss of his family. He did not work on Sundays.

Bethia was remembered as a quiet, gentle woman and a good wife and mother. They had 7 children:

1879 Mary Bethia (Bessie) born at the Rose and Crown, married Sydney Ing. Sidney worked for William Saunders at Smalldean Farm, and formed an attachment with Bessie. They were married at Hughenden church and set up home in Smalldean Farm Cottage, where their daughter Gladys was born in 1909.

When William wanted Sydney to work at Stocken Farm the young family moved to "Windyridge" another Saunders property, on Mill Road (now Main Road) Lacey Green. "Windyridge" was a little old cottage pulled down in 1972.

1880 Emma Caroline married 1905 Frederick William Floyd, son of Peter. They had one son Harry who was born at Pound Farm. Caroline died when he was two, so his grandparents brought him up with the other children

1883 Ethel married 1912 Ralph Dell, carpenter, g. g. grandson of Thomas and Ann Dell (see Thomas and Ann Dell). William gave Ethel, "Graham Cottages". They were a semi detached pair of houses on the Main Road and have been replaced by three houses, 1,2,and 3 Graham Cottages.

1885 Louisa married 1918 William George Wilkins, soldier. Was he local or billeted here in the war?

1887 Alice married Philip Sidney Pitcher, farmer. When their farm failed they moved into "Hillcrest".

1889 Harry was the only son. He would have been expected to work for his father. The enterprise that William had built was huge and daunting. His father was very strong willed and no doubt difficult and certainly unlikely to retire, although he had built "Hillcrest House", Goodacres Lane for his retirement.

Life was not easy for Harry. However he made a very happy marriage with Pamela (Pammie) Saunders from Bradenham. They had four daughters, themselves happily married, when Harry was devastated by the death of his wife in a car crash, tragically driven by his son-in-law.

1893 Annie Daisy married Ernest Smith from Walters Ash Farm. (See Marriage at St.John`s Church Lacey Green, 1919)

Bethia died in 1932 aged 78, and William in 1934 aged 83. Even then he managed to be controversial as his name was mentioned when the uproar about the poisonous water in the villages hit the headlines. (See "When Fleet Street Sentenced Lacey Green to Death"

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George Saunders and Sarah Ginger

1845 George Saunders, born at Speen Farm, son of William and Louisa, married Sarah Ginger, born 1847, daughter of John and Celia Ginger, farmer of 2 acres and publican (The Black Horse). George and Sarah had three children:

1878 Louisa (Lou), married 1910 Cecil James Dell, born 1873, son of Jabez Dell. Cecil was a bricklayer by trade. They had three children. William (Bill), Jack and Bert. (See Dell Bros. and Hickmans Stores)

1880 Emily, married Harold Hickman. (See Hickman's Stores)

1873 John William (Johnnie), born at Speen Farm, married 1896 Elizabeth Daisy Dell, born 1876, daughter of Jabez Dell.

Johnnie was a carpenter at Speen Farm in 1896, but in 1930 started his own building business. (See J Saunders And Son)

Johnnie inherited The Black Horse public house from Ann and Emily Ginger. The latter were spinsters. Ann was the landlady. Emily was sweet but a bit simple. Johnnie and Daisy had four children:

William John (Will), born at The Black Horse, married in 1920 Florrie Bertha Smith, daughter of Owen Smith from The Hillock. Will worked with his father. When they married they lived at Kingswood Farm in Highwood Bottom, but soon moved to a cottage at Idle Corner, then called The Black Horse Yard, opposite the pub. They had three children: Edward (Ted) and twins Millicent and Maurice (Mosh) (See Trudy and Mosh Saunders).

Their little cottage was very small and when The Reading Room came up for sale they bought it and Will converted it into a bungalow. In 1935 they let it when they built the house "Chorlton" on some land bought from Sid Ing further along the main Road on the opposite side from Woodbyne farm. Will took over the business in 1951.

(The Main Road from the Whip pub to Goodacres Lane was then called Mill Road. The Reading Room was beside the school and the men went there to read the newspapers.)

Cecil Jabez, born 1904, married 1930 Margaret (Maggie) Goodey from West Hendred. They had three children: Sheila,Ann and David.

Cecil trained to be a teacher at Culham College, specializing in music then taught at Mill End School in High Wycombe. He formed a dance band and played the organ at Chinnor church for years in his spare time.

Maggie and the children were very musical. David was at New College Oxford choir school from 6 to 12 years old but then came home to go to the Wycombe Grammer School.

A son, name being ascertained, died of Dipthieria when he was 4 years old.

Ralph, a lad good at training horses, was killed in the first world war.

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Hawes

George Hawes 1860

George Hawes was the son of John and Sarah Hawes, who married in 1859. His grandfather was Joseph, 1808-1872, a sawyer and later farmer. George's parents and probably grandparents lived in cottages behind the Black Horse - Ye Olde Cottage.

They had a smallholding on a plot of land across the track going to the cottage and barn now known as Floyd`s Farm. This became known as `Em`s Piece` as George`s sister Emma had a *shepherd`s hut there in which she lived. When George moved house, Emma and her hut moved with him. (Legend has it that Lacey Green got it`s name from a Lacey that lived there, but no proof has come to light.)

George married a girl from Staffordshire who was in service at Loosley House. He built Woodbine Farm when he got married. Unfortunately they forgot to allow for the stairs, which had to be squeezed in afterwards making them very narrow and steep. They had eight children, 6 girls and 2 boys.

Approximately 1905 Kingswood in Highwood Bottom, now cleared of its trees, was sold and George bought it. They moved there for a year or two and Harry their youngest was born.

Finding it inconvenient for the school they came back to Woodbine Farm in the village. He part time rented The Glebe lands, which stretch from behind the bottom of Goodacres Lane across to Windmill Road (now Pink Road). He still farmed Kingswood and rented Hawk Hill. He bought the field behind Woodbine in 1934 when Stocken Farm owned by William Saunders was sold up.

Their youngest son Harry inherited Woodbine and with his wife Minnie proved to be a very good farmer. They had two daughters and a son.

When Harry died, Minnie rented the land to R.M.West and Son, who ultimately bought it from Minnie's daughters on her death. The West's only wanted to keep farming the land and intended to sell the house, however at that time Paul and Trisha Johnstone (John and Joan West`s daughter and son-in-law) were wanting to move into the country so they took over the house with the intention of doing it up and modernising it. This proving impossible they applied to pull it down and replace it with a house that looked exactly the same from the front.

Permission granted they built their new house themselves with the help of family and friends and the farm buildings became Woodbyne Fitness Gym.

*A shepherd`s hut is a small wooden caravan on wheels (metal) which could be moved around for a shepherd to live in. Especially useful at lambing time. They were beautifully made, with an iron wood-burning stove for cooking and warmth.

Janes

Ted Janes - A Most Remarkable Village Member

It seems a little strange writing about someone who is still very much alive, who is particularly enjoying going dancing with his wife Jean. But Ted has retired, so it is possible to look at his lifetimes work.

What he did for this parish was driven by his political beliefs and one thing led to another - all in his spare time. He acknowledges that he couldn't have done it without the support of Jean. But how and why did it all begin?

Ted came home to Speen an indoctrinated Socialist after the war and 4 years in the Derbyshire Coal Fields. It was this idealism that drove him forward. He was restless and idealistic. He moved from Speen to Lacey Green in 1951 but they are both in the same parish. His first target was the Parish Council.

The same people had run the council for years and only changed if someone retired. Ted felt this was undemocratic and that a proper election should be held. He got 7 like-minded people to put in nominations not expecting any to be elected. But the "Old Guard" said that if they wanted to have a go then let them, and they all withdrew their own nominations. This left Ted's 7 to be elected unopposed, a situation that lasted the whole 34 years of his service. He does not kid himself that the parish was satisfied with their performance, he believes it was just apathy, where the people could not be troubled and was to the shame of village democracy.

He was possibly one of the youngest parish councillors in the country and he soon became chairman, a position he held for 27 years.

Born in Speen and now living in Lacey Green he had a desire to bridge the "Flowers Bottom" gap between the two villages. As parish council chairman one year he was asked to open both the Speen fete and Lacey Green village day, and so felt that maybe that was a sign of partial success.

Like many people, Ted and Jean's lives were also directed by the wellbeing of their family. When their daughter was about 12 years old, she, together with a number of her friends, appealed to them to take over the "Youth Club" which was going to close for lack of a leader. They held this position for 8 years. They cannot speak highly enough of this great bunch of youngsters and today see some of them as grandparents. They feel pleased and privileged that perhaps they helped them a little along life's way.

It was the youth club that caused the next step taken by Ted in the village. He went along to the A.G.M. of the Village Hall Committee. He went in order to defend a criticism that damage had been done to the hall by the youth club members. He came away as Chairman of that committee. A position he held for 33 years.

It soon seemed clear to him that better communication would help pull the community together, so modelled on the Naphill Gazette he inaugurated "Hallmark". This magazine is delivered to every house in Loosley Row and Lacey Green. Its aim is to mirror the mark made by the village hall, publish the activities of all village organisations and provide a public forum. Ted was editor of Hallmark for 22 years.

Over the years various suggestions were put forward. The first success was the Horticultural Society. There were not enough takers for a camera club nor a bridge club. The vicar, Bernard Houghton, proposed a Twinning Organisation, which pushed on by Peter Trotter was successful. On a touring trip in France our family happened on Hambye, our new twin. We drove into the square only to see Ted on the balcony of the Mayor's parlour expressing greetings from the people of Lacey Green to the people of Hambye. He looked resplendent, wearing our chairman's badge of office. He told me later the story of the chairman's badge.

George Crombie, the Clerk to the council, and Ted had designed it and submitted it to the regalia manufacturers in Birmingham. The parish council refused to purchase it. Ted wondered if it could be purchased by public subscription. Luckily the first person he approached was Randall Evans who said that he would purchase it outright. Some years later when Ted told him he was leaving the council Randall said "I only bought that bloody necklace for you to wear"

It was a disastrously wet annual fete day on Lacey Green sports field. The village turned out to support despite the weather. There were complaints about muddy, wet tents from the area scouts and the cricket wicket was damaged, although that was believed to have been done by outsiders. Nevertheless the sports club was far from happy.

Ted insists that he had a dream that the whole village from the Whip to the sports club was a fete, a carnival, call it a village day, so when the first one was held in 1985 he felt it was one of the most memorable days the village has known. Someone still refers to him as Martin Luther Janes.

I have heard the Happy Wanderers walking Club called Ted`s Trotters. Just another organisation with which he was involved and very much enjoyed. He no longer participates, but the Happy Wanderers is still going strong today (2009)

The village hall committee organised many things, and many people have worked for it but Ted particularly mentioned Vera Griffiths, "a great organising lady". Recalling the annual turkey suppers, strawberry teas, frequent dinner dances and many other things.

He found some extra spare time to set up, with two Risborough colleagues the Patients Participation Group at the Cross Keys surgery. Two other activities which could possibly effect us here at arms length.

He was for many years chairman of the Wycombe Constituency Labour Party. Also for 27 years a Buckinghamshire magistrate, often taking the arduous task of Chairman of the Bench at Aylesbury. He freely admits that it was only made possible for him to do all these things with the tireless help and understanding of his wife Jean.

In 1995 Jean was taken ill and Ted called an end to all his village activities in order to look after her. He said "Jean had given so much to me, it was my turn to repay her. It might look like I've tried to do a lot, but my proudest achievement has been nursing Jean back to health and strength. And me? I have enjoyed nearly every minute and would not have had my life any other way, meeting so many great people in such a lovely village".

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Social Snapshot 1887-1987

By Joan West in conversation with Mabel Janes

Mabel Janes lived at Sunnybank, later to be called White House Farm in Highwood Bottom. Her parents were Boas and Caroline Janes. Boas was recorded as a poultry farmer.

Bounded to the north-east by a private bridleway and Grimsditch, to the south by Highwood Bottom - the old road from Speen to Loosley Row by-passing Lacey Green - and to the North and East by what had been Kings Wood, which was common woodland where people would go to pick up wood after high winds. Recently felled, she remembered people still going there to dig up the chucks (roots) for firewood.

Across the valley at the top of the opposite side was a footpath which ran from Speen to Loosley Row. People walked this path to collect the 'poor money' which was paid out at Loosley Row - 2/6d (12.5p) per week.

Mabel knew Emily Ginger who lived with her sister Ann who kept the Black Horse. Emily was a simple soul. She always curtsied to the big crab apple tree in the back meadow of Stocken Farm because it reminded her of Mr.Brown who had farmed there until 1885.

When William Saunders was farming at Stocken farm Mabel could sometimes hear shouting from Sunnybank, for he had a very loud voice. Life was hard, when asked "What did you're parents do if they had the toothache?" she answered "They just had to lump it."

Extra money was hard to come by. Stone picking in the fields was always welcome for some pin money for the women.

Mabel started school at Loosley Row where the 3 to 7 year olds went. Quite a walk for a three year old from Highwood Bottom. At 7 they moved up to Lacey Green. Minnie Brown, just one year younger was her friend throughout their long lives (See Minnie Brown). By 1904 all ages 3 to 13 were taken at both schools.

It was in 1904 that Mabel became a teacher at Lacey Green, where she was a schoolmistress for 45 years. The school then consisted of two rooms, a small one for the infants and a bigger one for the other grades. She thought there were between 70 - 100 pupils and at times three teachers and a headmaster.

The boys could take the labour exam at 11 years and then take a job, perhaps say, holding the head of a plough horse or such.

Edith Crook, who walked with a stick, (the daughter of John Crook, a superior type who was farm bailiff at Stocken Farm for Mr.Forrest) was a suplimentary teacher.

Connie Redding, daughter of another bailiff impaled her leg on the iron railings at the school.

She remembered Mr.Forrest having a pipeline laid from Stocken Farm down to Grymsdyke to take any overflow from the water tanks at Stocken. He then had a well dug a Grymsdyke. Mabel was told it was 303 feet deep, but when there was a drought, possibly 1893, it was taken down another 48 feet.

During the First world War the Royal Engineers were billeted in the village. They took the small schoolroom and the Home Meadow at Stocken Farm next to the school. The horses were stabled at the farm and exersizes were done in the field. The farm dining room was made into an army hospital and the grain store into their blacksmith`s workshop. Mabel recalled parties at Stocken Farm where I imagine they played cards.

In her old age Mabel lodged in the village and most days, sometimes twice a day, could be seen catching the bus to Risborough or Wycombe to do errands for anyone she was able to. She died just a few days off her 100th birthday.

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Social Snapshot 1951

by Ted Janes

I had arrived home to Speen after 4 years in the Derbyshire Coal Fields, an indoctrinated socialist married to Jean with a baby, to the only home, a caravan, and later a one up and one down cottage.

Between Lacey Green and Speen there had traditionally been animosity and general unfriendliness and strong sporting rivalry, but when we were allocated a new council house any such thoughts were quickly dispelled with the thought of a new home.

Jean met Mrs. Gurney and Miss Jarvis to book our daughter into the school, and we soon discovered that as far back as 1951 Lacey Green was a very good school.

On her many visits back and forward she found the villagers welcoming and friendly, particularly Mr. Sid Janes (no relation) the baker, Mr. Lewis the retired paper man who had delivered the papers with a pony and trap. Mrs Chiltern the post lady, Bert at Hickman's stores, Mrs. Lacey at the little shop at the Crooked Chimney opposite Bitfield (now Westlands), Mr and Mrs Lawrence at their Loosley Row shop later to become the post office, to name but a few.

I was playing cricket for Speen but resigned and joined Lacey Green, playing in both first and second eleven teams, thinking "if you want to be accepted then you have to accept the village" But when both teams played one another you could easily imagine what prompted "The War of the Roses"

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by Joyce Delnevo

1958, hearing that a plot of land with the foundations of a bungalow already on it had been bought by Dell Bros builders in Kiln Lane, Lacey Green, John and Joyce Delnevo came to look at the site. It was snowing as their Vespa scooter struggled up from Wycombe. Nothing daunted they purchased the site and Dell Bros built their bungalow.

John had a printing business in Wycombe and the Vespa struggled with the steep hills.

In 1961 their daughter, Louise was born and they managed to get a car.

Kiln Lane was a very quiet road. Not many houses. A semi detached flint and brick pair at the top of the lane, a pair of farm workers houses further down on the other side built in 1937 next to `Malmesmead`one of the oldest houses in the village. There was a simple bungalow next door to the plot and a couple of bungalows right at the bottom and a house even further on.

The pair at the top of the lane were lived in by Mr and Mrs Toms and Mr and Mrs Williams and son Edwin. It was these two women that welcomed Joyce. Mrs Williams introduced her to the Womens` Institute with which she soon became involved. Mrs.Toms had a large cottage garden from which she would gather a huge bunch for anyone who needed flowers. How much? Half a crown (12.5p). Their friendships would be for life.

Baby Louise was sixteen when Mrs Toms died, but she remembered her in her will with a £100 bequest for being the first baby girl born in Kiln Lane for fifty years.

The village shop, with Bert and May Dell was the place to meet other villagers. Usually there would be someone in there with news to tell and if you had the time simply going for a loaf of bread could take absolutely ages.

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The Medicine Run

Some Early Memories from Gordon May

From the age of twelve until I left school, one of my jobs was known as the "Medicine Run". I had to miss a bit of school to carry out this job.

Every Thursday evening, after school, I would travel to some of the outlying districts of the village to collect empty medicine bottles. Some of the homes I visited were the Hickman family at Turnip End, Mr Redrup, a cripple, living at the bottom of Lacey Green, and two families in Portobello Row.

I had permission from the school to take time off on Friday mornings to catch the "Farmer's " bus, which ran from the Church end of Lacey Green to Princes Risborough, where I went to Dr Edward's surgery (Old Cross Keys). He always looked out for me, and took me straight in to fill the medicine bottles, as he knew I had to get the return bus back to school. Then on Friday evenings or Saturday mornings, I would have to go round to deliver the medicines to all the families concerned.

One day at the doctors, when I was collecting the medicine, I peeped through the curtains. It appeared to me that he took some grey powder, mixed it up with some water, and poured it into all the bottles. I thought it odd at the time, that they all had the same medicine!

I did this job until I left school. On the last morning, I said to the doctor, " This is my last run, as I am leaving school". He gave me half a crown ( now equal to twelve and a half pence). A few years later, when I was taking a group of children to Sunday School, he came by in his car. He got out, wanted to know how I was, shook my hand and wished me well.

The Hickman family from Turnip End lived about 500 yards down a woody stony lane. The house had no electricity or gas. In the winter of 1947 I was detailed to go and sleep there. It was so cold that it froze the hot water bottle. I always had to get up very early to break the ice and feed the chickens and rabbits, before running home for breakfast and then on to school.

Mr Redrup, who lived at the bottom of the village was to me a little old man, bent double, who used two walking sticks. He used to tell me stories of the First World War, when he was detailed to go and find German snipers. He said how difficult it was to hit a man a mile away. I found him very interesting, as he had a number 3 garden gun, which he let me use to take pot shots. He also had a lovely apple tree in the corner of his garden, where the school is now. A lot of boys went scrumping there.

My grandparents lived in Portobello Row, near cottage number 4 , where I used to deliver medicine. A few years later, when I was 20, I was also sent there to sleep. My grandmother was very ill, and if needed, I could run to the public telephone. The back room of that cottage was another place where my hot water bottle froze.
I enjoyed my schooldays during the war. Another job which some of us boys had was to go potato picking for any farmer who wanted us. We had a permit from the school for this. We were allowed 20 half days per year off. The only farmer brave enough to employ us was Mr Reg Tilbury, who lived at Parslows Hillock (down the lane from the Pink and Lily) We boys would cycle from Lacey Green to the farm, and had a very enjoyable afternoon away from school.

Another job, which I was landed with during school holidays in wartime, was to cycle to Hampden Woods, where the chair bodgers had turned thousands of chair legs over the years. My oldest brother and I would have to work one end of a cross cut saw, while a man was at the other end. This was hard work, which I did not enjoy very much. My brother, being older and stronger than me, was allowed to hold the handle of the saw, while I was a yard away, pulling on the end of a rope.

02.03.10

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By Winnie Rixon

I was a Londoner, born in 1923. In 1940 my home was bombed and my mother killed and I finished up in hospital with several minor injuries I was in a state of shock having lost both my home and my mother and my father suggested I visit my sister, Gladys for a week or two.

She had worked for Carters Merchants Ltd in the City of London, an import and export company. The Carter family had bought Grymsdyke House in 1922. They also owned the indoor tennis court built by ex Vicar William Robson in Church Lane. Mr Carter, the chairman of the company decided to transfer the business to Lacey Green for the duration of the war. He converted the indoor tennis court in Church Lane into staff accommodation and offices, dormitories either end for single men and single women, and offices in the middle, also a kitchen and dining room. It was the end of the building's prestigious life as a tennis court. Phyllis Adams also worked there and when I came to visit my sister accommodation was found for me with Phyllis's parents, Fred and Minnie Adams, who was a very friendly person and made me very welcome. I stayed there several weeks. At this time it was difficult for companies to get staff and I was offered a job with Carters. I decided to accept it never thinking that I would still be in Bucks 70 years later.

As you can imagine the tennis court had a very high roof. The source of heat was mainly electric and paraffin oil heaters so most of that rose and went out through the roof. A false ceiling was eventually put in and things improved a great deal. As time went on the married couples rented houses in the village or rooms in people's houses and the rest of us shared a cottage at the end of the drive. Every room was a bedroom and we still had our food cooked in the tennis court kitchen. Being the junior I was allocated the last room left which was originally a walk-in pantry, just room for a camp bed and it was quite damp. One of the older girls left soon after and I was able to share a room with my sister.

We joined in village activities whenever we could. Mrs.Lou Dell, mother of Bill, Jack and Bert, and her helpers organised a dance once a month in the village hall to raise money for the troops, Christmas parcels etc. Of course the girls went along and there I met Stan Rixon (known as Baldwin), my future husband. Public transport was in short supply, really non existent on a Saturday night, so we had to walk to wherever the entertainment was - Hampden, Princes Risborough, to name a few. Mr Farmer from Monks Risborough had the local bus service into High Wycombe, calling at Lacey Green, Hampden, Bryants Bottom, etc. He only had the one bus so the service was not very frequent, 2 or 3 trips a day and during the winter the last bus did not run at all. Very few people had cars and those that did were rationed for petrol. The village people used to cycle to Wycombe to work all weathers and must have kept them very fit. There wasn't a bus route from Lacey Green to Aylesbury at that time.

We did not find it difficult to fit in with the local people. All those I came in contact with were very friendly. It took me a time to get used to saying "hello" to everyone you met. The only people you acknowledged in London were people you knew. To speak to a stranger was a "no-no", especially if it were dark and a man to boot.

Stan Rixon lived with his parents Clara and Fred at No.4 Portobello Cottages. His brother Gerald was the father of Les Rixon and his sister Doris the mother of Gordon May. His father, Fred was a chair bodger. The chair legs and spindles were taken to Wycombe to a devout Methodist who got Stan a job with Allen Hanes. He hated it and so took evening classes until he could take a job with Leather and Stevenson, Princes Risborough solicitors in the Market square. One of the things he did was the legal work for the new cinema there where he also helped as a projectionist in his spare time. Stan and I married and shared a house with Ted and Ann Saunders in Princes Risborough for a time. It was easier for Stan to get to work from there to Aylesbury. Eventually we were lucky enough to get a house at Risborough in 1951 and there we stayed.

Once the boys were all de-mobbed the sports club got into full swing. They were all so dedicated and most of them hardly missed a game all season. Even our holiday had to start on a Sunday and we were up at the crack of dawn the following Saturday in order to be home in time for cricket at 2pm.

I have never regretted moving to Lacey Green. I think it one of the best things that ever happened to me. My in-laws were the best possible people to me and always welcomed any member of my family. They helped me through a very bad time when I first came to Lacey Green. I was so lucky. (May 2010)

Phyllis was born in 1944 and she spent all her childhood with her parents at "Homefield", Westlands Road. During the war, as with everyone else's, their home was very full. She had two brothers, but besides the family a woman with two children from London, whose home had been bombed, lived in the upstairs bedroom. With no home to go to they stayed on after the war had ended.

Sleeping in the scullery were two Irish navvies who were working at Bomber Command.

Causing Mrs.Janes the most problem were three Land Army Girls. They had the downstairs room. They also, stayed on for some years after the war ended. Once a week it was Phyllis's job to work the pump in the scullery so the girls could wash their hair under the running water. They were not supposed to have men in their room, but they used to push up the sash window to "talk" to the local lads who came up to their window. Phyllis remembers her mother banging on their door asking what was going on in there.

by Trudy Saunders

Maurice ("Mosh") Sauders had been born and lived in Lacey Green but Trudy came from Wolverhampton.

On D Day plus two, Mosh had been injured and brought back to England where he was taken to a hospital outside Wolverhampton.

Trudy was one of the girls doing "war work". She was involved with fixing tappits for Merlin engines, also oil seals in crankshafts and gearbox work for tank engines. The girls were encouraged to make up baskets of food, fruit or even just a cigarette to take to the men at the hospital. Next a room was set aside where they could have family visitors and a rota was established for the girls to serve coffee for them. And it was there Mosh got to know Trudy.

One day he wasn`t there, he had been transferred to Stoke Mandeville. Trudy got a letter and they kept in touch until Mosh was better and at the end of 1944 he brought her to Lacey Green.

After the war the "war workers" had to either go into factories or on the buses. Mosh`s twin sister Millicent worked for Marconi in Sands and got a job for Trudy there, but she was obliged to be a conductress, taking the money on the buses in Wycombe because that had been her choice before she left Wolverhampton. She hated it. She lived in digs down Loudwater, High Wycombe near the then bus station.

Mosh`s father was William John Saunders.(see Saunders and Son) a builder. In 1935 he had built a house called Chorlton along Mill Road, now Main Road towards The Whip. Mosh joined the business and a little bungalow was built in the garden of Chorlton, and Mosh and Trudy got married and moved in.

Trudy had been welcomed into a truly sociable, very musical local family, so she was quickly feeling at home. She found Millicent a great friend although she had now married Bob Martin, son of the Speen baker.

Bob had been demobbed before Mosh and was back from South Africa where he had been doing training in the R.A.F. Bob joined his father at the bakery. Bob was a quiet man but Millicent made up for him. Not only was she most attractive but had a really bubbly personality. All the men seemed to fancy Millicent and the women couldn`t help liking her too. But she was truly Bob`s woman and when he died of cancer in his fifties she only lived a few months more herself despite her many friends trying to help her.

In 1947 Trudy and Mosh had a daughter, Kay. They were now very short of room and looked for somewhere to build. No land came available but in 1951 the council built the houses in Greenlands and they moved into one of them. It was a few years before they were able to buy a site heaped with rubble where an old cottage had been knocked down. Of course Mosh was a builder but Trudy recalls barrowing many loads of stones to clear the site and build the back up level, and helping to lay floorboards. They called the house "Dry Hillocks".

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by Joan West in conversation with Dick and Hilda West.

Richard West (Dick) was a farmer's son from West Wycombe on the Oxford Road.

Hilda Crook was the daughter of Frederick Crook who had retired to Wheeler End because of ill health - Wheeler End being at the top of the hill above the Oxford Road - what better place to meet but at the blacksmiths. By 1934, aged 23 they decided to marry and sought a farm to rent for themselves.

At Stocken Farm in Lacey Green, William Saunders died. (See William Saunders) and the farm together with the field, Hillocks, was sold. It was bought by his son-in-law Ernest Smith, married to William's daughter Daisy, for £3,225. Ernest was running J. Smith and Sons, Road Contractors, so he put the farm up for rent.

The country was in deep depression, land was being abandoned. Few applied and those who did had to have guarantors to pay the rent if things did not work out. Hilda's stepmother stepped in to guarantee the rent and a contract was signed. It was traditional to take a farm at Michaelmas, the 29th September. This they did. But Hilda's stepmother believed in astrology and insisted they waited until into October to get married, when the stars would be more auspicious. Then they could move into the farmhouse.

The house was overrun with black beetles and probably other creatures, for it had been empty for a while. A considerable amount was done by the landlord to get the place in order. A bathroom was installed with the new mains water supply. Outside it was engulfed in massive laurel and there were great trees right up near the house. These were later cleared, but had already caused subsidence, for the old house had no foundations.

Dick and Hilda had their farm and little by little by sheer hard work they got on their feet. Dick was a careful man, certainly not a gambler, yet taking Stocken Farm when people were leaving the land wholesale was an unimaginable gamble. But of course Hilda and Dick were totally committed to their life together.

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by Alan Luxford (son)

William George Luxford, (George) was the nephew of Mrs.Rixon who lived at Redland End. He left his parents and younger siblings in Cranleigh, Surrey and came to lodge with his aunt, hopeful of finding work.

Did he find Redland End a bit out of the local activities? Whatever the reason, after a year or so he moved into lodgings with Leonard and Annie Janes in Portobello Cottages just opposite the shop. They made him feel at home treating him like a son. He also met Gladys Ing (grand-daughter of William Saunders)and they were married at Lacey Green on Christmas Eve 1930.

Until 1955 George and Gladys lived in "Windyridge" a cottage belonging to Harry Floyd, William Saunders grandson. Then George built a house "Cranleigh" next door. Their two sons Alan and Bernard lived in the cottage all their childhood. George, Gladys and the boys would visit Leonard and Annie Janes where they were always made most welcome. Out would come the cakes and biscuits as if they were their own family.

Alan met and married Pam Stallwood, from High Wycombe, and in 1956 they built a bungalow in the orchard of Cranleigh the other side from their childhood home. "Windyridge" was pulled down in 1972 but between that and "Cranleigh" where his parents lived Alan has built his own house "Westwinds"

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Social Snapshot 1961

by Joan West

In September 1961 I married John West, who had been born and now worked with his father at Stocken farm in Lacey Green. We moved into no.1 Coronation Cottages, one of a pair of houses in Kiln Lane built for the farm workers by the landlord in 1937 - hence the name. I've no doubt it was modern for it's day. For instance, it had a bathroom. Mains water had only come to the village in 1934. There was a sink in the kitchen and a cesspool in the garden to take the waste. The main drains were not laid in the village until about 1970, so every house had to call in the cesspool emptying lorry from time to time.

In the front door, stairs up straight ahead, beside a short passage through to the kitchen and on the right a small sitting room and a living room. The kitchen was not big. Narrow with, on one side, a copper boiler to heat the water which had a fire underneath. Next, a sink and wooden draining board and an electric cooker. There was a cupboard under the sink and that was it.

Cooking must have been prepared in the living room, for there was a walk-in larder in there and room for a small table and chairs. A fireplace with a built in cupboard floor to ceiling beside it and room for some easy chairs. The bathroom and three bedrooms upstairs. The paintwork had not been changed much since it was built. All the woodwork was still the original, then fashionable, matt brown. The green painted walls had been livened up in places with a pink potato-cut pattern, or was it the other way round? Anyway we papered over it.

We took out the old fireplace in the living room and replaced it with a new one with a back-boiler to heat the water. This let us knock out the big copper boiler with its fire from the kitchen. We had been given a dated washing machine which just fitted in the space and put a worktop over it joining up with a new stainless steel sink and drainer and an up to date electric cooker. It was like a mini galley. There was no garage but that didn't matter because we didn't have a car.

I had worked full time in my father's business. Now I was a full time housewife and I had a lot to learn. John started work at 6am and came back at 8am for twenty minutes for a cooked breakfast. The main meal was at 12 o'clock when the farm stopped for lunch for an hour. Five o'clock brought John home for a quick, full, old-fashioned tea, or if anyone was working in the fields a picnic tea was taken to them. Supper, usually something hot, was eaten around 9pm. This gave me plenty of opportunity to practice my culinary skills which were very basic at first but increased rapidly - they needed to. I enjoyed needlework and changed from dressmaking to curtains and upholstery.

All that cooking needed ingredients but getting them was not difficult. The fish-man, Mr. Harper called on Tuesdays, so fish and chips was supper on Tuesdays. A butcher called twice a week from Stevens in Prestwood. I can't remember the man's name but he was very saucy. I had the time to cook the cheaper cuts that needed long slow cooking but asking him for a piece of skirt or a breast of lamb took a lot of bravery. Then there were Bert and May Dell at Hickman's Stores. They stocked all I needed and I collected my bread from them four times a week. They also sold petrol and paraffin which we needed for a convector heater that we stood in our hall in the winter. " Bert's" was a wonderful place to get to know people. At first it seemed that everyone in there knew everybody else. And they probably did. But Bert and May always had a word for everyone and all were included. They were first class village shopkeepers to my mind and a great help to me in feeling at home here.

The farm was just behind our house across the field. The cows were taken past the side of our garden into Kiln Lane, down as far as the cross tracks and left into a field, called Hillocks, to graze. Then they were brought back again at milking time. That was a daily occurrence, but less often cattle and the flock of sheep were driven around the village or along to Walters Ash on the New Road. There was not so much traffic then.

It was not unusual for the village to be cut off with snow in the winter. Gerald Bedford who worked at the farm lived in Naphill. He would go home on a tractor and in the morning clear stuck cars from the New Road on his way back. The snow would blow against the fences and hedges and drop the other side blocking the roads. Then the council took to erecting snow barriers some way in the fields so the snow dropped over them and thus it piled up in the fields. Side roads such as Slad Lane however could be filled to the top. It is already some years ago that the council no longer deemed it necessary to put up those snow barriers.

The bus from Wycombe only ever came as far as the RAF camp at Walters Ash. That was the Lacey Green stop. In snowy weather a snow plough cleared to there, turning and throwing a bank of extra snow across New Road just to make sure we were inaccessible.

The village was pretty self sufficient. The Stores, of course, and along at Loosley Row opposite the Whip was the Post Office. The district nurse, who delivered the babies, lived in Greenlands and a doctor held a weekly surgery in Bill and Phyllis Dell's house. The policeman lived in a house on the Main Road. There was a road sweeper, "Wido" Bowler, to keep it nice, scything the grass verges as well. If he got a little weary he would sit in his barrow and take a nap.

In 1961 Joyce Delnevo was just getting her baby Louise to walk to the village shop. Our daughters and Louise became good friends. Joyce was a great help to me and someone I could always turn to.

Many village schools were being closed down at that time but Lacey Green was chosen to stay. If it had closed Lacey green would be a very different place. As it was, our children made close friendships there and I met many more people.

In 1969 our son Richard was born. John's mother was not in good health and they built a bungalow for her and Dick. In January 1970 we moved to the farmhouse. I couldn't have had a better start in Lacey Green.

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Parish Poors

By Douglas Tilbury

My father, Reg Tilbury, was born in 1898, and lived down Lily Bottom Lane on the right. The land here is owned by the Princes Risborough Charities, and is known as Parish Poor's Land. It was given to the parish by the Marquis of Ely to allow people in Lacey Green to rent a one acre strip or plot on which to grow food for themselves, or cereals to feed to pigs or chickens.

The rents were collected at Michaelmas, and distributed to the poor of the parish who had children, especially widows with children. Each home would be given one cwt. (hundredweight) of coal to keep them warm over Christmas.

As a boy, Reg spent most of his summer holidays stone picking on that land. He was paid one pence per basket. The stones were emptied at the end of the field, and later loaded onto a horse and cart and taken to Cuddington for road building.

The money he earned was just enough to pay for a pair of new boots, which would have to last him a whole year, until the next summer. His father would walk him to a cobbler, who lived at Spring Coppice Lane in Speen on a Saturday night. To obtain the correct fit, he would stand on a piece of leather, and the cobbler would draw around his foot with a pencil, making an allowance for growth. They would return the next Saturday night to collect the new boots.

02.03.10

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Dell