Bedfordshire Archives Service Catalogue
  • Reference
    CRS2/5
  • Title
    Shillington Village Life 1920 - 1939, entry from Shillington branch of the Women’s Institute with a plan of the village on the back page, photographs (black and white) of the seven interviewees and their reminiscences of pre-war village life.
  • Date free text
    1920 - 1939
  • Production date
    From: 1920 To: 1939
  • Scope and Content
    (1) Ralph Dawes born in Shillington in 1920 recalls his father’s saddlery business and its diversification into becoming a shop selling bicycles, cigarettes, gun cartridges, motor oil and petrol. Other details include Bedfordshire types of harness, local poaching, the White Horse Public House, village shops and trades such as blacksmiths, village telephone exchange, education and work in a bank, extensive use of bicycles, local bus and train services, holidays, the role of local churches in village life , Ralph’s memories as a choirboy of the Vicar Reverend Postgate, the village school, Harvest Home, membership of Royal Musgrave Lodge of Oddfellows, village charities, allotments and their importance for disposing of night soil, village football, memories of RAF Henlow and the pressure to join the Territorial Army in the late 1930’s. (Pages 3 - 13) (2) Olive Hare born in Shillington in 1910 recalling her childhood and family life in the village. Details include memories of the family home on Barrack Row, father’s job as a horse keeper on a local farm, Church life, summer Sunday School treat to Bedford, the family allotment , the village school, Mr. Ducklin the Schoolmaster and his sister the Schoolmistress, celebration of Empire Day and the 5 November, going into domestic service in Luton, working in a glove factory in Meppershall, marriage, agricultural work potato picking, pea picking, gleaning, keeping hens and pigs, Monday Wash Days, local bake houses, and her father’s involvement in running the Oddfellows Club. (Pages 14 - 21) (3) Emily Bavister born in Shillington in 1913 recalling growing up in the village. Details include her father’s job as a Prudential Insurance Agent, family allotment, keeping pigs, village shops, games played at home, discipline at home, attending the village school, Miss Coop the School Governess, school dental, eye and medical tests, local medical services, leaving school to work in the Luton Hat Trade, working for the Skefco Ballbearing Works, worshipping at Wesleyan Methodist Chapel, Band of Hope and local drunkenness, social activities of the Congregational Chapel Guild, stealing pearsfrom the Vicarage garden, visiting fairs, the travelling theatre, the aunt’s crystal wireless set in the late 1920’s, first sight of a television set in London in 1938, and Christmas celebrations. (Pages 22 - 31) (4) Alan Harris born in Shillington in 1915 recalling the changes in village life while growing up. Details include local road improvements, predominance of walking and bicycles for local journeys, traditional drainage management leading to a higher natural water table, ‘Billingsgate’ ( Aspley End ) Shillington’s fish market, descriptions of various types of horse carts and traps, the first cars owned in the village c.1930, development of local bus services from c.1927, local employment patterns, working for George Kent’s Engineering firm, service in the Territorial Army, water supplies before the arrival of mains water in c. 1930, lighting before the arrival of electricity supplies in c. 1935, sanitation arrangements before the arrival of sewers, childhood diseases such as Tuberculosis etc., memories of gassed men from the First World War coughing phlegm, spittoons in pubs, different attitudes to death , father’s death from stomach cancer, funeral customs, the local doctor Dr. Kilham Roberts of Windmill Lodge, the limited range of medical treatment available, many cases sent to Arlesey Asylum probably due to local inbreeding, Dr. Herdman the School Doctor, ‘Nitty’ the School Nurse and overcrowding in the old cottages in Upton End Road. (Pages 32 - 45) (5) Vera Davis born in Pirton, Herts., in 1907 whose family owned Pegsdon Farm in Shillington, Rectory Farm, Pirton, and moved to The Grange in 1931. Her recollections include domestic servants employed locally, local pubs ranked by the social standing of their customers, china clay pipes still being smoked by older men until the 1930’s, description of traditional local dishes in Shillington such as ‘Bedfordshire Clanger’ and ‘Pluggers’(suet dumplings in green pea soup) , in Pirton sage and onion dumplings, popularity of keeping pigs, general description of people’s diet, pre war local medical services, Aunt Harriet’s role as an untrained nurse, lack of privacy in some village cottages, splitting of some farms into council smallholdings, rivalry between Pirton and Shillington, Pirton known as ‘ingon’ (onion) country in Shillington,the lack of crime in the village the general use of corporal punishment to discipline the young, and ‘curtain twitchers’ as the village bush telegraph. (Pages 46 - 53) (6) Madge Hall born in Shillington in 1920 recalling her childhood growing up at 16 Walking Stick Row. Details include playground games such as hopscotch, description of the game ‘Queenie Ann’, family crystal and later battery wireless sets, Monday August Bank Holiday Fete held behind the Congregational Church, Empire Day at the School, descriptions of family meals, making home-made lard from flair ( pigs fat ) hanging of hams at home, wash days, childhood illnesses, other residents of Walking Stick Row, after leaving school working in a Luton Hat Factory, then in a drapers shop in Hitchin, and Saturday night dances at Pirton. (Pages 54 - 61) (7) Eric Hallworth born in Shillington in 1910 recalls growing up in Aspley End next to the Musgrave Arms Public House. Details include cottage privies, the four village bakers, fire at the thatch barns at the top of the Twitchell, the Hitchin Fire Brigade, pub games, description of the game ‘cat and cudgel’, agricultural work on his father’s smallholding along Pegsdon Road, later at Higham Gobion for Ben Brown, beating for shoots on Sir James Hill’s estate at Hexton, courting and marriage, local buses, first wireless set in 1924, early wireless programmes, slaughtering of pigs by local butchers, church bellringing, local characters such as Jimmy Tingey, the two local blacksmiths Harry Hilliards and Wilsons, the suicide of Mrs West of Brook House, Apsley End during the 1920’s, and the suicide of a man on Tyne Hill by drowning in a pond adjoining the road to Stondon in the late 1920’s. (Pages 62 - 71)
  • Reference
  • Level of description
    file
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