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 "We
were self-reliant. We pulled our water up from the wells. ..had candles
for lighting. ..kept a few poultry in the back garden, fed with scraps
and gleanings ...had no holidays at all... But we were contented."
Bert Russell spent all his life in one place, and got
to know it well. His memories are sharp and strong, also entertaining.
The range of his social contacts is comprehensive. Within these pages we
meet a prince and a poacher, a famous playwright and a humble
stone-breaker, an Antarctic explorer and an old soldier from the Boer
War. We also catch a glimpse of Lady Cavan singing solo in St Peter's
church, and learn that there was a portrait of 'Lady' Garrard in every
cottage.
Read this book, and you will find yourself marching
around Nomansland common with Wheathampstead schoolboys before the First
World War, then, later, playing football with soldiers convalescing from
that war. You will rise at dawn and breakfast with the ploughman,
following him for a day, learning how not to ride a cart over the
furrows. You will also learn exactly how to thatch a straw stack and
when to harvest wheat, oats and barley.
These letters reveal a hidden, hundred-year old
Wheathampstead at play, at work, in a state of war, and at peace.
There's even a taste of the weather at its hottest, wettest and coldest
extremes, and an adventure thrown in for good measure. If you enjoy
anecdotes about local characters and hanker for the days when people
were skilled with their hands and worked with animals, this is a book
for you.
Amy Coburn was born in 1927 and lives in
Harpenden with het husband Leslie. She was a founder member of the
Harpenden Local History Society, and received an award in recognition of
her services to local history from the British Association for Local
History in 2001.
Ruth Jeavons has lived in Wheathampstead since
1972 and established the Wheathampstead Local History Group in 1986 with
the purpose of publishing and exhibiting more of Wheathampstead's past
for the present, and future generations.
Reprint now available
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 WELCOME
ABOARD FOR A BRIEF EXCURSION INTO THE SMOKY PAST OF WHEATHAMPSTEAD'S
RAILWAY DAYS!
"The engines were
painted in apple green and inscribed G.N.R. ...Passenger carriages were
stained a rich mahogany colour and brightly varnished."
"When a driver
went through a long tunnel... he couldn't tell whether he was on or off
the track, so thick was the smoke and so dark the tunnel."
"The journey to
the Garden City was a delight -with strutting pheasants and early
morning rabbits."
From September 1860 until
April 1965, Wheathampstead enjoyed the use of its own railway station on
a brarlch line with a direct route to London. Everything from cattle to
water cress, and straw hats to fish, not to mention people, was
transported to and from the village by rail.
Here is an anthology of
voices, some from far back in time, others more recent, recalling those
days and the pleasures and benefits of having our own railway system.
Nurse Hawkins, the village midwife over fifty years ago, speaks of
travelling up to London in her youth for midwifery training in the East
End. More recently there
are accounts of living in a crossing keeper's cottage within ten feet of
the track; of being stranded, unable to reach home because of snow
drifts on the line; of the station with its old-fashioned tilley lamps
and well-kept shrubbery and its station master of twenty-two years, Mr
Gerald Lee, "a railwayman of the old school, always punctual,
reliable and courteous".
The local history group
presents this collection in the hope that readers will enjoy the
authenticity and directness of the contributions, also that they will be
inspired by hearing such reminiscences as are here recorded to tell us
more about Wheathampstead's past for future generations to savour.
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Wheathampstead