Wartime Bartlow – Memories of Betty Lusted
During the war the workforce on farms was swelled by land girls. Beryl Lusted now lives in Saffron Walden but lived and worked in Bartlow during the war with her family and revisits the village from time to time. She shares her memories of her time in the village……
I was a teenager living with my family in North London at the outbreak of war. My father, Arthur Page, was serving in the Police and my elder brother was a soldier in the Welsh Guards. I had a clerical job in the Air Ministry which I really loved.
My younger sister, Myrtle, was still at school and rather than being evacuated under Operation Pied Piper my mother arranged to live with my Aunt in Ashdon where Myrtle could go to the village school. Once they got there Mother started looking for suitable accommodation for the whole family. In 1940/41 when my father retired from the Police they moved into The Forge in Bartlow where I joined them when my mother insisted I left the Air Ministry. I was reluctant to do this at the time but now I realise that Mother was just trying to keep the family together and safe.
Myrtle continued to travel to school in Ashdon and I got a job initially at the dairy at New Farm on the outskirts of the village. This was very different work to I was used to but in wartime we all did as we were told. It was hard, heavy work and young land girls working in very masculine farming environments had to put up with behaviour no woman would tolerate today! Once Myrtle finished school at 14 she also came to diary work. There were at least two dairies in Bartlow and we both worked for John Talbot at Hills Farm dairy on the Ashdon Road on the left hand side just past the station.
We would start at 5.30 a.m. to get the cows in ready for the 6 a.m. milking. There was a 60 acre field just past the farm where the cows grazed. They would inevitably be over on the far side of it so we would have to stand on the path, cup our hands and shout at the top of our lungs “Come on, come on”. Eventually they would come over and follow-the-leader along the road to the farm yard, then take themselves into their own stalls to be milked. There was a second milking at 4 p.m. when we would repeat the performance. Between the two milkings all the equipment had to be sterilised and the buildings and yard swept and cleaned. In the Summer we would also be involved in the harvest.
Bartlow was a bit of a shock after London. There was no mains water or electricity let alone mains drainage but I got used to it and there were some compensations. The Three Hills public house was the main venue for entertainment with darts and cribbage and plenty of banter with the soldiers and American airmen. They often visited in the week. Bartlow residents were very friendly and we were sometimes invited to parties at the railway station organised by the stationmaster and his family. I started going out with one of the farm workers, Edgar Turner, whose father and brother (both called George) also worked on the farm and lived with their mother, Harriet, at Laundry House in Camps Road. On Christmas Day 1943 we married at St. Mary’s Church and had a wedding reception for 100 guests in the disused laundry (now Laundry Cottage).
By this time the American Air Force had arrived at Hadstock and the young airmen, far from their own homes, were very happy to befriend local families for the odd home cooked meal and the company. As our food was rationed much of the catering for our wedding reception was courtesy of the USAAF – I remember huge tins of fruit.
I remember many of the other villagers – The Miss Cracknells, Walter Richardson and The Plumbs who all lived in Maltings Cottages and the Rev. Clark who was the vicar. Mr. Mothersole and his wife lived at Hills Farm and he used to look after the horses which were still being used in farming at that time. The cottage joined on to The Forge was called Bridge Cottage and occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Cutten – Mrs. Cutten used to scratch her head all the time which used to make me feel quite itchy.
As was usual in those days I moved in with Edgar’s family after our wedding but after a while we moved out to go and work for the Home Grown Timber Project set up by the Board of Trade in Thetford Forest. By this time I was used to heavy work which was just as well as Edgar and I were loading 9 foot long trees onto a lorry, 10 at a time, to take them to Kings Lynn Station every day.
I used to come back to the village to visit my family who stayed in Bartlow until after the war but I missed the VE Day celebrations. Myrtle told me about a big party at Crossways where Mrs. Buchan lived at that time. Some haystacks caught fire at the nearby farm during the over enthusiastic celebrations. I was sorry I missed that.
Bartlow Home Gaurd - outside St. Mary's
Betty Lusted Wedding - 25th December 1943 at St. Mary's with Bartlow Home Guard as guard of honour