Wartime Bartlow 1939-1945 – Chris Fairey
John Talbot farmed most of the land around Bartlow on behalf of Lord de Ramsey, but the land between the River Dean and Linton had been farmed by Tom Fairey since 1932. The Linton Register of Electors for 1938 lists Tom Fairey at Little Barham Hall with his wife, Ethel, and his son, Gerald. Gerald’s son, Christopher Fairey, went on to farm here all of his working life like his family before him. During the War Chris was a little boy living in Linton but spent a lot of time with his Grandfather at Little Barham Hall, Bartlow where Chris still lives. Having been born in 1939, wartime was all he knew as a child. He shares his wartime memories -
My Grandfather, Tom Fairey, of Little Barham Hall bought young horses at auctions at the Elephant and Castle in London and transported them back by rail to Bartlow Station. The young horses had been used in London for pulling milk and coal carts over cobbled streets which damaged their ankles and made them lame. They soon recovered and were fit enough for farm work on the soft East Anglian soil around Linton and Bartlow. The horses were stabled down the road at Barham Hall and I, aged four, became very attached to them because they were so easy to ride (once I managed to climb on!) and they were not frightened of anything.
The main form of transport in the villages and farms around Bartlow was horse and cart or pony and trap. Sugar beet was all taken by horse and cart to Bartlow railway siding and loaded by hand and fork onto the trucks. On the return journey from the sugar beet factory the trains brought the beet pulp back for cattle feed. It was all mixed farming in those days – cattle, sheep, pigs, poultry, cereals, potatoes and sugar beet.
Most people in the village worked on one of the farms but I remember a Mr. and Mrs. Morley who owned and ran the Post Office and General Stores and lived on the premises now known as Dean Lodge.
There was no mains water or electricity in Bartlow so all water had to be drawn from the wells or filled from the river at Linton Mill waterfall. The road between Bartlow and Saffron Walden was not tarmacked – just a gravel lane. Petrol was strictly rationed and every owner had a ration book for each vehicle.
Most agricultural vehicles needed petrol to start them but farming machinery was still evolving and it was not unusual to still see very large steam engines with a cable pulling a cultivator from one side of the field to the other. The fuel used was coal and water which was carted to the field in horse drawn water carts and trailers. The water carts were filled manually by buckets from the river at Linton Mill whilst the horse and trailer stood in the river.
The Queens Greys were stationed at Bartlow House during the war and would often venture into Linton on a Saturday night to drink at the nine pubs! One particular night they were all very merry and on their return to Bartlow they decided to remove the roadside gates allowing Grandfather’s cattle to escape. All the land on the river side of Bartlow Road was meadow grazed by cattle including a very fierce bull. Grandfather was not pleased and made that quite clear to the Commanding Officer who was a shooting friend of his. An apology was written at once and the platoon were ordered to don full military uniform before parading to Little Barham Hall to deliver the apology. The Army had requisitioned many of the big houses locally and tried to do the same at Little Barham Hall but this was strongly and successfully resisted by Ethel, my grandmother, on the basis that the house was the headquarters for all our farming enterprises around Bartlow and Linton. Ethel had been headmistress at Hildersham school before it closed in 1929 and then at Abington School.
During the War there were searchlights almost everywhere being used to detect enemy bombers heading for Cambridge and the Duxford airfields. They shone very brightly into the sky and across the countryside. The air raid sirens were very frightening, and I remember the relief at the sound of the “all clear”. I remember being frightened quite a lot around this time. The Fairey family also owned two butchers’ shops in Linton which provided an outlet for some of their farm produce. At that time everything was strictly rationed.
When the Americans entered the war they were based at Hadstock Aerodrome and planes would circle behind Little Barham Hall to line up for the runway when they were returning from missions. I often saw returning bombers trailing black smoke before they landed. The Americans bought with them many types of left-hand drive vehicles including jeeps, eight wheel drive lorries and ambulances. They were often seen in the Bartlow and Linton area as they practised manoeuvres on local farmland and roads. Young American soldiers really struggled with these vehicles and frequently drove on the wrong side of the road or misinterpreted traffic signals resulting in many accidents.
There was also a dummy airfield built on one of our fields near Horseheath to decoy German bombers away from the real ones., This field was requisitioned by the Ministry only a few weeks before harvest much to my Father’s dismay. I think it was built by the Prisoners of War who were living at Balsham and who also did farm work. There were both German and Italian PoWs but the farmers said they preferred the German ones as they were more hardworking. They always seemed very happy and they made quite a fuss of me. I remember picking apples in the orchard at our house in Linton and bringing them into Bartlow for the PoWs. I seem to remember one in particular who stayed on after the war. He used to ask me if I was going out riding and would get my horse ready for me.
At the end of the war there was a USAAF Surplus Sale of military vehicles. Many were bought by local farmers and could be seen working on the land many years later.
Fairey Family at Little Barham Hall - 1933