Bob Bennett Baggs memories of Harston Manor

Bob Bennett Baggs and his daughter Jo Ayliffe chatted to John Roadley on 22 September 2024.

Bob’s mother Peggy (nee Rowley) had lived with her family at Harston Manor until she married in 1924. Bob’s father was an air force pilot and after the war flew for Blackburn Aircraft Company.

Bob was born in 1935. Bob’s mother never wanted to go back to the Manor once she had left but said that she always wanted to live in the Lodge. Bob would stay at the Manor for up to a week at a time – ‘my mother dumped me there, I don’t know where she went!’ Bob’s sister Jill was 5 years older than him but he doesn’t remember her ever staying at the Manor.

Bob remembers the sleeping arrangements when he stayed at the Manor. His grandparents had a bedroom and dressing room at the front of the Manor, then down a few steps to the original part where there was a bedroom, then Bob’s small bedroom then another bedroom. Beyond a kink in the landing was a grand bedroom overlooking the garden. Uncle Bob, an ARP warden in the war, had his bedroom on the other side. Bob thinks the layout of the house may have changed as he remembers a circular driveway across the front of the house.

Bob feeding dog at Harston Manor (J Ayliffe)

Bob remembers grandfather with a great white beard sitting up in bed and grandmother pottering around in the kitchen garden which was on the left as you go in the Church Street entrance and there was also a large bed of parma violets. Bob had a gun without bullets which he used to scare her & make her quite cross.

Bob sometimes helped Granny in the kitchen which had a large cooking range. The kitchen, scullery, larder and brewhouse were in a line. He remembers her as a slight person like a bird tiptoeing between these rooms. Food from the kitchen was carried on a trolley to the dining room via the hall which had a few steps to be negotiated. The trolley had to be lifted over the steps to the call of ‘Airborne’. In 1946 a horse called Airborne was running in the Epsom Derby so all the family placed bets on it, and it won.

Bob spent a lot of time in the garden and remembers a lovely mulberry tree and a sumac tree, a lot of time in the attics which were full of junk and the stables where he found a cast iron plaque  which said ‘If you can read this ….’ although Bob can’t remember any horses being there.

Grandfather used to get a fishing rod ready for Bob’s visits (Grandfather used to go on fishing trips to Scotland). Bob spent a lot of time fishing the Rhee in the Manor and Mill area. He kept a list of fish caught which included perch and pike. He was a member of the River Rhee fishing club and remembers another member was a solicitor.

People at the mill told Bob that he would never catch anything as he moved around too much. Fishing was affected by whether or not the mill was in operation as the flow was by the sluice being open or closed. Bob used to wade across the mill pond to a small island to fish – he would be 7 or younger!

Bob believes that grandfather was the first person to have a motor car in Royston where he had his auctioneer & estate agent business which  Bob worked  for some time as, in his words, the gofer. Bob remembers grandfather sitting in a ‘bloody great Vauxhall’ outside the front door of the Manor.

Bob had a girlfriend who lived in Button End – Barbara Gray – who he is still in touch with.

After a visit to Harston Manor in Oct 2024, Bob came up with another story, it was about two spinster sisters we think they are the Hay sisters. When he was fishing one day by the mill they came by and gave him a couple of watering cans to water the plant pots. Later he was telling his Granny about the sisters and the two watering cans says one had a very long spout. Granny got the wrong end of the stick and said ‘oh long snout that would be Ethel ‘ referring to one of the sisters. He thought it was very funny at the time.