Janet Wetherfield nee Walsh memories of living at Orchard Lea
Hilary Roadley chatting to Janet on 17, 20 & 23 May & 10 June 2024
Family background
Janet’s mother was Luella Walsh (Née Thickens) and her father was Leslie Walsh, a general manager of the Robert Sayle Department store in Cambridge, then part of the John Lewis Partnership and now the big John Lewis.
After Janet’s father moved to Cambridge he was called up in 1941 until 1945 leaving her mother with Janet, born 8 Nov 1934, and an 18 month baby – her brother Chris, born 10 Sept 1939
Janet took a pre-nursing course 1952-3, then trained as an SRN at Middlesex Hospital 1953-7. Janet left the village in 1957 as her father had a promotion to director in ‘Cole Brothers’ in Sheffield. (on Sept 2002 Cole Brothers in Sheffield became officially John Lewis, Sheffield). Janet worked as Staff Nurse on an ENT ward at Sheffield Royal Hospital, which is no longer there. Someone in Hauxton engraved a vanity set she took with her on her nursing job.
Janet was married in 1958 to Michael Wetherfield at Harston Parish Church, as she was still on Harston’s Electoral Register, although living in Sheffield. Janet met Mike while he was a student at Cambridge and were introduced through the “partnership” or John Lewis, as they both had fathers who were “partners”. The old vicar, Rev Mansfield Williams officiated. She and her mother were friends with the Hays girls who came to her wedding and wedding reception in the University Arms Hotel in Cambridge.
In Janet’s wedding photo the bridesmaids were her sister-in-law Jilly and two nursing friends Angela & Margaret. Donald Doggett was the best man, her husband’s cousin’s husband.
Living at Orchard Lea (154 High St)
Orchard Lea was probably built in the 1930s. The Mills family lived there before them. The house was thought to have been originally planned as a two bedroom bungalow but while it was being built it was probably changed and three bedrooms were put upstairs. It had a big footprint and a huge roof with lots of wasted space in it. (Later/more recent extensions have added to the rooms in the roof space).
There were no rooms above the sitting room which was at the front of the house. Right behind the sitting room was a bedroom with the only radiator in the house. This backed on to the breakfast room which had a range with a built-in oven (which was never used) and fire, so the radiator was heated by the kitchen range. There was a scullery next to this, to the left of the range, where a lot of jobs were done. There was a UDB (Under the Draining Board) boiler and a horrid Belling electric oven. Next to it was a downstairs lavatory and opposite that was a cupboard where they kept the china. This made jobs very arduous as the washing up would be done in the scullery then china would need to be carried through the door to get to the cupboard to put it away. To the right there was a dining room. Upstairs, their parents larger bedroom faced north on the left side and Chris and Janet each had smaller bedrooms that faced south looking at the Wisbey’s. It was so cold at home that her mother had to wear gloves when making her bed. They put a cosy stove in a small room used as a study.
The weather was really perishing in 1947. It was so cold Janet was sent home from school as there was no heating. Their mother made ice cream from custard by burying the pan with it in the snow in the front garden. There had been so much snow that when it melted there was lots of flooding in the Fens which they went to see.
Her mother became very self-sufficient in the war years and kept geese, chickens and a pig. When the pig was ready it went to Letchworth Bacon Company. They received half back and the other half went to the country. They had a goat which they milked and made butter from the cream of the milk delivered by Hays dairy. They kept rabbits for meat and even used the treated pelt (treated in Regents Street, Cambridge) to make fur gloves. They were all very domesticated and by the time Janet was twelve/thirteen she could pluck and draw a chicken and skin a rabbit. They would go gleaning down the Drift to get grain for their chickens.
Their family had a huge orchard of 100 fruit trees- apples and plums (similar to those mentioned by Tony Gatward) – and used to dry and string up apple rings on the clothes dryer (cut into rings once the apple had been peeled and cored). Over winter the apple would be used in a winter fruit salad along with prunes and dried apricots, the latter probably grown locally. The dried apples and prunes would be stewed first to re-hydrate and soften them. They would also pickle eggs and keep vegetables in clamps- either covered with soil or sand which kept them beautifully over winter. Both theirs and the Wisbey’s orchard was 1/3 acre, with a hedge at the bottom that separated them from the searchlight field. Hart’s orchard next to/north of them was probably the same but this was later sold off for two building plots.
One of the photos shows the family gathering/raking up the hay but Janet is not sure where it was used. They did have a scythe but Janet is not sure who cut the hay with it.
In the back garden/orchard was a defunct air-raid shelter/dugout underground with earth piled over. It was full of water so they never went there.
Before Janet’s mother was married she was a health visitor so she very good with chatting to people or helping them. She did a lot in Harston helping out people, including once looking after someone’s baby for a while. She organised carol singing around the village, including at Park House. At Christmas one year Janet remembers the breakfast room full of people singing in a companionable group while they plucked chickens. Her mother was welsh and had a good singing voice with a perfect pitch and she could harmonise. Janet’s mother also certainly wrote A Jinx at the Johnsons which was probably published about 1960; possibly written for WI. In the Harston History website page about Iris and Terence Armstrong, there is reference to a play called “High Jinks at the Johnsons”. We believe this is the same play.
Sometimes when her mother needed it, an old lady called Dot (short for Dorothy) would come to look after them. She had been in service in a big house when young and she told stories, one of when she was asked by kitchen staff to lick the soot off the jelly (covered by accident) so it could be taken upstairs without them knowing.
Mildrid Jackson used to come on her bicycle from Hauxton, come rain or shine, to help clean the house, including the cream tiles on the scullery floor. Mrs/Madame Pressy, who was French, came on a tricycle to clean at the Wisbeys, their neighbours.
Although she was a wartime child it was marvellous how their parents never instilled any worry into their children, despite the war. They never threw anything away and Janet still darns and mends, as they did then.
School days
Janet biked on her tricycle to Harston village school for a while, joining on 11 Nov 1940, 3 days after her 8th November birthday, from Ecclesall School, Sheffield. (The tricycle can be seen in the photo with the sprinkler.) Her Brother Chris went briefly on 11 April 1944 but left on the same day as he wasn’t 5 until September. Her cousin Angela also just came for 3 weeks from Upminster in May 1948 after her father died (Janet’s father’s brother).
Janet remembers an evacuee child Alfie Bradley who stayed with the Seagraves.(From School Admission Records : WM Alfred Bradley, born 21 Dec 1933, arrived 14 Oct 1940 from Dockland Settlement, left 27 Mar 1942).
When Janet had Miss Jackson as teacher she went to a party in Hauxton held by the Jacksons at the end of term – possibly on her brother’s farm. They all had a lovely trip back in a farm cart.
Janet’s family went to a fete at Harston House in 1940s and because it rained they did activities indoors in some outdoor building. They painted one half of the paper and turned it over to press down and create a butterfly. Janet remembers they all made a head covering at school with ducks heads and tails so they could go ‘duck dabbling’. Helen Greene also produced some poems. There was an auction at Harston House during 1950s when they were getting rid of things and Janet’s mum bought a little carving fork that belonged to Sir Graham Greene so they knicknamed it ‘Sir’ or ‘Sir Graham’ and Janet still refers to it as ‘Sir’.
Janet left the village school in 1941 to go to the Shrubbery School, Cambridge, possibly to help her prepare for the exams she had to take to go to the Perse School for girls. She may have also gone to the Shrubbery School as her mother worked there for a short while when they needed a cook. At the same time Janet’s aunt (her mum’s sister) and small children lived at Orchard Lea for a short time so could look after Chris while Janet’s mum worked.
Janet was at the Perse from September 1942-51, taking the school bus to get there. This bus went along Long road and Hills Road to get to the County School. Chris later went to St Faiths. After the war Janet’s father took them to school in his car on the way to his work in Cambridge and they came back on the school bus. Although there was also a Green bus, possibly going to Hitchin, and Premier travel bus that went all around the villages they didn’t use these. The Perse school took pupils from all around Cambridge so some pupils would stop their lessons at 4 O’Clock to get the 4.08 train to Ely which would take some to Waterbeach, Wisbech and even March.
The 108 bus was the sole transport into Cambridge or Royston. In the summer holidays they would go to the ‘Green Plunge’ baths at Royston. She can remember the strong smell of chlorine there.
Janet says their childhoods in Harston were very happy ones. They would play tennis on Rodwell’s court. Rodwells lived near the Police house (Lime Tree House. Janet and Chris’s mother would take them for lots of walks; one was by the river/Mill in Hauxton- the area called ‘the Ham’ in those days where they would have a picnic. Another walk was up the chalk ridge to the top where there was a memorial to a man put there by his friend (Wale Memorial on St Margaret’s Mount). Another walk was opposite Hauxton Gap where the route went past Rectory Farm. They would also cycle along London Road to Newton and then up the hill to Harston past the Lindgren’s house. When Janet went to Hauxton Church for communion, John Lindgren was there sometimes with his mother.
Janet went to the brownies and had a second hand uniform from Joan Starr (now Bash; who lived in New Road). As part of the brownie group activities they collected bones, horns and hooves from farmer Crow who lived in church Street and these would be taken to a factory where they would be turned in to glue, possibly for use in making aeroplanes in the war.
Janet had riding lessons at the Hays and belonged to a Pony club- possibly in the village. Eileen Hays was in it. They went all over the place – to Wimpole and Arrington. She would ride in the horse box alongside her pony- something which wouldn’t be allowed with today’s health and safety. Janet’s friend Georgia Wild had a horse when she lived in house next to the garage (where Porsche now is). She probably kept her horse in Wisbey’s orchard. Wisbey’s also had a horse.
Janet clearly recalls Cynthia Northrop winning first prize in a fancy dress competition in the Park. She had a packet of open Swan Vestas on her forehead with a clever note saying- ‘No strikes’.
Neighbours & friends
There was a strong sense of community at the bus stop at the Old English as everyone got to know each other while they waited for the bus. There were lots of old established families and newcomers who they made welcome. However, when they left after 17 years in Harston some people still regarded them as newcomers.
They knew the Moores at Birnham on Station Rd where there were few houses. They played tennis with Judith and Helen Moore. Janet knew Peggy Clutton whose father was the Station Master living next door to Birnham. He kept bees and she remembers seeing him in his full ‘bee regalia’.
South of Janet’s house on the High Street were the Wisbeys in Little Dormers. The Wisbeys ran the sandpits in Hauxton and Doris Wisbey looked after John Lindgren when he was young. Next was Ravenstone where Dr Ripper lived. The Lurys lived there after Dr Ripper. (Tony Gatward mentions Ralph Lury.) Then came a house called Oban at 144 High St occupied by the Roddises. Mr Roddis worked for the Ouse Catchment Board. At the bottom of the Roddises was a gate which led into a bit of garden in New Road where people who had built the house had a relative. (Electoral Register 1950: Keith & Kathleen Roddis, Oban, Harston).
Janet played with David Wisbey also John Roddis and friend, Georgina Wild, who initially lived in London Rd but then moved to New Road behind the garage. Janet swam in a defunct, not very nice pool at back of their garage.
North of Orchard Lea was the Hart’s orchard, opposite Pinehurst where Harts lived. Two houses were later put on land that had once been Hart’s orchard/garden that went up to the edge of the Searchlight field. This field later had an estate (Queens’ Close) built on it. North of Hart’s orchard was where Emily & Nellie Harper- sisters, lived. After them was a bungalow, where a woman who worked at Eaden Lilley lived, then a field before reaching the Old English. Many who came to live in Harston worked in Cambridge.
On the west side of the High St were the Longs, Kendons (117 High St – Beechcroft) and Kenzies. The Kenzies had a van which came round selling vegetables and possibly fish.
The Bimroses lived in a house way back from the road next to where Albert and Mary Lawrance lived with their parents. Mr Bimrose was connected to the Technical College. Then there was Andreae, a garden nursery man, then the lane (Chapel Lane) to the Baptist Church. Janet went to Sunday school there. When they moved into Orchard Lea there was little planted and Andreae probably put in all the hedges and shrubs around their property. Then there was Bill Hays the other side of Chapel Lane.
The Guntons, who rented part of the Askham’s vicarage, were great friends of Janet’s mother. They had two boys – Michael and Brian.
Village people remembered
They visited Bass’s garage a lot and knew that their daughter Betty was very ill, but never knew her, but Janet agrees with a lot of Betty’s memories of Harston.
Fred Lilley was disabled and came round with a barrow with vegetables to sell.
The Walshs went to Thodays over the road for boiled beetroot which he prepared to sell. He ran a market garden and had a stall on Cambridge Market.
The Pasks had a lovely orchard where many glorious spring bulbs- crocuses, snowdrops flowered. The railings were removed from their front garden to go towards making armaments.
There was Ellis’s butchers shop. In side was a notice saying ‘Don’t nag me, I’m not your husband’. This was to avoid people who would try to wheedle more out of him. Elli’s later became Burl’s, where the present shop/P.O. is. There was a lane between this and a row of terraced cottages to the north. Val Hartshorn lived in one of these with her parents. Next to Ellis’s (going south) was Dr Webb’s, then the Village Hall then the school. Other doctors remembered were old Dr Young and later on Dr Townsend. Dr Erskin?? Lived in the first house built on London Rd to the north (where Field View now is).
Les Northrop ran the taxi service they used. He would take Janet to parties to friends she had made at the Perse school – sometimes to north part of the city or further afield. He also took her to Saffron Walden when she was bridesmaid at a wedding and on other occasions to Gamlingay and Waterbeach.
There was a fire at Park house where Mrs Hurrell died- it was thought she was had a lit cigarette when she fell asleep which started the fire.
Janet clearly remembers it was very dramatic seeing Hay’s dray horse dying outside Ron Bass’s garage – seeing it lying there on the grass verge in front of the Laurel’s. Rodwells took over the rest of the milk round for a bit after Hays dray had died.
John Stanwell died in London Rd; he either fell off his bike or was run over.
Peter Scupham also lived in London rd; he went to the Perse school and his obituary said he went to Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and became a poet of note.
The colonel who lived at hill Top Farm rode his horse to Ayres shop where there was nowhere to tether his horse and got Abe Northrop to come out and serve him – no doubt used to servants in India doing the same. Mrs Northrop had a haberdashery shop to the right. She lived in London Rd and walked to the shop every day. When they came back to Harston for Janet & Mike’s 40th wedding anniversary an antique shop had replaced Ayres shop.
Phyllis Jackson cut Janet’s hair. The salon was really a little shed with a waiting room about two feet square and the salon which had a window where she displayed the wares she sold such as face cream.. She would give clients the ‘Marcel’ wave which was the thing then for women to have.
Mrs Ranyard was a competent dressmaker and she made Janet a lovely velvet winter dress without a pattern. Mrs Ranyard lived on High St on north side of Pinehurst and had a very long garden.
Mrs Stockbridge had a speech impediment- possibly a cleft pallet- so was didn’t speak clearly and because of this she was bullied, so always had a stick with her.
Charlie Rogers had a dance band. He lived down the lane by Ayres Shop. He would pack up a van with all the musical instruments to go to various dances. It was very sad that the Ayres lost their son, shot by a sniper the day after the war ended.
Before Nurse Fitt here was an old village lady, non- qualified nurse, called Nurse Samuel, who used to help out with home births. She lived near the war memorial.
The Austins lived at Manor farm to the south of the village. Janet remembers that both Mrs Austins would regularly on certain days get on the 108 bus together to go into town.
WW2
Janet remembers seeing a soldier on duty outside Pinehurst where soldiers were billeted.
During the war they had a polish officer billeted with them- forename Salah ….. She clearly remembers his batman in their kitchen polishing like mad – brass buttons, belt, etc. and Janet’s mum would make him a cup of tea.
She also recalls rumours about a plane coming down nearby in the war.
A military box had been left in their attic for the owner to collect later, possibly full of his treasured possessions. When they moved away they left the box there in he came back for it but they never knew whether this happened.
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