Carbrooke News February 2015

 

At our last meeting of the Heritage Group, we were treated to some amusing farming anecdotes by David Saunders, whose family farmed in Carbrooke for many years. Old ploughing implements were being discussed, and the time a local man whilst ploughing the field which is now the Millennium Green, ploughed his jacket into the ground. He couldn’t see where it had gone, but managed to retrieve it the following year whilst ploughing, when it reappeared. He shook the mud off and put it back on!

The same man also lost his false teeth whilst ploughing a field on Drury Lane. When they reappeared the following year, they were given a quick rinse and put back in his mouth!

These little tales add character to village people and life, and enjoy hearing about them, perhaps we will be able to put them together in the future, as a local publication. We have recently been contacted by the daughter of a lady who grew up in Carbrooke, with her mother’s Carbrooke memories.

“Over the last week or so, Mum has been telling me various stories of her memories of Carbrooke where they lived until 1941. I have asked both Mum and Aunt Peggy to compile their own recollections as life was for them during that decade, and I must say, it is fascinating: despite the hardship caused mainly by the war, a sense of cheerfulness and community spirit shines through. Recollections of the teachers, the school (and how their sister Hazel - in one of the school photos you have online - had to go to school for a time in a pair of water boots as it was the only footwear they had in the family which would fit her, and they couldn't afford to buy her anything else); how their father - a cowman on the farms - was allowed to take home no more than four pints of milk each day for his large family; Mum, who contracted tuberculosis and miraculously survived against all the odds (no NHS in those days); Peggy, who was the target of a machine gun from a German bomber flying low over the village; the family's friendship with RAF service people from RAF Watton; the close-knit neighbourhood and resulting life-long friendships;  the welcoming Rev. Chambers and his lovely wife with a heart of gold (the "angel of Carbrooke"), and the reminiscences go on.......

Mum and Aunt Peggy haven't visited Carbrooke for some time now, although I did in fact bring Mum to one of the village's summer events just a few years back”. 

Thanks to June Collingwood for this. June has offered to add more to these brief notes, and we look forward to them with interest.

The next Carbrooke Heritage meeting in Carbrooke Village Hall on 18^th March at 7pm. All welcome to our informal meetings.