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Page 1 of 20 A Walk Through Hilton in the 1930s
By Louis King in collaboration with George Britten
This article (V2) can also be downloaded by clicking here (PDF 122kB)
My walk starts from where the Fenstanton Road meets The Green. The field on the right was a favourite haunt of my sister, brother and myself. It had a large “L” shaped pond surrounded by black and whitethorn bushes and mature ash and elm trees. It was in this meadow that one could find the early small purple orchid, mushrooms and blackberries. Also there were lots of mole holes.
(There was a recession in the 30s, many men were stood off work or sacked during this time. If you wanted to receive unemployment benefit you had to report every morning to the labour exchange at St Ives to sign on as unemployed. You would then be eligible for one day’s pay (one shilling). My father was a farm labourer at this time and in the winter would be stood off for a few days. I don’t think he ever applied for unemployment benefit. He used to catch moles in the winter which he then skinned and stretched and nailed on boards, then rubbed with alum to keep them pliable. They would then be hung up under the eaves of our thatched cottage to dry. When he had a quantity of skins he would sell them to a furrier to make into mole skin coats.)
This meadow was his favourite hunting ground. The house Redwoods has been built in this meadow. Punch’s Grove was built in 1938 in a wood. The trees were mature elms; all were killed by Dutch Elm disease in the early 1970s
I was born in small thatched cottage that is now lawn to the east of Rose Cottage. I was three weeks old when my family moved into Rose Cottage and the small cottage was let to three gentlemen – Uncle Hunt, Bucky Bates and Billy from Soham.
Uncle Hunt was retired and was a keen photographer. He was often around the village with his tripod and plate camera. Many of the old photographs of the village were taken by him. I was sometimes invited to his dark room to watch him develop his films. He used to visit his brother in St Ives who used to have a small boatyard on the river and used to hire out punts and row boats and he would bring back eels. I was fascinated watching him skin and clean eels and put them in his frying pan still wriggling.
Bucky Bates was an ex serviceman and would tell us of his exploits in (Mespot) Mesopotamia. He never had a regular job but would help out on the farms at harvest and threshing times. He would cycle to St Ives several times a week. His brother owned a draper’s shop in Bedford and he would cycle to Bedford to help in the shop. Towards the end of his time in Hilton he would cycle to Bedford every day. He did eventually move to Bedford.
Billy from Soham worked part-time gardening and was an expert at laying lawns and tennis courts. He was often drunk.
The cottage fell into disrepair and collapsed in 1943.
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