Article archive
05/04/2008 14:01
Pubs
Pubs
"How many pubs were there in Downham?"
This is a question I am frequently asked by newcomers in the village.
"Fifteen, I reply"
"Do you remember them all?" they ask.
No, I don't but I can recall five being open in the village- no, it should be six. In Main Street there were...
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05/04/2008 13:59
Electricity
Electricity
I write these lines on the eve of my fiftieth birthday, a half century that has brought the fens from the middle ages into the 20th Century. I was brought up in the age of the black stove, the open fire cum cooker which needed doing...
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05/04/2008 13:59
The Railway
The railway
There had been a railway station serving the village for some ninety years when I was born. Black Bank Station was the place where you left from or returned to if you were a travelling type of person. Situated about a mile from the church it was the link with the outside world....
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05/04/2008 13:57
Water
Water
Living in the Fen as I have done, all my life, I have been acutely aware of water in its many forms. Rain, floods, ponds and on the other hand, the lack of water - drought.
When I was younger our water supply in North Fen fell on our roof and was collected in a tank. Soft...
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05/04/2008 13:56
Delivery men
Delivery men
These shops were augmented by travelling purveyors of various merchandise, mainly food. The earlier ones of my memory were horse...
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05/04/2008 13:55
Gypsies
Gypsies
Gypsies have been part of my life since my earliest memories-they have also been a facet of rural living. I remember them making a way...
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05/04/2008 13:54
Handy women
Handy women
Before the National Health Scheme came into being on the 5th July 1948 the health of the village was in the hands of private doctors. There was however a private scheme or the panel as it was known whereby one could obtain treatment by a doctor for the price of a few pence per...
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05/04/2008 13:53
Fen characters
Fen characters
Of the many facets of agriculture one stands out in my memory -the mole catcher or "underground hangman" as he was called, for his traps literally hanged the mole in its burrow. Now the mole is a very small animal but the upheaval it causes on the land in search of its prey,...
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05/04/2008 13:52
The harvest
Farm work
If it appears from the above that we lived in a land of plenty well we didn't. Downham was mainly farming and the vast majoirty of its inhabitants derived their income from the land. Compared with industry, farm wages have always been low. There was always a long list of sitautions...
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05/04/2008 13:50
Ely Market
The market at Ely
Ely market was the focal point of the week; almost everyone attended and for the local farmers and smallholders ti was a day out. A typical sight was a farmer in a pig float which contained about six fat pigs going to the...
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Parish magazine 1897
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Parish Magazine 1898
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