| The following letter was recently received
by John Bean from Paul Mills, of St. Mary Cray, Kent. |
Dear Mr Bean,
For my 75th birthday recently my cousin has given me a copy of your
book 'Ten Miles From
Anywhere'. congratulations on your book, I find it fascinating.
I was born in Wickhambrook on July 31st 1928 at No. 6 (I think) Bunters
Road. My father Montague ran the firm's threshing outfit from Attleton
Green and my Grandparents, Martha and Henry Mills lived at Chestnut
House, which adjoined Attleton Green, where the machinery, when not
working on local farms, was kept and maintained.
In 1938 a disastrous fire in a stack yard half-way between Attleton
Green and New England destroyed all the machinery consisting of the
engine, threshing drum and straw elevator and consequently the business
folded up. My parents, brother and sister moved away to Ipswich but
I stayed on at Chestnut House with my grandparents and a spinster
Aunt Isobel Victoria (Queenie) until 1944. Queenie married Robert
Woollard from Chedburgh in 1944 and I then moved down here to St.
Mary Cray and I have lived here ever since then. |
| All my schooling was at the village
school, which I left at just 14 years old in 1942. From
1942 to 1944 I worked for A.J. Bailey at Thorns Corner under Eric
and Lewis, the other brother Len I think was in the army at that time.
I worked particularly as a trainee carpenter under Lewis, who as you
probably know was deaf and dumb, but he was inspirational to me. |
Baileys & Sons 1932 |
I attended Sunday school at both the
Methodist Chapel
and the Parish Church,
can't remember why I attended both, possibly parental pressure! I
joined the Boys Brigade on its formation and we met in the Methodist
Chapel room and our captain was Lewis Hurrell, but in late 1942 I
was persuaded to leave the B.B. and join the Army Cadets who met at
the Plumbers Arms
and I stayed with this group until leaving Wickhambrook in 1944.
One slight error in your book I bring to your attention, page 87,
is that Dorothy Mills, my Aunt by marriage, was not married to Montague,
but rather Victor, Montague's brother. Montague was my father and
he married Phyllis Gagen from Hundon. Dorothy finally came back to
Wickhambrook from Gloucester on Victor's death and lived in an extended
part of Chestnut House. Dorothy and Queenie did not get on, so to
speak, what's new? Bob Woollard, widower of Queenie continued to live
in Chestnut House for some years and then moved up to an old people's
house in, I think, Emily Frost Close. My brother and I then sold Chestnut
House and so ending quite a long association with this property. I
think my grandfather Henry had bought the property somewhere about
1900 when he gave up as landlord of The
Greyhound and then started up the agricultural contracting
business.
As a child I remember the 'Cloak'
well, but I think my great Uncle and Aunt, Edward and Sarah
Mills died when I was quite young, but their much younger sister Edith
lived in Pound House for many years. Incidentally their parents Eliza
and William, e.g. my great grandparents are buried in Wickhambrook
Churchyard and the headstone remains to this day.
Am I correct in assuming that your house is at Attleton Green? If
it is, in my day there lived there a Mr and Mrs Thorogood, Mr 'Waters'
Allcock, who worked for father from time to time and I think a Mrs
Haygreen.
I return to Wickhambrook on the odd occasion, I have relatives in
Kedington who I visit from time to time. Nostalgia is a wonderful
thing isn't it? and of course one's childhood is probably the happiest
time of one's life.
Yours sincerely
Paul Mills |
Ten
Miles From Anywhere is still available at £6.95
from Wickhambrook Shop,
Tindalls in Newmarket or Ottakers in Bury. |
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