An illustrated interview with Miss Annie George

Two Ladies with buckets
This was waiting for the water cart - we were so short of water in the village and going back years ago to the middle 1800 they dug wells up on the hill, which is Springhill where the prison is and it wasn't very satisfactory because it was full of iron, very red with iron and when it was a dry summer we had to get water out from Aylesbury and it came out on a lorry that fetched the milk brought some water to us and the people waited with their buckets and so water was rationed. Imagine you couldn't turn a tap on to get water we had to manage with two or three buckets which we were allocated and of course for washing and the weekly bath which we had by the fire we had to use rainwater and so we all had rain tanks and used rainwater for that. This was purely for cooking and drinking so we weren't allowed very much as you can see with a few buckets like that. One of the ladies there is Mrs Holt on the right and she was a Miss Freighter who used to teach at Grendon School. Her father was Headmaster at Grendon School and her mother also taught there and she then married a Mr Holt in the village and as you go out you can see a sampler that this lady did at the end of the 1800s. They were very very active in the village. The other lady was Mrs Hickman and she lived next to the village hall, the old cottage just this side of the village hall. That was her son Richard, the boy who has just moved out of the village. His wife was a school teacher for some time before your time. But as I say those two ladies are waiting for the water cart.

The Water Cart
And this picture is another one where the water cart has arrived. And you see it, we had milk churns for a long time, great big tall milk churns full of water, but now they have improved and we have one huge tank with a tap so it's easier to get at it. And that was taken just down by Crescent Cottages which would just be at the back of you. I think most of the people on there will have gone now. I don't think there's anyone alive unless that's Mr Dick Edmonds, he's the little boy on the end and he lives in the bungalow in the field by Crescent Cottages. And the gentleman this side, he was the one who rationed the water for everybody and saw that they didn't have too much or too little and he was the Village Clerk, Mr Williams. Question: "Did they pay him for the water?" " No they didn't". It was a service provided. Q "Did different people get different amounts?" "I'm not sure, they must have because bigger families would have needed more but I don't remember how it was allocated.

Q "But would be richer, more important people in the village have got more?" "Yes, well the rich people as you say some of them did have water laid on and if they was any perhaps they would get it. After the last well had been dug a Mrs Fitzgerald who owned the land where the well were dug and she had them dug, they had six standpipes in the village and of course as it comes up the village, there was one up the village here, one down by the Grove one down by the village shop, one at the Bakery one at the school and one at the Church. Well the Church one was the one you could be sure to get a few drops but of course as it came up the village it became less and less because the water wouldn't come up the village as there wasn't enough force behind it. I have walked from here down to the Church to get a bucket of water. So it was quite a job and so we were thankful to get this other more convenient way of getting a bucket of water.

Grendon Underwood in the national news!
This is another picture, which was in the National Press so you see we were quite famous and it was in the Daily Mirror. This lorry, that's the old milk churns, that was taken at the end of the 20s and various people there were the Tulleys who lived at the farm up here (it was Pentagon, it was Clarks Farm years ago). They kept a poultry farm and so they would have to have more water for that. So hence one big churn. I like the structure they have made to carry the churns. Its looks like it is March. I suppose if you were carrying one of those (churns) every single day it would be worth making a little barrow. I don't remember if they came every day or whether it was certain days of the week. Twice a week, I think. Q "How much water would they get a week?". Well if they only came twice a week they wouldn't get many buckets. About a bucket a day I suppose. One bath a week by the fire.

Floods  
Having said we were so short of water, now we had a flood. That has long since gone. That was taken outside Woodville.  On the right you see the little village shop that was in my garden here. The one in the distance on the right was the Chapel cottage. There was a little chapel attached to that at the back. My house is just on the right here. There's a steam roller. Yes, that was going to plough its way through. But we have had floods in recent years just the same, the pond is at a low point in the village. I do get a lot of surface water coming down from Pear Tree Farm which goes across the road before that. It doesn't seemed to have been so bad over the last few years, the water seems to accumulate further down the village by the shop, etc. The drainage wasn't very good.

And these are more recent ones.
I believe that's my nephew on the tractor pulling a car out and that would be about 10 years ago because the bungalow wasn't there you see.

I am quite isolated when the water does come up.

Snow
And we had snow. You haven't seen snow like that, have you?
I'm not sure if that was 1947 and that was taken by the Grove. That's the Grove on the left - see how it's built up - you just couldn't get through.. The children loved it.
  

And that's Mr Cannon with his car stuck in it. That was taken just by the village shop. The cottage you see is up for sale at the moment. The village shop is just on the left and the old cottage on the right is now the bungalow. And the telephone exchange and in the distance you see Centre Cottages and they have been demolished now and they are now bungalows. And the Crescent Cottages are in the background behind that shed. I don't know why they took those Centre Cottages down because they were really very very nice cottages - it was wicked to take them down.

This picture - I'm not sure it was Grendon I don't know where it was taken but my brother had got this slide so we popped it in because they really were snow drifts weren't they. There weren't any snowploughs in those days because this goes back to the late 1800/early 1900s. And there weren't many cars. It would have taken some time to dig that all out with a shovel, wouldn't it? 
  How tall did the snow drifts get? Higher than the man you see. Presumably that's the road they are digging out? Yes, that's the road. Pity it doesn't say where it is though. I haven't seen snow drifts like that - as I say the winter of 1947 was bad. Worse than 1963? Oh yes that was bad we had snow and frost then from Boxing Day right up to March. (Mr Lockwood) I was seven in 1963  and I remember it - (Annie) As a child you would. It was lovely for the children.