Grendon Underwood Combined School

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Mr Williams was the shoe mender and he lived opposite here (Miss George's house) and was the Parish Clerk for years and also during the war the air raid warden and was also the proud owner of a motorbike.

I always regret that they took the old Smithy down where they used to do all the iron work and shoe the horses, next to the Swan Pub on the left hand side of the Swan. I wish they had kept the old anvil and things there.

The village road taken just on the bend here (Miss George's house) that is where the old village shop was. In my garden there was a cottage. That shop was kept by the two Miss Gostelows who were very short and stout and I know the boys used to like to go in and get sweets from the jars all loose sweets in those days you did not have things wrapped up. Toffees were wrapped up and the boys used to like to go in and ask for things on the top shelf so the two ladies had to climb up. That was very naughty of them.

 The Grange that is now the Manor by the war memorial it is being let now. That was a very old farmhouse which has been added to but parts of it are very early but it is now called the Manor but was once called the Grange.

Grange Gardens was once called Clinkety Close the paddock but they thought it was too near in connection with the prison.

I have said about the Pigott family and it was the Reverend Randolph Henry Pigott who had Grendon Hall built where the prison is now and after he left there, his widow died in about 1932.

Brooke Bond tea.??

Shakespeare Farm obviously the George's lived there once upon a time hence it was called George's Farm. Down by the Church there is a a lovely old house where the Bedgroves lived.

Horses and Foals picture there must have been a show. I don't recognise anyone there but it could be at the back of Middle Farm the Young's that would be at the turn of the century.

That little cottage was just near the chapel at Kingswood.   You come in now and  Oak Tree Cottages are on your right if you come in from the Chapel end, this little cottage was just at the end of those on the left hand side as you come in. What a tiny cottage.  There was two bedrooms and one living room and a kitchen and four in the family lived there.  That is Mr Watts the one with the trilby, Mrs Herring's brother and his son who worked at the Bakery and his daughter holding a cat. That cottage was taken down about 50 years ago now because they hadn't any proper sanitation and nowadays people would buy them do them up and put an extension on but they didn't then, it was a pity really.  

That is the little cottage again on your left and there was another old one on the right and then on the left where the little shed is the cottage is still there called Ivy Cottage. Our village policeman, I don't know which one it was but he wouldn't be riding on that side of the road nowadays would he - he would be knocked off his bicycle wouldn't he? He ruled the road in those days.  There wasn't the traffic and there was no cars about when that photograph was taken.

That little cottage was opposite Mr Watt's and that little girl is Nora Clark and she still lives at Marsh Gibbon she is still alive. Mrs Reg King she lives at Northfield Avenue. She is quite elderly now. The houses were very poor her father worked on the farm in fact he worked for my father for quite a time. TH she doesn't look very happy there - AG I don't think she probably was, it was a very hard upbringing

This is just a bit farther down on the left hand side you know Coombe Farm up here the long farmhouse a little cottage in the garden and as you can see they had a big family there I think there was six or seven children and again in a two up two down. No bedrooms for yourself in those days you all had to get in together. Same bed oh yes it would be the same bed and some would sleep in with the parents you see the younger ones very little money of course. TH - they all look as if they have got their best clothes on - AG they probably have for a photograph you see they would dress up for it. That was the Bourne family and one of those is still alive and he lives at Winslow now.

Now this is Mr Watts again but taken a bit later and he has now moved from the little old cottage farther up to this one which one just across the road from me do you know and that little building at the back was a Baptist Chapel and there again they used to have a full house very often and we used to go down from the Church we would go there for Harvest Festivals etc. TH Is the photograph taken from the road? AG - yes and my house this one is just behind that chapel and there again Mr Watts, his wife, his son and daughter and daughter in law but that was a little bit better than the other one. I remember going in there in later years though when an elderly lady lived there and there were mice running about across her settee.

That was when it was being demolished you can see the chapel more clearly there but that was demolished in 1953 (Chapel Cottage) forty-six years ago. Sad to see them coming down then - the Chapel came down as well there is quite a big house there now on the site. The Chapel came down a bit later it stood there for quite a time on its own, unused and then it was sold and knocked down. 

This was just opposite and the house is there now Woodville that is where the Ososkis live. This house was built if you can just see there is a very old house just at the end of that one before you get to the building and that was the old shop where Mr Williams who lived at the big house used to mend shoes and bicycles that kind of thing and he was the Parish Clerk for years and during the second world war he was the Air Raid Warden he took a very active part in the village and that house was built about 1902 and it is very much on the same style as the one opposite your school now where the Storeys live they have had a lot put on the back of theirs but the house is very much the same built about the same time.

Chapel cottage would be on your left here and then there was a footpath going up the side to Kingswood and this little cottage was in my garden just out the front here and that was the Grocers Shop. One of the Grocers Shops, we had three when I was young. It was kept by two very nice old ladies they were very stout old ladies and they had sweets in jars you had to put your hands in to get the sweets out it wasn't that clean but you didn't mind. The little girl she lives in Crescent Cottages Miss Diane Hickman and that is her Aunty. TH Crescent Cottages are the ones where the track goes down? That is right - the old lane as we term it - TH that is where we come of our cross country race. She still lives there now. That picture must have been taken about 70 years ago. 

Gostelows Miss Harriet and Miss Leila Gostelow. That was a pity they pulled that down - I didn't mind because it made the front garden open and I managed to buy the bit of land later on.

That was just opposite me across the road where the Chalets bungalows are now that was Baileys Farm and Mrs Horley - can you see a man standing at the end of the house - that was Mr Horley who was quite a character as you might see by his dress. A very old fashioned couple but very good hearted and Joy she married a Clark and she died quite young a few years ago. Lorri Clark is her son he lives in the bungalow.

TH Baileys Farm is where the two Jack Russels came out of. AG that is the present one - Mr Busby bought the land and they demolished the house and then he had his bungalow built farther down the road and so all those chalets are looking back on his very untidy farmyard actually. TH - this would have been the proper farm entrance. AG the proper farm entrance would have been just to the left. Busby's farm entrance is on the left this is where the end set of chalets is opposite here.

The thatch came off eventually and Mr Horley put some asbestos on top they wouldn't do that these days would they because they say asbestos isn't safe but he did that and once when they had a terrific gale that is brick up at the end there where it joins the roof and that feel right out and poor Joy had a wall less bedroom. It feel into a bad state of repair certainly. TH - No building regulations though.

That is it again with the asbestos roof on and by this time the road had been widened and so they had taken part of the building off and so they had to repair the end of the building there is a slide later on when they were doing the road out there.

Now we are going further down. Who can remember Mrs Hearne's shop? Can you remember seeing the shop there before Mrs Dearn lived there? This is you know the old farm on the corner so dilapidated now where they have put all the scaffolding up (Grove Farm) this is just a bit further along there. That old stable they kept horses of courses which was made into a shop and that was a shop for years and then the Post Office and this side was my grandfathers workshop. Can you see W. George up there I think it says something (John [George] has got that board) he was Carpenter and Undertaker. That is my grandmother. It says Builder and then of course the business went down in the family and Mr Hearne took it over he married a George you see my Aunt and it has gone on in the family. Ashley's Dad is still in the trade you see (Builder and Decorator).

That is looking up from the other way the very old farm that has been knocked down now you can just see the thatch on the shed that has gone and then coming this way there was two very old cottages they have been gone for a very long time and then you get back to the house you have just seen and looking the other way the stable doors are open this side and there is harness hanging on the fence, horses harness. Look at the roads aren't they dirty - you see they used to have a saying "Grendon Underwood the dirtiest place that every stood" and it certainly was dirty and very narrow. TH This building here with the wooden bit it the one we have just seen in the other pictures taken from standing back here? AG Yes that is right. The milestone was just along the side here on this it says 9 miles to Aylesbury (something like that). It is still there just by one of the bungalows now and it is still there though you look out for it. You can just see it there in the grass. Now of course the bungalows are all built up on that side and that is looking down the road again and the house we have just seen is tucked away between the other two taller ones. That little upright bit on the left hand side that is one of our taps we had to go down there to fetch our water. That came from Springhill all the way down to the village and coming up as far as this it was uphill rather and we just couldn't get the water pressure so sometimes that would be just drip, drip, drip and it would take ages to get a bucket of water so we would leave the bucket and just walk away and go back and fetch it. See that cottage in the distance there it is not a very good slide but that is Magpie Cottages we will see one of that.

This is it Magpie Cottage I wonder why it was called Magpie - I think it is pretty obvious he had a Magpie as a pet. I have got a lovely tape made by Mrs Jackson who lived at Winslow and Kingswood and was a Miss Golby and she did the milkround before the Easts took it over and she has got so many memories of what she did as well as delivering the milk but one of them was to go and feed the birds so I presume that the bird was the Magpie. That was a better cottage and a bigger one and they had this end part done up so that it was much bigger and a better cottage than some of them it had been thatched recently and patched up so that is just one the corner where the telephone kiosk is now opposite the shop. The BT one opposite the shop, yes that was just at the end of the cottage that has gone a long time ago it is the Gazebo now a bungalow.

That is the centre one of Centre Cottages there were three cottages and again they have been demolished and why there were demolished they were allowed to be demolished I don't know because they were really nice cottages and they could have been extended of course but builders came along and took them done and now they are two bungalows and that is were Mr Hearne lives. Just a little further down from the shop, yes. That is Mr Parker at the gate and he was the Tailor and I have seen his old record book in fact I have got one here now and it really belongs to Mr Edmunds down the village but he used to make suits of clothing for about two pounds and ten shillings,which would be £2.50 today. TH from his house? AG Yes it all happened there but you see a man would have one suit and that would have to last him for several years he did not got out and buy a suit every year or a new pair of boots they had to last a long time. TH - there is no sign saying Tailor. AG No he wouldn't advertise it would be word of mouth go to Mr Parker he does a good job. He also rather his son more than him used to go to the wood and get briars for grafting roses on to there would be quite a trade with that. He would dig up the briars and the old roses and bring them home and then graft on rosebuds and sell them as rose trees. I had one of those and very sadly it died only a few years ago but it must have been over 70 years old. TH - grafting joining two different plants together you get a root from one a wild briar and then you get a shoot from a rosebush you particularly liked and then grafting meant putting them together and binding it up and it would grow wouldn't it when it was joined together. AH and then you would cut off all the wild shoots and just let the good one grow.

That is the left hand one and the Jakeman family lived there I have had one of the Jakeman family came up this morning and we had coffee together and I don't know if she is one of those or if that is her two sisters but Mrs Jakeman had nine children and as you see the cottage there that was the home again it was two up two down a bit better than the thatched cottages and it was kept immaculate and they lived there until Centre Cottages were built in the late 1920's and they moved down to the council houses they were you see and they moved down there. She brought her family up there. TH Is that the same Jakeman family who live in ??? Close? AG No that is Jackman. Mrs Prior and she lives at Crescent Cottages still but she is the only one left in the village now of the family nearly all of the family have died. The School teacher lived there for a bit in later years in the 1940's Mr Broadstone. TH - again all dressed up in their best clothes. AG as I say all though she had a big family they were absolutely immaculate.

That is one of the Crescent Cottages and that is the lane you were talking about going down the bridleway right down to the woods. That is where Mrs Prior lives now actually this first one, no 7. TH is that the one with the amazing garden? AG That is a lovely garden. TH do you remember that? AG Beautiful flowers she loves her garden she is not able to do it as much as she would like to. They have altered those quite a lot haven't they - they have put porches on now and rendered the outside. In those days they had long gardens well they have still got long garden but they don't use them as gardens now and there was a pigsty at the bottom of the garden because they had to get their own meat and be self supporting, dug the garden got all the vegetables and probably had an allotment as well and had the pigs to kill for their winter bacon etc. TH - most families had a pig in those days didn't they? AG Oh yes we did during the war and I couldn't bring myself to eat it Samson and Delia that was our pigs.

You know that one that has changed a bit that was taken in 1920's with the horse and cart and the people there. That is still thatched isn't it? Yes. TH It hasn't change that much. AG the bit this end has changed. TH there is a yard here now isn't there? AG - the sign has moved you see this has come to this other side. TH this is the car park. That was all open and the Smithy was just to the left hand side there and there was no divider as there is now. To the left. 

That is opposite where the War Memorial would be on the … now that is a later one of the Swan. That is quite a bit later on. 

That is the old Smithy just before that was demolished and I think it is such a shame that it was because that was really splendid history and the Blacksmith years ago of course did a terrific lot of work with the horses and then later on he learned to welding etc. so he was mending tractors and that kind of thing but he was more at home with horses I think. It was sad to see it going downhill like hill I wish they had kept it as a Museum. TH - probably be doing a roaring trade now making windvanes and gardening ornaments. 

Now this is the Bakery which is still there the Bakery cottage and that was another Grocers shop there we saw the little one up the village where the two old ladies where and then the one where my Grandmother was that stable was turned into a shop and then there was also one here so we had three Grocers shops in the village. That is Mr Raisey our Baker and he used to make lovely bread and when it came to hot cross bun day - when is that? TH - the cross is for. AG We used to have them freshly baked and he would stay up all night baking the hot cross buns and bring them round say 6 -7 in the morning so we would have them lovely and hot for breakfast. We really made a thing of it in those days. TH now we have hot cross buns all the year round in the shops. AG - yes they are in the shops all year round. I think that was a petrol sign or something there. Shell - that is right because Mr Raisey's son was very keen on motors and one of the very first was there bread van and instead of using the horse and cart that they had there they went into that. Mr Jim Raisey had been in the Army and so he was up and ready for all new fangled things which they would have been in those days and obviously they were selling petrol then. There would not have been very many vehicles about.

Do you know what that one is - it looks a bit different today though? You see the little bump on the left hand bottom corner that is where the War Memorial is now. You live at Grange Gardens. AG Clinkety Close I call it. TH - is there a big hedge here across here behind the War Memorial?, AG yes.  Years ago a cousin of mine lived there and it was a public house in those days so they had two or three public houses in the village. Yes it is a lovely old house but I think they have spoilt in on the next one you can see the difference. 

You would never think it was the same house would you. It has been altered for a long time now. It doesn't look the same does it? There are shrubs growing up there now on that one.

Now I don't think you would recognise that one now? High hedging you can only really see through the gaps part of it was very old and then it was renovated and added on to I think - it was an old farmhouse and now you see we call it the Manor and the Manor is behind a lot of trees, opposite you. You can just see in the background that chimney that is the chimney of the Bakery Cottage you see and then the Grange Farm is in between. You see it was the Grange years ago and then they changed it to the Manor hence it is Grange Farm. That has had some very interesting people living in it. It is a kind of trellis I think. I don't know how they have altered it now of course they have built the houses at the right hand side haven't they and so that has cut it down a lot because there used to be quite a lot of land attached to it. This gate we are entering is the gate which now takes you into the new houses (where the Doctor lives). (Dr. Watt) which comes up to the side of the School at the back, yes of course it does, yes. We are getting down to the School now. When I went to the village school there was a foot path that went in by East's (Grove Farm) the old tumble down farm here and you see there was only two or three fields and then you were at the School so that saved us a lot of steps going round the road and there was a foot path just at the back of this it was a very direct way to get to the School. TH that is probably still there because the foot path carries on right across our playing field, behind Dr Watts and then through the farmyard and between the barn. Last time we went on a fun run some of the classes ran round that way. AG that is something that ought to be done I think with the Millennium well you talked of it didn't you because it really needs the footpaths being walked and kept open.

Now this was just opposite the Manor rather where you are living now to the left hand side of (which one do you live in?) - no 2, the one in front of the entrance, this would have been on the left hand side of that entrance. It is very much like the one which is near the School one high bit and one bit lower, I don't know why they built them like that. This again was taken down and it is so sad to think they were all destroyed. That is a very poor one that looks like it is under snow I am sure we have got a better one than that somewhere and that is a drawing Summer Place. End on to the road, it is different now because they have built another chimney now outside this end. They have done a big extension at the back there. That is rather poor I have got a better one of that somewhere that is the same you see the high bit and the lower piece. 

That is where Elizabeth Spriggs the actress lives, next to the School over the hedge from you she is quite well known - I haven't got television so I wouldn't know. When I was young it was a very different people who lived there then - one we called Fizer, Fizer Hunt and he used to look a very rough individual but we weren't afraid of him of anything like that and he used to roast hedgehogs and doing jobbing on farms during the summer helping with haymaking etc. 

The other side he was called Americky Tom he had obviously been to America I think they sent him out there because he was naughty or something but he came back and he lived later on there is a slide of him in a little hut down the Quainton road but after that it was burned down and he came to live here. So Fizer Hunt in one side and Americky Tom in the other and they were both quite rough individuals I think so as I say they didn't do anyone any harm.

That is going back that must be the turn of the century because by the fashions there and that is the one opposite looked like the other one farther up the village. This was for years the Post Office and a Mr Richard Jones kept it and I think that is him and his sisters on the picture. You see the cottage in the background that is West End opposite the School again. Mr Bardrick lived there again for a time and I don't think they sold very much but they did sell sweets and he was not a very clean individual. So I think the children were told not to go to him because he wasn't hygienic I suppose. TH is that the one with the little one on the end? AG yes that is right. TH - the road now runs straight past the front of there doesn't it? AG - yes. Well it is not much different coming this way there is a hedge.