| home | search | back | helmdon.com®   home > history resources > articles index > reminiscences > ann smith   Helmdon Historical Articles My Early Memories of Helmdon an article by Ann Smith   I've got to find pictures! I was a little girl when I first heard the name Helmdon. Most Sunday afternoons my parents and some of my Ann today   brothers and sisters used to visit my great grandfather and his second wife Aunt Lil.   Aunt Lil happened to have a sister Edith Hughes who lived in Wappenham Road, Helmdon, in the house between South View and Rose cottage.  Jock and Connie Humphrey who was a farmer and dealer lived next door in South View (that was before they moved to Manor Farm).   My great grandfather and two uncles were also farmers and sheep dealers and they used to visit Jock in Helmdon. Edith was Jane Beyts's (nee Humphrey's)  Godmother.  Aunt Lil used to hear from her sister all about the lovely family of four children who lived next door. I always rode my pony to Towcester for the Boxing day meet and Aunt Lil would always ask me if I’d seen little Ben on his pony as Edith had told her he was going. Later when I went to Towcester Grammar School, at the dinner table I sat near an older boy, who to 11 year old me looked like a man, and was called Alan Watson from   Marion Shipway, Tony Smith and John Jeffs Helmdon.  Helmdon pupils could either go to Magdalene, Brackley, on the top station, or Towcester on the bottom station train. Both lots had to walk from the station to school and back again in the afternoon - quite a long way from both stations. My next encounter was after 1956 when I’d started going out with my boyfriend Tony, who had lived at Falcutt Hall with his parents since 1941.  Tony’s best friend was Rex Jessett so at that time I began to get to know John Jeffs, Tony Wilson and a few others.   Mrs Nancy Wheeler worked for my future mother-in-law, Nellie Smith, so when I stayed at Falcutt some weekends I became familiar with many Helmdon names such as Mrs Vera Wilson, Floss Brown, and Bill Brown, who delivered bread and groceries from Blakesley.  They were all Nellie’s sister- in-law Cath Burt’s brother and sisters so they knew all about me. The first time I went to Helmdon church was Easter Sunday 1957.  I went with my future father-in-law, George.  In those days it was the custom for all women to wear a hat so off I went in one of Nellie’s berets. After the service lots of people came and introduced themselves to me and I was immediately struck by the friendliness of everyone and also the beauty and peacefulness of the church.  I remember Mrs Holloway greeting me.  She had been a friend of my mother-in- law and after I married always called me Mrs Tony.  To me Mrs Holloway was Helmdon.  She was president of the WI.,  on the PCC,   leading member of Mothers’ Union and  although the rector’s wife Mrs Rowbury was Branch leader, I admired Mrs Holloway so much and she encouraged me to do so many things.  In those days we didn’t use Christian names for older people and it was always difficult for me in later years to refer to these people by in this way.  Mrs Vera Wilson was another great character who encouraged me so much.  She ran a weekly whist drive which was very popular.  I used to drive down each Friday, picking up Ruth Jessett and Edith Shellard on my way down to the village. The Reading Room was always packed for this event.  Notice I always refer to it as Room, not rooms, as many newcomers now call it.  We didn’t have the extension, kitchen and toilet then, just the main hall and the committee room.  I remember how grand the hall was then, with its high ceiling and beams. A group of us used to go and play badminton in the afternoon. The group included Miss Nicholls, Mrs Terrey with Celia and Julia, Mrs Wheeler, Mrs Doris Brookhouse and Mrs Connie Humphrey.  The men used to play billiards in the evenings. Tony used to play darts for The Chequers in my early days in Helmdon. It was only when The Chequers changed hands that he started playing for The Bell. The Chequers was an unusual pub as there was no bar. It just had the entrance with a bench in it where newcomers and visitors congregated and the games room with a dart board which was always busy with men waiting to have their game. There was a score board and at the side a list of names and as your name got to the top you played the winner of the previous game. The other room was The Snug where only certain people went. There was a table with dominoes   The Chequers, opposite the school until 1992 groups of four playing a game.  In one corner sat Charlie Wrighton with his pint of beer. When you went into the pub Reg would come and ask what he could get and then he would go into the tap room and bring your drink out for you. I only went with Tony to the pub when I had a babysitter, who was usually one of the girl grooms who worked for the Lindsay sisters who lived at Stockings Farm. Tony was farm manager at Falcutt Hall, Stockings Farm, and Warren Farm,  for the Lindsay family who lived at Stockings Farm. Tony’s father had been manager for the Lindsay family since 1941 and Tony continued as manager in 1957.  It was mixed farming with a dairy herd of shorthorn cows, sheep, arable and poultry.  Every morning at 6am we would hear Sid Somerton calling the cows to come up for milking.  Joyce Rose who lived at Nelfrey Cottage in Church Street used to bike up for 7am to start work in the dairy and to bucket feed all the calves and then clean out the individual pens.  Then she would make sure all the poultry houses had plenty of food and collect the eggs.  All the men started work at 7am and Tony would be out there to give them their orders for the day.  Depending on the season it could be anything from ploughing, drilling, cleaning out yards, muck spreading, hedging, ditching and of course there was always lambing, cows calving, silage making, haymaking and harvest.  If possible the men and Joyce always stopped for breakfast (packed) at   (from right to left) Ann with Ann Harman, Geoff Robison, Jeean Brookhouse (?) and Celia Terry at a Fellowship garden party in 2010 9am for 30 minutes, went home for lunch at 12 noon, be back at 1 (bringing  sandwiches and drinks at harvest time), otherwise go home at 5pm.  Before I went back to teaching I’d do Joyce’s jobs when she had her annual holiday.  That was hard as I had four little children and had to do housework and cook meals in between.  I used to help a bit with lambing and hand rear orphan lambs as well.  On Fridays the postman used to deliver a registered envelope from the bank containing £200 in notes and it was my job to collect the men’s time sheets for the previous weeks work, then get PAYE worked out and count out money and fold it in a new timesheet ready to be collected at tea time.  Obviously small change was needed so I had to drive up to see husband died in 2000 and the next year,  in 2001, Reverend John Roberts sug Nurse Walters as they always had a load of change in the house from bus fares (Sammy Walters had the bus company which was later sold to Websters and subsequently Jack Jeffs).   When Stockings was sold in 1990 we moved to Warren Farm and also bought Scrivens Farm in Sulgrave road. We concentrated on sheep and beef rearing.  I retired as a head teacher at Tingewick school and became a full time calf rearer and shepherd /lamber.  In 1980 we bought a building plot in Church Street and Jed Seckington and Richard Whitehead built Antone House for us. We let it until 1990 when we moved into the village. I joined W.I. a year after we were married. At that time there were about 50 members and you had to be proposed and seconded before you could become a member.  Mrs Holloway was President, Miss Nicholls secretary, and Kate Humphrey treasurer.  Many of the members wore hats for the meetings.  I became secretary in 1965 when Mrs Wilson was President until I had William in 1967.  Soon after William was born I was elected President, a post I held for several years, Jenny Saunders became secretary, a post she still holds. In 1970 I became a member of Mothers’ Union. The rector’s wife, Mrs Eileen Thompson, was leader. I was a member until I started teaching full time and could no longer attend the afternoon meetings.  Helmdon branch was closed a few years later.  Mygested it would be a good idea to restart M.U. as The Astwell benefice branch.  He called a meeting and it was decided to give it a go. Reluctantly I agreed to be Branch leader, a post I still hold. I count it a blessing that I was married to a Helmdon ‘local’ as this friendly, social village has given me so much friendship, pleasure and happiness. Ann Smith 2020 ____________________________________________ home > history resources > articles index > reminiscences > ann smith ____________________________________________