Oral history archives: Peggy Turpin (1924–2014).
Excerpts from oral history archives – memories of Barkway residents from 1920s and 30s. Peggy Turpin (1924 – 2014) recorded in 2007.
On the subject of surfaces to walk on, all of our outbuildings, the stables and pigsties, were floored with packed chalk carted from the pit on the left of the Newsells road. When we were kids it was a delight to wander in here, nearest the road it was a tip, being the only place where villagers could
dispose of unburnable waste, tins, bottles etc. You must remember in those days a family had very little waste, bottles were used over and over and only discarded when broken. Few people could afford tinned food. Most waste was burnt, and the ashes always used for garden paths.
My grandfather William Burr grew up in a pub – the Welsh Harp in Newsells, which I assume he rented from the estate. Apart from selling beer and tobacco, he supplied anything to the inhabitants. He killed his own pigs for meat, kept hens for eggs, stocked flour, sugar, salt and candles, and I
suppose much more though in those days a family’s needs were simple. The cottages in Newsells were small, and the families large, and I remember my great aunt Alice Burr listing the over 20 children who used to walk up to Barkway school with her. Alice was a bright pupil, and she was asked to stay on past leaving age to help with the juniors. I don’t know how long she did this or if there was any pay, because later she was working for Josiah Wilson the wheelwright. Years after her father had died, and her mother could no longer run the Welsh Harp, she, her sister Fanny and their mother (I just remember her), moved into the thatched cottage at number 21 High Street. She ran a small general stores there for the rest of her life. There must have been some profits made from the Welsh Harp, because the cottage was bought along with number 26, which was rented out to Charles Hillson, local lay preacher. I must have only been about 3 (1928), when the old great grandma died, but I do have a clear memory of these two old ladies dressed in black, with little black caps on their heads sitting outside on a summer’s day. (Note - Alice Burr died in 1960)