In Conversation with Angela Louch (née Bailey)
BLHG recently had the pleasure of hosting Angela Louch (née Bailey) for our monthly “In Conversation With…” session at Barkway Social Club. These talks, held on Tuesday afternoons, offer a wonderful opportunity to hear personal stories about village life and local history.
Angela shared memories of her early childhood at Middle Farm in Buckland, where her family farmed during the 1950s. Unlike many farms in the area, Middle Farm grew mainly vegetables. Angela’s grandfather, the fourth generation of the Baileys, were wholesale vegetable merchants at Jubilee Market, Covent Garden. He rented the farm in the 1930s to help supply the market and later purchased Five House Farm, Therfield. Angela’s father, Ernie Bailey, was sent to oversee this new country enterprise, though he would have preferred staying in London.
At Middle Farm, Ernie cultivated peas, potatoes, cabbages, Brussels sprouts, strawberries, and rhubarb, rotating cereal crops to rest the fields. Work was done using traditional methods, with horse-drawn ploughs and machinery. Angela fondly recalled helping to feed the Shire horses at the end of the day and watching the bustling farm life, which employed 15–17 full-time men and many seasonal casual labourers from local villages, itinerant Irish workers, Romany travellers, and even men from the Royston workhouse. Vegetables were harvested by hand and transported in hessian sacks or wooden bushel boxes, while local women helped with weeding, their laughter and chatter filling the fields.
As children, Angela and her friends delighted in playing hide-and-seek in the stooks - mini-wigwam-like clumps of cut corn left to ripen. They also watched in awe as travelling threshing gangs arrived with their large, noisy machines, occasionally helping by chasing out rats from the stacks.
Angela also shared fascinating insights into the farm’s connection to vintage cars. Her father, Ernie, attended motor shows each year, where he met John Tojerio, sharing a passion for cars. Together, they set up workshops in the farm barns, developing prototypes of the AC Buckland Tourer, AC Cobra, and AC Ace - now highly sought-after vintage vehicles. John Tojerio later moved to Barkway, living at Townsend House and running a workshop at what is now Stallibrass Mews behind 126 High Street.
When Angela was 17, the family moved to Barkway Cottage. She recalled the bitter winter of 1962–63, when even the toilet inside the house froze! Although her schooling and work took her to Cambridge, she fondly remembered local connections, such as attending swimming sessions with the Barkway Girl Guides.
After marrying in Barkway Church in 1967, Angela and her husband set up home at Slate Hall, Therfield, and she feels fortunate to have lived within five miles of Buckland all her life.
Angela’s talk offered a vivid glimpse into farming life, family connections, and a unique chapter of automotive history linked to our local area, a truly memorable session for all who attended.