Down Memory Lane
Stewart Adlam and Greta Stoddart who now own Oxenlears, the large house down the lane from Hills Farm in Kilmington which was owned by the Trott family for many years, invited to tea the surviving members of the 13 strong Hall family that used to live there in the 1930’s. Greta kindly asked me to join them because I lived in the first of the two cottages down the lane during World War II and knew Oxenlears and the occupants at that time, Johnny and Martha Flowers.
As I wandered down the lane with Caroline and our two grandsons Jack and Charlie, I recounted how my family had been bombed out of our house in Croydon by the Luftwaffe on 27th August 1940, surviving in an Anderson shelter at the bottom of the garden. My father brought us down on the train to Axminster two days later to find somewhere to live. He knew Harry Hurford, owner of Hurfords Stores, who contacted George Trott with the result that he let us move into the top Hills Farm Cottage, with Fred and Ethel Chard as our neighbours. Fred was a labourer at Hills Farm and had been gassed in the trenches while serving with the Devonshire Regiment in the Great War. The move must have been a great shock to my mother with us four children because my father had to return two days later to resume making aircraft for the war effort as Service Manager of Field Aviation in Croydon. With no electricity, no proper sanitation and no running water, she had to pump two pails of water from the well at Oxenlears every morning and life was rather primitive with a bath once a week in a galvanised tub by the fire, shared by all! However, Fred and Aunt Chard as we called her were wonderful, and it was an idyllic spot to pass away the war years. As I was aged five, I went to Kilmington School, and to St Giles’ Church three times on a Sunday, with choir practices every Thursday night. Walking the mile from the house to the village and back never worried me even in the dark because there was little traffic in those days. I used to drive George Trott’s herd of nearly 100 Ayrshire cattle up and down the lane for the princely sum of 6 pence per week. It was terribly sad in 1942 when foot and mouth disease was identified in the herd and it had to be slaughtered and buried in lime pits in a field just below Oxenlears. It was even sadder one day in the summer of 1943 when George Trott came down to break the news that his eldest son Arthur had been shot down in a Halifax bomber which he was navigating during a daylight raid over Germany. Arthur need not have joined up because he was a farmer, but he was determined and tragically died of his injuries when a Flying Officer in the RAFVR.
As we came to the cottage where I used to live, I found the outside privy where we sat and shivered during the winter, being demolished by David Joyce. Actually, he is in the process of knocking the two cottages into one which will make a lovely home for his family. At Oxenlears we were greeted by Stuart and Greta with their two children Jesse and Frank to find that eight members of the Hall family had already arrived. We were given a tour of the lovely house which Arthur and Anna Trott had refurbished prior to selling the farm. Elsie Simmonds, whose mother was one of the Hall family, was present and she showed us the bedroom where she was born. Les and Doug Hall, brothers now in their 80’s, showed us their bedroom where four of the brothers shared one bed! All the Hall family present obviously thoroughly enjoyed their reunion with Oxenlears and its wonderful views of the Axe Valley and Seaton, telling stories of their early life there and at Kilmington School. It was a joy to be with them, thanks to the kind invitation from Stewart and Greta.
As I wandered down the lane with Caroline and our two grandsons Jack and Charlie, I recounted how my family had been bombed out of our house in Croydon by the Luftwaffe on 27th August 1940, surviving in an Anderson shelter at the bottom of the garden. My father brought us down on the train to Axminster two days later to find somewhere to live. He knew Harry Hurford, owner of Hurfords Stores, who contacted George Trott with the result that he let us move into the top Hills Farm Cottage, with Fred and Ethel Chard as our neighbours. Fred was a labourer at Hills Farm and had been gassed in the trenches while serving with the Devonshire Regiment in the Great War. The move must have been a great shock to my mother with us four children because my father had to return two days later to resume making aircraft for the war effort as Service Manager of Field Aviation in Croydon. With no electricity, no proper sanitation and no running water, she had to pump two pails of water from the well at Oxenlears every morning and life was rather primitive with a bath once a week in a galvanised tub by the fire, shared by all! However, Fred and Aunt Chard as we called her were wonderful, and it was an idyllic spot to pass away the war years. As I was aged five, I went to Kilmington School, and to St Giles’ Church three times on a Sunday, with choir practices every Thursday night. Walking the mile from the house to the village and back never worried me even in the dark because there was little traffic in those days. I used to drive George Trott’s herd of nearly 100 Ayrshire cattle up and down the lane for the princely sum of 6 pence per week. It was terribly sad in 1942 when foot and mouth disease was identified in the herd and it had to be slaughtered and buried in lime pits in a field just below Oxenlears. It was even sadder one day in the summer of 1943 when George Trott came down to break the news that his eldest son Arthur had been shot down in a Halifax bomber which he was navigating during a daylight raid over Germany. Arthur need not have joined up because he was a farmer, but he was determined and tragically died of his injuries when a Flying Officer in the RAFVR.
As we came to the cottage where I used to live, I found the outside privy where we sat and shivered during the winter, being demolished by David Joyce. Actually, he is in the process of knocking the two cottages into one which will make a lovely home for his family. At Oxenlears we were greeted by Stuart and Greta with their two children Jesse and Frank to find that eight members of the Hall family had already arrived. We were given a tour of the lovely house which Arthur and Anna Trott had refurbished prior to selling the farm. Elsie Simmonds, whose mother was one of the Hall family, was present and she showed us the bedroom where she was born. Les and Doug Hall, brothers now in their 80’s, showed us their bedroom where four of the brothers shared one bed! All the Hall family present obviously thoroughly enjoyed their reunion with Oxenlears and its wonderful views of the Axe Valley and Seaton, telling stories of their early life there and at Kilmington School. It was a joy to be with them, thanks to the kind invitation from Stewart and Greta.
Brian Lavender
