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take the horses home at night but stayed in Newmarket for two or
three days. Race goers stopped at the Swan for a drink”. The boys
shouted “Can we hold your horse, Sir?”. Arthur got a bucket of
water to give the horses a drink, and got a few coppers for his
trouble. The boys were also able to collect a few halfpennies and
pennies, at the time of the Reach Fair, when the Mayor of
Cambridge came back through the village and threw out the coppers
to the villagers.
Schooling finished for Arthur at the age of fourteen and he has
stayed working in the village for nine decades. His working life
began at the Swan Inn, situated at the eastern end of the present High
Street (now a business premise). The ‘Bottisham Haulage Company’,
based at the rear of the Swan, operated three steam wagons. which
were owned by a farmer from Swaffham Bulbeck (Philip Singleton).
Granite was carted from the Lode railway station to repair roads for
several miles around. Sometimes grain was carted to London and
cattle feed filled the wagons on the return journey. A journey to
London necessitated carrying bags of coal, and at least three stops
for water, on the way. London was reached in under four hours, but
often through driving too fast which broke the chains of the steam
wagon. The first steam wagon acquired was driven by Archie Harvey
(there were several Harveys living in Lode). Working hours at the
Swan were occasionally relieved by the visit of a ‘concert party.
Arthur has happy memories of the singer in the cast (Daisy Marsh),
whose professional(!), name was Daisy May, singing about her
rabbit as white as snow that “couldn’t buck up because it was a doe”.
When Arthur went to work at the garage he was asked, “Yew got a
license to drive yet boy?” He was given five shillings to buy a
licence - a year before the legal age of 17 - and started to drive
lorries, Model-T Fords, Chevrolets, and do repairs on the few cars
in the area. Dr Wood, physician and surgeon, had a two-cylinder De
Dion-Bouton which had the disconcerting habit of backfiring at
regular intervals. Dr Wood was killed by his one-cylinder Rover