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when he used the starting-handle with the car in gear. There was a
Studebaker owned by Mr Towler at Tunbridge Farm, Mr Paul had a
Victor and Mr Tebbit’s car at Bendish was burnt out, never to be
replaced!
Seventy years ago social life was centred around the Beer Houses,
the Reading Room, and behind it, the Parish Room. Once a year,
near Easter, a Parish tea and singsong is remembered with pleasure.
The Anchor, Golden Ball and the Swan pubs, ran slate-clubs and any
excess at the end of the year was shared out. Some villagers were
notorious for always “being on the Club and sick list”. Before the
second World War, Mr Jenyns had an area in Bottisham Park fenced
for a cricket pitch where the final for the Jenyns Cup was always
played. The cup final was a “rare day”. A large marquee, which
belonged to the Bottisham Flower Show, was used by the cricketers
and one for sweets and cups of tea. Tents were in charge of King
Cole who had a coal business. There was no charge for villagers to
use the Park. Football was played in Bendish Close before the
Grandfather of the present Mr Roger Jenyns gave land for a
recreation ground - now Jenyns Close. In the early year of the First
World War there were goal posts near the present Beauleigh House
in a twelve-acre field. Arthur was working at Six Mile Bottom,
when the Second World War started. Arthur had the job of carting
bricks from Burwell brick-works around East Anglia and the coast to
supply aerodromes and gun emplacements. In 1942 he was called-
up. Placed on an embarkation draft he got home leave then told to
go home! He was recalled in 1945 to R.E.M.E. then to the Service
Corps, and found himself in Gibraltar, then known as a ‘home
posting’ Day and night lorries carted rocks from inside the
mountain to extend the runway. He also went to North Africa and
was demobbed in 1946 at the age of 35.
So many memories of village small developments are still real to
Arthur, who in 2002 is the oldest inhabitant of Bottisham. The