Jim Neale
Born in 1949, Jim Neale has lived in Burwell all his life. In 1930 his father Ron Neale, then aged 14, started working at Stevens’ Mill for farmer/miller Warren Stevens. ‘He was paid 10 shillings a week and continued up there until 1936 when he had to leave because the dust was affecting his health. When I was about nine or ten, I used to go on a Saturday morning with my dad to deliver the meal. Not only did the mill still grind corn for other people and deliver it back to them, they also bought in pig and poultry food which was ready mixed and bagged up, and we would go around the village delivering that meal …’
| Time | Topics described |
| 00:00:00 | Tape Introduction |
| 00:00:15 | Jim Neale born 1949 and lived all his life in Burwell. Father, Ron, born 1916 and also lived all his life in Burwell. Father left school at age 14 (1930) and went to work for Warren Stevens at the mill |
| 00:00:45 | Father worked until 1936 but had to leave due to problems with the dust. Then got job as a bus driver |
| 00:01:00 | Jim’s memories of going to mill as a boy |
| 00:01:30 | Warren Stevens was also a farmer |
| 00:02:30 | Aunt Dorothy was a housekeeper to the Stevens |
| 00:03:30 | Description of steam engine at mill, and later a tractor in the 1950’s |
| 00:04:30 | Building a brick shed at the mill |
| 00:05:30 | Description of when a new stock was fitted to the mill |
| 00:07:00 | Memories of allotments around mill |
| 00:07:30 | Description of the inside of the working mill |
| 00:08:45 | Story of gale in March 1949 when Ron Neale asked to climb mill to release the brake |
| 00:09:30 | Arthur Hill worked for Warren Steven on the land |
| 00:09:45 | Story of going in lorries of hay to London and bring protein back |
| 00:11:15 | Description of Warren Stevens old combine |
| 00:12:00 | Mill mainly produced animal feed and not flour for 3 bakers in Burwell |
| 00:12:45 | More details about Jim’s father Ron |
| 00:13:30 | Details of the Stevens family |
| 00:14:30 | Warren Stevens’ brother, Alfred, had a farm in North Street |
| 00:15:00 | Warren had a redbrick bungalow, called farmstead, built in 1962. Ron remembers old clunch walls being removed before building |
| 00:15:45 | Warren moved to Wolverton and died in 1976 aged 91 |
| 00:16:31 | Finish |