Gladys Hobbs
As a child Gladys Hobbs lived in Priory Farm in the Fen with her parents, who worked for horticulturalist Alan Bloom. ‘My father worked on the land, he used to drive the tractor and feed the cows and pigs. My mother made butter in the churn from the milk … The Fen was very dusty and very dirty, when my mother had a washday, it was a tub and trowel and scrubbing brush and we had to fetch the water a good mile. As fast as she could get the clothes clean, they’d get dirty again.’
Part 1 of 2.
| Time | Topics described |
| 00:00:00 | Childhood at Priory Farm. |
| 00:00:43 | Father worked for Alan Bloom. |
| 00:01:43 | Mother made butter and cheese. |
| 00:01:59 | Animals. Cows and pigs. |
| 00:02:20 | Dusty fens. |
| 00:02:27 | Washday. |
| 00:02:40 | Water carried ¾ mile. |
| 00:03:27 | Milk churns carried. |
| 00:04:04 | Cream skimmed from the milk. |
| 00:04:40 | Love of horses. |
| 00:05:20 | Tractor rides. |
| 00:05:35 | Animals and birds in the fens. |
| 00:06:00 | Mother not used to hard fen life and was unhappy. |
| 00:07:00 | Visits to aunt at Bury St Edmunds. |
| 00:07:50 | Schooldays. |
| 00:08:37 | School friends. Games around the brick factory. |
| 00:09:09 | Mr Van Cutsem of Exning gave her a horse called Trampas. |
| 00:11:45 | Burwell Lower School. Teachers. |
| 00:13:00 | Walking home in the dark. |
| 00:14:10 | Wartime (aged 9-10). |
| 00:14:40 | Planes overhead from Bassingbourn. |
| 00:14:55 | Bombs in the fen. No damage. |
| 00:15:25 | Food. Plenty of butter, cheese and eggs. Queuing for rations. |
| 00:15:50 | Coupons. |
| 00:16:00 | Sweets rationed. |
| 00:16:14 | Preserves made. |
| 00:16:25 | Steamed puddings. |
| 00:16:59 | Took milky tea to men in the field. Foursies. |
| 00:17:35 | Dockey time. Cheese sandwiches. Plenty of eggs. Chickens and bantams. |
| 00:18:22 | Christmas. |
| 00:19:20 | Mother skinned rabbits. |
| 00:19:36 | Bread from village bakery. |
| 00:20:00 | Loneliness of fen. |
| 00:20:22 | Fight with cousins at Bury. Different way of life. |
| 00:21:00 | Land girls from London. |
| 00:23:45 | Father’s secret car. Petrol rationed. |
| 00:24:53 | Mother was a nurse at Addenbrooke’s. |
| 00:25:05 | Evacuees. |
| 00:26:40 | Cinema at Newmarket. |
| 00:26:48 | Westerns were favourites. |
| 00:27:13 | Remembers Stevens’ Mill and sails turning. |
| 00:27:42 | Dusty and smelly inside. |
Part 2.
| Time | Topics described |
| 00:00:00 | Work. Bookkeeping Jacksons. |
| 00:01:26 | Cambridge bookkeeping. |
| 00:02:22 | Outside wooden loo. Cesspit. |
| 00:02:52 | Mother had to scrub it clean. |