Interviews

Angela (Anne) Rawlinson was born in Burwell in 1933, as were both her parents. ‘My first memory was of an ARP warden cycling along the Ness Road where I lived at the time, ringing a bell to announce that war had started. We had an air-raid shelter in the garden, and took evacuees, I don’t ...

Barbara Turner was born in Martin Road, Burwell in 1942, one of seven children. ‘My father would take his dockey to work with him, he’d usually have half a loaf of bread with the corner cut out to put his butter in, then a lump of cheese with it … He’d have a bottle of ...

Barrie Bushell was born in North Norfolk, but moved to Burwell in 1962, working at Marshall of Cambridge as an aircraft engineer. He talks about his childhood in Norfolk, agriculture, life in Burwell, helping out at Burwell Museum, building an astronomical observatory in his back garden…

Chris Wilson was brought up in Yorkshire, and became a mill enthusiast when he was 10 years old. Here he talks about the major restoration work he carried out on Stevens’ Mill, Burwell, during the 1970s.

David Ready was born in Silver Street, Burwell, in 1940. He is the tenant farmer of Slade Farm, as his father and grandfather were before him. ‘In the village we had three fish and chip shops … five butchers … three hairdressers … two bakers … and ten pubs. There were the general stores, ...

In 1969, Richard Bourne’s father, architect Cecil Bourne, found out that a housing estate was going to be built on the field beside Stevens’ Mill. ‘My father offered the builders £5 to buy the mill, but part of the deal was that he did it up. So in the early 1970s he formed Burwell Windmill ...

Eric Jacobs was born in 1923 in Newmarket Road and moved to The Causeway when he was five years old. ‘In the summertime we used to go up the river to Reach Lode, strip off in the ditch and swim. There was a part-flooded pit as you go from Burwell to Fordham where they used ...

Frank Jennings was born in Burwell in 1932. ‘I was seven when the war broke out … one day we saw a German fighter plane being chased by a Spitfire, it was shot down over Fordham. Lots of crews used to drop their bombs in the Fen because they couldn’t take them home. Bom, ...

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 ...

James Faircliffe was born in Burwell in 1933 and has been interested in railways since he was a boy. ‘Our local station was on a branch line, Cambridge to Mildenhall, with three passenger trains each way every day and a couple of goodsers . As a boy I used to go into the signal ...

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. ...

Jo Tarran was 13 when war broke out. She was evacuated twice from her London home, to Bognor Regis and Cornwall, then started work as a GPO telephonist. She moved to Burwell to live with her daughter Rebecca after her husband John died. These are her memories of the war years … Time Topics described 00:00:40 Clapham aged 13. ...

Joan White was born in 1925 at Gravelpit Farm, Heath Road, about a mile and a half outside Burwell, one of eight children. She moved into the village when she married in 1948. ‘On the farm we had cows, bullocks, horses, chickens, and turkeys there for Christmas, my father used to pluck them and my ...

John Wisbey was born in Cambridge in 1938 and came to live in Burwell in 1965.  Along with his architectural colleague Cecil Bourne and local heating engineer John Hardiment, he founded Burwell Windmill Trust in 1970, and was a founding Trustee of Burwell Museum Trust. He was also involved in buying and rebuilding the 18th-century ...

Margaret Moss was born in Burwell in 1937, and has lived on The Causeway since she was 18 months old. ‘When I was about eight my Dad kept pigs and chickens and he would go up every now and again with a big bag of corn to have it ground by Mr ...

Ophir Catling was born in 1925 in Leicester, but moved to Oak Farm in Burwell in the 1960s. He became involved in Burwell Museum through Trustee John Wisbey, painting the plaster model of the barn owl, creating a lump of ham for the historic shop, and donating a variety of artefacts including children’s spinning tops ...

Paul Hawes was born in Burwell in 1935: his father was also a villager, and his mother was ‘delivered to Burwell at the age of five in a horse and cart from Newmarket workhouse’ (Lifestory). As a child, Paul lived in a cottage on the riverbank near Judy’s Hole ‘with no electricity or anything like ...

Sheila Doe was born in Bristol in 1933, the youngest of seven children. She worked as a nurse, moving to Burwell on her marriage in 1958. Her husband’s parents ran a general store selling paint, cycles and radios on The Causeway and also a sweetshop. ‘Sweets were still on coupons and my mother in-law used ...