DATA BASE REF: I 1019

JENNY HAMMOND OF BENAM’S CLOSE CASTOR

Jenny Hammond nee Marsh is married to Peter. She is related to many families in the village and spent all her childhood here.

Family:

Katherine Flora Gertie m Jack Robert Alice

Bell Adson Adson Mann Marsh Marsh

neeAdson b 1899 b 1905

Elton Mount Sorrell, Leics

Margaret m Claude Hazel Mann m Jim John Mary Christopher

Bell Sharpe b Lincoln Marsh b.1928 b.1940 b.1942

(both of Castor) b.Peckham Castor Castor Castor

Jennifer m Peter Susan Alison(Anna)

Elizabeth Hammond Cook (formerly John) Hornsby

Marsh lives Upton

Andrew Mandy m Paul

John Sharpe of Ailsworth

Andrew

Hazel Mann, Jenny’s mother, was born in Lincoln, but came to Castor when she was one year old. Her parents Jack and Gertie Mann came here to work for Colonel and Mrs Vine at the Elms, Peterborough Road, Castor; Jack as chaffeur/handyman and Gertie as cook. They lived at no 3 High Street Castor, This was a row of four cottages, end on to the road, It is now one cottage and the Shadbolts live there. The Manns lived at the end of the row nearest the raod, and it was described as “one up, one down, tap in the garden, loo down the bottom”.

Hazel, John, Mary and Christopher Marsh all went to Castor School. When Hazel was 14, she left school and wenr into service at Sutton Grange for Mrs Graeme. When the Second World War started, Hazel went to work as a ticket collector at Peterborough Railway Station, where she met one James Marsh, a sailor without a ticket. He tried to get round her, asked her to the pictures, and the outcome was that they were married in 1945 at St Kyneburgha’s Church Castor by Canon Carlton.

Gertie and Jack went to live in Peterborough and Jim and Hazel stayed on at no 3 High Street Castor. While there Jim kept a goat as a pet, and chickens, ducks and rabbits for food. He also had a ferret and always had a dog. Jenny was born there in July 1946 and was christened by Canon Carlton. Susan was born in 1948 and christened by Tom Adler. When Jenny was little, Jim worked for Tersus, mending railway lines. All three girls went to Castor School and were taught by Miss Hales and Miss Ambrose. In 1953 they moved to one of the new houses, 20 Thorolds Way on Bill Bass the coalman’s cart. There Anna was born in 1954. When they went to big school (Fitzwilliam School in the now Village Hall) they were taught by Mr Berridge and Mrs Golding. They were all in the Girl Guides.

When they first marked out the by-pass with red (surveyors’) sticks, Jenny, Mandy Currie (nee Mossendew) and Edwin Feather pulled out all the sticks, and took them home to Dad for firewood. Jenny remembers Coronation Day; the theme of the School Float was Robin Hood and Sherwood Forest; Jenny was Maid Marion and it poured with rain. There used to be fancy dress dances in the Hut (Old Village Hall), and baby clinics took place there. The children also went there for their school dinners. The Reading Room was on the Green, and had a library (what’s happened to all its books) and was used for meetings.

Jenny went back to the primary school by the church, when the Fitwilliam School closed for one term before going to Glinton School. She remembers Lady Fitzwilliam re-opening the primary school after its rebuild. Lady Fitwilliam wore an enormous red-feathered hat. She remembers the Hon Mrs Pelham, a lovely lady with long dangley ear-rings.

They all went to Sunday School in the morning, sometimes in the school, and sometimes in the church. They had stamp-books, with a stamp for attendance each Sunday, and bottle-shaped missionary collecting boxes. Miss Hales and Miss Philips ran the to Sunday School. They were all in the church choir and all ate sweets during the sermon even then.(jenny still does!)

She remembers Mr Smith’s shop, now the coal office (Griffins) and taking the ration bok there for sweets and biscuits.

Snippins was the tailor and post-man. George Sharpe, the cobbler and barber lived in Main Street Ailsworth. Mr Adler (the Rector) had a house-keeper called Miss Robson. The roadmen were Ernie? Garfield and Ernie Crowson. Wally Longfoot delivered milk in a churn, and ladled it out into a jug.

The summers were always hot, the tar on the road bubbling. On days like that Jenny, Mandy, Edwin and Sue used to go and cavort in the stream in the Old Marholm Road (Water Lane). They would have been 7 or 8 at the time. Then they all went to Glinton School, and belonged to Guides, the Youth Club.

When she was 15,Jenny left school and worked for Jay Winfrey as a mother’s help. She had started baby-sitting for Jay as soon as Jay came to the village. Jenny then sat the entrance exam for the Church of England Children’s Society in Mr Adler’s study to train as a nursery nurse. She then lived and worked in Cambridge wher they had a wonderful matron called Miss Bradshaw. On passing her exams, Jenny worked at the Gables and Thorpe Hall .

She then went in 1967 to Australia for 2 amazing years. It was the best £10 she has ever spent. She flew via Beirut, Calcutta, Rangoon, Hong Kong, Darwin, Sidney and Melbourne. The plane was possibly a Britannia. Once in Australia she worked as a nurse doing hospital and private work. She then came home, got married in 1973, Andrew was born in 1975; she came back to Castor in 1979 and married Peter Hammond in 1984.

She remembers her childhood as a happy village life. They could all wander anywhere and no-one worried, going for long walks, out all day, playing in Aunt Kath’s back lane (the continuation of High Street, where it turns right and runs between the fields). Happy Days.

These notes were made by William Burke , while talking to Jenny Hammond 16 May 2002 .