This photograph of a laughing little lad in a cowboy outfit looks as if it could have been taken in the Wild West.

But it was, in fact, taken in Potton in 1955 on a Land Settlement Association smallholding, and the little boy is Clive, the son of Bob Darlow who contacted us following our recent feature on the LSA.

The feature told the story of Nancy Woods who came down from Durham with her family through the LSA scheme in the 1930s set up to re-house and give land to unemployed people, many of them ex-mine workers.

Bob explains: "By 1940 no more miners came down from Durham and they were deployed into other wartime occupations.

"This meant that over half the available holdings were left vacant.

"The Land Settlement Association manager, Mr Andrews was trying to recruit local people to occupy the empty properties and persuaded by father into taking a holding in Sutton Road.

"My family became the first local people to move into one of these smallholdings in March 1940."

Bob recalls the Emery and Richardson families moving into the adjoining properties shortly afterwards.

During the course of the war, all the smallholdings were gradually taken over.

"I remember that we kept 200 free-range chickens so we always had eggs and chickens to eat, even though other foods were rationed.

"We also kept 30 pigs which when big enough were sent off to a Hitchin bacon factory for slaughter

"We were allowed to keep one pig every year for our own consumption."

Bob also remembers the time that Mr Emery's chickens were stolen except for just one!

"We continued to work the land for over 25 years until my father retired" said Bob.

This story appeared in Memory Lane on January 22, 2010.