The cottage in a car park

LAST year we featured a story on Henlow which mentioned the thatched cottages that used to stand in what is now the car park of The Five Bells pub.

Gwendoline Atkins, nee Prior, who is 90, has contacted Memory Lane to tell us how she was born and grew up in one of the four cottages. She has lived all her life in Henlow and believes she may be the oldest resident. She shared her memories of a life very different to the way we live today.

“I was born in 1921. I am not sure how old the cottages were but the village nurse lived in ours before us. I lived there with my four brothers until I was nine years old when we moved to Arlesey Road, Henlow.

“It was a two up, two down house with the toilet right around the back of the cottages that were behind ours. If it was raining we had to put our coats on to go to the toilet which was a bucket.

“There was a front door with a big drop into the room. You had to go through the main bedroom to get to the other bedroom with the stairs leading into the main bedroom.

“There was a big open fire with an oven at the side and a big hook that came down from the chimney. The large kettle hung on that all day long so we always had hot water. Our water tap was outside at the front of the house. It was a tall iron one.

“We had no bathroom. Bathing was done in front of the open fire on a Friday night with a hair wash and a spoon full of syrup of figs. Despite all this we were clean and happy!”

Gwendoline’s parents were Basil and Elizabeth Prior. She is pictured with her great grandmother Mrs Jordan who was in her late 90s at the time of the photo, her great uncle William Field, her aunt and brothers. Even in those days, the cottages were thought quaint and Gwendoline can recall people coming down from London to take photographs of them. School was next door so she “didn’t have far to go”.

One of the photos has been given to Tony, the landlord of The Five Bells. Gwendoline, who says she doesn’t look or feel 90, told him that she was born in his car park.

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