Having had memories of Hatfield Heath at the AGM meeting, for April we welcomed Edna Halls, born and raised in Hatfield Broad Oak, to talk about former village life using a mix of old postcard views and modern photos.
We started off at Broad Street Green where she was born in the 1930’s. She pointed out a small terrace of three houses that has now been combined to form a single small house by modern standards. Who knew that the Dukes Head pub once had a petrol pump on the main road side or that the gents urinals were originally outside by the car park entrance. The Catholic Church was originally a Methodist Chapel where she had happy memories of Brownies and Sunday School but not so happy when used by the visiting school dentist! The village school in her time had earth closet toilets at the bottom of the playground, similar to the village houses, and the older boys had the duty to dig it out every so often. In WW2 an air raid shelter was created out of the school cellar with and additional entrance dug out at the opposite end to the original entry. Keeping on the theme of toilet facilities, during WW2 there was an Observer Corps post on top of the church tower and the toilet bucket had to be gently lowered down by rope from the top to be emptied! Edna pointed out three different doctor’s surgeries along the High Street and the sites of former shops. The corner shop was formerly Fox’s and sold everything from papers to paraffin and on to wool. Turning down Cage End she noted the Village Hall was formerly the Drill Hall and in the garage section was a gun carriage. Turning into Cannons Lane she remembers market garden fields, Jersey cows on Medlars Mead fields and the thatched barn the was the starting point of Broad Oak Sausages. An enjoyable stroll around the village and a good selection of views to illustrate it. Thank you, Edna. Memories were also on the Chairman’s mind as he had to announce the death of our long standing HBO representative on the committee, Carol Toogood. Also, that the funeral had been held that afternoon for Jean Foster, who had died aged 103 and had been a stalwart of the Heath Players and other village activities. Unexpected memories surfaced for John Faulkener. Having talked at the AGM about his childhood he was accosted by Roger Simons of the Broad Oak Sausage family, who recognised him but could not place where. They had to go back to childhood and realised that John went out on his father’s bakery round to the villages from Hatfield Heath whilst Roger joined his father’s butcher’s round from Hatfield Broad Oak and the two roundsmen used to meet up in a village for a chat. Impressive memory recall by both parties! Our next meeting will be on June 25th at the South Mill Centre for a guided tour of the Bishop Stortford Museum by the Curator. Please phone David Parish (07483 276543) to check on space availability. Prior to that we will have an exhibition over the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee holiday on Friday 3rd and Saturday 4th June in the URC Church Hall in Hatfield Heath.
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