I was born on 4th September 1927 and lived in Halefield a mile outside the village on the road to Southwick.  I was the second youngest of six children. My father ran the farm and my mother, besides raising the family, would help with bringing the babies into the world and the laying out of the dead.  My father was also a lay preacher in the Methodist Chapel. He often preached outside the village and would travel by bike.  My family were bought up as strict Methodists and we walked to the chapel three times every Sunday; Sunday school was in the morning and there were two more services at 2.30 and 6.00pm.  The congregations of the Church and Chapel rarely mixed.

Life in the village was tough – there was no electricity and people relied on oil lamps and candles.  I remember the lanes being very dark and my father would lead us back and forth to the Chapel using an hand held oil lamp.  Houses were heated by coal fires and because our house was thatched, my father was very safety conscious and made sure the fire was out before we all retired. There was no running water in the village and every cottage had its own well or pumps.  Often the bucket would come up from the well with snails or other insects as well as water.  My father always told her to ‘let it stand’, so the insects would sink to the bottom and then we were able to drink the water.  There was, of course, no sewerage, so people had to dig their own pits etc.

The village was more or less self-supporting.  There was a shop and post office but most people grew their own vegetables and if you had any leftover you would help out your neighbours either by giving them away or bartering.  I remember that during harvest time after threshing a lot of rabbits would have been killed.  My father collected these up and gave them to families in the village.  Most families kept their own pig, either in their back gardens or on the allotments. (You can still see some of the foundations of the pig-sties on the allotments today.)

I attended the village school until I was 10 years old and then went to Oundle.  I remember annual school trips to Wicksteed Park where we were all handed tickets so rides were free. We also visited Skegness and Hunstanton. The village had an annual May Day celebration when the children would process around the village, with the May Queen in front.  Then there would be maypole dancing and tea back at the school.  The people in the village also celebrated Commonwealth Day.

People rarely went out of the village; there was only one bus and that was on a Saturday and went to Peterborough.  If you wanted to go anywhere else then you went by bicycle.  Everyone had or hired a bike and they all enjoyed their rides.  I remember going on the bus with my mother who had a box of live chickens which she was going to sell at the market.  The chickens made a lot of noise so we were put on top of the bus for the journey.  I also remember my mother taking children into Peterborough Hospital to have their tonsils out.  My mother would return with them later that day, with the poor child having a scarf wrapped around their chin and head.  It must have been very frightening and painful for the children but maybe they felt better when they were told to eat ice cream.  If you had an infectious disease like scarlet fever etc., then you would be sent to the isolation hospital in Oundle

The villagers made their own entertainment at home.  Hind’s Field, which is where Lindsey Close is now, was the place where the cricket club played, as well as the young boys getting together on a Sunday morning for a game of football.  Every year a fair would come to the village and  set up on Hind’s field.

There was a hut next to the school which was called the Women’s Institute Hut – later called the British Legion Hut where village ‘hops’ took place.  They also had whist drives there and many a bride held her wedding reception there too.  Esther Brooks who had been a cook at Burghley House moved to the village later in life and would be called upon to do the refreshments for village events.  She made the most mouth-watering sponges, as light as a feather, and was in great demand for wedding receptions etc.  She also looked after the village crockery and this was in great demand for any village event, but you knew that you must not go to see her after 8.00pm.

There were two public houses; the White Swan and the Horse and Jockey. There was also a Reading Room which was used as a club and it was the social hub for the men of the village.  They would have fur and feather draws there and it was where the ‘sick and dividing club’ was held (my friends and I used to call it the ‘sick and abiding’ club). The men would pay a small amount each week and if anyone in the family was ill they were entitled to a small payment (useful when you think that the doctor would charge you 6d for a visit.

Most of the men in the village worked on the farms, either as labourers or stockmen.  The work on the farm was hard as there was next to no machinery and horses were used for almost everything.  Some men did work as foresters and one or two worked on the iron stone workings at Jacks Green (on the Apethorpe to Nassington Road).

There was an undertaker in the village and a blacksmith. The blacksmith was Mr Quincey and the forge was near to where the telephone box used to stand.  Beside a village shop there was a greengrocer, a dressmaker and a baker (Harry Wade, called Doughy Wade by the villagers).  There was also the man who butchered the pigs for the villagers so they had meat for the coming year.  The village had a surgery, which the doctor visited weekly.  Connie (Conrad) Wells ran the saddlers shop and he had a model horse and cart in the window which had been made by the local doctor.

The vicar in the 1930’s was the Reverend Preston followed by the Reverend Brown.  They both lived in the Vicarage. Another important person in the life of the village was Mr Leonard.  He lived in the Manor House with his daughter and granddaughter, and was the person who would open village fetes and flower shows.

So, Woodnewton was very much a working village surrounded by farmland where there were some cattle but mainly arable farmland.  There were also many orchards, nearly all the land behind Main Street was given over to fruit trees and every year someone would come to pick the plums and sell them on.  2013

1927-2018