Mrs Elizabeth Jones outside her house in George Street, Chesterton in the 1920s. 'Uncle Albert built the bay window onto their house,' said Mrs Hinchcliffe. 'He was a very clever man.' Mrs Grace Hinchcliffe's memories, contributed to the Arbury Archive in the mid-to-late 1980s, continue.  'It makes me think, how the school leaving age has gone up and up. My mum and dad were eleven when they left. I was fourteen. Now it's sixteen [1987]. Of course, it's eighteen if you stop on. But I often think how young Mum, Dad, Uncle Arthur, Aunt Lou and them were when they left. 'Uncle Arthur and Aunt Lizzie were the oldest two.  'Uncle Arthur was born in 1881 - I saw his birth certificate when he applied for his pension - and Aunt Lizzie a year or two later. Well, Uncle Arthur worked as a maintenance man for one of the colleges, then had to go to war, then worked at Girton College until he retired. His wife was ill for years, and Uncle Arthur coped, all very...

Mrs Hinchcliffe in 1986. Part three of Mrs Grace Hinchcliffe's memories, contributed to the Arbury Archive in the 1980s. Mrs Hinchcliffe (1910-1998) told us of her childhood and teenage years in the Arbury, Chesterton and Vicarage Terrace of the 1910s and 1920s. She was a cousin of Mrs Muriel Wiles, whose memories are also featured on this blog, and the differing personalities and recollections of the two make for fascinating reading. 'Mum was bringing me up to be a young lady. It wasn't a very good idea because we were working class really, but she wouldn't even let me wash up a spoon - bless her! But really I was full of mischief and loved an adventure. 'We had a saying about some housewives who were what you might call "jumped-up". They'd spend out on things to make their houses seem a bit posher, and skimp on necessary things. We'd say: "All fancy net curtains and half a bloater for dinner"! Mum wasn't like that - but she did see ...

The Brett family in the Park Meadow at Manor Farm, Arbury Road, 12 September, 1908. Left to right: Back row: Henry ('Harry'), Alice Maud ('Maud'), Charles, Mabel, Alfred. Middle row: Ellen ('Cissie'), Elizabeth, Richard, Amelia, Arthur, Louisa. Front: Frank and Lily. Our coverage of Mrs Wiles's 1986 contribution to the Arbury Archive continues. The First World War has a devastating effect on the Brett family, and Mrs Wiles recounts a strange tale from the 1880s... 'It's strange to look back - two world wars in one lifetime,' said Mrs Wiles. 'But that's just the way it is. We're like birds and animals really - territorial - for all our beautiful poetry, colour tellies and machines that make you a cup of tea in bed! 'I was a tot when the First War started and I was used to seeing my uncles in uniform when they were on leave. They had to wear their uniforms or somebody  might give them a white feather for cowardice if they were seen ...

Back to the Cambridge Weekly News , 1987, to discover more of the story of an ordinary Arbury farming family from the 1880s to the 1920s. The 20th Century has begun, and Richard and Amelia Brett are concerned for their children in a rapidly changing world. The old order changes tremendously at the Manor Farm, as it is sold to Cambridgeshire County Council. But nobody can predict just how much the world is going to change, and 1918 finds the Brett family mourning a son lost in the trenches... The wedding of Louisa Brett to Walter Ashman on 12 September, 1908 (see Part 2), was a grand occasion. In 1986, their daughter, Mrs Muriel Wiles, told me: 'They looked as if they owned the Earth in the photograph! But they didn't. Grandad was a very hard worker and kept the family in as much comfort as he could.' This week's instalment. Click on the image for a readable view and download if wanted to keep. Cambridge Daily News, 1919: memoriam notice for Alfred Brett. Sales particula...

                        Alfred Brett was a quiet, studious young man. On leaving St Andrew's School in Chesterton, he got a job as an assistant at an antiques shop in Cambridge and joined the Territorial Army. A postcard to Miss Lily Brett, Manor Farm, Arbury Road, Chesterton, Cambridge. The card came from Claude (Skinner) of the 3rd Norfolk Regiment (then in Felixstowe), a young friend of Lily:  Dear Lilly [sic] , Just a line hoping to find you and all quite safe as it leaves me at present. Tell Jimmy [?] he is a long time writing that letter. I expect Alf is alright. Give my love to all. Glad to hear that your father is better, from yours truly, Claude. Lance Corporal Alfred Brett, son of Richard and Amelia Brett of the Manor Farm, Arbury Road, 'Old Chesterton', was killed in the trenches of World War 1 not long before VE Day. The family - Richard, Amelia, and their ten remaining children - staggered under the blow, and...