Memories by Phyllis Crowson

Phyllis Crowson about 1965

Growing up in Helpston – notes on changes in the village since the 1920s.

Phyllis Crowson wrote notes about her life in Helpston as part of the Women’s Institute millennium archive.

Farms in the village

“There were 9 farms varying in size in the village, 5 keeping cows. My mother made butter until 1943, when the Government stopped it & all milk unless you had a milk round was collected by lorry & taken to the Co-op Dairy in large heavy churns.”

The Village School

“About 140 children attended the School which still stands on Glinton Rd. There was a Headmaster & three lady teachers. We left school at 14 years unless we went to the Grammar School leaving there at 15 yrs. The last two years I was at School we went for the complete term from Xmas – Easter to the Village Hall for cookery. All cooking was done on a large cast iron stove, no water, it had to be carried from the pump outside the Almshouses.”