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'I were about eleven year old, there were a very high flood. One evening the Lotting Fen bank busted.
My mother, my sisters and me, and as many of our women neighbours as could, went out and started clawing up as many of our 'taters as we could get by the light o' the moon. We were desperate to get some on 'em out to last us through the winter. We worked till it were nearly midnight, but by that time the water had reached the top o' the rows, and we couldn't do no more. We went poddling sorrowfully home.
I were in a terrible state, 'cos that year my father had given me two rows o' 'taters o' my own. They were about ten chain long, so there 'ud a-bin nearly a quarter of a mile if they had all a-bin in one row.
Read more on Page 24 in Fenland Chronicle
AT THE MUSEUM
In the Barn Annex.....the display shows many items used locally in the growing and harvesting of potatoes. A measurement call a chain is mentioned in the extract - there is a chain on display in the Barn Annex as well.
Around the museum you will be able to see some of the larger items associated with potato growing and harvesting.
Read about 'The Potato King' Jabez Papworth (1845-1904) who was a local businessman, the first to cultivate and market celery, and the first person to grow the King Edward potato - in fact he named it!
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