1948 - 2000
52 years in Widdington
Alan Calver

In 1948 my parents, bought 2 Holly cottages from Mr. Charlie Piper and we moved in on the 25th  september 1948. My father Albert Calver, my mother Grace Calver. My brother John Calver, my self and a cat named "James' this was a big change from the terraced houses and streets of Hither green London SE 13.
Whichever way we looked there were green fields golden fields, trees and hedges wild flowers and am  wild floweres.
I did not get off to a very good start as i was not very well when we left London and within a few days. I was in Saffron Walden hospital, (now the uttlesford district council offices)  suffering from osteomylitis a bone disease and i was very ill indeed for two weeks my life was saved by pennicillin, only just coming into common use. After a period of convalescence i went to work for the Hoy family they were They were Mr Eddie Hoy, Mrs Hoy and George, John, Jim, Joan and Marie, at Martins farm, my job was to help with the herd of Wessex saddle back pigs (world famous some were exported to Sapan) help with the flock of chickens and help out wherever else i was needed.
Then in December 1948 i was offered a job at Thistley hall, farmed by Mr Sibley and his two sons. I started work on December 27th (no holidays then from Christmas until new year). I think there was about 250 acres including Littley wood. This was the start of my farming career as this was a mixed arable / stock farm which meant i was involved in looking after beef cattle, tractor driving, hedging ditching etc, also working on the farm were Grace Quinnel and Harry Pearman, (who later took over the William the Conqueror public house with his wife) this all came to and end in march 1949 when i was

2.

Called up for national service in the army, Mr Sibley  gave me the offer that he could apply to get me off as farming was still aireserved occupation, but i turned the offer down as i wanted to go.
So on the 7th April 1949, i left Widdington, it was a pouring wet morning and my father and I cycled to Newport station to catch a train to London, my father accompanied me to Paddington where he saw me off on a train to Oswestry.
Oswestry was a national service assesment unit run by the 65th? Battery, regiment of Royal artillery there we were put through physical, mental aptitude, educational, firearms, parade ground and general all round tests to decide which job would suit us to give of our best to the army.
I always say that because i was 6ft 1 in tall, could read, write, spell and was not a very good shot with a rifle they made me a military police man (thats my story and i'm sticking to it)
on about 23 April all men going for training as military policemen were sent to Inkerman barracks, Woking, surrey this building was once a prison, and the story went that some famous murderer was once held there, but after all this time i can't remeber who.
When you walked through the arch into the huge courtyard your heart sank to your boots, three sides of the square were grim 3 storey buildings with the fourth side the gate, and admin buildings. We were sorted in to squads for training, i was in 100 squad, and given our caps with red covers white webbing, MP armbands note books, whistle, cap badge etc, we had already got our boots, basic uniform and green webbing (napsack etc) fr.om.

3.

Oswestry, our squad dormitory was on the top floor in one of the wings over looking the square.
So for the next 3 months 22123428 l/cpl Calver A.C. Was -trained in police work, map reading, motor cycling, driving small arms firing, mostly pistol, .38 and .45 also sten guns we also had infantry training, on the assault course and unarmed combate in the gym, and after all that we sat our exams had a passing out parade, (which i was not allowed on as i had a Canadian green khaki uniform which differed in colour to British khaki) and were ready to be let loose on whichever part of the world needed us.
The three most likely place then were germany, hong kong and lybya, the unlucky ones stayed in britain.
The draft i was put in was sent to Libya, we sailed from Liverpool on the troopship "Empire test" and landed at Tripoli about 10 days later. We were then driven in lorries to Benghazi, i was posted to no 2 dog company R.M.P. Stationed in Caribineri barracks with 209 Provost company.
No 2 dog company's duties were to guard military installations at night, with war combat dogs, there was a leave camp at Appolonia near the ancient city of Cyrene, where we spent two really special weeks leave, after just over a year in Libya we returned to england and were posted to uk postings.
I was sent to Aldershot on staff at the R.M.P barracks when unfortunatly Osteomylitis struck again, so it was a medical discharge from the army, and return to Widdington.
By now my father had a job at the Eastern national bus company, my mother had a flock of chickens in the garden and was selling eggs to the egg marketing board 

4.

As well as helping out on seasonal work, like pea, and potato picking, and my brother John had left school and was working for the same Mr Sibley at Thistley Hall. As i was classed as disabled i had some difficulty getting a suitable job so in the end i ignored the doctors advice and took a sob as cowman / tractor driver for Mr John Penney at Wyses house farm. Wyses farm was about 100 acres, 60 acres on hollow road a meadow opposite the farm, two fields near Mole hall and two fields on the S bends at Shiptons.
These four fields were sold and i worked Hollow road fields, the stock were a herd of 15 British Friesians and a small herd of pigs.
The staff were Bill Canning. Nickname pug, myself, with mr Penney helping out with the stock and farm, he also had 2 race horses in stables looked after by Billy Balfe, who was also a jockey, my brother would accompany them to race meetings as stable lad. The implements were a standard Fordson tractor, and a, run on tractor vaporising oil a form of parafin. The tractor started on petrol then when the engine was hot enough the fuel was switched to T.V.O. 
These tractors were used on two, 2 furrow ploughs  a cultivator, harrows, roller, seed drill, fertilizer spreader, grass cutter, hay rake, hay sweep and turwer and trailers. There was a stationary baler for hay and straw, tan elevator for building stacks and a grass binder for harvesting corn, and a Smythe drill for grass seed when i first went to work at Wyses farm Mr Canning and i would share the field work. As he did not drive a tractor i would plough and coltivate and harrow to make a seed bed, then

5.

Of the seed drill to regulate the rate of seed and fertilizer, and to make sure the seed pipes and coulters did not block. This also applied to the Smythe drill when we were sowing grass or clovers seed or mangolds. Then he had an extra sob of winding the seed pipes and coulters out of the ground at each end of the field using a handle.
Hay making was done the traditional way, after the hay was cut it was turned by hay turner till it was made and then raked into rows, then using the hay sweep it was pushed to the elevator and stacked. If the ground conditions were not good for sweeping or the stack was to be made in the farmyard, the hay would be loaded onto trailers and carried to the yard. Harvest was also traditional for that time.
The binder would go into the field and cut the corn. Usually with Mr Canning on the binder, regulating the height of cut etc with a series of levers Mr Penney or I would drive the tractor, we would be followed round the field by workers, hired for the harvest, and they would pick up the sheaves of corn and stand them into stooks. Or shocks, 8 or 10 sheaves to a stook. These stooks would be left to stand in the field (according to the country custom) until the church bells had rung over them three times) or about 2 weeks, this allowed the sheaves to dry and the corn to be completly ripe.
Then the tractors and trailers arrived, along with a gang of people with pitch forks, and with some pitching and some on the trailers loading. The sheaves would be taken to the elevator and the corn stacked (stack yard the top of Holly road hill when all was in -the stacks would be thatched to await the contractors with the threshing machine. Usually after Christmas 

6.

Then the stacks would be taken down and the sheaves put through the "drum as they called it.  The corn coming out one end into sacks to be stored in the barn awaiting the collection by the corn merchants lorries, and the straw coming out the other end for use on the livestock. After 3 years Mr John Penney sold Wyses farm to his brother Ray.
Things began to change slowly with the passage of time the hay was still cut and turned by us, but contractors came in and baled it with a tractor pulled baler on the field. Also at harvest a tractor pulled combine would be hired. Which put the corn straight into sacks.
On the 1st  January 1955 i married my wife Violet, and in November 1955 we moved into our present home in Hamel way. Our first son Jonn was born in 1958, kevin in 1961 and Trevor in 1963. My father Albert died in December 1962, 14 years after arriving in Widdington, he spent most of that time as a conductor, then driver on the Eastern national buses. Bishops Stortford.
In 1961 Mr Ray Penney sold Wyses farm, took his herd of cows and went off to farm at Horsham, Sussex
Mr Stewart Sownstone bought Wyses farm and i went to work for him at Mole Hall as relief cowman, general farm worker relief cowman did the milking when the cowman had days off or holidays.
Mr Jack Smith was the foreman at that time, there were 8 persons on farm staff, plus 4 on the wildlife park staff run by Mrs Johnstone, Mr Ted knights was warden. Soon after i started at Mole Hall Mr Jimmy Stalley, who was pigman, left and i was offered his job looking after 39 sows, producing bacon pigs, and still be relife cowman, i did this job for 8 years. The milking herd were Jersey and Guernsey cows, 

7.

Mole Hall farm was well known for fresh dairy cream. It was supplied to Pennings store grocery store in Saffron Walden as well as many other customers in the area. Then regulations were published concerning the marketing of cream and as a result it was going to cost £10,000 to get equipment. 30 the cream stopped and with the ever tightening  of the rules and lowering of prices eventually the milking herd was sold, after  this we had beef cattle, Charolais, + Aberdeen Angus, for about 2 years before they were sold, then the pigs were sold and mole hall became an arable farm.
This left John Rose, foreman, and myself to work the farm with help from various people from the gardens, wildlife park and casual workers, my son kevin came to Mole Hall when John Rose on the machinery side the tractors all ran on diesel fuel and were getting bigger and more powerful.
Implements were getting bigger, five furrow reversible ploughs were common. They had five furrows on top and five underneath which turned over at the end of each bout and done away with the need for marking out the field in stetches,
the spray equipment and fertilizer spreaders were 40 ft wide. Also introduced were tramlines in the corn. When the corn was sown in the seed drill, every fifth bout the two seed pipes behind the tractor wheels were closed electronically so that there was a gap in the crop which we were able to follow when spraying and fertilizer spreading.
All this came to an end as far as my son kevin and I were concerned, kevin was by then farm manager, when Mr Douglas Johnstone took over the farm and decided to go into share farming with Mr Hamilton of Chesterford. That meant Mr Hamilton worked both Mole Hall and his own farm work 

8.

His own men and his machines, so a job which i thought would be until i retired came to an end.
As i was 60 yrs of age i had to find another job.
I went to work for Group 4 Security, doing 14 hr night shifts and 10 hr day shifts for Proctor and Gamble in Shire hill Saffron Walden, I retired at 65. And now do part time work.
Looking back over the years, i worked on the farm because it was a job i enjoyed doing, I always got on alright with my employers because I did not live in a tied cottage and was independant, they had no hold over me, also the farm workers union was there to help farm workers, the wages were not that good especially when there was rent to pay but we managed.
Village life has changed, most people worked on the farms and worked locally. Some worked away but not many. Also villagers were more friendly, ever body spoke to everybody, but now a friendly greeting often goes unanswered.
My mother passed away 3 years ago, but there are still family living in the village, my brother Jonn lives in Hamel way with his wife Linda. John is now retired after working for the eastern national bus company from the age of 19.
My son kevin lives in Cornells lane with his wife and family.
My eldest son John and his wife Alison and daughter Maise have moved away to Littleport, Cambs, my youngest son Trevor lives in Saffron Walden. Years ago my wife and were involved with various organizations in the village. My wife with the W.I, and drama club and i with and the youth club and mens club so we can now sit back and look back with pleasure.
At our part in village life

Tractor Vaporising Oil

After WW2 there was a call to re-introduce tax-free petrol specifically for users of farm machinery, but this led to nothing so an alternative, cheap, fuel was developed called TVO, or Tractor Vaporising Oil. TVO proved to be a popular choice with farmers in the 1940s and early 1950s, before the use of diesel tractors became widespread. Tractors converted to TVO still had to be started on petrol, but once warmed up could be switched over to TVO. A tractor working hard ran well enough on TVO, which had a much lower octane rating than petrol, although light use only proved to be less successful. In 1974 the sale of TVO was wound down, but in the 1950s demand was strong, and Esso were keen to build up their slice of the market.
Many benefits for Esso Green were given in this leaflet.
Economy - Prove this in terms of reduced petrol consumption and greater power.
A branded product - The first of its kind to be made available by today's refining methods.
Protection - Its readily identifiable colour is a full safeguard against substitution.
No increased cost.
Specially produced by the Latest Refinery methods for every type of Vaporising Oil Tractor.
You have chosen your tractors for efficiency and economy. Even so, fuel accounts for at least 50% of your running costs. In the past few years, war-time and post-war conditions have largely influenced the quality of your fuel. Now you can buy the best.
Fold-out the leaflet to view the full poster, and the advantages of Esso Green TVO and clearly given. Also shown, a great little illustration of an Esso tanker (Bedford O Series) driving away from a farm following a fresh delivery of TVO.