First Post

Hi, so pleased to find this site.
I was born in Widdington in 1942 in the other village pub

"William The Conqueror"
I went to the village school (and had access to the air raid shelter).
I had a lot of good pals who I havnt seen since about 1950s. My grandfather Fred Fair was the publican,he later moved to
the cottages near Mole Hall and worked on Connells Farm and in fact died in the cottage in about 1963.I have lots of fond memories of the pub and the American Pilot Officers and German Prisoners who lived with us. SO glad to have found your site and more power to your elbow, keep it going.

Second Post

Hi Gary,

I sent the bit about the old pub The William the Conqueror. As you are aware it was sold by the brewers to be used as a private dwelling house and looks very similar today as it did then. To the right of the pub was a builders yard known as Chipperfields yard, this was owned by Joe Chipperfield who lived in the cottages opposite the Conk (as we knew it) He had an elevated work shop reached by stairs situated right against the side wall of the pub.
As well as being a builder Mr Chipperfield was the local carpenter and in fact was the coffin maker...
Behind Chipperfields cottages was Hoys farm. I was sent there as i had to collect egg powder, which we were, obliged to use instead of real eggs due to wartime shortages. Mr Hoy was pressed into service on many occasion to take me to school on his tractor. (I was a very difficult boy to get to school!)

Hoys also ran Widdington Taxis they had a couple of Austin Big Sixes and we used them on numerous occasions. Our pub had accommodation upstairs even though the room dividing walls were only hair and tarpaper. We had two U.S. Pilots lived up there when not actually on duty or at RAF Debden.
Also strange as it may seem we had two German prisoners living up there who left every morning to work on a farm up the lane. I can remember them crying at the end of the war, they didn't want to go back to the divided Germany to the Eastern Zone.
Part of the demise of the pub was that the Flue (Fleur de Lis) had a flush toilet installed people came from miles to see it. The only one in the village we all had bucket and chuck it (Elsons).
We used to go to the Flue on Sundays for a pint Fred was good pals with the publican.

That’s enough for now. I only have pictures of me in the garden aged about 3 working the water pump (I wonder if its still there, I would love to have it now) and of one of the US pilots MGs with RAF roundels on it coming out of the barn in the garden. I can still remember every detail of the pub rooms and bar. And some of the old regulars like Bill Canning and Bill Braybrook also the village poacher Pa Salmon who kept us in meat during the war.

Write more soon Fred Fairson