| Abstract | I don't have much in the way of photos of historical interest, although I could probably contribute some memories of people and places in the village when I grew up. As far as wartime information is concerned I never heard my parents mention the land girls building but my mother used to recall regularly providing tea and cake (difficult with rationing) to the soldiers from the anti-aircraft battery nearby when they were off-duty. I don't know exactly where the battery was but this may be common knowledge. My parents lived at Rolls Farm, on the edge of the village, living in a pre-fab bungalow on the farm during the war, until the house was built in 1952. All the farmers were required to help each other out at harvest time and I recall that my parents also helped on a fruit farm locally. My father (John Starling) and Will Nicholas both served in the Home Guard, a photo of the unit always stood in the Peldon Rose, in a corner by the bar, perhaps it still does.
The Nicholas family lived at Malting Farm, just up the road from Rolls Farm, and my aunt Barbara (known as Bar) married Will Nicholas in 1956 and they moved into Malting Cottage, then later into Malting Farm house. William and Philip (always known as Will and Phil) were the sons of Edgar Nicholas and worked on the farm. Edgar died many years before I was born but I do just remember Mrs Nicholas senior from frequent visits to the farmhouse as a very little girl. Phil Nicholas married Margaret and moved out of the village, and later had a son, William.
I'm attaching a few photos:
Malting Cottage showing damage from the 1884 earthquake. I don't know who the man and boy are in the photo, although I suppose it could conceivably be Edgar Nicholas's father and Edgar
Malting Cottage taken in 1957, with my aunt [ Barbara Nicholas ] working in the garden
Malting Farm probably dating from the late 1960s or early 1970s
Special Constables outside the Plough after the Zeppelin came down in Little Wigborough in September 1916. Edgar Nicholas on the left
Will and Phil harvesting with the binder and horses, I would guess in the 1930s
Will on a tractor, probably from the 1950s
Geoff Gonella,
Peldon History Project
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