Derek & Ursula Glyn-Jones
From Lacey Green History
Report by Ursula Glyn-Jones
1965 HOUSE HUNTING My husband, Derek, started a new job in High Wycombe and we spent many weekends house hunting around the area. One Sunday, with two small, very bored, children in the back, we drove through Lacey Green and spotted an open village shop (unusual on a Sunday in those days). Sweets seemed a very good idea, so Derek stopped and went in. When at last he came back out he was full of good news.
THE HOUSE MAY DELL FANCIED May Dell had told him that a few yards down the road was a lovely house for sale, she also told him that she would like to have it herself but her husband Bert wouldn’t let her! She told us to stop by the entrance to the farm on the left, by the two big conker trees. There was a man walking into the drive of the farm wearing gaiters – not an everyday sight. It was Harry Floyd, looking at us very suspiciously. On the right we had our first glimpse of Cairndale – thank you May, we always loved the house.
"CAN YOU ARRANGE FLOWERS" When we arrived in Lacey Green that September, we picked up the keys from Ted and Mary Mines a few doors down. Everyone was friendly and welcoming. On one side we had the village policeman, living with his family in a house with a cell. I still see Mr Monger cycling off on his beat with his blue cape slung over his shoulder and wearing his helmet. The Reverend Bernard Houghton soon came to visit and was very happy to sit amongst the chaos, asking if I could arrange flowers.
AN EX - RAF HOUSE Another early visitor was Hilda West from the farm opposite (Richard’s grandmother), with lots of good advice and an interesting story. We knew our house had always been occupied by RAF people and that we were the first civilians. Hilda and Dick West were friends with Air-Vice-Marshall Cannon and his wife, who had lived in the house and through his connections with India and Pakistan, they had had Indira Ghandi to stay with them – in our house! I think it was their weekend cottage, there was a bell indicator board in the kitchen, with bells in every room, which we soon got rid of – too tempting for the children.
A BABY, CHILDREN and FRIENDS My mother from Switzerland came in the first month to help organise the house and she sewed most of the curtains. Four months after our arrival Lois arrived, delivered in our house by Nurse Butler who lived in the nurse’s house in Greenlands. Martin started school and Rebecca went to playschool at Speen (no preschool in Lacey Green at that time). I soon joined the Young Wives, run by Kitty Houghton and we all started to make friends and join in village life.
P.S. After 51 happy years in Cairndale, 4 years ago, in 2016, we had to move on, to a much smaller garden and no stairs.