Hillock Cottages no 1
From Lacey Green History
Hillock Cottages no 1 was one of four terraced cottages. They were built before 1823 as they are recorded in the Enclosures of Princes Risborough of that date.
For the history of all four cottages up until 1927 click Hillock Cottages 1-4
Hillock Cottages no 1 had a small farm which was part of a much larger area that belonged to Princes Risborough Charities.
Doug Tilbury born 1934 explained. My father, Reg Tilbury, was born in 1898, and lived down Lily Bottom Lane on the right. A large area of land here was owned by the Princes Risborough Charities. People could rent a one acre strip or plot on which to grow food for themselves, or cereals to feed to pigs or chickens. click Reg & Rose Tilbury for more about Doug's parents.
Doug Tilbury was born in 1934 at Hillock Cottages no 1 He was the son of Reg Tilbury and Rose nee Evans.
Doug also reported:-
Four Cottages, Tanks & Thunderboxes. As far back as I can remember all four cottages had their own toilets, built like “sentry boxes”, down the garden. Usually there was a hazelnut tree growing just behind them.
I cannot remember when the water was laid down Lily Bottom Lane, but it was not connected to the cottages. I do recall a solitary “stand pipe” being put in, which served all four cottages in times of drought. Water from the roofs was collected in a tank underground. On one occasion, during a very hot spell of weather, the water level became so desperately low that my father organised the men from the four cottages one Saturday afternoon. He went down into the tank on a ladder and scooped out the thick greyish sludge from the bottom of the tank into buckets which the other men then emptied onto the cottage gardens. I enquired as to what the sludge was, and was told that the flocks of house sparrows that were around in those days, perched on, and did what comes naturally into the gutters. To this day I can recall the distinct sweet taste of our rather cloudy water.
The toilets were very cold in winter and I can still see the frost on the seat. In the very severe winter of 1947 the rest of the family would try to wait until father had been. Then, at least, the ice on the seat would have been melted, but it was still damp and cold.
In the summer it was terrible with the flies buzzing all over you and the awful pong. Later we used a chemical called “Elsan”, this smelled a bit like Jeyes Fluid and it was bad luck if you got splashed, it could burn you. However, we survived.
In those days we had no such thing as toilet rolls, we had to use torn up pieces of newspaper. The “Bucks Free Press” was to be avoided at all costs as it was so hard and scrubby. In addition its ink came off on our little bottoms.
I think this account of my younger days was fairly typical of the majority of cottagers in Lacey Green and Loosley Row at that time.
Evacuation from London began on Friday 1st September 1939, when more than 1.5 million children were sent to the countryside to be billeted with families for their safety. At Lacey Green, John, known as Johnnie Saunders, the Chairman of the Parish Council, visited Lacey Green School to encourage children to talk to their parents to accept evacuees out of London into their homes. My two sisters pleaded and mother agreed to two girls.
Saturday morning a train from London arrived at Princes Risborough station, and three girls joined our family, Rita and Blanche from one family and Eileen, an only child, from another family. They, with us, attended St. John’s school and we were frequently called out by the bug – nurse. My mother purchased a stainless steel comb to comb out the undesirables! It hurt our heads, and I have never forgotten.
Many houses in Lacey Green had evacuees, and a children's home was evacuated to Loosley House. Some of the evacuees came from poor housing and my mother was devastated when we caught nits and had to be treated by the school ‘nit nurse’. 30 children were evacuated to Lacey Green and Loosley Row who attended Lacey Green school. An extra teacher from London, Miss French, came to assist the teachers.
The day war ended, the parents of the evacuees caught a train to Princes Risborough, walked up and collected their children to take back to London. The parents of one child didn’t bother to thank my parents or even say “Good-bye”