View source for 2000 Memories of Con Baker

also click [[2005 Memories of Con Baker]]

[[2008 Con Baker's 100th party]]

[[Fred & Connie Baker]]

[[Lacey Green School Reunion 2000]] in which Connie describes her schooldays

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'''Recorded by [[Dennis Claydon]] in 2000 when Connie was 91'''.

When I was born in the cottage at [[Loosley House]], my father was the chauffeur there and my mother a nurse maid.   I had a very happy childhood there.   Dad was driving the only car in the village at the time and I used to run up the back way to the front door.

It was really great fun living there, when we used to care-take there.   We used to go down this grassy bank on a tin tray down as far as to the tennis court at the bottom of the bank - great fun.   There was a plantation we called the wilderness, and there used to be grapes in the green house which I was never allowed to touch of course.

I am going to tell you about the Loosley Row Baptists Sunday School which was very enjoyable.   At half past ten we had to be at our class dressed up in our best, after on a Saturday just wearing any old rubbish, so Sunday was the day for dressing up.   Off we went to Sunday School and had our names called and put down in the register.   You were given a little ticket with a text on it;  you collected all these tickets and when you had so many you had a morning hymn book.   Then we had a prayer and a hymn, which was nearly always "God sees the little sparrow fall, it meets his tender view".   We had that with Mr Lacey playing the violin and another gentleman playing the organ.   Mr Albert Rixon would take the class of girls and have a reading from the bible and perhaps another prayer.   By that time it got around to12 o'clock, so off we went back home again.

We went home for Sunday dinner, which was quite an event: Roast beef and Yorkshire pudding with horseradish sauce, which my dad made.   It was so hot it made tears come in my eyes - after that apple pie.   Then back to Sunday School for quarter to two.   Name-call again then a prayer or hymn.   Then the congregation started coming in and we had to sit on the platform and the parson would come.   My goodness the sermon went on for hours and hours.   But it was only half past three and as a special treat we were allowed out before the parson.   Then home for tea and then a walk with mum and dad, sometimes to Speen Farm where my aunt lived and sometimes to Downley Common, where another aunt lived - which was quite a walk.

At school we had the scripture exam.   That was always in November, freezing cold, and we used to go in the mornings.  The minister used to come from Hampden, I don't know whether on a bicycle or not, but it was aways freezing cold and he always had a dewdrop dripping from his nose, which made the children laugh, although we didn't dare let him see us.   But woe betide, you didn't stand a chance of getting the Bishop's prize if you went to Methodist's Sunday School or the Baptist's Sunday School, which I went to.   It was nearly always the Church children who would win the prize, but I don't know, perhaps some of the other children did win.

After the scripture exam, those of us who had bicycles went to Hampden Glade to get chestnuts - the eating ones, which was quite a lot in those days, which was quite fun, but I remember mostly it was freezing cold - in November.

We got this concert up in the Village Hal.   There were a lot of us, and the men borrowed top hats from Mr John Saunders who used them for funerals: we girls wore blue dresses, very very fashionable.   Harry Church did the lighting and Kath Church played the piano.   We used to have the rehearsal on Good Friday.   Good Friday was a nice day, we used to take a picnic and have real good fun.   Easter Monday was the big day, we were all so excited, the Village Hall was nearly  full and we really enjoyed ourselves dressing up and singing.   We had a jolly Easter Monday entertaining the people of the village.

Just a few words about The Foundry at Loosley Row, which has been going for 200 years.   My great-great-grandfather started the business and my family has carried on ever since, with my father who ran it for some years and my husband the ate Fred Baker.   Now we are very lucky and have got Graham abd Geoffrey Baker who run the foundry, my daughter Jennifer who runs the office and my grandson Jeremy who is the wrought iron an - what he can't do with a piece of iron nobody can.   They still make the most beautiful things.   They have just done a piece of commemorative wrought iron work for West Wycombe Church on the hill that takes 30 candles.   Graham has done some wonderful chandeliers, very large ones really.   During the war I used to have to help in the foundry blowing the bellows, melting brass, and I had to help carry the crucibles after casting with the iron.   Now its aluminium casting because they stopped us making iron.   After all those years the government or overseas trade stopped us doing iron which was our living but we couldn't afford to have the furnace done so away went our trade.  But we're still busy most of the time making things that people want, like weather vanes  with owls, ploughs, dogs and horses.   At the moment Graham is making a racing car - so we continue.   May God bless us and keep us going.