Fred & Beatrice Dormer

Research by Joan West

Frederick Dormer born 1880 was the son of Joseph Tyler & Emma Dormer

Beatrice Jane Harman born 1890 was the daughter of William & Sarah Harman

Fred and Beatrice married in 1913

Fred and Beatrice had two children as follows :-

Frances Dormer born ? married Stallwood

Frank Joseph (known as Joey) Dormer married

Research note. The following article was published in Hallmark in 1974: -- For the WI project '"Tell Me About When You Were Young" notes were made after talking to various local personalities and extracts were sent to the Bucks Federation of Womens Institutes. We will be printing them in Hallmark as a record of earlier life in Loosley Row and Lacey Green.

Research was done on the life of Beatrice Dormer by Madeline Cleaver. see Bill & Madeline Cleaver for the life of Madeline.

Mrs Dormer has lived in Lacey Green a long time but was born in Loosley Row, one of twelve children brought up in a small cottage.

Cooking was done over the fire and in a brick oven.

It was the normal thing to have a large pot over the fire and cook the meat and perhaps two or three vegetables all in the same pot, but Mrs Dormer's daughter can recall her grandmother cooking that way and how much she enjoyed those meals. The potatoes would often be cooked in a net in this pot.

To cook in a brick oven, which was let into the wall and went through to the wood-store outside, the fire was lit inside the oven and fed with long "kindlings" and when it was as hot as necessary all the burning embers were racked out into a bucket, the food to be cooked placed on a spade and let down on to the hot bricks. Delicious bread was cooked that way and such things as "Backone Pie", literally using the backbone of the pig.

A pig was kept in the back garden in a sty , as people have done up to more recent times. It meant very little was wasted from the house as scraps and peelings etc. would feed the pig and in turn most of the pig would be eaten.

The head would make brawn, all the offal would be cooked one way or another, lungs or lights would be jugged, liver, pluck and heart would be cooked in the oven, chitterlings would be cleaned and plaited. boiled and often fried after.

Mrs Dormer recalls the pig hanging and has prepared many a joint for storing by treating it with saltpetre and then putting into the lead salt troughs, while the hams would hang to cure in he living room and when ready would taste like no bacon tastes these days.

They would take the "flear" or "fleer", the long strip of fat near the kidneys and render the lard from it and then make "Crittens Pudding" by using the crittons, that is what was left after lard had been extracted, with brown sugar and flour. This would be baked in the brick oven.

Without the sugar it could be baked with a joint over it and be eaten as we do Yorkshire pudding.

Gleaning was done after the harvesting. The children were set gleaning, as they were allowed freely by the farmers and though it kept them busy many hours they could collect two or three sacksful each. Then they would take it to Lacey Green Windmill, now being restored by the Chiltern Society, and have it ground, afterwards going to the Mill in Princes Risborough for milling into flour, which would then last the family the whole winter and through to next harvest.

The obituary of Beatrice Dormer was published in 'Hallmark' as follows :-

Beatrice Jane Harman was born in 1890, the daughter of William and Sarah Harman, one of 12 children. For siblings click William Harman born 1853. They lived at Amen Corner, Loosley Row. Aged 13 she went to work as a domestic servant. Six days a week from 6am to 6pm to cook and living in for £1 a week. She came home to marry Fred Dormer. She started working for Alfred Ward delivering the post which was brought from Risborough by pony and trap. After sorting she delivered the letters and parcels and collected from the boxes of the Loosley Row area as far as Saunderton Lee. It is thought she was still working in the1940's

Fred and Bea' lived at Hill Court in Westlands Road, Lacey Green. Fred died in 1951. Later her daughter Frances Stallwood moved from Saunderton Lee to be with her. Her son Frank (Joey) and Freda had a poultry farm at Tor Cottage in Church Lane, Lacey Green and she went there to grade the eggs for them into her old age.

She died in 1989, aged 98.