Brian Cullam

Hallmark 2009. Brian Cullam remembers Loosley Row in the 1950s

In the 1950s the A4010 road was comparitively free f traffic. In 1950, on my Lambretta scooter I was travelling from London en route o Lacey Green. Equipped with my camera was researching the structure of windmills for my achitectural exams.

I turned right at the Rose and Crown, a plain unpretentious little public house, up Little Lane to a modest group of cottages that comprised the village of Loosley Row. Eventually I Was to live in this very lane. This hamlet comprised a few cottages known as 'The Stret'. The Stret contained 6 or 7 terraced cottages, clay tiled roofs. On the opposite side of the road were the premises of Gommes Forge. I regarded his front yard as a nettle bedded eyesore, littered with rusty scrap iron, agricultural machinery and general materials of his trade. Inside the gloom of his forge Mr Fred Baker conducted a thriving business producing the most desirable examples of wrought and cast ron work. For example he had retained all his grandfathers moulds and he cast me a Victrian door knocker for 10/-shillings. Other products consisted of fire backs and fire dogs, some of them replicas of those in nearby Hampde House, which he sold for £8-10shillings each.

Whilst exploring, I spied a hand written sign reading "Land for Sale". On making enquiries I met Mr Lacey who owned the land. He was asking £350 but would accept £300, so I gave him £325 and the site was ours. My wife and I soon owned a modest house featuring an upstairs living space, so that we could observe