Marjorie Pearce
Marjorie Challenger’s parents ran the London House Stores, North Curry, in the first quarter of the last century. (Do you remember how many shops there used to be in Curry - you could buy anything there?). In 1926 She married William Pearce, a small farmer of Stoke, and lived in the village for the rest of her life.
Before the war Marjorie had built up a national reputation as a poultry breeder, winning many cups and trophies, but the trials and competitions were all stopped with the onset of war. The bird business itself also became more difficult, as rationing came in for pig and poultry feedstuff. Luckily her husband Bill kept pigs, and he gave these up so that Marjorie could use the available food for her birds. Even so she had to reduce her flock to a third of the pre-war numbers. Somerset egg producers were able to supplement their feed through a household waste processing scheme in Bristol. A producer owned egg packing station collected this in 1 hundredweight (50kg) galvanized dustbins and distributed them to its members.
Marjorie and her husband Bill lived in Willowdene, Windmill, and they had been planning for a while to extend the house, collecting various materials in preparation. It was generally thought that they would have to wait for the war to end before they could achieve their dream, but they were not put off. The old cob wall was pulled down in February 1940 and the new extension of lounge, utility room and larder was nearly finished by the end of the year. Upstairs was a large bedroom and bathroom.
Marjorie was a keen member of the WI. As the Williams Hall had been commandeered as a school room for the Barlby Road evacuees, Lano Coward, offered the use of the church School Room for meetings. She writes enthusiastically of the contribution the local WI group made to the war effort. “One of our members undertook to collect National Savings. The villagers were urged to save every scrap of paper and I was one of the collectors who took full sacks to a central point. We also made jam. Hundredweights of it!”
Despite rationing, the government made an allocation of sugar to organisations who would make jam, and Stoke WI was given five hundredweight - a quarter of a ton, or 250kg. They made the jam at Willowdene in 28 pound batches, 80 pounds in an afternoon. Before the jam could be sold it had to be inspected and passed. The jam had to be set enough for the jar to be turned upside down without the contents moving. Each batch was numbered so that each pot could be traced to the person who made it (no bar codes then!).
“That autumn we made half a ton of jam and it all passed first grade. I stored it in a spare room until it was sold to the shops just before Christmas. The following year plums were scarce so we made half a ton of blackberry and apple. The result was a very nice flavoured conserve which also passed first quality.”
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The picture above is of Mrs Marjorie Pearce cutting the cake for the 50th anniversary of Stoke WI. She was the only continuous member over the 50 years of the group’s existence.
I can’t leave Willowdene without showing you this picture. Probably my favourite in my whole village photo collection. The Pearce family in Windmill Lane. Behind them you can see Plas Newydd, the house that burnt down, and where John and Mari Mills now live.
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Some of you will have read Marjorie's book - No Time To Spare, The Story of a West Country Farmer’s Wife. In it she covers many aspects of rural life but for those living here she brought to life events that we have heard of but did not experience - the floods of 1929; electric and mains drainage coming to the village; and life during the Second World War.