When Phyllis was 18 months old they moved to one of the four cottages which stood in the yard behind our present Library. At that time the Library was Moss's Grocers Shop and the yard was known as Moss's Yard. The family then moved to No. 7 Norfolk Road.

Phyllis went to the primary school which is now Layston, where she first got involved in all kinds of athletics, running, high jump and long jump. She was particularly good at running and went on to represent Hertfordshire when she was 11. Phyllis was also in the choir, under the direction of headmaster Mr Dennis who took the choir to various competitions in Hertfordshire, including Hatfield House. When they won (which they invariably did), Mr Dennis gave them each a tuck box containing a doughnut, pork pie, etc.

When Phyllis was 10 she started a paper round for the paper shop in Buntingford, which was "Days" when Phylls first started and which later changed hands and became "Burrells" and then our present "Lelaneys". She had to be at the shop at 6.30 a.m. and her paper round included the High Street, London Road, Baldock Road and, later, Greenways. In all, Phyllis worked for the paper shop for a period of thirty years.

Much as Phyllis liked school she enjoyed being at the Monday market more, with all the sheep, cows and pigs, which meant that she used to play truant most Mondays! At the end of the market she would often get asked to drive the cows to a field in Sandon Lane. Another favourite pastime for Phyllis and her friends was scrumping (and who can say, hand on heart, that they never did this in their youth? I know I did). Prime targets for scrumping in Phyllis's day were the back of Dr Whigfield's house (which is now White Hart Close) and also Mr Feasey's orchard (which was behind the present Somerfield store). Mr Feasey would often come out after them but he walked with a stick and they could easily run away. A tree at the end of the orchard was hollow and whoever got there first was able to hide inside.

Phyllis went to the newly built Secondary Modern School (now Edwinstree) just as the War broke out. Phyllis says that the headmaster, Mr Wheeler, was very strict and she can recall one occasion when she and her friend were caned in front of the school during assembly. The punishment was carried out by Miss Farrer, the maths teacher, but when Phyllis described the incident to me it struck me as a gross miscarriage of justice!!

During the War, Phyllis's mother took in 5 evacuees, as did many others in Buntingford. Their house in Norfolk Road only had two bedrooms, which meant that everyone slept where they could. Phyllis said she had to sleep in a camp bed in the sitting room and she can remember on one occasion falling out of bed because she heard a bomb drop. She got up to do her paper round and when she got to the northern end of the High Street they would not let her go any further because a land mine had been dropped at the corner of Throcking Lane.

At the end of the War, Phyllis says her mother was one of the first people in Buntingford to organise a street party. Phyllis's mother was also concerned because there was no-where for the children to play. Norfolk Road was situated between the High Street and "Back Lane" (which we now know as Bowling Green Lane). Beyond Back Lane was one big field and when the secondary modern school (Edwinstree) was being built, Phyllis's mother and others organised a collection, which spread all over Buntingford. She contacted Mr Poulton, and he prepared the field at the side of the new school so that the children would have somewhere to play. During the War, it was given over to crops but, after the War, Mr Poulton reinstated it as a playing field.

Phyllis says you could always walk across that field from Back Lane and there was a stile at the other side, taking you into the field beyond, which at one time was a strawberry field and another time had cows in it. It later became the Greenways estate. It was obviously used more once they started to build Greenways and because there was no proper path, it could be an extremely muddy walk. So everyone signed a Petition which they submitted to the local Council, which was Braughing Rural District Council, and they arranged for a path to be laid down by the builders who built the Greenways estate. Since then, no maintenance has been done to that path and it has broken up badly in places. Phyllis says two or three people have fallen, particularly half way along where there are trees.

When Phylis was young, Buntingford had many many more shops than we have today. In particular, Phyllis can recall Mrs Linsell's sweet shop, situated on the corner of the High Street and Norfolk Road (opposite the Swan pub which is now a private house). Phyllis says you could buy many things for one farthing. Four long thin bars of Cadbury's chocolate cost one penny. Mrs Linsell also sold bread and you could buy a large loaf for threepence. Phyllis also says that you could buy 10 Woodbine cigarettes from Mrs Linsell for threepence. Can you imagine buying 10 cigarettes today for the price of a loaf of bread?

Phyllis was able to list all the shops in order on each side of High Street in Buntingford, before and just after the War, which will form a separate article in its own right in a future issue! In particular, she told me that there was a coal yard situated on the site of the building formerly occupied by Images and, before that, the Co-Op. There were lots of butchers shops, although Phyllis says some had to close once rationing was introduced. Buntingford also had its own saddlery where apart from saddles they mended shoes and sold riding boots. This was run by Mr Camp in the shop currently occupied by Ken Jacks. On the way to school, Phyllis regularly called in to Mrs Pledger's sweet shop, opposite the Fox & Duck.

In her spare time Phyllis joined the Guides, which at that time met in the Parish Room at the junction of Vicarage Road and the High Street. When Phyllis joined the Guides were run by two nurses, Elsie and Doris Day (whose father owned the paper shop). When Elsie and Doris left, Elsie Smith (of Smiths Garage fame) took over.

Phyllis left school when she was 14 and went to work at Pearce's Bakers, which was the shop currently the dry-cleaners shop on the corner of Church Street. At that time, however, the shop was not on the corner. The adjacent building housed the local dole office, but this building was knocked down when Church Street was widened.

When she was 16, Phylis went to work at the Womens Land Army Hostel which was situated in Wyddial Hall, which the Government had taken over from the owner, Sir Charles Heaton-Ellis. Phyllis lived in, doing general housework, cleaning dormitories, etc. She had one afternoon off a week. However, Phyllis says her social life improved as the War went on, as a lot of Americans came to the area and there were dances at Nuthampstead. She also used to go to the Cosy cinema, in Buntingford (Benson Hall).

At age 18, Phyllis went to work for Quenby Brothers from Baldock, who had a small factory in the old W.I. Hall making condensers for wirelesses. (The building is currently a carpet showroom adjacent to the Chequers Pub). Next door to the factory were three thatched cottages but they were pulled down and Mr Quenby had a factory built. Whilst building work was taking place, Phyllis was coming back to work on lunchtime when Mrs Deards, who lived nearby, called her into her house. Once inside, she met Leslie Cornes, who was in Buntingford to work on building the new factory. He would not let her go back to work until she had agreed to go out with him and that is how Phyllis met her future husband!

Les was originally from Wales but his family lived in Stotfold, which at that time was known locally as "the Welsh Village" because so many Welsh people lived there. Phyllis and Les were married in 1948 at St Peter's Church. Initially they lived in one of the Army huts which were situated on the land now occupied by Layston Meadow, which provided affordable housing for many Buntingford people after the War until more permanent accommodation could be built. Their eldest son, Philip, was born there. Les was working for the builders, Davies, who were building a new housing estate in Buntingford - Greenways - and in 1950 Phylis and Les moved to one of the newly built houses, where Phyllis still lives. They went on to have four more children. Anne was born in 1948, Glyn in 1952, Trevor in 1963 and Ellen in 1965.

Les became General Foreman for Davies's but after a few years went to work for a Swedish firm Stal- leval which made large industrial freezers and which supplied the freezers in the Sainsbury's Depot. His work took him all over the country. His last job was working at the Sainsbury's Depot until he retired in 1984.

Phyllis continued working even after she was married. She continued to work for the paper shop, going on to sorting out the papers, which meant that she had to get to the shop by a quarter to five in the morning in order to sort the papers out ready for the paper boys (or girls) to collect them at 6.30 a.m. As well as working in the paper shop, Phyllis worked in various Buntingford shops over the years as well as helping out in a couple of the pubs - the Jolly Sailors and the Chequers. She says she really liked the shop work as it gave her the opportunity to meet lots of people, including a few well known local personalities. In the course of her work she met Valerie Hobson, Googie Withers, Guy Rolfe who lived at Anstey, and Honor Blackman.

She worked for 5 years at the International Stores in the building which is at present the Library. Her hours were from 9 a.m. until 2.00 p.m. and when she finished work, apart from looking after her family, she had to help look after her parents, and then her mother once her father had died. She left the International Stores because they asked her to change her hours, which would have meant working until 8.30 in the evening and she was not able to do this because of her family commitments.

Sadly, Les died in 1985 from a heart attack following an accident about a year after he retired. Just over a year later, Phyllis herself suffered a heart attack whilst at home and it was thanks to the prompt action of Dr Digby Withers that she is here today and so she will always be grateful to him for that.

Three of Phyllis's children, Philip, Trevor and Ellen all live in Buntingford. Philip has two children, Lynn and Lisa, and Trevor has three children, Keziah, Coran and Lee. Anne lives in Enfield and has a daughter, Karen. Glyn lives in Australia and has four children, Heidi, Thomas, Daniel and Kristian. Phylliss has two great-grandchildren, Lynn's sons Michael and Glyn.

Two of Phyllis's sisters are still alive; Louise lives in Meldreth and Jennifer lives in Bridgefoot, Buntingford. Her sister Kathleen died when she was 33 in a car accident and her sister Alma died when she was only 17 from meningitis.

Phyllis still enjoys pottering in the garden although for health reasons she cannot do as much as she would like. One of her sons comes to do the heavy work, like lawn mowing. She also enjoys a game of Bingo each Thursday at the Buntingford & District Social Club. She is a bit of a globe trotter and told me all about a holiday travelling to various places in America with her sister, including visits to Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon. She has also visited her son in Australia.

I did enjoy meeting Phyllis and would like to thank her very much for talking to me.