Your letters
Wheelie horrors?
To
the EditorPlease, please, don’t let it happen in The Lee – I mean the twin horrors of wheelie bins and a fortnightly collection of household waste. We are steadily moving in that direction. County Councils are being forced to cut back on costs and most of them are choosing to cut back on waste collection. We consumers, i.e. you and I, are being rubbished again and what do we face? – an increase in vermin and a multiple of unsightly wheelie bins, both accompanied by an increase in Council Tax. What could possibly make us put up with this? Answer – galloping lethargy.
Perhaps there are some Newsletter readers who dream of the arrival of wheelie bins and who can’t wait for an increase in the rodent population. But, surely, there can’t be many. Most law-abiding parishioners in The Lee will just wait and see what happens and hope for the best. But ‘the best’ is assuredly what they will not get.
In last month’s Newsletter, a spokesman for the Parish Council confirmed that the Council has no policy (or even a voice) on the issue of road signs. Is it possible that the Parish Council (our local representative body) has a policy or even an opinion on wheelie bins and fortnightly collections? If they believe that these are beneficial for the Parish, then would they please explain why. If, on the other hand, they consider that rows of upright coffins in black/green/brown plastic plus additional rats are not what we want in The Lee then would they please say so to the County Council before it is too late.
Mike Senior.
The Lee
Ed: see Clerk’s Corner for your opportunity to question Cllr John Warder about your council’s plans for waste collection.
Unwanted visitors
To the Editor
Sadly we have recently had a break-in. Sometime during Friday night/ Saturday morning (8th and 9th February) someone came onto our property and pulled open the two doors to our old shed. The doors aren’t locked but some force is required to open them. There is nothing of any value kept in there so the thieves left empty handed, however, one of our neighbours has told us a shed break in occurred a fortnight ago at the Manor House. It seems the area is being targeted so beware!
Karl Neilson
Lee Common
A nostalgic trip
To the Editor
I have in front of me a copy of November’s issue of The Lee Newsletter and was interested in More Times Remembered by Liz Stewart-Liberty.
I visited The Lee two years ago with my daughter when Victoria Parola of the Cock and Rabbit gave me a book entitled No Finer Courage by Michael Senior.
I visited again in November with my wife – a very nostalgic trip.
My mother, Isabel Marcham, was born at the Manor Lodge in 1903. She was the youngest of twelve. My grandparents were Frederick and Ellen Marcham. He was coachman for Sir Arthur Liberty and all the family worked in the Manor House or grounds. In the book my mother and one of her sisters, Gertie, were mentioned as members of the Queen Mary’s Needlework Guild. Her older brother, William, died of wounds in France (ref page 218) and his name is on the War Memorial on The Green. I laid a wreath in his memory.
I have the original letters sent to the Manor Lodge from the front when he died. My wife and I did our best to clean the family graves in the churchyard. At least the writing is now readable but I must say I was saddened to see how overgrown the area by the church path was. I also wished I could have cleaned the War Memorial.
In 1939 my sister and I were sent to stay at the Manor Lodge but returned home to North London when the expected air raids did not immediately happen. However, in 1940/41, with my father serving in the London Fire Brigade, we were sent back to The Lee, only this time to stay some months at Pipers. I remember a beautiful large rocking horse that we played on in the attic, and a large dinner gong at the base of the stairs.
Mrs Cummings took us out one day for a ride in a large black saloon car. We hadn’t been in a car before so I asked her if it would go at 60 mph. This she did, and I said big WOW – we are going at a mile a minute! I thought in those days only Spitfires went that fast. Great memories.
My sister and I went to Lee Common School via the lane at the back of Pipers, then across a field to enter the playground by the back gate. If the weather was bad then we walked the lanes. We also attended Sunday School in the Old Church. A bus stopped by The Green to go to Chesham once a week.
I have two Common Prayer Books that my mother was given as prizes at St John The Baptist Sunday School and signed by E Louise Liberty. One was for first prize 1914 and the other was for second prize 1917. Lady Liberty also signed the base of two mugs that I now have. They were given out to the children of the village.
Visually the village hasn’t changed since those days gone by. However I guess my grandfather would not now recognise inside his local pub where he enjoyed a pint with other locals after attending to the Libertys’ horses.
Maurice Salter
Exeter
From The Lee to Australia
To the Editor
While browsing on the web, I started searching for places I used to live. I moved to Lee Common at the age of four years, around 1942, and attended the school there until I became 15. For a number years I lived in a flint cottage down an old lane behind the Jubilee Well, then moved into a new house – 1, Martin Dell Cottages. I left school and started working at Bassibones Farm where I remained for a few years. We used horses in those days along with one tractor. When I left the farm, I started working for a coal company at Great Missenden; I remained there until I was called up for National Service. I now live in Australia and have done since 1966.
I shall never forget Lee Common, the place that I grew up in. I look down on it at times when I go on Google Earth. Thank you for the opportunity to communicate with my old home again.
R S Bowen
Australia