From Town Girl to Cowgirl
Joan Nobbs
July 2014
Joan is now 87 and was married to Walter Arthur ("Wally") Nobbs for 66 years until
his recent death aged 94.
This is her story of moving into Mills Platt Farm in 1978.
Historic photos Joan Nobbs; contemporary photos CMP.
Left: Joan in 1946
Joan Nobbs
July 2014
Joan is now 87 and was married to Walter Arthur ("Wally") Nobbs for 66 years until
his recent death aged 94.
This is her story of moving into Mills Platt Farm in 1978.
Historic photos Joan Nobbs; contemporary photos CMP.
Left: Joan in 1946
Growing Up
My mother had spinal trouble and was in a wheelchair. She died when I was about four months old and my father, who was half German, couldn't keep me. The people who had been caring for my mother allowed me to live with them and unofficially adopted me. We all lived at Neasden, in London, near Wembly Stadium, with my step-sister, Mary.
Mary was about three years older than me and had joined the ATS when war broke out. I was fed up being on my own at home. I wanted to join up but I was only seventeen and a half. I went all the way up to central London (I had only been there once before) and signed up there and then. They asked me What do you want to do? and offered me the chance to become a land girl and drive tractors or pull up the beetroot. I said Put me down for milking the cows, even though I had never even touched a cow before. I came back and told my mother what I had done. They sent me a Land Army uniform and away I went.
My mother had spinal trouble and was in a wheelchair. She died when I was about four months old and my father, who was half German, couldn't keep me. The people who had been caring for my mother allowed me to live with them and unofficially adopted me. We all lived at Neasden, in London, near Wembly Stadium, with my step-sister, Mary.
Mary was about three years older than me and had joined the ATS when war broke out. I was fed up being on my own at home. I wanted to join up but I was only seventeen and a half. I went all the way up to central London (I had only been there once before) and signed up there and then. They asked me What do you want to do? and offered me the chance to become a land girl and drive tractors or pull up the beetroot. I said Put me down for milking the cows, even though I had never even touched a cow before. I came back and told my mother what I had done. They sent me a Land Army uniform and away I went.
Land Army Girl
I was posted to Waddesdon Manor, near Aylesbury, to work on the estate there. There were thirty of us girls working the land. We lived in part of the manor. There was a large river running through the estate. One Christmas during the war there were sixty of us at a Christmas party including the wounded soldiers who were in a nearby hospital. They put the benches together and the land army girls sat between two wounded soldiers. I remember cutting up the food for the soldier I was responsible for because his arm was wounded and in a sling. Milking the cows was difficult and at first I got kicked over by the cow. The bucket of milk went over and I went over too. A young cowman called John who was 25 years old taught me. He had been engaged for five years, trying to save up to get married. He taught me to tuck the tail of the cow under your leg when you were milking to stop it turning round on you. The tail was usually full of pooh and you just had to put up with it.
We worked from 6 in the morning until 6 at night when they came by Jeep to pick us up and take us back to the house. I was paid 14 shillings per week and I was getting two meals a day, lunch and supper, even in the middle of rationing because the farmer's wife treated me like a daughter; kind people. Later in the war, I also worked turning out the springs for the sten-guns.
I was posted to Waddesdon Manor, near Aylesbury, to work on the estate there. There were thirty of us girls working the land. We lived in part of the manor. There was a large river running through the estate. One Christmas during the war there were sixty of us at a Christmas party including the wounded soldiers who were in a nearby hospital. They put the benches together and the land army girls sat between two wounded soldiers. I remember cutting up the food for the soldier I was responsible for because his arm was wounded and in a sling. Milking the cows was difficult and at first I got kicked over by the cow. The bucket of milk went over and I went over too. A young cowman called John who was 25 years old taught me. He had been engaged for five years, trying to save up to get married. He taught me to tuck the tail of the cow under your leg when you were milking to stop it turning round on you. The tail was usually full of pooh and you just had to put up with it.
We worked from 6 in the morning until 6 at night when they came by Jeep to pick us up and take us back to the house. I was paid 14 shillings per week and I was getting two meals a day, lunch and supper, even in the middle of rationing because the farmer's wife treated me like a daughter; kind people. Later in the war, I also worked turning out the springs for the sten-guns.
Getting Married
I met my husband, Wally, after the war when we were both working in the same factory at the bottom of our road in Neasden. He was a qualified toolmaker and was exempt from active service in World War 2. He played his boss up a bit, coming in late, to get the sack because he wanted to go into the airforce but never succeeded and stayed in the job. I was spraying the stabilisers (like torpedo tubes) of the gliders, which they dropped as soon as they were airborne. Wally was a foreman in the tool room. One day I bumped into him when he was standing there with his motorbike (he was mad-keen on his bikes). He said, Where do you work? and I said, I'm at Willsden Engineering. He had just broken up from his girlfriend. We arranged to go out but I didn't turn up. The next night he was waiting for me outside the factory. |
We were married in 1947 at Hayes in Middlesex. That was when clothes were rationed and Wally's sister, who was a qualified dressmaker, made my bridesmaids' dresses out of parachute silk and I borrowed my wedding dress from the wife of Wally's best man.
After we were married Wally said he wanted to start up his own business. That floored me. He worked for himself for a long while. When we lived in Norfolk there wasn't much tool-making work and he used to repair the combine harvesters. The Nobbs family name comes from the Norfolk area. We moved here from Ruislip but before that we had lived in many different places: Ickenham, Eastcote, Hayes, Ruislip and Gerrards Cross.
After we were married Wally said he wanted to start up his own business. That floored me. He worked for himself for a long while. When we lived in Norfolk there wasn't much tool-making work and he used to repair the combine harvesters. The Nobbs family name comes from the Norfolk area. We moved here from Ruislip but before that we had lived in many different places: Ickenham, Eastcote, Hayes, Ruislip and Gerrards Cross.
Arriving at Mills Platt Farm
I didn't want to come here at first but as soon as Wally saw the barn, he was sold on the place. That was in 1978. He fell in love with it because he could do his hobby of metalwork in the barn. Amongst other things, he made the canopy for the fireplace and the gates to our property. We were real townies but when we were young we both loved the countryside and German Shepherd dogs.
The house is believed to have been re-built into its existing format in the year 1630. When we moved in, the whole roof of the house and the barn had water coming through and we had to have it completely re-tiled and the timbers replaced.
We had some men who came in to do the work in the roof. They said it would take a couple of weeks but they only lasted one day. Wally thought they found something valuable and carried it away.
The fireplace (below left) was just ordinary when we arrived. It was all bricked up with a metal stove which looked horrible. As soon as my husband saw it he wanted to take it away. All the brickwork was covered over and he uncovered it all and he revealed a marvellous Tudor fireplace. We were told that the fireplace may have come from a bigger, older house but we don't know that for certain.
The front door used to be to the south of the house, right on the corner, rather than the north as it is now. The door possibly led to a bridleway down to the By Brook. On the front door is a really old knocker. The only unusual thing we found was an old key, a very unusual shape, possibly a chest key.
I didn't want to come here at first but as soon as Wally saw the barn, he was sold on the place. That was in 1978. He fell in love with it because he could do his hobby of metalwork in the barn. Amongst other things, he made the canopy for the fireplace and the gates to our property. We were real townies but when we were young we both loved the countryside and German Shepherd dogs.
The house is believed to have been re-built into its existing format in the year 1630. When we moved in, the whole roof of the house and the barn had water coming through and we had to have it completely re-tiled and the timbers replaced.
We had some men who came in to do the work in the roof. They said it would take a couple of weeks but they only lasted one day. Wally thought they found something valuable and carried it away.
The fireplace (below left) was just ordinary when we arrived. It was all bricked up with a metal stove which looked horrible. As soon as my husband saw it he wanted to take it away. All the brickwork was covered over and he uncovered it all and he revealed a marvellous Tudor fireplace. We were told that the fireplace may have come from a bigger, older house but we don't know that for certain.
The front door used to be to the south of the house, right on the corner, rather than the north as it is now. The door possibly led to a bridleway down to the By Brook. On the front door is a really old knocker. The only unusual thing we found was an old key, a very unusual shape, possibly a chest key.
Some people think the house was once much larger going off to the east (above right). You can still see that there was a door to the side of the fireplace with an arch going through. The fireplace might have been in the middle of the house in a central passageway, rather than at one end as it is now.
We did most of the work ourselves. I was the builder's mate on the house. Wally painted the exposed beams and I always did the wallpapering, painting and the garden. The kitchen was just a scullery and we had it re-built.
We understand there was a washerwoman here at some time in the past who did the laundry for the village. She made use of the spring water coming through the garden. I created the secret garden, through the gate.
We did most of the work ourselves. I was the builder's mate on the house. Wally painted the exposed beams and I always did the wallpapering, painting and the garden. The kitchen was just a scullery and we had it re-built.
We understand there was a washerwoman here at some time in the past who did the laundry for the village. She made use of the spring water coming through the garden. I created the secret garden, through the gate.
You don't expect to see the pond there. We got a digger to make it deeper and a couple of the neighbours came to help. It's about four feet deep in the middle.
We never have to fill it; it fills up naturally from the spring. Wally traced the spring water back and found it was coming through a genuine Roman conduit across in the field. It is always very cold water and possibly slightly sulphorous to taste. It would make marvellous Spa water. Some people have said that there may have been a Roman villa on this site and that the boundary of that villa may have become the eastern boundary of the parish. |
Farm Yard
The courtyard is an extremely interesting part of the property. The farmstead was built in a rectangle around the open yard. On the sides of the rectangle are the house (below left); the threshing barn and equipment shed (below middle); the milking parlour and calving sheds (below right); and the last side is open. We pathed the courtyard surface with stone.
The courtyard is an extremely interesting part of the property. The farmstead was built in a rectangle around the open yard. On the sides of the rectangle are the house (below left); the threshing barn and equipment shed (below middle); the milking parlour and calving sheds (below right); and the last side is open. We pathed the courtyard surface with stone.
The yard was part of a dairy complex which allowed the animals to be housed over winter and the slurry swept away from the farmstead, downhill to the corn fields below. The milking parlour is still intact. We kept the milking stalls and the chains where the cows were tethered. There were lots of farm implements on the site when we got here and Wally collected them together, including an old butter churn.
The threshing barn is later than the house and was possibly re-built in the 1700s into three bays with a cart entry.(1) It probably replaced an earlier building because it has a Tudor arch at the south end of the loft opening. Wally kept his old motorbike in the barn; the bike that he bought when he was sixty and which he last used for a ride until he was 84 years old.
The butter churn always reminds me of my time as a milkmaid in the Land Army in the war.
I suppose it was fate that brought us to Mills Platt Farm (below).
The threshing barn is later than the house and was possibly re-built in the 1700s into three bays with a cart entry.(1) It probably replaced an earlier building because it has a Tudor arch at the south end of the loft opening. Wally kept his old motorbike in the barn; the bike that he bought when he was sixty and which he last used for a ride until he was 84 years old.
The butter churn always reminds me of my time as a milkmaid in the Land Army in the war.
I suppose it was fate that brought us to Mills Platt Farm (below).