Human personalities drift across the life of the village making their mark in a smaller or larger degree. It is amazing how even in a short space of time some of these can flash by like a comet and something tangible remains – something by which we are remembered individually.

The Boutwoods

There were the Boutwoods. He used to go to London every day in the 2 horse wagonette which was our only means of reaching the station. Sometimes they both came to early service – more often he came alone, and always at the Incarnation he would step right out into the aisle to make his deep obeisance. Those were the days when water was scarce and they lived in rooms in Victoria House. She used to tell me that she had to have hot water to bathe her eyes in the morning and her landlady did not always bring it to her in time.

The Charlesworths

Then the Charlesworths: His war experiences had left him with a weak head. Sometimes he would not know where he was and always a very small amount of drink made him quite tipsy. He had married a girl not of his own class who had come to the hospital where he was, to sing to the soldiers. They were young and generous but undisciplined and inexperienced and the marriage came to grief in a few years.

The Soames family of Ashwells

Following them to Ashwells Manor came the Soames. Arthur Soames came of a family where suicide was not unknown and at the full moon he was capable of abnormalities. She was a good looking society woman, tall and willowy with a falseness to her nature and a complete disregard for the truth. He was honest, downright and generous with a high opinion of himself, wishful of laying down the law and of running things his own way. In village life it seems difficult for men who have had army careers or run big businesses of their own to realize that Church matters are a thing apart. They can neither be run as a business concern, nor can business methods be absent from their deliberations. The schoolmaster, the slow uneducated farmer and their kind, the women who give their lives to helping in the Parish, all have their place and position in the heterogeneous company of men and women who make up Church life in a village. Many a man has come blundering in who thinks he knows all because he attends a place of worship once on a Sunday and has a sound knowledge of worldly business matters and yet is in blissful ignorance of the complicated life of the Church which is the most important and from which spring the humble loyalty of the majority.

One such said to me “A new broom sweeps clean” and in a few years his broom had indeed swept clean away the equable working of the Parish and in the empty place had come chaos, jealousy and disruption – and even tragedy. When Captain and Mrs Soames left the village it was common knowledge that they drove around and spat outside the houses where the inhabitants had particularly displeased them.

Sarah Lacey – lonely, old and dirty. She sold sweets to the children on Sundays to the great detriment of the Children’s Afternoon service collection.

Mrs Newton who lived at the Horse and Jockey her round face with its shining rosy cheeks was a familiar figure as one passed up the hill towards the Firs. Her garden, lying to the sun was a perpetual joy. Two large Daphnes made a splash of colour during the winter and then came the thick row of yellow crocuses followed by daffodils and in Summer, her Madonna lilies staked very closely in rows, were a joy to see. Over these lovely flowers, open to the gaze of all, hung her washing and regularly, week by week, there floated from the line a long pair of calico pantaloons which became a byword in the village. They must have reached from waist to ankles, and were a wondrous sight as the wind filled them with air.

Sir Philip & Lady Rose

A dimmer memory was the Squire and his wife, Sir Philip and Lady Rose – the second of their line to live at Rayners. After settling in Tylers Green the first Sir Philip helped to build the Church which was consecrated in 1854. He hoped to found a family who would take their place from generation to generation.

She was of the old school, aloof, imperious and somewhat pathetic. She would drive out daily in her carriage and pair and it is told of her by those who served her that she never reproved her maid by word of mouth. At the spot where reproof was needed the erring servant would find a note stating the nature of her guilt. On accepting an invitation to dinner one dined in state with the gold plate displayed in abundance and an occasional whisper telling the price of the ingredients making up a dish or a special dish.

He was pompous but the more human of the two and they had a warm regard for each other. As Hon Sec. of his pet scheme, the Parish Room, I had to take up to Rayners a rough copy of the minutes after each meeting. These were meticulously gone through and corrected before I was allowed to enter them in the minute book. In his study all his papers were minutely docketted and they were very voluminous. At his death, detailed arrangements were found, drawn up for his own funeral.

He suffered the loss of his only son in the war. He was badly wounded and was taken prisoner. German friends were instrumental in getting for him good hospital treatment and finally he came back as an exchanged prisoner. Seventeen operations were performed in all on his leg and one more very small one was needed to enable him to walk once more. Weak with all he had gone through, he died under the anaesthetic. When Sir Philip died there was not sufficient money for the grandson to reside at Rayners and it lay empty for a long time.

When Sir Philip died there was not sufficient money for the grandson to reside at Rayners and it lay empty for a long time.

Finally it was bought by the L.C.C. for a school for the deaf (with a second defect) and the children were moved in there from their old quarters in East Ham. There were two baths only in the house and these were both in one room. As a private home it must have been awkward but in a school such as the one now in residence, it is probably a convenience. In the days of Sir Philip, there was no water supply to the village and each house had a system of tanks into which the rain water flowed from the roof. Up at Rayners was what was believed to be an old artesian well with pure water. This was pumped up daily at a certain hour by Hubbard (the deaf mechanic). Every resident not wishing to drink rain water, had an arrangement with a school child to fetch daily a can of this water for drinking purposes. Nearly all the older children were thus employed to the great assistance of the family incomes. In his wish to increase the facilities of the village to procure pure water, Sir Philip was occupied, at the time of his death, in deepening and extending this well at a cost of about £400.

The first act of the L.C.C. was to test the water and this, to the amusement of the whole village, was found to be unsuitable – nay polluted and unfit for the children coming from East Ham to drink!

There was Mr Cumberland – very few things stand out in my mind about him, and perhaps there are only one or two of any interest. He was a Sidesman, but refused to be a member of the P.C.C owing to his deafness. For some years he was correspondent to the Managers of Tylers Green Council Schools.

Early in 1921, the Vicar sought election to the Rural District Council and in May of that year Edward Cumberland sent a four page (foolscap) printed manifesto to each individual member of the P.C.C. “I desire to protest etc …. “(Manifesto enclosed). There was another occasion when a young girl who had been to his home to be coached by him for an examination accused him of assault.

When this case was heard at the Police Court in High Wycombe, the vicar asked me to go down with the girl. We had to wait a long time in court before the case came up. I have often read in books of people turning grey, like ashes, but that was the first time I saw it in the flesh. Mr Cumberland’s face was perfectly grey. In the end there was no defence and the case was settled out of court, the girl accepting an apology and the payment of her costs.

The resignation of Mr Long as Headmaster of Tylers Green School and the appointment of Mark King Filby in his place was an event which seems worthy to be chronicled. The B.C.C had selected four applications from the very many which had been sent them and these applicants were to be interviewed by a joint Committee consisting of three members of the BCC and three members nominated from among the local Body of Managers, viz. the Vicar, Mr Bacon and myself. As we filed into the Parish Room I proposed and Mr Bacon immediately seconded that, as the meeting was being held in Tylers Green, the Chair should be taken by the Rev. G Hayward, Chairman of the Managers. The members of the BCC were obviously discomfited and explained that it was usual for one of themselves to act as Chairman. At their express request I withdrew my proposition and one of their number was duly elected.

We considered the application and it was soon apparent that the BCC representatives were more than anxious to appoint a certain man, whose credentials, we found, were the least good of the four. It seemed that for some reason, they wished to move him from his present post and the vacancy at Tylers Green was their opportunity. The two older men were unanimously ruled out and there remained Mr Mark Filby, a virile young man with the most excellent credentials obviously the most suitable for the post. In the end both parties proposed their man – 3 aside and the Chairman then threw in his casting vote and declared the appointment filled! We immediately pointed out that it was only because of our withdrawing our original proposition (at their request) with regard to the election of a Chairman, that the casting vote was in their hands, and that if this was their

usual procedure why carry out the mockery of inviting local managers to assist at the selection, when in fact, the choice was already made.

We represented the unfairness of the arrangements and appealed strongly to the Sec. of the BCC against the appointment which had been made contrary to our united wishes.

After much correspondence, we three were summoned to Aylesbury to attend an enquiry into the matter and to state our case before the whole of the BC Council. The 2 applicants were again brought before us, and we were asked individually which we considered most suitable. We were firm in our choice of M K Filby, on account of his infinitely better testimonials. We said we desired that the best for our school and that the manner of the appointment had been unfair. It was a long enquiry and a just one, after the Council had deliberated in private, we were again called in and informed that the protest had been accepted and that M.K.Filby had been appointed, at our request, to fill the post made vacant by the resignation of Mr S G Long.

I think she was thoroughly spoilt by her family. She was completely the mistress of the establishment and family life centred round her.

The daughter certainly had character and a will of her own, but this only seemed to show when in sympathy or agreement with the mother. Hers was a hard, intolerant face and the eyes were not quite trustworthy – I never heard of anyone who loved her, but I know of one or two cases where she inspired an almost diabolical hatred! Capable and I think ambitious, she was practically unknown till her opportunity came with her election as President of the W.!. From that day she became a unit in the social life of the Parish. Her family were her devoted slaves and I remember one occasion when I asked her to propose a vote of thanks to a speaker at one of our W.!. meetings in the days when I was its President. She had brought her daughter of about 27 with her and during quite a long speech the daughter pressed close to her and their hands were tightly clasped in sympathy. Suspicious, she would nevertheless, not come out in the open. Giving members of her Committee work to do, she would go and see for herself if the visits had been paid. A builder working at her house tells the following story:

Mrs B. (to her husband) John, did you post the letters I gave you this morning?
Mr B. Oh no I quite forgot.
Mrs B. Then you can’t go out this evening.

She was I think, high principled and religious and her life as a schoolmistress made her deeply interested in children. She had wished to inaugurate a Children’s Corner in the Church, but her ideas being rather in the nature of blue ceilings and stars, there was no support. Her somewhat unattractive personality brought her no following in the village.

Mr Middleton objected to sitting on a hard pew and had a felt strip made to fit his two sittings (those were the days when pews were allocated). This lay on the pew and covered, roughly, about 1/2 of it. Another party occupied the inside of the pew and on their rather early arrival they would move along the felt for themselves to sit on. Those sitting near would wait for the arrival of Mr Middleton who, as the congregation rose at the commencement of the service, would snatch back his pieces of felt. A small thing but one which caused much amusement.

Ernest Roy Bird and Nettie lived at the Beacon. He told us once that he was a past master at swearing having an immense vocabulary of unprintable words. He had renounced a fortune in order to marry Nettie who was a Roman Catholic. To his credit we should like to record that fact, but he still seemed to have more of this world’s goods than most people in the vicinity. He stood for Parliament and after having fought a losing battle for some years contesting the constituency of Lambeth North he finally [1924] was given a safe seat as Conservative MP for Skipton in Yorkshire.

His attendance at Tylers Green Church was restricted to twice a year ­on Easter Day and Christmas but nevertheless he told us that whenever he was in Yorkshire, he read the lessons in the Parish Church to impress his constituents. He was a large, good looking man, kindly and courteous until he was roused – a good friend but a bad enemy. Nettie was small and ambitious with great tenacity of purpose and kindliness of heart. She had taken great pains with herself and had attended classes so that she should be able to help her husband during election times.

Note: Ernest Roy Bird, 13 Oct 1883 – 27 Sept 1933. Solicitor, MP for Skipton Division, Yorkshire since 1924.  Died in office, causing by-election 1933.