Republic Cottage, Somersham Road, St Ives

Republic Cottage, Somersham Road

A view of Republic Cottage, on the corner of Somersham Road & St Audrey Lane, from 1951. The chicory factory is beyond the cottage, along the Needingworth Road. No sign of today's roundabout, bypass & traffic congestion!

St Ivians remember:

The field on the right opposite the Chicory was owned by my grandad and he rented the little building out to Mort Moulton, who kept pigs there. He had a big old boiler where he used to cook pigswill from waste food from St Ives garden produce. Never forget the smell of the swill. 

Nor me. The pigs used to get chicken stew every day.

I remember your grandad, who I called Uncle Bob, sitting round the steamer with the door open warming their hands. My dad also collected swill from the Pike and Eel, Golden Lion, Stiles' bakery, Dunnington's and Howard’s fish and chip shops. So not only chicken stew aroma.

I used to leave my bike against that building to get picked up by bus at the Manchester Arms for football on Saturday mornings. Had to dodge stray bullets from the rifle club as well!

My grandfather lived at the Chalfont, which was a wooden bungalow probably to the left of this photo. I have happy memories of visiting him and my grandmother. My dad said you could see the glow from London during the blitz from the factory's roof. Many years later I did some electrical work in the ovens, never forgotten the smell.