NEP1984

HARBY IN 1984.

On February 4 1984 the Nottingham Evening Post on page 10 published the following article on Harby

Say cheese! And you’re in Harby

Living with the past

By Patricia Ramskill

THE village of Harby, situated deep in the Vale of Belvoir a mile over the Leicestershire border, has long been renowned for producing Stilton cheese. Standing on the highest part of the Wolds escarpment, with fine views of the Vale, Harby is about 14 miles east of Nottingham and nine miles from Melton Mowbray.

The original cheese was made by farmers in the Vale almost as a cottage industry — it was said that only Vale milk was suitable and "marigold juice" had to be added to colour the cheese. It received its name because it was first sold at the Old Bell Inn at Stilton, a staging post on the Great North Road, early in the 19th Century, where it is believed a Harby farmer's wife had relatives. Today, it is a big industry. The Unigate Dairy in Colston Basset Lane, which produces yogurt as well as the cheese, opened in the 1970s.

Settlements

It is believed there were early Danish settlements at Harby and the name comes from the Scandinavian word "Hjori" meaning a herd or flock. It appears as "Herdebi" in the Domesday Book, and the village was one of many given by the Conqueror to his standard bearer, Robert de Todeni.

It was always an area for grazing land, the heavy clay soil producing natural pasture, but today there are few farms left. The population, which has risen to approximately 800 in recent years, has been augmented by commuters who find it a convenient base for Nottingham, Leicester and Grantham.

The village has its share of old families, and a descendant of one of these is Miss Barbara Stead of Green Lane, who is keenly interested in local history. On her mother's side she can trace her line back through the Furmidge and Kemp families to the 1600s, and her late father, Mr Martin Stead, who came from Nottingham 80 years ago, took over the blacksmith's shop which the Kemps had worked for generations.

"The family were also wharfingers and brewers at the grain store at the Grantham Canal which passes through the village," said Miss Stead. "There was an old mill near it run by the Bonser family, but the sails blew off before the last war, and the rest was taken down because it was in the flight path for Langar Aerodrome, a couple of miles away. It was a well-known landmark once — now there is only a stump left."

Miss Stead has played the organ at the Methodist Church in Main Street, where the Rev Stanley Taylor is Minister, for nearly 30 years. A previous organist for 40 years was her mother, Mrs Mabel Stead.

In the Vale

Sharing Miss Stead's home is her friend, Miss Patricia O'Brien, the former district nurse and midwife, who retired last September after 28 years in the village. Miss O'Brien's work in the Vale often entailed turning out in all weathers and travelling long distances in the middle of the night. "But it has been marvellous in Harby," she said. "The people are very kind."

Many of the village's oldest buildings, which included cottages with mud walls, have disappeared. But there is still much of interest, including an impressive house in Stathern Road, with lines from the Lord's Prayer chiselled over its doorway, built by a 19th-century rector for his curate. The former rectory, dated from 1750, is now privately owned.

The Village Institute, which is extensively used by the many local organisations, was built as a memorial to the Harby men killed in the First World War, and for years was run by ex-servicemen. There is also a memorial cross on the Green that has for its base the stump of an ancient cross that once stood in the churchyard. The Parish Church of St Mary the Virgin dates from the 14th century, but was probably an off-shoot of a much earlier monastic establishment at Stathern.

Many years ago, Harby's earlier records disappeared and there are a number of fascinating stories about their possible fate. One is that an 18th-century clerk wrapped his wife's dead body in them, because of an old superstition that parchment, on which the records were written, would keep evil spirits away!

The present Rector is Leicester-born the Rev John Savige, who is also Rural Dean of Framland First Deanery, an ancient position embracing the whole of the Vale of Belvoir. He and his wife, Freda, have been in the parish for nine years, and they have five daughters, Elizabeth, Jane, Anne, Mary and Alexandra.

The Church of England Primary School by the Green was built in 1860, and has been added to in recent years. Today's headmaster is Mr Colin Marshall, who lives in Asfordby. He is assisted by an infant teacher, a nursery nurse and a part-time secretary. The school has 44 pupils, mainly from the village, but it has reduced in numbers. At the end of the last century there were 140 children and a staff of six.

"I'm blessed"

A most remarkable old lady, 95-year-old retired nanny, Miss Lois Rawlinson of Stathern Road, is Harby's oldest resident. Bustling around in the living room of her oak-beamed cottage, she said: "I've no money, but I'm blessed with good feet and legs so I can nip about. Not many of my age can do that. And I cook a three-course lunch every day!"

Miss Rawlinson's father, Mr William Rawlinson, was a foreman on the railway which opened locally in the 1880s — the junction at Harby was closed down shortly after the last war — and her grandfather was head gamekeeper to a former Duke of Rutland.

One of eight children who grew up in her present cottage, Miss Rawlinson left home at 17 to become a nanny. "I didn't go just anywhere, I chose only the best families," she insisted. For years she worked in London, and her travels took her thousands of miles around Italy and the Middle East. When she was 60 she retired to Harby.

"I never thought I'd settle," she said. "Harby's not the place I knew. But I read and watch television. I even started writing a book on my travels and, most important, my old families still come to see me and send me presents and photographs of their weddings."

A niece of Miss Rawlinson, Mrs Peggy Dunmore Shipman, lives in a bungalow in Colton Basset Lane, which she and her husband, Leslie, a retired farmer, built 18 months ago on land adjoining their former farm. The daughter of a farmer, Mrs Shipman is active in the village, a member of St Mary's Parochial Church Council, a school governor, trustee of the Village Institute and a member of the WI. Her husband is keen on shooting and his hobby is making walking sticks.

"I've watched Harby change from a working class, rural village to a community with 65% professional people," she said. "The streets are empty now."

Picturesque

There are two pubs in the village. The White Hart and The Nag's Head stand facing each other in Main Street. The picturesque and historical Nag's Head is believed to have been built as a priory, then became a farmhouse, and in 1722 changed to a posting house between Leicester and Newark.

The landlord for the past 18 years, Keith Buxton and his wife, Margery, find time in their busy lives to take part in many village activities. Mr Buxton, who served in Bomber Command during the last war and was a prisoner in Germany, spoke of the Canadian and American servicemen, once stationed at Langar Aerodrome, who still come back for a drink at The Nag's Head.

The pub is equally popular with people from all over the area, and a personality who never fails to visit it when he is in these parts, is entertainer Danny La Rue.