First World War
in Everton
In 1914 there was a German
prisoners of war camp near Potton and many local woods were said to have been
cleared by the prisoners. Large number of local men died during the war.
Practically every family lost someone. Ethel Hull, who lived in the thatched
cottage opposite the Elms, lost three brothers.
During the war, a small-scale
building programme was started by Mr. Pym. Two terraces of estate cottages were
built. By 1915 four had been finished
at the Sandy end of Sandy Road. Those in Church End were finished by 1919.
These latter were for those men who came out of the forces. It is told that if
they helped work on the building of the houses for six months, then they could
rent them. They all did.
One of the soldiers is shown
in a photograph of a hay making group in the early part of the First World War
(BRO. Z50 142.169). Mr Barnet, the landlord of the Thornton Arms, also rented a
field near the Blacksmiths cottage at the top of the hill and probably followed
the ancient custom of rewarding his labourers with beer once the harvest was
in.