INTRODUCTION

I suppose that it is only those who lived in Hillesley before the Great War who can really appreciate the changes which have taken place in the life of the community since that time. I was eleven years old in 1914 so I can recall something of how Hillesley people lived before the Kaiser's war. In those far off days the village was a community of grooms, gardeners and farm labourers, of small tradesmen and agriculturalists of varying degree.
The scant leisure people enjoyed then was occupied in inter-village cricket matches, flower shows in the summer and concerts in the winter, entertainment largely provided by the villagers themselves.
There was in that little world of agrarian peace, the modest squirearchy, a richer variety of trades and crafts, and a much greater independence of the world outside than is the case today.
Far be it from my intention to give the impression that things were better then than now. I have only to visit the school today and look at the children, so different in health and appearance to many of those I went to school with. Chilblains in winter, sores and impetigo on many little faces, coughs and colds which seemed to drag on for weeks, all these made life hard for those who were under-nourished and poorly clothed. In the village were to be found families who were really poor.
But every age has some virtue peculiar to its day and I still carry the impression that there was a great deal of good fellowship and simple pleasure in the community in which my childhood days were spent.