Cottage Farm in the 20th Century
Luther Ansell with his son Len
Len Ansell
Beautiful atmosphere. Them days have really gone.
In the 1930s, Luther Ansell was living at Cottage Farm with his family as a manager for the Carter family who owned it. The farm's main produce was vegetables though a little lavender was still grown. Luther had learned to work with horses in his army days and they were the focus of his life.
His son, Len, remembers:
Well, there were three Shire horses in one stable - one end of which had a lot of straw in there for storing. My dad used to get up about five o'clock in the morning and he used to go down to groom the horses in the morning and get them started. And he never ever found the horses lying down. He always said they heard him walking down the path in the morning and they would already be standing up when he'd go in there. So he used to go and get them ready. There was a massive great water tank outside the stable where they had the drinking water. And then he would harness them up during the day - tie them up to the equipment, either a cart or a plough or rake or roller and then take 'em out in the fields and do the work. He spent a lot of time in the evening brushing them, grooming them, - a lot of time. That was his life. (Len Ansell)