"When
I was young in the 1930's my family used to cut rushes at Lower Birch
Hill. My father and uncle together with myself and one of my brothers
would take two horses and carts and mow the rushes. The land was
very wet. We would spend the day there, taking food with us. We used to
light a fire in the house when we brewed up at lunchtime. Some of the
windows still had glass in them but in others it had gone.
I
remember going upstairs one day and there was a sheep in one of the
bedrooms! The bedroom windows were very low, only about a foot above the
floor. It was a small farmhouse with only three bedrooms." (A.
Walmsley)
