Emily's Story

About the Book

EMILY

From the day Emily was chosen to be a skivvy she would tread through rural life of North East England as it unfolded to her in with the natural world of a traditional farmhouse.

Those days were spartan and bleak, but with this farm at "Hunter's Piece", she was to find it a mixture of hardship, devotion and love.

There were many things to learn about -- the farm and its ways. The animals needed attention, every day all the year round. The seasons of the farming year all had their times.

She learned dairy work, housework and the outside days of haymaking, the harvesting and threshing days, and the gruesome killing of pigs and poultry, for food.

The hard graft of house cleaning, butter making, and huge wash days, with the old poss tub and wooden roller mangle. The bread and cake making to feed them all with wholesome meals, to give all the strength to put their backs into it.

Emily had the dedication to learn and fit in. Her slender body, was yearning to be good and to tackle the daily chores. Each task seemed to have a meaningful end, like lambing sheep, and tending her own little pig, Tansy.

In this farmhouse were the Boss, Missus, a horseman, a cowman, Old Tom the odd job man, and herself. Emily grew and developed daily, as she grew to have a fondness for this place

Read about her life as she travels towards a perfect ending.

About the Author

She started her working life at the age of 14 at Sandy Lea's farm Elton, which she called Hunter's Piece, it was owned by Mr. and Mrs. Hunter (The Boss and Missus). In that farmhouse she got the exact specialist training she was to use in later years. At first the work was very hard, but with persistent endurance she managed to overcome the vast array of farmhouse work eventually taking over the running of the whole farmhouse when the Missus was ill.

She endeared herself to Mr. and Mrs. Hunter who were without children and treated and her as their only child. She fell in love with the horseman and when he was expecting to be called up for war service married him at the age of 19 years.

She was giving away by the Boss and they were given a wonderful wedding reception in the farmhouse on November 18th 1939

Later she became the Warden of a W.L.A. (Woman's Land Army) Hostel in Leicester. for the duration of the war.

Immediately after the war she became Hostel Warden in various parts of the U.K. for up to 40 wartime displaced persons from all parts of Europe, eventually she settled down to a normal married life with her husband and two children to complete her 64 years of happy married life before dying on Dec. 10th, 2003.

She had written three books.

She had two children, four grandchildren, and six great grandchildren.