"The flint fields around Broughton Astley are a wealth of Stone Age arrowheads and knives. My old friend, Mike Thompson, showed me what to look for. After the ploughing, we would tramp over the fields and very often found trophies. There must have been large Stone Age settlements in the area and their remains are most certainly churned up unnoticed with the ploughs every year. The Brook, at the back of Willow Cottage, also turned up many fossils. It was simply a question of digging up the stones from the mud of the bed and sorting out the fossils from the stones. Since they had been lying around for half a million years before we found them, I have no doubt that they are still there today, fifty years later."
"Real progress came to Broughton Astley in late Spring 1951. Water! Clear water that came from taps! Water for instant drinking! Until then most houses had a pump in the garden, a covered well with a bucket or a rainwater tank. The water had to be drawn or pumped and left in a bucket, until the bits of sediment settled to the bottom, and then boiled. Mother was at first finicky about the odd worm or other wriggly creature that came up with the pump, but as with most things, she quickly learned to adapt. I remember the topic of water being on everyone's tongues for many weeks in those heady days of progress."
