ID: PH01_RTC / Elaine Barker

TitleBernard Ratcliffe of Little Wigborough
AbstractIn almost all the pictures of L33, the Zeppelin that came down at Copt Hall Lane, Little Wigborough in 1916, there is a pair of little farm cottages, barely 20 yards from the wreckage, dwarfed by the 645 feet long skeleton which straddled the road. This is New Hall Cottages and Bernard Ratcliffe has lived in these tied cottages since his marriage in 1955; for 15 years next door in No. 2, New Hall Cottages and then No. 1 ever since, 48 years and counting!

Bernard was born in 1933 in Dedham. His father, Ernest William Ratcliffe, was a cowman and moved around from farm to farm working at different times for farmers in Ardleigh, Steeple Bumpstead and Wivenhoe (The Wivenhoe Park Estate) before coming to Great Wigborough in 1948 where the family moved into Hill Farm Cottages on School Road. Bernard attended Birch School for a little while but began work at the age of 15.

The local farmer in New Hall, Little Wigborough was Mr Victor Gray and following a conversation between Bernard's Mum and Mrs Eva Gray on the bus one day (it was the Osbornes bus from Tollesbury to Colchester) Bernard started work for Mr Gray at New Hall Farm. Bernard worked with the cowman Mr Fred Taylor and, to start with, helped with the chickens and milking the cows.

In 1952, Bernard met his wife, Gladys Irene Mary Gammon and they were married for 59 years, bringing up two children, before sadly she died about four years ago. Their wedding on 5th March 1955 was at Great Wigborough Church and the reception was in the newly restored Coronation Hall, which had been the old school building. Bernard recalls it was the first wedding reception held in the newly refurbished hall and cost £33! Earning £4 a week on the farm that was a lot of money for a young farm-worker!

New Hall Farm, Little Wigborough

A photograph of New Hall Farm, sometime before Victor Gray was there.

At New Hall in the early days, just after the war, Bernard remembers there was only one horse (called Captain) and one Fordson tractor. They had pigs, cows, sheep and chickens. Mr Gray developed a turkey business and every year they would pluck the birds, eventually amounting to three and a half thousand every Christmas.

Bernie Ratcliffe Fordson Tractor

Bernie Ratcliffe, Fordson tractor

Peldon Forge and Tronoh House

Peldon Forge and Tronoh House on Peldon Common

The nearest forge was Mr Greenleaf's in Peldon. Post World War Two, Italian POWs were still working locally on the land, at New Hall hand-digging a drain from the cowshed to the wood (Copt Hall Grove). They lived at the Women's Land Army Hostel on Wigborough Road in Peldon and would help with the harvest too. A binder would be borrowed from Mr Gray's brother, Alan, who lived and farmed at Mersea.

In the 1953 floods the water came right up to Copt Hall Grove following the path of the brook which meanders along the field margins to Sampson's Creek. Some of the sheep drowned although most made it to high ground. In the 60s Victor Gray levelled large areas of marsh for cultivation and shortly after the farmer at Copt Hall and Robert Davidson at Brick House Farm, Peldon, followed suit.

On his mantelpiece Bernard proudly shows off the clock he was presented with for 36 years of loyal service with Victor Gray. His job came to an end when the Grays sold up in 1988 and Bernard was to move on to work part-time for Robert Davidson also gardening for the Stuttafords at Moulshams on Wigborough Hill.

Little Wigborough is a sparsely populated hamlet with its church, St Nicholas, (famously displaying a piece of the structure from the Zeppelin) and Copt Hall which is now owned by the National Trust. Previous owner of Copt Hall, 'Sammy' Sampson was the Commodore at West Mersea Yacht Club and a crew member for Edward Heath on MORNING CLOUD.

The largely single-track Copt Hall Lane is surrounded by fields bound by sea walls. Copt Hall Grove is a stone's throw away from New Hall Cottages. Bernard sees marsh harriers and buzzards, lots of long-tailed tits too and muntjac deer. Sometime in the 70s or 80s Gordon Purtell, the tractor driver, who lived in the cottage adjacent to Bernard's, shot a polecat because he was worried it would attack their chickens. Such a rare native animal that Mr Gray put it in the freezer to await someone who could identify it.

Bernard still grows some of his own vegetables, the potatoes were chitting ready to go in at my last visit! He loves his tractors and has many photos of different models. He has quite a collection of Zeppelin photographs as well as old newspaper articles which are of such interest to anyone researching modern history of a village!
It was a pleasure to meet you Bernard!

Elaine Barker
Peldon History Project


Sadly, Bernie died 6th April 2020. Anne Owen wrote an obituary for Peldon and Wigborough Parish Magazine:
Memories of Bernard (Bernie) Ratcliffe

AuthorElaine Barker
PublishedMarch 2018
SourceMersea Museum
IDPH01_RTC
Related Images:
 Peldon Forge, Forge Cottage, and Tronoh House on Peldon Common.  PH01_105
ImageID:   PH01_105
Title: Peldon Forge, Forge Cottage, and Tronoh House on Peldon Common.
Source:Peldon History Project / Pat Wyncoll
 Victor Gray on New Hall Farm. The bull was Gay Gordon.  RTC_003
ImageID:   RTC_003
Title: Victor Gray on New Hall Farm. The bull was "Gay Gordon".
Source:Mersea Museum / Bernard Ratcliffe
 Wet Harvest 1958 at New Hall, Little Wigborough, Far Feldys. The Fowler crawler tractor is in the centre. Bernie Ratcliffe with the fork across his shoulders is on the right.  RTC_005
ImageID:   RTC_005
Title: Wet Harvest 1958 at New Hall, Little Wigborough, Far Feldys. The Fowler crawler tractor is in the centre. Bernie Ratcliffe with the fork across his shoulders is on the right.
Date:October 1958
Source:Mersea Museum / Bernard Ratcliffe
 Bernie Ratcliffe - Fordson Major tractor. New Hall Cottages behind the trees on the right.  RTC_007
ImageID:   RTC_007
Title: Bernie Ratcliffe - Fordson Major tractor. New Hall Cottages behind the trees on the right.
Source:Mersea Museum / Bernard Ratcliffe
 This is heavy land. Fowler VF crawler tractor and an Allis Chalmers All-crop 60, an early combine harvester. It belonged to Victor Gray, New Hall Farm, Little Wigborough.
</p><p>
Bernard sent the photograph to Old Tractor Magazine, Sept 2005, with the caption:
 Following a very wet harvest in 1958, an attempt was made to gather in the crop at New Hall Farm, Little Wigborough, in October using an Allis-Chalmers All-Crop 60 combine pulled by a Fowler VF crawler. Bernard tells us that it was so soft that a sledge had to be made to set the combine on. Note the spade, which was used to dig out the mud so that the starting handle could be inserted, and the fuse-holder laying on the left-hand track.
</p>  RTC_011
ImageID:   RTC_011
Title: This is heavy land. Fowler VF crawler tractor and an Allis Chalmers All-crop 60, an early combine harvester. It belonged to Victor Gray, New Hall Farm, Little Wigborough.

Bernard sent the photograph to Old Tractor Magazine, Sept 2005, with the caption:
Following a very wet harvest in 1958, an attempt was made to gather in the crop at New Hall Farm, Little Wigborough, in October using an Allis-Chalmers All-Crop 60 combine pulled by a Fowler VF crawler. Bernard tells us that it was so soft that a sledge had to be made to set the combine on. Note the spade, which was used to dig out the mud so that the starting handle could be inserted, and the fuse-holder laying on the left-hand track.

Date:October 1958
Source:Mersea Museum / Bernard Ratcliffe
 International TD18 crawler tractor. Gordon Purtell is on the tractor and Bernie Ratcliffe behind to the left. Shadow of Victor Gray lower left. New Hall Farm, Little Wigborough.
 It was the the first day for the tractor - it had come to the UK for building airfields during WW2 and was khaki underneath the red paint. It was bought from Blackwells at Earls Colne and Victor paid about £945 for it. It was at New Hall for 30 years. At the farm sale October 1988, it sold for £1,400.  RTC_013
ImageID:   RTC_013
Title: International TD18 crawler tractor. Gordon Purtell is on the tractor and Bernie Ratcliffe behind to the left. Shadow of Victor Gray lower left. New Hall Farm, Little Wigborough.
It was the the first day for the tractor - it had come to the UK for building airfields during WW2 and was khaki underneath the red paint. It was bought from Blackwells at Earls Colne and Victor paid about £945 for it. It was at New Hall for 30 years. At the farm sale October 1988, it sold for £1,400.
Date:1958
Source:Mersea Museum / Bernard Ratcliffe
 New Hall Farm, Little Wigborough.  SG01_045_001
ImageID:   SG01_045_001
Title: New Hall Farm, Little Wigborough.
Source:Mersea Museum / Sheila Gray
 The wedding of Bernard Ratcliffe to Gladys Gammon at Great Wigborough Church. The reception was in the newly restored Coronation Hall, which had been the old school building.  SG01_087_005
ImageID:   SG01_087_005
Title: The wedding of Bernard Ratcliffe to Gladys Gammon at Great Wigborough Church. The reception was in the newly restored Coronation Hall, which had been the old school building.
Date:5 March 1955
Source:Mersea Museum / Sheila Gray
 Mr Bernard Ratcliffe and Miss Gladys Gammin [ Gammon ], both of Hill Farm Cottages, Great Wigborough Church, whose wedding took place on Saturday.
 Rev. A. de Quincey officiated.
 Mr & Mrs Ratcliffe will live at New Hall Cottages, Little Wigborough.  SG01_087_007
ImageID:   SG01_087_007
Title: Mr Bernard Ratcliffe and Miss Gladys Gammin [ Gammon ], both of Hill Farm Cottages, Great Wigborough Church, whose wedding took place on Saturday.
Rev. A. de Quincey officiated.
Mr & Mrs Ratcliffe will live at New Hall Cottages, Little Wigborough.
Date:5 March 1955
Source:Mersea Museum / Sheila Gray