Sibford Scene Archive

I enjoyed your article on Theodore Lamb. He was my Great Grandfather Ernest Lamb’s younger brother. Ernest served his time as a clothier and woollen draper with the Blunsom family [also members of The Society of Friends] at Kettering before making his way north to Whitehaven, Cumberland [now Cumbria], where he established our family Outfitting business in 1905, which we continued for four generation until we reluctantly closed in 1999.

My late father Arthur Lamb [1925-1985], used to recall visiting Theodore in his hut on Sibford Heath when he use to stay with his Great Aunts Mary Hannah, Mildred and Lucretia Lamb at Vine Cottage in Bonds End Lane between the wars.

If I could correct one small error, Theodore’s Father [my Great Great Grandfather Joseph John Lamb] did not fall to his death from the chestnut tree beside the pond at Sibford Gower. He met his end by falling from the tree in the garden of his home, West Town House, Sibford Ferris. Joshua Lamb explains this in on page 36 of his 1938 book “Genealogies of the Harris and Lamb families”.

He writes “Joseph John Lamb was killed instantly by falling out of a chestnut tree in front of his house while knocking down the ripe fruit on October 22nd,1887, and the tree now growing by the pond at Sibford Gower was raised by me from a nut picked up by me from the side of his dead body; his widow died on April 17 1922,aged 72 years. He was 55. Both were buried at Sibford.”

About 30 years ago I brought home to Cumbria a nut from the tree beside the pond, and this has now grown in to quite a large tree in our garden.

With the recent passing of my relations Ina and Arnold Lamb there cannot be that many people who knew Theodore Lamb in person still around, but it is good to know he is not forgotten in his village. I look forward to reading Sibford scene every month. Keep up the good work.

With best wishes,
Christopher Lamb,
Distington,
Cumbria

A few memories:-

The farm used to have a large stone barn, stables, cattle sheds and yard with a small cottage.

The quarry was small until 1940 when stone was used to build the runways at Shenington “EdgeHill” aerodrome.

Wimpey were the main contractors. They moved into the quarry workshops with several lorries. These lorries were loaded under a metal chute along the lane to the west of the quarry. This was a very noisy operation. The stone was brought to the top of the chute in trucks on metal tracks and just tipped down. I know the full time mechanic Norman Dyer was kept very busy.

In the field at the end of the lane was a searchlight. Some of the soldiers who manned the light lived with us at Hill House in the Ferris. It was a nerve wracking job, and some of them had to be replaced.

In 1940 Gibraltar was a hectic place of work and Mrs Sabin of Temple Mill was glad when the airfield was finished.

David Dyer