George Polley’s life history, read by George Polley. Chapter ten (4139b), page 9
Highlights in this oral history recording include:

00.00 References to air crashes. Buying replacement kit
03.00 General matters – including Janet's Uncle Andrew
11.20 Home Guard equipment recalled in December
12.00 Decision for very quiet wedding by special licence. Father refuses to attend. Live at Scotties
16.30 Buys motorbike to make life easier
18.10 With Mother purchases 80 foot plot at £2 per foot, 200 ft deep. Planning held up by uncertainty of Stanway By-Pass route (on cards since 1932). Hills builds pair for £2200. Not able to move in until after Sept 1946.
21.50 16 Sept trip to Chiswick
23.00 Bought new Ransomes thrashing drum
24.30 Family on the way. Robert born. House 24 London Road called Ellscot after their homes

Page nine of G Polley's life story. A few facts to get down. On the last page, I referred to the aircraft crash - Layer Marney Wick and the one at Stanway Hall Farm. Further details of these two crashes can be found in the folders of my various memo, memorilia or whatever word we call it. Memorabilia. Get it right in a minute.

And the various details including the pilot of the Tempest that caused the fire. I've got a copy of his notes that he made referring to that incident when he had to bail out, and also the digging out of the Thunderbolt engine at the Layer Marney site. I think that the engine of that Thunderbolt eventually went to Duxford. I'm not sure, but I think it did. The Tempest, I don't think there's much left of that actually, it was scrap, like what our thrashing tackle was, just scrap. But as I mentioned, we managed to get a replacement when we bought a Marshall drum from the London Co-operative Society, their farm at Ongar.

And I went with one of the Saunderson tractors to Ongar to get the drum back to Marks Tey. I only managed to get back to Kelvedon by nightfall. So I pulled in, I think it was the yard of Hunwicks, they were engineering company in Station Road. I managed to pull in there off the road and went back and collected it the next morning, having caught the bus back to Marks Tey that previous night.

Another little snippet of the thrashing days. I was going from Fennells farm, Park Gate Farm, Layer Marney, moving to, I think that was Layer Marney Wick Farm that particular time. And, intending to make a start, when we got there. In the narrow road between the two places, there'd been a certain amount of water main problems, and the back-filling of the trench hadn't been too good, and I suddenly found the tractor wheels spinning on the road and the back end, nearside back end of the drum had dropped in right up to the axle.

It took us over three hours to get out from that. So by the time we got out, it was a case of cadging timbers and jacking up a bit at a time, couldn't get under the axle so I had to get jacks halfway along under the mainframe. And it was a case of Heath Robinson efforts to get it a bit at a time. I'd got the winch on the tractor, but with that amount of hold up, I would probably have pulled the four carriage out from the drum if I'd attempted to winch it out, even if I could have found a solid anchor for the front end of the tractor unit. So we lost a day's thrashing, or three quarters of a day anyway, we had to pack it up the next time.

And, oh no, I see from my notes it wasn't, I wasn't going to Wick Farm, Layer Marney that time I was going to Mr. Andrews at Stamps on Layer Breton Heath, another one of the small customers. Just so like half a day's work and nothing in it for us, but it was war time and it was just a case of we had to comply with the regulations and get the jobs done.

Back to sort of like the private side, Janet's Uncle Andrew at Wakes Colne, he wasn't keeping at all well. And I went, it must have been one evening or something I should think, I went with Janet's folks. We had Bacon's taxi from Kelvedon. We went to see Uncle Andrew, and he was obviously feeling the loss of his wife even though she had been like semi-invalid for a good many years.

He was feeling lonely and wasn't seeing after himself food-wise and that sort of thing. He suggested if Janet and I got married and got a house of our own, that he'd come and live with us. But neither of us were too keen on that idea because we knew if we did, we would be expected to do everything hand and foot.

And with what Janet was doing and I was doing, that wasn't anywhere in it, especially considering the past family history between Janet's Dad and Uncle Andrew. The history went back to their days in Scotland, which I won't go into any detail. That's a thing of the past.

November of that year, it was time to get the wreckage of a thrashing tackle at Stanway Hall, time to get that cleared up. So on Sunday morning, no HG (Home Guard) drill that morning, I borrowed Northstoke flat wagon from Scotties. And I went and picked up what was left of the tackle and brought it back to the depot at Marks Tey. It was just a heap of scrap iron. Nothing was worth saving. It was just a case of the heat, had completely distorted metal work and that, to unrecognisable shapes, some of it.

By this time, Janet's Uncle Andrew had been admitted to Colchester Hospital, and we went in a time or two to visit him in there. And he had appointed the neighbour to look after his cottage while he was in hospital. And when he came out and returned and eventually passed away, the will. We went to his funeral. The will was read out and everything that he possessed was made over by his, he had made a cross on the extra bit that had been added to his will, which had transferred anything of his. Instead of going to his brother, which was Janet's brother, went to the neighbours, including the cottage that belonged, that Uncle Andrew had bought. So of course what they didn't have, they didn't miss, the one thing that Janet missed was a china cabinet that her auntie gave to her But she said that she couldn't take it out of the house while they were still alive. But of course, we weren't going to call up any old grievances and claim it after Uncle Andrew had gone. So Janet did feel a little bit grieved on that subject, but that was just something that happens every day in some families.

In the December '44, things were getting easier as far as possible invasion of Britain and some of our specialist equipment for the Home Guard was called in. And later that month, even a 303 rifle was recalled. So by that, we felt almost certain that the invasion problem had receded.

That Christmas, I spent as much time as I could with Janet and we decided that now it looked like the war was getting to an end., we decided that we known each other well enough and decided that we would get married. We didn't want a lot of fuss, either of us. And Janet didn't even really want the banns to be published publicly, so I applied and got what was known as a special licence at that time, I think it cost me about 15 pounds, something of that sort. We made arrangements with the stand-in clergyman, Mr. Oliphant from Copford and for him to arrange for us to be married at 10 o'clock on the morning, the Saturday morning, the 3rd of February, 1945.

A little bit of as to who should be asked for the wedding. And it was decided, Janet mainly decided that her parents offer of a bit of a do. She would rather have something for our future home and just have a quiet wedding because neither of us wanted a lot of, under circumstances, a lot of publicity.

We were on rations as regards to food and that sort of thing, and not that it could have been arranged. But we decided we'd just have a quiet do. There was Easthorpe church that morning. There was Janet, her parents, her Mum and Dad and her brothers, Jim and Andrew. On my side, Dad wouldn't condescend to come. He wasn't too happy with circumstances as he thought, but we knew the true circumstances. And so on my side there was just my mum and me, we were married and we went into Colchester that afternoon and did the necessary, as regards to the official changing of Janet's name on her Identity Card and that sort of thing.

We treated ourselves, each other, to a little keepsake and then we came back and as we hadn't been able to get a house of our own, I was made welcome at Scotties Farm and we had Janet's, what had been Janet's bedroom, that was our room, and her parents, Boss and Mrs, as we were welcome to call them.

They knew the nature of my work, which meant that I would be going home with filthy dirty overalls and myself in need of a jolly good wash because of the dirt and grind from the thrashing job. Them being farmers, they quite accepted that, and we looked around for a place of our own. It didn't look as if we were gonna get one very easily.

I bought a secondhand BSA 250 motorbike to make it easier for my transport side of things. We didn't have a honeymoon, we just went to work as usual. And so I, to make it easier for my travel, as I say, I bought this BSA 250 motorbike from Page's garage at Feering and have a photograph of Janet and myself on it and that was that.

We were quite happy and content. It eased the situation at Ellesmere because I'm afraid things, what with the heavy workload and me saying that we were getting married and no publicity, I’m afraid it was a little bit of a raw situation at times with Dad, but it made things easier when I changed place of residence. The, that was one of those things that, like other families, it does happen. It turned out all right in the end.

But work had to keep going on. We started looking around for an alternative house, but we couldn't find one. And then we, Mother came up with the idea, she'd got a bit of money, put to one side and suggested to make it easier for us, she knew that the two of us had got enough money for, to build a small cottage, and she said that it would be easier if we had a pair, semi-detached.

So we bought a plot of land at two pounds of foot frontage. We had 40 foot frontage each, so the total plot was 80 foot and it was 200 foot deep. We tried to get planning permission. We were held up for a considerable time for the simple reason, the A12 improvement scheme, Stanway Bypass, which had been on paper from 1932. They still couldn't decide where it was going to go, but eventually we did get permission and a Mr Burton drew up plans and Hills, the building firm from Colchester, were approached and they gave us a price £2,200 pounds for the pair, that was £1,100 each house, three bedrooms, semi-detached, obviously.

And, that was to be our home. But unfortunately it didn't materialise, we weren't able to move in until, I think it was, it was after our Robert was born in September of '46. According to rumour, he should have been born in September ‘45. But we knew the truth, and therefore, as we said, time would tell. But we, as I say, we got the houses built.

Janet and I paid for our half of the semi-detached. Mother rented out her section to my old school pal, Rex Dudley and his wife Peggy. The, in the meantime of waiting to get planning consent through, we put a crop of wheat on the little plot. So we had, I forget how much it was, but we went through the procedure of mowing it with a scythe, tying it up the old fashioned way, and then thrashing it with our own tackle. Quite an event then, but it's helped life along.

Before we moved in, I remember one trip we'd done down to Chiswick with Janet's family. It was friends of friends of their family had got a residence down on the side of the Thames at Chiswick. And with the petrol situation get a little bit easier, we were able to make the journey. That was on the 16th of, that was 16th of September, 1945, actually, when we went there. Quite a pleasant change and, I like that. In that 1945, we bought the firm just after, of course the VE-Day came in on the 8th of May that year, in the August we had,the firm, had bought a brand new Ransome AM 54 threshing drum from Ransomes of Ipswich.

And I went down with the tractor to Ipswich and collected it with one of the old Saundersons. Quite a tricky journey when you take Dedham Gun Hill as it was in those days. I set off from Marks Tey at 5:00 am and got back again with my trailer load at 6:15pm. A couple of days after that, we ordered a Marshall combine harvester from Whitlocks at Yeldham.

But unfortunately the Marshall project just didn't come to be, and just as well that we didn't at that particular time, because they were a failure. And there was one or two prototypes came out. But I'm glad in the end that we didn't get one of them. But we, as I said previously, we started our married life at Scotties, Janet's home, and quite happy to be there. And then after that Christmas of '45, then we realised that we were going to be mum and dad.

We naturally started buying items that would were going to be necessary. And trips into Colchester, bits and pieces, all that sort of thing. And we kept hoping against hope that we would have the house built in time but, as I say, the planning held us up and we could see that it wasn't going to be the case. By this time, getting into July time, it was decided that it would be better for everybody concerned if we moved into my old bedroom at Ellesmere with my folk, Mum and Dad.

By this time, Dad had realised that what had happened in the past was not perhaps the right thing, but as I said before, we knew our circumstances and we knew the truth would come out in the end. So we moved down, a bit cramped. But it was decided that Janet would give birth to our son or daughter, as the case may be, at Ellesmere and Mum, with the help of the nursing people and the doctor, they were, Mother was quite happy to see that Janet was okay and of course they wanted me out the way, so I had to go to work every day, but kept in touch. And finally, it's a boy! And our Robert was born. I think Janet had a bit of a tough time, but naturally that was to be expected, I suppose as things were, under the circumstances. But, it was a proud Mum and Dad and a proud Gran and Grandad, thankfully. So we continued living at Ellesmere until such time as we were able to move into our new house, Elscott. We called it Elscott. The El was from Ellesmere and the Scott was from Scotties Farm, the homes of, of the two of us. And that's how Number 24 London Road, Marks Tey, became known as Elscott.

We eventually had the phone, we had an extension of the phone from Ellesmere, of course we were on what was known as a party line. And eventually when I took over the management of the business completely, when Father retired, we had our own phone number, separate, so we had a full-time phone because obviously with a shared line, if one was using it, the other partner on the share couldn't use it and not, we could listen in, one consolation, but that wasn't exactly what one had in mind some of the time.

But we, we did have some quite happy times, and as I say, the most thankful bit from our point of view was when Dad came round to it, that even though he didn't come to our wedding the fact was that the two of us were happy, and eventually when a grandson came along that looked like carrying on the Polley name, it was an added bonus, because the girls had had their families, but of course they were no longer Polleys.

They had married, so it was Digby, Hunt, and Jones, no Polley. So when our Robert came along, that seemed to brighten the air quite a bit. And Dad was, shall we say, more, easily, easier to work with. Admittedly, his health wasn't so good and a couple of times in the workshop, he had blacked out and fallen over. But by the time we got the doctor to him, he'd come round. And the doctor just said he didn't know what it was. It was just a blackout. And on one occasion I was.