Following in the Spencer footsteps

After our regular breakfast at the garden center, we looked at our options for the day. A trip to Althorp, Lady Diana's home, was one possibility- but at $25.00/head entrance fee, we opted for a trip to Sawston to see if we could track down some of the Hannah King story.

With drizzle, gray skies and blustery wind, we stumbled onto a sign for the library – but arrived to find that it wasn't open until 3 in the afternoon. We made a few inquiries and were told to try the Parish Council just down the street. "Ask for Margaret". We found Margaret and the mother lode of information about the town of Sawston. She was interested in history and her own family history, so had done a lot of work on the town. We only had limited information on the King's – an address of "Dernford Dale". Margaret gave us a map and we set off to see if we could find the farm house. We turned down a dirt road marked "Dernford Farm" and found a gorgeous old Georgian house at the end of the road. Next to the farm house, we met Simon, a worker in the business next door. He told us that the owner of the house was Audrey Gregg, a woman in her 80's and very hard of hearing. We knocked on every possible door, with no luck. But, we did get a chance to wander around the house and through the gardens, filled with plum trees and pear trees. It brought back memories of reading Hannah's diary and her love of her gardens in her home in Sawston.

We met Margaret back at the Parish Council office and she gave us mounds of information, including the Church records showing all of the King family They show Thomas King as being a farmer of Dernford, which Margaret said would imply significant holdings. The town in the 1800's was primarily based on farming, then later paper making and leatherworks.

She also told us the story of Thomas Evans, the tyrant of Saltston. He paid his men in money and partly in beer – sold in his pub. So, if you didn't drink, you didn't get your full pay. He was church warden for the local church and when the non-conformists began to build their own church, his men would go at night and knock it down.

The town also has a tradition of "town peas". John Huntington had a field sown with peas for the poor of Sawston. Every year since the 1500's, the towns people have a day of free pea-picking.

Unfortunately, Sawston Hall, the manor house of the town, is currently being renovated and made into a hotel, so we couldn't get onto the grounds or in the house. Margaret told us of the monk holes where the monks would hide to escape persecution during Henry VIII reign.

St Mary's Parish Church in Sawston -

Armed with a bag of papers about Sawston, we headed back to our Bedford. Hankering for another Indian dinner, we stopped in Sandy at the Ghandi Indian restaurant. It was dark inside, but the door was open. We walked in and John knocked at the kitchen door and was greeted by a half naked Indian guy – wearing a towel coming straight from the shower. He told us to come back at 5:30. We opted for a take out of doner kebab and took it back to the hotel.