Shellwood, in those days, was owned by the House agent, Mr Crow. Gypsies
would try to settle there from time to time. Marjorie's father was
always called to help. He never shouted at them, but always gave them
time to have their meal before leaving. They never gave him any bother,
whereas Shellwood people "would have got a black eye".
Once a man was found drowned. PC Beadle took the chenille table cloth
from home to smarten up the police conference table. Marjorie thought,
however, that he was going to wrap the body in it, and could never bear the
table cloth after that.
On another occasion an old man was found sitting in her father's shed.
He had wandered from the Royal Earlswood Home (for mentally handicapped).
Marjorie's father took him some bread, cheese, cake and a cup of tea, then
walked all the way to Earlswood with him, and then returned to Leigh. It
was lucky for the old man that PC Beadle knew how to treat him. Marjorie
said that other people would have just "shushed him away".
Then there were "The Thrashers" who were men who came to Leigh annually when the threshing machines were being used. PC Beadle knew them all and would greet them by name and pass the time of day with them. They would then travel on to the next threshing job.
Marjorie Honeyball remembers Sir Henry as being "The Man" of the village. At one time he owned the only car in the village, it being a shooting brake.
Sir Henry and the Charrington family were the chief employers in the village, Sir Henry owning most of Leigh, and there was a specialist work force for every job which had to be done on the estate. Marjorie recalls that each day at ten minutes to twelve the road from Mynthurst to the village centre was "black with bicycles" as the workers went home for dinner, and again at ten minutes to one when they returned.
Everyone seemed to work at Mynthurst. Marjorie's brother was taught carpentry by the Mynthurst carpenter who was a "brilliant craftsman". The senior estate workers in charge of different sections of the estate management had houses on the estate, these all being private houses today, and Mynthurst House itself was converted into private apartments after the Second World War by the Chudley family.
Marjorie
remembers Mr Warrington wanting to marry Sir Henry's housemaid and having to
ask his permission because Sir Henry regarded his staff as an extended family,
and he wanted to be sure that Warrington would make a responsible husband.