South Luffenham - The War

The War

There is no recollection of any bombs falling in the parish during the Second World War, or of aircraft crashes. War touched the community in the form of 28 child evacuees, who in 1940 arrived from London at the height of the bombing of that city. Among them was young Terry Parsons, later to become a famous singer, under the name of Matt Monro.

A pinfold was formerly sited at the south end of Pinfold Lane. It was constructed with a six-foot high stone wall with iron gates, and was finally knocked down in 1910, although a part of the wall still survives today. One villager recollects a farmer walking his sheep from Ayston to Stamford Market and resting them in the pinfold overnight.

The village did not have a public pond and cattle would drink from the ford on Back Lane, crossing for villagers being by footbridge. There was a pond on private land, where the last bungalow on North Luffenham Road is now sited. A bridge replaced the Back Lane ford in the 1940s.

A lead village pump on the north side of The Square was removed in the 1950s. The well underneath was fed from another well at the corner of Cutting Lane and Gatehouse Lane, the Council paying ten shillings a year to the LNW Railway for a pipe to run underneath the railway. The owner of the top well then demanded ten shillings a year. When the Council refused to pay, the supply was cut off. The Council then sank themselves a well in the Hempyards to supply The Square. The Hempyards, also known as the Ropewalk, survive as mounds today, but nothing is known of the actual works, and it is assumed that they closed in the mid 19th century or earlier.

The public water supply for the other half of the village came from the spring, still running today, and sited below the old grocer's shop opposite the Boot and Shoe.

Cattle were taken to be washed at the wash-dyke set in the Chater, just below the stone bridge on Moor Lane (North Luffenham Road). The wash-dyke was last used in 1925.