Bill Eley lives at 3 Mungo Lodge and has spent all of his life in Thurlow. His parents, maternal grandparents, sister and brothers were all born here.

Bill’s main interest is his garden and although retired he still works part-time at Lt. Thurlow Hall feeding chickens and doing chores in the house. He started work at Gt. Thurlow Hall at the age of fourteen, spending two years working in the pantry. This was followed by maintenance work on Thurlow estate. He then spent two years with the Tulloch family at Church Farm, Gt. Thurlow.

After that he spent time on Wratting Common airfield helping to make and repair the runway. This was during the war and he would see the planes being loaded up with bombs for raids over Germany. Then it was back to maintenance on the Thurlow Estate until his retirement.

Bill has no regrets about living in the village all his life although he would like to see accommodation specifically built for older people.

Public transport is not as good as it was fifty years ago when we had a daily bus service to London.

There’s not as much wildlife, and sprays could be the cause of that. There are better crops on farmland now, though achieved with far fewer workers, and all the small farms are gone as are some of the houses.