Information taken from HARGRAVE - A LOCAL PERSPECTIVE.
May 2004

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Mrs. Ada Pettitt our oldest resident celebrated her 100th birthday in February 2001.  She came first to Hope Cottage, now known as Knowles Green Cottage in 1941 when she married Frederick Pettitt, but moved to Moat Farm in 1953. The purchase of the farm incurred the additional sum of three shillings and four pence to Hargrave Charities.

Ada’s husband owned a pork and sheep butchery with its own slaughterhouse, and he used his horse and cart to travel to Bury St Edmunds to collect livestock.  Twice each week, with his nephew Ron (who presently lives in Ousden Road), he undertook his deliveries of meat by cart to surrounding villages.  Ada’s job was to deliver locally on her bicycle, and she vividly remembers that during one of her rounds a ‘buzz - bomb’ landed at Depden.  Hargave was fairly devoid of cars during those days, and with no village doctor, visits to the Wickhambrook G.P. were undertaken either on horseback, or by bike or on foot. Visits to the hospital in Bury, or more important occasions such as weddings and funerals took place with the hire of Laura Phillips taxi.  Laura lived at Smallwood Cottage.

Ada remembers a great sense of ‘community’ with larger families whose members remained in or adjacent to the village for the whole of their lives, many of whom were required to work the land.  One of her particular memories was of Ernie Farrow, who lived at Giles Farmhouse (now a flooded ruin in the small copse at the south-west end of the village opposite Cock’s Head house). Ernie was “a real gentleman who would doff his cap to any lady that he met, rich or poor”.  When Ernie left the property, it was occupied by evacuees as there were many in Hargrave during the second world war.  On one particularly freezing day, Ada’s compassion for one of the children at Giles Farmhouse led to her loaning a thermos flask, which was a treasured possession of her husband - owned due to his role as an air raid warden.  Ada remembers that “Fred was not best pleased” when it was broken and never replaced, as he could not accumulate sufficient ration coupons to replace it himself.

Knowles Green Cottage (now Stricklands) was occupied by Dealie (Mrs.Deal) and the cottage had two bedrooms into which were fitted “at least seven bodies including evacuees”. Dealie herself slept downstairs in a chair. You may wonder why Ada’s son David can not today drink whisky - well, one day Dealie was going to collect her pension, which seemed also to entail a visit to Chevington Greyhound , and as a treat she took the youngster with her for a walk.  Whilst they sat outside enjoying the sunshine and the Greyhound’s hospitality the inquisitive boy helped himself to Dealie’s glass, with somewhat disastrous consequences.

Another villager within Knowles Green, was a Mrs.Frost who lived on her own.  Mrs. Frost was absolutely terrified of thunder and lightning, and whenever there was an electric storm she would arrive at Hope Cottage to be comforted, at whatever hour of the night it might have been.  Ada noted “that she was always brave enough to leave the safety of her own home to travel down the lane at these times !”.