Coach House, Lattenbury Hill, Papworth St Agnes

History of the Coach House

Dora Tack moved here at the end of 1940 with her mother. Dora had previously lived at Little Stukeley.

Lattenbury Hill OS 1924

She writes in “From Bombs to Buckets”: Towards the end of 1940 Auntie Florrie received a letter from my mother saying that at last some unfurnished accommodation had ben found upstairs in a coach house at Lattenbury Hill, the other side of huntingdon. The following Saturday Auntie Florrie and I set forth on our cycles to find lattenbury Hill and have a look at the surroundings. We pedalled along the Royston Road, up hill and down, for what seemed to be miles, with fields on either side and not a soul in sight. After passing two brick-built farm cottages on our left we dismounted to walk up a steep hill – we had arrived at last at Lattenbury Hill. We rode down the other side and entered a white gate with a little thatched cottage beside it, and as we cycled along the drive the tall trees closed their branches above our heads. It was very dark. The drive divided into two. The left-hand road swept around in a circle in front of Lattenbury Hall, the smaller right-hand road lead us to a coach house, now converted into two garages. There were two uncurtained windows, one above a garage and one above the living room of the adjoining cottage. This was going to be our home until the war ended. It was a very lonely place to live, but Aunt Florrie said I must just make the most of it and be thankful, and with a last look we remounted and returned to Little Stukeley.

Dora left her work at the cafe in Huntingdon and got a job as a telephone operator at Papworth Hall.

She married Frank Tack in January 1942. She had her first baby in April 1943 at the maternity hospital in Mill Road, Cambridge.

In August 1943 the family moved to Bank Cottage in Papworth St Agnes.

Dora also wrote about the Coach House in Whispering Elms.

In 1942 the occupants were a Seventh-Day Adventist family from London.

James Ginbey, worked in London

Grace née Battershill, wife

Hazel, daughter

James, son

It was the Ginbey family who let two front bedrooms to Dora Tack and her mother.