The Magazine of the Methodist Church in Ampthill, Flitwick & Clophill

Ampthill Ladies Group

On the 3rd November our speaker was Mr. Nick Griffin his subject being "Buffalo Farm". Mr. Griffin explained that in the early 1990's he had a herd of 200 dairy cows, but with the advent of BSE things were not looking too good. He looked into other alternatives such as growing wheat, breeding pigs, ducks, turkeys, etc. but none of these appeared to be profitable. Mr. Griffin then heard about buffalo farming and decided to give it a try. He bought 120 six month old Indian Water Buffalo from Romania. When the herd eventually started to yield milk an outlet had to be found which was not very easy. The yield from buffalo is 5 to 6 litres per day compared with 10 to 12 litres from dairy cows and some Friesians yield 50 to 60 litres per day. Eventually Waitrose were interested and have been taking most of the milk. Buffalo milk has proved to be extremely healthy and is particularly good for people who are allergic to ordinary milk. It has also helped people who suffer from eczema and psoriasis. Unfortunately Mr.Griffin has found that this enterprise is not profitable and has sold most of his herd - it looks like the end of the road for him as far as buffalo farming is concerned. Mr. Griffin runs a shop on his farm just outside Leighton Buzzard selling milk, cheese, yogurt, ice cream and buffalo meat and he brought with him some of this produce. After tasting the milk and cheese many of our members took advantage of being able to purchase these.

The evening proved to be extremely interesting and informative.

Our next speaker was Anne Misselke and the title of her talk was "Just One Suitcase".

Anne was born on the Channel Island of Guernsey in January 1930. She came from a large family with many Aunts, Uncles and cousins and had an ideal childhood particularly having lovely beaches to play on all the year round. Then came the war and at the beginning of 1940 all the men joined the Civil Defence Corps and the women went into First Aid. The Guernsey Council then decided to evacuate all the children from the island.

On the 19th June parents were told to assemble the children at the school at 6 a.m. with just one suitcase containing a change of clothing, a sponge bag, a towel, a packet of sandwiches and one toy. Anne's mother dressed her in 2 vests, 2 pairs of knickers, 1 dress one sundress, a cardigan, a raincoat and of course her gas mask. By 5 o'clock the buses had not arrived so the children were told to come back at 5 a.m. the next morning. Eventually the bus arrived and took them to the harbour where they boarded a ship which took them to Weymouth. The children were then taken by train to Stockport and were billeted in the ballroom of the Guildhall.

Anne's mother and father and other relatives made it to England and were reunited with the children. Her father, who was a builder, found work in Coventry and the family moved there and experienced the terrible bombing of that City. After much moving about living in some not very salubrious places they ended up in Rochdale.

In 1942 Red Cross messages of 25 words could be sent to relatives and friends still on the island but in 1944 a letter was sent to Anne's mother detailing where ammunition dumps, guns, etc. were located. This letter was in code which only an islander would understand and at the end the sender asked her to tell Mr.& Mrs. Blue, this, of course, meant the police. Anne's mother was called to Army Headquarters to interpret the letter for the authorities. On the 5th July 1945 the family returned to Guernsey and were very happy to be back home.

This was an enjoyable, interesting and very funny talk.

Grace

The Magazine of the Methodist Church
in Ampthill, Flitwick & Clophill

Pages compiled by Peter Fletcher

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