Gilham, John. Suffers at times from bronchitis. Not safe for another Winter. 83 years old. Was born on Kidbrooke and now living close to Kidbrooke in the house he lived in as a boy. It then belonged to Henry Isted, a butcher. Then was about 2 acres attached to it which Isted used. Came to live in his present house when about 12 years old and remained until 25, then moved to Fletching till about 55 and then returned to this house where he has remained ever since remembered.

When 10 years old went to work in Kidbrooke garden under the Speaker for 4 years, then took to shoemaking and worked at haymaking and harvesting in Kidbrooke till he removed to Fletching.

Isted had a farm of about 9 acres close by, adjoining the present cemetery, which now belongs to Lord Colchester. Isted during that time used to turn out on the Forest the stock he had on the 2 acres and on the farm. Isted used to have litter on both holdings from the Forest. I used to see it brought in. There were two cottagers on the farm in which Isted's labourer's lived. They had turf off the Forest for fuel and we did also. We turned our pigs and horse out in the lane and they found their way on to the Forest.

My brother George, now dead, lived in this house while I was away and we lived together on my return. He farmed the two acres and since his death I have. We have turned our cow out and had litter up to the present time. We had turf till the last 6 or 7 years but now coal is so much cheaper we have not cared to trouble about it. We were never stopped from or interfered with in cutting turf. We sometimes had heath from the Forest for thatching but it does not grow long enough now. When we first came here my Father built a hovel for his turf and got the heath to thatch it with from the Forest. I helped cut it. We have never kept any sheep, but the neighbours used to turn out a few sheep. Goats were not generally kept about here and I never saw any turned out.

My brother George used now and then to have bushes and stakes and binders off the Forest for mending the fences. George Edwards the Reeve used to give him a paper to cut it and tell him not to cut any oak, but to take birch. We used to have a little gravel for our yard off the Forest and also to mend our lane which is not a paved road. We mostly had what we wanted off the Forest. We had no marl as our ground was all pasture but some of the farmers had.