ACE, ACE &

ACE ~

Life of The Pillar House,

Harwell …   1968 - 1993 …

VILLAGE for a THOUSAND YEARS …

THE PRINCESS ACE puss-cat of The Pillar House, HARWELL the Berkshire village of a thousand years & her two companions ACE-mouse and ACE-fish had happy lives ... :

Ace, Acieee, pretty puss, was a neat shiny black cat who was often frightened of the wind.  And the slightest breath of a breeze inside the house or a moan of Mr North Wind up the School Lane made her believe emphatically that it was the ghosts of mice-meece-mousies come-a-haunting – perhaps she listened to too much history bed time stories ... like “ The Ghost of Thomas Kempe ” or Alfgar the Dane = and Tales of Alfred of the burned cakes (founder of the British Navy) that he had learned when a small child going back and forth on horseback from WANTAGE town to the Saxon Quarter of ROME when his father was not quite sure how to calm his brow when those bad mannered Vikings came uninvited ...

The Saxon Quarter of Holy ROME was well known for its good food in those times ... Pork chops and apple sauce and barley cakes of East Anglia had exotic additions of the Italian kitchens added ... including basil and best peaches & bunches of grapes & cheeses and limitless cream - Samian wines of course ... & no doubt pleasant evenings in the warm air,  as the English of those days were addicted to good music, poems, history sagas, and conversation spiced with some common sense helped by The Venerable Bede and others of that Monastery world who liked to scribble away making such beautiful writing telling of the Histories of the Roman Christian world :  They kept a good diet too – spinach and poached eggs and fishes and herby beers & wine ... enjoyed Sundays with the La Domenica Dinner - not too much for they had to frown on guests who still kept up `Valhalla` forgetting their table manners ...

In Harwell Village of a Thousand Years, ALL WINTER LONG the Princess Ace puss-cat stayed indoors wrapped up in a ball by the firesides, or at the foot of a warm bed even if this was not encouraged:   When she awoke she stretched languidly, blinked, put her pretty little face high above her delicate neck and visited the Dawn garden :  Then Ace quickly returned to her best biscuits and water bowl by the sweet smelling logs pile in the great kitchen entrance - & then carefully exploring the music room for any stray spiders passed to the elegant hall and great staircase and went to play with her wool ball along the bedrooms and nursery landing upstairs ... the family began to wake up after her ...

After ten minutes of leaping twisting crouching, sneaking up  upon and round about the lavender coloured wool ball that Victoria had made her, ACE judged she had taken enough exercise for the winter day and padded off to some secluded warm place where she would not hopefully be disturbed … or explored if perchance in the mid-afternoon there might be found a lap of a person sitting reading, typing, drawing, sewing, playing piano - … ACE looked forward to late afternoons when after school the young of the family might be watching television like Blue Peter, before they set about homework & piano practice at one end of the GREAT KITCHEN table – a real fire of wood glowed winter nights … & then ACIE-ACE Princess could enjoy the scents of supper cooking :

Mother known to everyone as `Greta-greta` had a habit of cooking down the centuries for visiting scientists working on Natural History or History of Voyages of Exploration – she had taken an interest in food when visiting family graves as a small child – the ancestors in SUFFOLK were named `Redemptio` under Roman Britain  (came from Udewalla & had Mediterranean wives BC & kept `Life Books` and wrote letters) :  It was felt late 5^th-6^th centuries to be politically a good idea to become known as officially Family RANSOM – especially after being visited 597 AD by a Man of Rome & his friends who already knew the families as very honest and learned & travelled SEA TRADERS ... : 

It was therefore no surprise that Pete and friends as children and young people had a feeling for Ancient lands and England ... and after visits to Stonehenge, Avebury, Sorbiodunum=Sarum= Salisbury, and Camulodunum Colonia Victricensis  took to composing orally letters to Queen Boadicea (Boudicca) full of news - And her letters in reply always said  “ Dear Pete, Dan, and friends, thank you for the news – keep me posted - and love and kisses – WISH YOU WERE HERE – Boadicea ... P.S.  keep up the Latin – I know it’s a bore – but I had to learn it ...  remember SATTAEUS LAETUS  ”

So ACE perhaps learned history too :  But she did not enjoy the tremendous cooking days for The Sealed Knott ( at War she gathered, with The English Civil War Society ) .  Once the comfort of the Great Kitchen was threatened completely by the making of 142 Mistress Oliver Cromwell`s `MON AMI` pies – And the Yorkshire Arabian Feast for the wedding of Tina`s daughter had a Green Grass band play until dawn in a great Marquee put over the Fruit trees :  and then Amanda`s wedding a 19<sup>th</sup> century Wedding Breakfast for a 100 guests - but thank heavens transported to Laine`s Barn Wantage – ACEE- Ace Princess gratefully refused her non-invitation to The Barn & its Mice-ville community :  During the years most weeks were peaceful in the old worn comfortable house  of the Books for Children by L.Leslie Brooke -  and ACE could paw in and about the 5 feet of brick bread oven to see no HOB GOBLINS were hiding while two old gas stoves had supper baking and bubbling and sometimes food became `eat art` at birthdays and Christmastide and Easters – and she would have dainty pieces of fish and meat in her supper bowls   : 

BUT IN WINTERTIME only when the silvery white moonstones MOON, now visited by the inhabitants of Americo Vespucci Land since 1969,  shone full and brilliant through the long casemented Christopher Wren fashion windows did ACE-cat-Princess feel an overwhelming desire to venture out-of-doors - FOUL WINTER TIME mists & drifting or wild rain had her glad to stay home ; although she puzzled the family by enjoying padding about daintily in snow, and investigating heavy frost ... But MOONSHINE had ACE black cat Princess leap swiftly shadow like to a window seat and stare and stare into the garden depths … trees and bushes and grassy areas became shades of greys, blacks, sepias, etched by the silvery light … She saw the bare branches of the fruit trees stirring mysteriously … and heard the flap of the Ivy and the Virginia Creeper on the windowpanes … but only a still night had her take her paws amongst these shadows for more than a few minutes ...   

… Most times the Princess ACE leapt quickly back to the soft lights and warmth within the old lovingly worn house where two famous artists had lived some years 1890s-1900s … The Pillar House was her heimat = the place where her heart dwelt …  The wind was no friend to her & she seemed not to like a visitor, a guest, she could not see as a shape but only feel as a presence, a force, that made strange moaning, whispering, sighing and questioning noises …

Perhaps she felt that the manners of Mr North WIND were in need of correction …

THE PILLAR HOUSE built 1852 was very long and L-shaped … with tall very 18^th century windows and inside the principal rooms had decorated ceilings and great white painted shutters downstairs … Features from the late 18^th century were because after the fire of 1850 the owners in shock told the Village Builder to build them back their HOME !  And as nearly possible as it was !!  Hence the great kitchen and the 5 feet of bread oven – we heard all this from Mr Jordan the Harwell village builder who had it from his father the village builder & possibly his father :  The great kitchen and bread oven were useful when cooking for the local SEALED KNOTT which is a fund raising charity for disasters – like the sinking of that Ferry :  Authentic cooking requires using the old recipes, lots of strength & trying not to curdle a gallon of cream because the original receipt is not too clear !

(  EMERGENCY :  Cream & lemon juice curdled :  Ian Hicks-Mudd chief Chef told me “ Ah, take RAISINS of the SUN – Almonds pounded in the mortar – mix – turn into balls or shapes – adorn with crystallized rose & violet petals on ... lace with Brandy if you like ...  ”  Next day at the `Sattlers Fair` these sold at 5 English Pounds each eaten by delighted Members, some taken home,  who said `better than Christmas pud` :   

With friends the 2 days of work becomes like ballet or modern dance – Pete & friends enjoyed being `kitchen porters` & taking an old lantern to the garden to gather herbs !  All of us after strenuous authentic kitchen work are able to put on our 17^th century authentic clothes and enjoy the Gatherings at Lain`s barn Wantage – with authentic music of course & very knowledgeable young Knott members who study a character of the Parliamentary Party of Oliver Cromwell & can act out the life – Across the Harwell High Street the 1603 house next the shop and post office lived some years a direct descendant of Speaker Lenthall of the CROMWELL  Parliament – an Oxford University graduate he would when young, for a Sunday dinner, visit the locale old houses and tell the history of the actual building construction very accurately )

There were 3 pets called `ACE` living at The Pillar House – it was a name on a motorbike at that time – Ace Fish, Ace Mouse, & the Princess ACE

The home of the Whitehead Family and the pets had several rooms upstairs, a broad passage from top of the impressive staircase along the south-west wall with the big window looking out onto the croquet lawn and the big Nursery with east and south-west windows ... a view of the ancient Winnoway in wintertime – In WINTER-TIDE the house upstairs provided cosy corners where a little cat could happily explore toys books, the big airing cupboard with sewing machine table and in safety -  or pause and brush-up her fur … perhaps consider in some fashion the matters of life … Fish lived in his bowl, and mouse had a delightful cage, clean food and water a daytime view ...

Upstairs in The Pillar House were big windows also & some with wider sills where a little cat might bathe in sunshine as the sun encircled the house east-south-west …  That is if Apollo cast a glance beneath his chariots wheels = gave the earth sunshine =   The family were given to these literary half thoughts and murmurs because Mother came from an ancient family Suffolk and was born in Camulodunum Colonia Victricensis had had grown up in Museums & visited by small planes 1930s from Pole NORD down to Pole SUD many Museums ! … And at Colchester the great minds working there when she was young had instructed her well in the `atmosphere` of classical worlds & Medieval then and into the 18^th-19^th centuries – Best of all she could remember food and wedding dresses and music of people of the Family down the centuries - & before she married father found it useful to pop into the British Museum to have a chat with this statue or that about how stupid modern politics could become ... :

The Pillar House children liked visiting AQUA SULIS in the holidays but called it BATH at the top of the hill and always called in the Toys & everything shop to make a careful purchase for the Dolls House or the Nursery equipment :

Pillar House inheritance the 1960s onwards : 

The Deputy Curator the Colchester & Essex Museums 1934-1962, would give Miss Greta Frobisher Weddell RANSOM gifts of muff books when she worked some years in the Museums - he late 19^th century when young went a total of 19 years `out East` learning history of bronze making then studied geology at Camborne School of Mining – then went off EAST again – his sensible Quaker mother keeping hold of  “ the Poulter Fortunes, Child – give a young man money and he will spend it ... ! ”  His mother Margaret had trained him in speaking civilized phrases,  and noticing the weather and exploring in good books and never neglecting sensible Quaker reasoning – she had a long life & enjoyed some years amongst the Quakers of Colchester in the 1930s …

Thus HARWELL Village for a THOUSAND YEARS had its Pillar House occupants speak occasionally of  `Dawn with her rosy fingers pulling aside curtains of night … or `Dawn wears her cloak of grey so put on your raincoat for school`  … or ‘ Dawn has put on her gold saffroned robe ` it will be a fine morning ... you never knew with the English weather … ?  ACE cat The Princess heard such phrases and some of the friends of the children had them linger into adulthood ... (Homer-Odyssey-Iliad) 

Princess ACE Cat - she was generally a very happy and contented Cat, and food was provided from the kitchen at more or less the same time as main family meals.   The life of the house was usually with a sense of tranquility, orderly, with white painted walls in nearly every room which had hanging pictures noticed and these were not disturbing images but meaningful … Life day-to-day might suddenly include helping to save some ancient building or lands, some monument … Father and mother wrote perhaps at midnight some of the best letters the CPRE and other Societies said they had read - but it was agreed beforehand the wording might have to be softened … GREED of expensive suited Developers was a serious matter … & the crafty in-fillers of gardens, leaving no green spaces for children to play :  In-fillers did not often stay long in the villages but moved on looking for other opportunities to cram buildings into peaceful lanes …

ACE-Cat grew up in safety then, and away from the sometimes disturbing WIND, but with doors and windows closed in bad weather, she had only to now and then encounter strange shadows … and ponder if they might be the possible ghosts of mice … But she and the family looked forward to LONG LIVES, and happy & well-fed and warm old age …

She had her human family, and then her companions of the same name as herself.   ACE-GOLDFISH lived in a nice large clean bowl, but he had become blind in one eye, either because it was genetic or science had not progressed sufficiently in this branch of zoology-ichthyology-OPTICS to get him some early treatment  :  Father worked in the British Museum NATURAL HISTORY, and other scientists felt that ACE-Goldfish was in no distress. So he lived in his bowl in the big upstairs EAST-WEST windows room the Nursery … A room never neglected even when the children reached their teens and early 20s … it had nice memories and they could still draw, paint, play games, dip into an old loved book … & all their friends could pile in too …  A big house, not too big, is a delight to grow up in … and especially for Christmas, Easter, and wet summer days … A large Nursery and a GREAT Kitchen … and a garden … fruit trees, and a croquet set ... a Medlar tree with tables underneath ... all this is recorded in many photos ...

The third ACE in the Family was A MOUSE … from the Animal Experiment Laboratory over the Downs … to do with the Harwell Atomic Centre.   He lived in a big lidless white plastic square box in the study upstairs, facing NORTH-EAST onto the School Lane. The name ACE  seems to have been popular the years they were all born.  We did hear that it was to be seen on MOTORBIKES owned by big brothers.   ACE-Mouse had been given as a present to Peter junior and so saved from the highly controversial career followed by his brothers and sisters :  their young short, often painful lives ? were idealistically devoted to taking part in Scientific Experiments for mankind :  it is a delicate matter ...  

LITTLE PETE  ( growing to be 6` 3ins )  and his friends … said it would not be so bad if the MEECES were sacrificing their health and lives because it was hoped to go and put Colonies on Planet MARS & other worlds & solve problems of crowded earth … But they were shamefully used for MARKETING JUNK … and further wasting the resources of the globe … 

So, chance :  ACE-MOUSE lived also happily in the old gently TIME worn ` Pillar House` (across a small meadow where Edward Black Prince had sometimes dwelt as a child in the 13^th century) and was great friends with the boy PETER who had saved his life … and no doubt called him PETE too in the friendly way …

… UNUSUAL PERHAPS was that he went out with Pete and friends evenings and observed this and that about LIFE in general - in one village and the next … ACE-Mouse was introduced to several sets of parents = who learned not to squeal when he sat politely on a shoulder, for he had no fear …  It was explained patiently by PETE and his friend DAN to parents, visitors, and Policemen that Mouse Master ACE had learned his manners from a human household & he had known no parents … he was used to loud excited voices & female cries of `MOUSE` … but he had no idea he was a mouse … & he was an apprentice craftsman & deserved respect …

When Mouse-ACE came to live with ACE-Cat and ACE-Fish he had no fur, and he was a strange blue-mauve skinny starveling.  As the first winter weeks of November hurried into December he had grown for Christmas-tide a lovely light-brown soft furry coat.  He had tiny pink feet that became transparent in the early morning sunlight, and a nice strong tail which he used to hook himself onto the bars of his drinking bottle fixture as he took a swig of water.  His water was always kept cool and clean.  He had no fear of anybody at all and would happily crawl up outstretched hands appearing so full of trust and goodwill …

Once ACE-CAT picked him off his box-home … and carried him in her mouth up and down the stairs and along the sunlit landing leading to the Nursery.   It was all the same to him … apparently no different to going out in the car to the local Pub with PETE and friends & Fathers.  He was once or twice put to scamper about the glasses and tankards of the young people  … lemonade, cherry-Ade, Coke, tomato-juice … and somebody allowed REAL ALE … A stranger howling  `MOUSE` could be told it was only their reflexion in a glass or tankard … AHEM - Ahem … perhaps they had taken a tankard too many … … …  ?   

However, at the sight of ACE-Cat with ACE-Mouse in her mouth, the girl to whom the Princess ACE belonged, Victoria-Augusta becoming a Vegetarian, rescued him very promptly and separating them admonished that lady-CAT to “ LET HIM BE !  LEAVE !  LEAVE ! ”   She was very firm … in a voice that might topple ancient chimney pots and even any not too secure Church Towers = ACE CAT looked most impressed by this powerful oratory = ` Hhmn might have had Julius Caesar not land at Dover White Cliffs` could have crossed her mind … We do not know what our pets learn from us ...

… As the Princess ACE had no kittens it was generally agreed by the household around the kitchen table and the concerned chatter around the Village WELL  that CAT simply wished to `mother` the young mouse …  did not mean him harm.  But it was sensibly agreed that ACE-MOUSE could not any longer be allowed to sit atop his box home watching the morning Bus Queues outside the artist Mary Freeman her Winter Brooke House … And his box was carefully raised up quite a bit so he might look from the Study window, as had become his custom nights and mornings, but a canopy made from an old refrigerator shelf was swiftly designed and although that kept him somewhat imprisoned, he was VERY SAFE – but he had many outings weekends …

Life then went on in the desired tranquility the family tried to achieve as this accomplished much more awareness and learning about the world PAST PRESENT and FUTURE which it was understood had to go hand in hand :  ACE-FISH gave no cause for anxiety, or had any complaints it appeared, and indeed, ACE-CAT showed no interest in him other than an occasional mee-owing remark which might mean she was comprehending FISHES and PHILOSOPHY … She did not seem very fond of water, in spite of a CAT-friend at East Hanney a village with a pond and here that CAT took a daily pond plunge, WINTERS too:  but it was a semi-wild SCOTLAND CAT …

Perhaps ACE-CAT thought water moved invisibly like wind … Windy nights had given her a nightmare or two … she had acted as if ghosts of meeces came to party … she had to be put at the bottom of a bed and soothed … She gave a little quiver sometimes in the house … and looked over her shoulder … WALLS HAVE EARS … and unfamiliar footsteps are detected by pets …

Greta Ransom  W.  1980s-1990s  - The children of The Pillar House Harwell,  “ Johnny Crow`s Garden”  of L. Leslie Brooke painter & artist of the immortal Books for Children... 

CLACTUNA Church great Clacton 1972 Ransom Gordon Whitehead Famillies

Mary Freeman artist children teacher art

Victoria November 5 Harwell Church 1974

Pillar House 1968 February P J W and Greta W

Excavation 1850 1971 Father Whitehead

1800 th century potery and China sherds

Potery 1850 excavation some of the 17 18 th century pottery sherds Pillar House a lamp

Paul Victoria Amanda 1970 Entainment Mary Freeman s garden at Winterbrook across the road British Legion

The American relatives Palmer Ostrender and Rathbone and Eleonor R PM

Winter 1977 Victoria and Pete Snowbunny 

Pillar House

Pillar House Garden 1979

Pillar House Garden 1979

PH Excavation 1850 fire 

Andre Malraux 1970