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On the west side of the little stream which runs through this village the ground
rises steeply to form an upland ridge. This English settlers named Hethe, ie a
high place, and the first dwellings were built alongside the stream. In the 15th
century a family built a house on the high ground and slowly this became the
main part of the village as it is today.
Like all villages, Hethe has suffered from the removal of industry to factories
in the towns. The census of 1851, besides listing 50 agricultural workers, names
20 house servants, eight grooms, two coachmen, four carpenters, four tailors,
four laundresses, three bakers, three dressmakers, three masons, two brewers,
two sawyers, a pig dealer, a cooper, a glazier, and a straw bonnet maker. Hethe
is still famous for its builders, decorators and carpenter, plumbers, florist,
welder, and antiques restorer, but with the disappearance of other trades, and
the halving of the agricultural workers through mechanisation of farms, the
village has steadily declined.
After the Second World War the decline was reversed by the building of 34
council houses down Hardwick Road. However, the village still lost its school,
its grocery/general store and its Methodist chapel, and of the two public
houses, only one remains.
Besides the delightful views afforded by the hills on either side of the brook,
there are several attractive buildings round the village centre. There is the
Manor Farm, Hethe House (the old dower house), the rectory, and a delightful
selection of thatched cottages, including the round house, the newer part of
which dates from 1752.
Hethes community spirit goes back a very long way. It is something for a small
village to maintain two independent but friendly churches: Church of England in
the centre of the village and the Roman Catholic church on the edge in the
Hardwick Road.
Shellswell Park estate makes up part of the parish, though sadly the magnificent
Shellswell House became derelict and was demolished in the early 1980s. Since
then freak high winds have destroyed hundreds of the fine trees on the estate.
A village character was Miss Catherine Palmer, who died in March 1989 aged 90
years and was then the oldest resident. Her father was a tailor and had only one
leg. She stayed at home and helped him with his business, and used to cycle to
Finmere station to collect cloth off the train. She lived in the same house for
over 80 years and it had hardly changed since the day her parents moved in.
In 1948 the then local squire, John Dewer Harrison, who had high regard for the
village folk, gave the ground floor of the dower house, Hethe House, to the
village to use as a meeting place. This was used regularly until it was sold in
1986, with half the proceeds going towards building a new village hall, opened
in May 1987.
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