Brenda Duffield
23 Nov. 1925 - 19 Dec. 2011
Madeline Brenda Drinkhill was the second daughter of Gaythorne and Edith, one of five girls Freda, Maureen, Phyllis and Pat. Born in Husthwaite, she lived in the village all her life and had many tales to tell - skating on Acaster pond, Newbrough pond and the pond behind the church, and fruit picking with her father just to mention a few. She attended the village primary school and then went on the Easingwold Grammar School walking or cycling every day with her elder sister Freda rain or shine, summer or winter.
Brenda first worked as a clerk in the Ministry of Food in Easingwold. In 1946 she married Harry Duffield (died 1972) and had two boys Mervyn & Terry. In 1958, after rearing her children she became caretaker at Husthwaite Primary School and was also appointed as cook there in 1963, her salary being £4.16 shilling and 7 pence for a 25 hour week! She continued in this post until 1969 when, after attending college and night schools and gaining City and Guilds qualifications, became Cook Supervisor at Easingwold Grammar Modern School. In 1974 she moved on to become Peripatetic Supervisor travelling around the area to other schools where she loved visiting the villages such as Reeth in Swaledale and Askrigg in Wensleydale, travelling even in the depth of winter in her little red mini stopping off to take photographs and admiring the scenery. In 1986 she became Assistant Manager to the Catering Services in the Northallerton area. Part of this job involved the “Herbie” project (derived from Healthy Eating Really Better in Every way, long before Jamie Oliver ever thought about it!). Her love of cooking was there till the end.
After reluctantly retiring in 1990, she went on to fulfil her ambition to write a book about Husthwaite and decided to cover the houses rather than its people. This project involved taking photographs of every house (with an old film camera which involved having to get the pictures developed at Boots) and then spending many hours putting it all together with the expert help of Richard Wood. It was published in 2000 and its record of occupants with many photographs, both old and new, has proved very popular ever since. After printing, she received many letters of congratulations - these meant a great deal to her. She was also involved with the History Society in making the book “Coxwoldshire”, published in 1992 and made many contributions, both written and photographic, to “Husthwaite Then and Now” (Millennium booklet), to the four booklets “Reminiscences of Husthwaite”, covering the whole of the 20th century, “Tales of the Old School” and “Fruits and Orchards of Husthwaite”.
Her great interest in the village and its people was shown in her fifty years of compiling scrapbooks. Everything she found in the local press concerning Husthwaite or its people went into them. She still made a point of keeping them up-to-date days before she died. Brenda was also an avid collector of old village postcards and visited many postcard fairs looking for new ones. Many of these she allowed to be included in the history website so that they could be seen by a wider range of people interested in the village.
Church was a big part of her life – she lived through the ministries of many vicars including Rev Jones, Rev Tyler, Rev Thom, Rev Johnson and recently Rev Kitchen. Brenda was a very determined lady, very independent and fought her illness for many years not wanting to trouble anybody and was reluctant to accept help. She was close to her sisters and Mervyn and Terry give special thanks to all those family and friends for helping her over the years. She will be sadly missed. It is fitting that she should now, after 86 years in the village, rest in peace in the cemetery amongst relatives and close to her parents.
The Duffield family, January 2012
[2 photos of her are shown in the gallery/people. Her own story of her life in catering will appear shortly]