Introduction

The late Elsie Littlewood grew-up in Brook Cottage on Penn Common. Sadly both of her parents were killed in the First World War and so she was taken in by her aunt, Mrs Downton, who owned Brook Cottage, a part of Little Wood, and nearby Baggeridge Villa. Mrs Downton also suffered a sad loss in the war when her husband was killed. The Downtons came to the common from "Westcroft Farm" at Lower Penn and ran a milk round from 1926 to the 1950s. 


Elsie Littlewood

 A relative was gamekeeper for the Earl of Dudley. Part of his job was to arrange the beaters for the Earl of Dudley and the Prince of Wales on their many organised pheasant shoots in the Baggeridge area. Brook cottage was part of a small farm covering three acres. According to the Rights of the Common, the farm had three grazing units, which meant that 24 cows could be grazed there. The farm had 24 cows, turkeys, geese, chickens, pigs and 4 horses and was one of the larger commoner’s holdings. Elsie describes a way of life that has now disappeared.
Most of the farms on the common have gone and the people that work in those that remain, live life very differently. The story is divided into the following parts:

1
A description of Penn Common by Bev Parker
2 The Early Years
3 Brook Cottage
4 The Animals
5 The woods
6 The milk round and the common today
We would like to thank Lawson Cartwright for all of the help he has given us in producing this story.
Return to the 
Penn section