There are two ladies in the village with this name,
this is not Jean of the WI and Village Society.

Jean's family came to Rayne in 1935 when she was 10 years old.  They had moved to Rayne from London as her father wanted to move away from the city and had taken over the tenancy of The Cherry Tree pub (now the Welsh Princess).  There were only about 500 people living in Rayne at that time.

Jean attended Rayne School where there were only 3 classrooms plus the kindergarten and classes would have a range of ages (e.g. 10 - 13) in them.  The curriculum was fairly narrow - based mainly on the 3 Rs.  The children had to use the outside toilets which were not flush toilets.  At playtime the girls would play in the playground while the boys played football in the adjoining field.  In the Autumn, the boys would go into the orchard next door to help themselves to the apples.  There were no visits outside the school.  At the age of 13 Jean was among the first of the Rayne children to attend the secondary school in Braintree.

There was no bathroom in The Cherry Tree, so the family would have their baths in a zinc bath in the wash house in front of the copper fire.  On Mondays and Thursdays, Jean's mother would light the copper to do the family wash - this would heat up the wash house so that they could have their baths in the evening.  In the winter the zinc bath would be brought into the kitchen and they would bathe in front of the kitchen stove; the bath was emptied by the use of buckets - one at a time.  They would close all the doors and windows when the night soil man, Albert Baker, came every Tuesday night to empty the pub toilets.  The ironing was done with flat irons which were put on the stove to be heated.  All Jean's father's collars and shirt fronts were blue rinsed and starched before being ironed.

Before the NHS came into being the family would pay 2d per week to William Julian Courtauld Hospital which entitled them to treatment in the hospital, should they need it.  In the early years, St Michael's Hospital was more of a workhouse than a hospital and was nicknamed "The Union".

The opening hours of The Cherry Tree were from 10am - 2pm on weekdays and 6pm - 10pm on Sundays, so that people could go to church.  It was closed on Christmas Day.

They would enter a float in the May Day procession.  The Street would be closed for the procession and Inspector Baker, of Braintree Police, would lead the procession to Oak Meadow.

When the war came, Jean worked in a cleaner's for 6 months, altering soldiers' uniforms, but then all females over the age of 16 had to work in munitions, the forces or farm work, so Jean chose to work on the land and went to work on the smallholding of her future husband, Sonny, situated where Granary Halt is now.  She worked there until the war ended and then stayed on until 1948.  As well as vegetables, they kept pigs, chickens, geese, turkeys, calves and guinea fowl.  The calves were kept in a cowshed by the railway line.  When the Americans collected their bombs from the station, the sawdust in which they were encased would drop to the ground.  One day the sawdust caught fire, so the calves had to be speedily evacuated from their cowsheds.

During the war the Kings Royal Rifles were billeted on the village - two cooks were billeted in The Cherry Tree and their cookhouse was in The Old Schoolroom.  The regiment was then shipped to Normandy and quite a number of soldiers were taken as prisoners of war by the Germans.  The officers were billeted in Rayne Place.  Following that the Americans, based at Saling Airfield, were billeted in Rayne Place.  Because of the blackout the only places of entertainment were the 3 pubs in the village.

When evacuees came to the village from London, a grandmother and her grandchild were billeted in The Cherry Tree.

There was a searchlight based at Willows Green.

Jean would sometimes go to London by train from Rayne Station - there was a choice of going via Bishops Stortford or via Witham - to visit relatives, but could not go too often because of all the bombs.

At night the family would go down into the cellar of The Cherry Tree when the Braintree air raid siren (there was no siren in Rayne) sounded, and listen to the V1s (doodle bugs) flying overhead, then hold their breath when the noise of the engine stopped and wait for the explosion as it crashed.  Jean remembers a bomb falling on Lloyds Bank in Braintree and a damaged American Marauder aircraft crash landing near Naylinghurst Farm on its way back to the base at Saling, also incendiary bombs being dropped near Goulds Farm.

The Home Guard and Air Raid Wardens had their HQ at Rayne House.  The Home Guard would march along The Street every Sunday morning and the Air Raid Wardens would patrol the streets of the village every night to make sure that everyone had their curtains drawn properly and no chinks of light could be seen by the Germans aircraft flying overhead.

During the war there was a shortage of beer so that it was rationed and The Cherry Tree could only open 2 days each week unless they got an extra delivery which wasn't very often.  They would only be allowed a couple of bottles of spirits each week.

To celebrate the ending of the war, there was a big party in The Cherry Tree and when the beer ran out, they all went over the road to where Alf Willis lived as he had a large jar of pickled onions which he had been saving and they ate those up with all his cheese ration.

After the war Jean married her husband, Sonny, in Rayne Church in 1947 (his parents were tenants of The Cock pub where he was born in 1916).

Jean would travel to Braintree from Rayne Station to do her shopping on Market Day, putting the pram in the guard's van, returning the same way with her shopping.

In 1950 Jean and Sonny relinquished the smallholding and took over the tenancy of The Cherry Tree from her father.  Sonny died in 1976, but Jean kept on the tenancy until 1981 when she retired.  As Prince Charles had just become engaged, the new tenants wanted to rename the pub The Princess Diana, but Buckingham Palace would not allow this, so it was called The Welsh Princess.