CD1

(57 mins)
 

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BORN LANDKEY, BARNSTAPLE 1928 / FAMILY BACKGROUND / MOVE TO HEASLEY MILL / PATERNAL GRANDPARENTS / GRANDMOTHER'S GUESTHOUSE / STAYING IN LYNTON

[recorded 14.7.2001]

Born Landkey, near Barnstaple, 1928. Parents were Will and Hetty Rumbelow. They moved soon after to Longstone Wells, Heasley Mill. Father was a farm worker at Landkey, then he took a farm from the Poltimore Estate. It was a step up. She was just about to start school. She stayed with grandparents in North Molton because it wasn't so far to walk. After a couple of years her father moved to a bigger farm [Lower Fyldon] near Heasley Mill, where he stayed until he retired. When they went to the other farm she went back and went to Heasley Mill school. She was about 4 when they came to Longstone Wells. She was an only child.

Paternal grandparents lived at Lynton. Grandfather was a coachman at Lee Abbey. Grandmother ran a guesthouse. She remembers her father's parents very well. They were lovely.

Grandmother's guesthouse provided bed and breakfast and evening meal. Grandfather helped when not doing anything else. People came by coach and train. They worked very hard. When they got older they moved next door, to a little cottage, and took it easier.

Grandfather drove coach for Squire Bailey at Lea Abbey. A coach and horses. He did it after he came out of the first world war.

She had to keep out of the way when she went to stay with them in Lynton, but she had a lovely time. She had other cousins there. They used to mess around, go to Lynmouth. Yes, she's heard of Tom Richards and Ken Oxenham [fellow contributors to the archive], but she wouldn't know them. [Back to top]
 

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MATERNAL GRANDPARENTS / VISITORS / SCHOOL / BUYING SWEETS / POSTMAN

Her maternal grandparents were called Richards. They farmed at Landkey to begin with. Then moved to North Molton and then moved to a cottage attached to Lower Fyldon. Grandmother was a great gardener. If she had to do any indoor work, any dusting or anything, she always seemed to get a headache. Grandfather was a bit crippled and helped EC's mother indoors. They lived separately, but with an adjoining door.

Her grandmother grew lots of flowers. She was ladylike, but she built a lean-to greenhouse and paved the front. She collected stones in a box on wheels, and mixed the cement. Did it herself. She loved her flowers.

Grandfather had bad leg and couldn't do much. He used to do the vegetable garden. They had 2 men living indoors to help on the farm. Mum took visitors as well, so was glad of a bit of help.

People used to walk round there. Full board would be tea in bed, breakfast, coffee, cold lunch, then tea and an evening meal. It cost 3 guineas a weak. Visitors ate in a big dining room, a separate room. She did a bit of  waiting at table, but enjoyed it. There was plenty of room. It was quite a big house. A lovely house.

North Molton school was quite good. She remembers playing with little shells. She was just 5 she supposes. Then when she went to Heasley Mill she had only a mile to walk. Several of them walked together. Heasley Mill school was much smaller, 20 at the most. North Molton probably the better school. But she couldn't wait to leave school anyway.

At Heasley Mill they had an infant teacher, and a headmistress who walked from North Molton, called Mrs Morgan. They'd take sandwiches and dry their wellies out round an old stove. If it was cold she'd make them cocoa at lunchtimes.

On Thursdays, her father rode to South Molton market and if she was playing outside he'd throw her a penny to buy sweets. She would get 10 toffees, or 2 little marshmallow cornets. Blackbird toffees were her favourites. If Grandfather was staying with them, on a Friday, he'd give her 2 pennies.

There was a village post office and shop. But the shop didn't sell very much. The postmaster and his wife ran it. The postman walked round, as they all did. He was called Charlie Watts. [Back to top]
 

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HEASLEY MILL TRADESPEOPLE / SCHOOL / FRIENDS

There was a carpenter at Heasley Mill, and a wheelwright. The wheelwright and undertaker was a father, who was joined by his son when he left school. The son, Horace Blackmore, is still an undertaker now, in South Molton. There was a cobbler as well, he'd mend your boots while you were at school. That was about all the businesses there. There was no blacksmith, you had to go to North Molton to meet him. A few times a week they'd come out from South Molton, Daiment and son.

School started with prayers. The lessons were more or less the same as now, she supposes. They went out to play at a quarter to 11, to 11.00. Ate their sandwiches between 12 and a quarter to one, she thinks. Then went back for afternoon lessons. There was another break at a quarter to 3. They came out at a quarter to 4 and walked home. If they were lucky and it was wet Father or Grandfather would pick her up with the pony and trap. But she was always nervous of horses. Horses were never her strong point.

She had no favourite lesson. Poetry was her least favourite. She didn't mind any of the lessons really, but didn't really enjoy school, she wanted to be home doing things.

She had no shortage of friends. To begin with, about 8 of them used to walk down the road to school, collecting together as they went through. Then she got a bicycle and rode that to school. Some of them were relations. She's stayed friendly with the others, but not in close contact. [Back to top]
 

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EVACUEES / LEAVING SCHOOL / WORKING AT HOME / COUSINS / 1947 WINTER

She was going to school when the war was on. They had evacuees. A grandmother, daughter and 2 children. Their father was a lion tamer. They stayed 6 weeks. Their sitting room was a mess when they left. Then they had private evacuees, friends of people who were in North Molton. That was a better arrangement, they all lived as a family then. She thinks they stayed 6 months. The other people had cooked for themselves on a little stove; they weren't used to eating the sort of things her family were used to.

There were a lot more children at the school then. Some didn't stay very long. Others fitted in quite well.

She left school before the war ended. She was barely 14. She went home and helped on the farm, helped mother. She liked housework. She liked doing anything at home.

She was an only child. She had 2 lots of cousins living fairly near.

1947 was a very rough winter. It started at the end of January and went on until March. The baker would deliver the bread to them for others to collect, from Simonsbath and all around. Groceries would be left with them as well. As long as you had a hot diner you didn't mind what it was. The snow was as high as the telegraph wires. They didn't go anywhere. They'd stocked up. Flour, sugar, the main things.

They didn't make bread as such, not very often. It was too easy to buy it. They made yeast buns.

Father had 2 men to help him. Feeding was different then, it was all loose hay. Then they had oats and corn feed, fresh in the barn. Then they had straw and everything else, as long as they could get to the rick to get a load in ready to thrash. [Back to top]
 

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FYLDON FARM / WORKMEN / LORD AND LADY POLTIMORE / MINERS' ARMS

The farm was 300 acres, quite big for then. They had horses until the end of the war, then a tractor. The farm was rented from Lord Poltimore.

Their workmen who lived with them were Charlie Buckingham and Gerald Bawden. Then Charlie left and George Bawden came to work for them. He lived in a cottage of theirs in the village and came to work every morning. They must have had 3 workmen for a while as Ken Blackmore came up from the village as well. Gerald was the one who worked with the horses, George did the hedging. Ken didn't come until after the horses.

The ones who lived in moved out when they married. You were used to people living in. When they had a cottage in the village they only had one living in. They got the cottage when Lord Poltimore sold the properties. Father bought the farm and then the cottage, in roughly 1947 or 1946.

Lord Poltimore sold up and went to Kenya to live. He left most of the estate to his daughter. He used to own nearly all North Molton parish. He inherited it, she supposes. Lord and Lady Poltimore were very nice. Lady Poltimore was very kind, she did a lot for North Molton, helping people. They lost their only son in a riding accident when he wasn't very old. It shattered the whole area. She wasn't very old. There are Poltimore Arms at Yarde Down and North Molton, which must be called after them.

Then there is the Miners Arms in North Molton, because Heasley Mill used to be a mining area. They did try to get it going again in the war, but it didn't work. People from Cornwall came and tried to do something with it. [Back to top]
 

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HEASLEY MILL / RATIONING / BEING LAND GIRL / GROWING POTATOES / PLOUGHING

Heasley Mill was just a little village with oldie worldie cottages, which they've completely ruined, in her opinion. It looks a different place altogether. There were no more than 20 people living there, who were nearly all farm workers, or ex-farm workers. Mining was before her time, but you could see piles of stone where they had been digging out, but now it's overgrown, you can't see it any more. It's certainly changed now. There is no farming connection in the village now. Just people from away and holiday houses, as is everywhere.

The shop closed a long while ago, and the post office closed. The post office was open until 1956, she thinks. People go to North Molton now.

She remembers the rationing. She remembers her mother weighing out 2 ounces of butter and putting it on the table, with their little labels on it. Two ounces to last a week. Butter lasted that long without going off. They could get a few groceries from the bread man. The main grocer would come once a fortnight, on Tuesday, to take the order and deliver on Wednesday or Thursday. They had a list, with the same thing week in week out. Yes, they bought the butter.

They never had a land girl. There were a few round the area. By the time it got to the end of the war she was the land girl.

They had to put in acres and acres of potatoes. Then they'd borrow a potato digger and go round to neighbours and help pick up potatoes. Then they'd go in and have a meal. It was hard work but fun. They would spin them out with the digger. They would go to a fresh area every year. They only grew them in the war.

They had to plough more. They ploughed everything which could be ploughed. Her father did it with horses, or the workmen.

You were told how many potatoes to grow. They came to check. They would put them in a big clamp in the field, do them down with rushes and ferns to keep the frost away. There wasn't room for everything indoors. They sold them in the Spring. She remembers going up in the cold and bagging them up. [Back to top]
 

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WORKING OUTSIDE / CHURCH / SUNDAY SCHOOL / MOTHER MUSICAL / MUSIC

She worked outside a bit, when they were busy. She drove the tractor haymaking. Helped milking, feeding calves and at lambing time. She went to North Molton to church, 3 miles on her bike. Sometimes the service was at 7am, if a special occasion (Christmas or Easter), otherwise 6.30 in the evening. Quite often it would just be her going. Then when she could drive her mother sometimes went. Then in 1954 she got married.

They had Sunday school in school. Anyone took it. Sometimes a cousin, or elderly lady or her daughter. She left her bike with the elderly lady. She'd have a crock on her open fire and she'd be roasting her dinner on top of that. They had to learn a verse of a hymn every week, or the collect, and sing a hymn. That was all right. They had a church service in school once a month. Mother played the organ. They didn't get a lot of people, just a few. She supposes that was when the war was on and people hadn't got petrol to get to North Molton. That was the regular service, the second Sunday in the month.

Her mother was very musical. She loved playing the piano. She played well, for dances. EC didn't follow in her footsteps. She had lessons but never kept it up. Mum liked the violin so thought it would be a good idea if EC learnt the violin, which she did, but she didn't keep it up.

There used to be someone in North Molton who could play the violin beautifully. Her father didn't play anything. Mother would have played anything, something she'd heard on the radio. She enjoyed it. She played for both herself and other people. Grandfather from Lynton had a beautiful voice. If he was with them on a Sunday evening her mother would play hymns and he'd sing. [Back to top]
 

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PATERNAL GRANDFATHER / SINGING HYMNS / GRANDFATHER'S FUNERAL / GRANDMOTHER

Grandfather came to stay occasionally when he wanted a country break. He'd hire a horse from stables at Lynton. There was no particular reason why her grandmother didn't come, she supposes she had no particular interest in the farm. She would come to visit but never stayed.

They sang hymns in the sitting room. It was quite a big, high room. He'd stand beside Mum on the piano, or sit down beside her, and sing away. He did enjoy his singing. He'd get up early in the morning and you'd hear him singing at the top of his voice. He'd sing old songs. 'Keep right on to the end of the road', 'It's a long way to Tipperary'.

He wore a trilby hat, and the usual clothes. He was very clean shaven. He would make a really good job of it every morning. He would always give you a kiss in the morning, nicely clean shaven.

She knew her grandfather very well. He was the first member of her family to die. It was her first funeral. Not a nice experience. A bit traumatic. She was 14. The funeral was in Lynton. She remembers quite a bit of it. The hymn 'There is a green hill far away', and going to the cemetery and back to the house after.

That was in March. On Sunday her father said there was a lot of work to do the next week because they were busy lambing. Then her grandfather was ill, so it was an even busier week. It was all over in a few days. Her grandmother stayed on her own in the cottage. She died the year before the Queen's coronation. She didn't live all that long after.

During the war years there was a searchlight battery at Longstone Wells, near the first place they went. They used to pass Fyldon to go up on the moors practicing. There was a bomb dropped on Fyldon Ridge, by accident. She remembers hearing the bump in the night. They had to be very careful with the blackout, they had big windows.

Mother wasn't well then, so she'd had to give up visitors anyway. She'd had a stillborn baby, then had white leg (thrombosis) in both legs and nearly died. She was pleased EC was leaving school. She never really got fit after that. She had very high blood pressure and had to be careful. [Back to top]