CD1

(72 mins)
 

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BORN BLACKDOWN HILLS [BUCKLAND ST MARY] 1922 / FAMILY BACKGROUND / JOINING NAVY / TRAINING SHIP / JOINING HMS DEVONSHIRE / TRANSFER TO HMS SHROPSHIRE / WAR SERVICE - EARLY YEARS

[recorded Minehead, 27 October 2001]

Born on Blackdown Hills, 5 miles from Chard, in 1922. Father served in 1914-18 war, came out and was postman in Buckland St Mary. When JC was 5 they took farm in the middle of Blackdown Hills. Folly Farm, Dommett. Real depression in those days. 75 acre farm. Life on farm then completely different to today. They milked about 10 cows, had a separator to separate cream from skimmed milk. Mother churned butter once a week, had 20 or 30 pounds at the end of the week. County Stores would come out from Ilminster and pay her a pittance for it. That was his life up to the age of 14.

He had a sister 3 years older than him. They milked the cows in the morning and when they came home from school. Walked 3 miles to Buckland St Mary school. Both went there until they were 14.When his sister was 14 she went out to service.

He left school on 21 October and by 5 November was in training ship on river Thames in Essex. Called the Warspite. He'd always wanted to go into the Royal Navy, though had only been to seaside on yearly summer outings in school charabanc, to Lyme Regis, Seaton or even Minehead. But there was something about the fact that he wanted to go to sea. He was there a fortnight after he was 14 and stayed there a year. His mother was very pleased, but training ships in those days were very very hard. Doesn't think people realise what they were like. He stuck it out. At the end he passed the exam at Chatham to go into Royal Navy. Went to HMS Invincent at Gosport. Did another year there. Was just 16 then. In February sailed to join HMS Devonshire in Mediterranean, on Spanish patrol. Joined ship at Palma, just at end of Spanish civil war. Saw a couple of big Italian bombers drop a couple of bombs. So it gave him some idea what a bomber looked like. Of course that's history, the whole Mediterranean fleet was at Malta. Three battle ships; 3 county class cruisers; and 3 other cruisers, the Arathusa, the Penelope, the Galatea (the second cruiser squadron). They had a wonderful fleet. They all sailed to Alexandria. A month before war was actually declared, because Malta was within hitting range of German bombers and Alexandria wasn't. He was in Alexandria when war was declared, on 3 September.

He supposes he was lucky to get right through the war. He transferred to another county class cruiser as war was declared, the Shropshire. They went down to Cape Town looking for the Graf Spee. Were patrolling between Cape Town and St Helena for about 3 months. Every time they went into harbour the damn thing sunk the Doric Star, then the African Shell and a couple of other ships. They realised she had gone across to South America, so off they went after her. They were at Rio de Janeiro, fuelling, when Battle of the River Plate took place. They got down there just as Captain Langsdorff shot himself. They were allowed to go ashore. The German sailors were ashore. He has a very good photo in his album of Captain Langsdorff's funeral. He thinks they were very lucky that the Graf Spee never sailed, because he may not be here today. It was a very powerful ship. They'd seen the terrible slaughter she'd caused to the Ajax and Achilles because the Shropshire went down the Falklands, to Port Stanley, to escort the Exeter back to the home fleet, to England. This was 14 December 1939 when the action took place. It gave you some idea of what you had to look forward to if war carried on. They thought war was all going to be over in 6 weeks [laughs], but it didn't happen that way.

He stayed in the Shropshire, they took the Exeter home and came back to Cape Town. Then went up to Red Sea. General Wavell was coming down through. This isn't a history lesson, but General Wavell was coming down through British Somaliland and Italian Somaliland and they were used to bombard the various cities. They were based at Mombasa and bombarded Chisimaio, Brava, Mogadishu. [Back to top]
 

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RETURN TO DEVONPORT, 1941 / GUNNERY COURSE / PROMOTION TO PETTY OFFICER / GUARDING SALTASH BRIDGE / JOINING HMS JAMAICA / RUNNING RUSSIAN CONVOYS / PROMOTION TO WARRANT OFFICER / TO WEST INDIES IN 1946 WITH THE SNIPE / PATROLLING THE FALKLANDS

At the end of 1941 the ship came home. He went into Devonport and volunteered to do a gunnery course. He wanted to specialise. Put his name down for a quick gunnery course, known as a QR1's course. Had already passed exams for Petty Officer and was waiting for promotion. In a way he was very lucky, because some of the boys who had been with him went on the St Nazaire air raid and, as history will say, he thinks there was 5 Victoria Crosses there, and 5 of his boys that had been with him in St Vincent were killed there.

But he didn't feel happy when he was ashore. Devonport was being bombed, and Plymouth was being bombed. His job, believe it or not, at night, when he had finished his lessons, was to take a rifle and 5 rounds of ammunition and sit under Saltash Bridge. In case the German's dropped a parachutist to blow up Saltash Bridge, which was the link between Devon and Cornwall. There were a few of them detailed for that, but you either had the first and morning watch, or you had the middle watch.

Anyway, he got through his gunnery course and joined HMS Jamaica when she was built. She was built in Liverpool. He joined her in Liverpool and spent the rest of the war running Russian convoys in her. With a very short break when she went in the Mediterranean during the North African landings, he thinks on 8 November, when they escorted the convoy to Oran. Again it was a bit of a shock because they didn't realise that the Vichy were still there with their ships. Three destroyers came out and had a go at them, but he's afraid the Vichy French got off second best [laughs]. Then they came back and carried on running Russian convoys until 1944, when he left the ship.

The Russian convoys were interesting. They had 2 ding-dong battles with the German fleet. The Lutso and Hipper came out in 1942, on Boxing Day night he thinks. They never went to sea again after they'd had a ding-dong battle with them [the British ships]. Of course there were other battleships there, not just the Jamaica. Then the following year, in '43, the Charnos, everybody knows about the Charnos [?sp], they were there right at the kill. He doesn't suppose they were half a mile away from her when she sunk, because it was the Jamaica's torpedoes which finished her.

But going to Russia is something he shall remember all his life. They used to go into Archangel, or Murmansk, and the Russian people were so friendly, but they were so dedicated. You'd see a great oil tanker come alongside and there wouldn't be a man on board, not from the Captain down. You'd get one of these great big husky putt-shot women on the fo'c's'le, throwing a heaving line at you, and you'd have to duck. It was something to see. And they used to go ashore, and he can remember it like yesterday, the Russians used to put on a show, singing, Cossack dancing, that sort of thing. Half way through, they knew how much Jolly Jack appreciated what they were doing, and half way through a performance an army officer would come out and stop everything and say 'I have an announcement to make. The Russian army has advanced 200 yards on the Leningrad front'. And Jolly Jack would throw his hat up into the air and give 3 cheers. It's something he shall remember all his life, to see how dedicated they were, and how much they suffered. He knows afterwards there was the cold war and all that sort of nonsense, but at that time you had to have an awful lot of respect for them.

Then in 1944, he'd passed a lot of educational exams. They had a schoolmaster on board who helped him tremendously. He was recommended for promotion to Sub-Lieutenant and went to [HMS] Colingwood [in Fareham, Hants]. He knows it's silly for him to say, but he probably didn't know how to use his knife and fork properly, to get in that way. But he went back to Devonport and applied to become a Warrant Officer and qualified and was there when the war actually ended. In 1946 he went out to the West Indies in a ship called The Snipe, as an officer. In 1944 he would have been something like 21, 22. He went out to the West Indies for a couple of years.

During that time it was again very interesting, because one of the patrols they did was to go down to the Falklands. Sir Miles Clifford was the governor, and the Argentines, even at that time, 1947, were claiming parts of the Falklands, like South Georgia, South Orkneys, Grahamland. And they took Falkland Islanders down to these bases, left them there with about 15 carcasses of mutton, frozen solid, and they spent the winter there. The only ship they ever met from the Argentine navy was a little minesweeper. He's afraid they had fun with that, because they invited the Captain on board and gin and tonic only cost tuppence, so you can imagine what he was like when he left. JC can remember having a photograph taken of the jollyboat, a small jollyboat, with a carcass of mutton on the front, taking the Captain back to his minesweeper. But he enjoyed every minute of his 25 years in the navy, he really did. [Back to top]
 

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COMING OUT OF THE NAVY, 1962, AS LT CDR / 1962-63 WINTER / LOOKING FOR WORK / BECOMING EXMOOR NATIONAL PARK WARDEN

He came out of the navy in November 1962. As everyone remembers, it started snowing shortly after he came out. The '62-63 winter was terrible. He had a little cottage then in Savington St Mary. He was married by then, and had 2 children, Ann and Phillip, and just couldn't find work. He wanted to work and knew he had to get to work. Again, it sticks in his memory, he was told he couldn't go on the pick and shovel register, unemployment register, he had to go on the professional and executive register. And he had to go all the way to Exeter to try and find a job. (He was a Lieutenant Commander when he came out. He'd got as high as he could, he supposes. Considering that he'd started off as a boy. He was quite pleased with himself.)

He waited until the snow began to melt. He was desperate to find a job. He doesn't suppose the man [in Exeter] realised how angry he was with him. He drove all the way down to Exeter, went into his office, told him who he was and what he wanted. And he can see him now, bending down and pulling out the bottom drawer, taking out 2 sheets of foolscap and saying 'here's a list of firms that employ people like you from time to time'. And he looked through it and it was people like Wyatts [?sp] of Chard (the corn merchants) and the artificial insemination place at Ilminster. Which he'd already been in touch with. But because of the terrible weather conditions they'd had there were thousands of people unemployed. He used to take the Daily Mail, and he remembers coming back that very day and sitting in his chair and opening the paper, although he never expected to find a job in Somerset in it, and there was just 3 lines 'Warden of Exmoor National Park required. Applicants apply to the County Planning Office, Rodwell House, Taunton'. And he was in sitting on Rodwell House steps before the Planning Officer's clerk could open the door. Got given an application form.

He thinks his farming background, both his and his wife's, helped, because there were over 1700 applicants for the job. He got down to the final 6, and when he came for his final interview there were people there, like George Wyndham in the chair, Jan Ridler, Matthew Waley-Cohen, Auberon Herbert. People like that that lived in Exmoor and could ask him questions about his farming background and country interests. He knows it's silly to say, but he was always a countryman. Whenever he got a day's leave there was nothing he wanted to do except come back into the country. He liked ferreting, rough shooting, hunting, fishing. All that part of it. And he was just 40 years old and, although he says it himself, pretty fit. He was capable of riding a horse, which he doesn't think any of the other applicants had done.

[BJ asks if he thinks his navy background had a bearing on his getting the job] He thinks anyone, anyone at all, who has served in the services, that discipline, and that respect which they get for somebody which they don't particularly like but they realise they have to give them respect, and they've also got to give other people respect, down[wards]. And he has always felt that anyone that had done their time in the national service, even if only for a short period, stood a much better chance of getting on when they came out into civvy street. He may be wrong, but he honestly feel that.

He was told immediately, which surprised him. He was called in at the end and told he had the job. He went home. He was really pleased, because he knew it was something he would be able to enjoy and get stuck into. There hadn't been a national park warden before. His brief arrived on a piece of paper, he still has it in the drawer. It said, in as many words, 'Go down to Exmoor, find somewhere to live, go to Louis Bowden's, pick up a landrover, and then help the public enjoy the amenities of the national park'. He phoned up James Phillips and Sons in Minehead who offered him Robin How from their books, just outside Minehead. £5 a week, fully furnished. His wife and children were fine about moving. His daughter was at Park School in Yeovil, about to go into the RAF, and his son had passed his entry exams to go to the Royal Naval School at Holbrook, just outside Ipswich. They loved Robin How, they thought it was a wonderful place. [Back to top]
 

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EARLY DAYS AS ENP WARDEN / ORGANISING WAYMARK WALK SYSTEM / SCC NATIONAL PARK OFFICERS / PERMISSIVE PATHS

He got his landrover, with the board 'National Park Warden' on the front. To be honest, when he drove around first of all, he prayed nobody would ask him where Tarr Steps was, or the Doone Valley was. His brief had said he had to work for 16-18 hours a day during the summer months and that he could take time off in lieu. There was no Saturdays or Sundays off in those days. But that didn't worry him one little bit. He enjoyed every single minute. And as far as helping the public enjoy the amenities of the national park was concerned, when he asked the visitors where they were going when he met them out on a walk, they would always say they tried to get somewhere but didn't know which track to take. So he realised one of the biggest things he could do would be to try and organise a waymark walk system. That's what it's been called not throughout the country. He also realised there was a great deal to do with the traffic problems. But the waymark walk system was started in the winter of 1963. Again, in his drawer there, he has the first sheet of foolscap that was written. Three paths he walked and wrote up. One from Dunster to Withycombe, the other from Dunster to Timberscombe, and the other from Dunster to Selworthy church. He wrote them up on a sheet of foolscap and they marked them in three different colours. Well, he did, actually.

He must give credit to the national park officers at the time. His boss was the county planning officer, Dennis Brown, who's dead now unfortunately, and his other boss, which he owes a tremendous amount to, was Roger Miles. He was the forestry officer, with Somerset County Council. There were no other national park employees then [for Somerset], he was on his own. He walked the paths. A lot of people don't realise that nearly every path on Exmoor is either a church path, a school path or a postman's path. That means they all go, literally, to one's back door. So he found in some cases when he was walking the paths and talking to the farmers that he could even help the farmers. For example Lynch, where Mr and Mrs Scott lived. The son still lives there. They had a couple of stallions there, and a lot of racehorses. But the path went smack bang into their yard, to their back door, past the stallion sheds. You could imagine a man carrying a child, and the stallion leaning out over and the kid putting his hand up.

But it was so simple, he organised what was called a permissive path. He had to do it by writing it all down, sending it to the planning officer, the planning officer would put it before this committee and the committee would approve every single path and every single signpost. And when he started it was almost every single square or arrow he was going to put up, he had to tell them. But after the first 3 paths had been marked it was strange really. The bush telegraph in Exmoor is a wonderful thing. He went to Cutcombe auction - he used to like popping in there and talking to the farmers - he remembers an old Exmoor farmer coming up to him and saying, 'When can you come down to my farm, with yer 'oss and yer pot of red paint?'. Because literally, he marked a lot of those paths on horseback. He hung the pot of paint round the horse's neck, had his brush, and just painted the square on the tree.

Permissive paths were like the one at Lynch, which diverted round the farm buildings and rejoined the path 150 yards up. He used to put up a sign saying, 'The path from this point, for 150 yards, is not a public right of way but the owner gives you permission to use it entirely at your own risk.' And the farmer knew that if at any time people abused that privilege they could tell him to take the sign down and they could stop people from using it. But all the paths he did in that way - some were even a mile long; from Tarr Steps to Porchester's Post, there's a couple there that are quite long permissive paths - they have been appreciated.

The trial run that they had in Dunster was so successful that during '63/64 winter they wrote the waymarked book 1, which covered all of Minehead and Porlock area. Then there was waymark 2, and then waymark walk book 3. It didn't cover all the villages, but he had such a lovely network that by the end of 1974 when things began to change, which he'll probably talk about in a minute, he had such a lovely network that people could buy the books and walk from Minehead to Dunster, Dunster to Timberscombe, Timberscombe to Wootton Courtenay, Wootton Courtenay to Wheddon Cross, Wheddon Cross to Dunkery, Dunkery to Exford, Exford to Winsford, Winsford to Withypool, Withypool to Tarr Steps. Something like 25 miles, a planned walk. And they knew perfectly well they weren't going to get lost as long as they followed the arrows and squares. But most of important of all, the farmers were happy, because people weren't trespassing and weren't going on land or into crops where they weren't welcome. [Back to top]
 

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PROBLEM OF WALKERS PRE-PERMISSIVE PATHS / DEVON SIDE OF THE PARK / EXPANDING WORKFORCE / BUYING NORTH HILL / USING HIS HORSE / MAKING SIGNS

Yes, people had been trespassing before he started waymarking paths. Farmers told him visitors went wherever they wanted. Their wives sometimes answered the door 40 times on a Sunday to people asking how to get somewhere. The waymarking solution was so simple. Every farmer in Exmoor appreciated the fact they had the power to take people away from his back door, take people away from his yard. Because they were trying to farm. There couldn't be anything more frustrating than having 200 sheep in your yard and the footpath or bridleway going right through your yard. Blagdon Farm at Wheddon Cross is a typical example. You go right into the yard, over the dung heap and into Blagdon Wood if you stay on the bridleway. But his path went just down the road, through Blagdon Meadow and joined up with the path in Blagdon Wood and went on to Dunkery Beacon. People could walk from Wheddon Cross to Dunkery without interfering with any farmer. It became so popular, right throughout the park.

As far as Devon was concerned, in 1974, when the reorganisation of local government took place, he became national park warden [head warden]] of the Devon section as well. Again, one of the very first jobs he did was to do the coast path from Minehead to Combe Martin. By this time he had a team of people, you couldn't have all these paths without a workforce. He also had 2 more wardens by 1974. He did have a very good team of workmen. They worked from an old building he had at Ashwell. He'd left Robin How and bought a small holding at Wheddon Cross, where he could keep his horse, and let the National Park have the old fowl house.

He started off with a foreman called Ernie Munson. Anyway, John Lethaby came from Exford and they had a wonderful team of workmen. He had Ernie when they bought North Hill. Ernie and Jeff How, who had just left school. He remembers being at the National Park Committee meeting when North Hill was bought by Somerset County Council because it belonged to a forestry concern. That was pre-'74, about '65. The forestry concern who owned North Hill had put in an application to clear fell all the trees, to fence it, and to plant it with conifers. He can remember Mr Matthew Waley-Cohen, Auberon Herbert and Roger Miles were very angry. They [the NP Committee] decided to put in an application to get a grant from the government to buy North Hill. Again, they were the first National Park in the whole country to ask for a grant to buy amenity land. That's what happened. They put in an application, because all Roger could do in those days was put a Tree Preservation Order on a few Douglas [firs] up at Moor Wood, at the top of the hill. They got the 75% grant and somebody was kind enough to say he [JC] couldn't look after all that on his own, and open up paths, he needed a workman and a boy.. So he got Ernie Munson and Jeff. Again, they could only get the money if they could that they could improve the access.

Yes, he was still going round on his horse. He could do so much more, because he could ride 10 miles out on one path and ride 10 miles back, and the horse wouldn't suffer at all. Whereas if he took his landrover he could walk 4 or 5 miles, and walk 5 miles back, but he always had to go back and collect his landrover at the same place. So he used his horse as much as he could. Ernie and Jeff had a van. They made all their signs. If they had an oak tree or something fall down, they'd cut it up into 3 foot lengths, take it to the sawmills, saw it up. They [the NPC] bought Jeff a router and Jeff did all the wooden signs, there are hundreds of them around. Jeff marked them all and Ernie and Jeff and JC went out and put them up.[Back to top]
 

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LOCAL GOVERNMENT REORGANISATION OF 1974 / WAYMARKING COAST PATH / BROTHER FRED BECOMING A WARDEN / NEW NPA HEADQUARTERS AT DULVERTON / CHANGES TO WARDEN SERVICE / PROBLEMS OF DEVON-SOMERSET BOUNDARY SPLIT PRE-REORGANISATION / BUILDING FOOTBRIDGE ABOVE CLOUD FARM / LINKING SOMERSET AND DEVON POST-REORGANISATION / BUILDING BRIDGES

But going back to 1974, when he took over the Devon side, the first job he did was to mark the coast path from Minehead to Combe Martin. Jeff made 65 signs for that. By this time JC's brother Fred had joined him as a National Park warden as well and they had surveyed the coast path. It sounds a labour, but it was a labour of love to be able to walk from Minehead to Combe Martin in the most wonderful conditions. They could use their landrover and do it in chunks [gives route]. It took them some time to do it but it was a job which he thinks thousands and thousands of people have appreciated since.

Brother Fred is 7 years younger than JC, so he could make him carry all the tools. He'd carry the iron bar, and the sledgehammer, and JC would carry the spade [jokes]. It was unusual for a brother to become warden as well. General Wilson had taken over as national park officer by this time. All things were changing of course, he had his headquarters at Dulverton then. JC's little fowls house, where the men were working, became redundant because they built a big depot in Exford and John Lethaby moved to Exford. And the [warden] job was advertised. Again, his brother had been born on the farm on the Blackdown Hills, he'd always been very interested in country life. He was just Fred Collins as far as General Wilson was concerned, JC had nothing to do with it. General Wilson interviewed them, and anyone who knows him knows he makes up his own mind, and he made up his own mind that Fred was the best one for the job.

But JC can honestly say that, to him, it was so much easier for him to be able to phone up Fred in the middle of the night, or early in the morning about something they had to do, rather than somebody he didn't know, or who might be more inclined to work from 9 to 5, which is what has happened. The warden service became a ranger service and shortly after JC retired and left they had 2 days off a week. It was all more a trade union than in his time. He still stuck to his 16 or 18 hours a day in the summer months, and if you want time off in the winter you take time off in lieu. He's afraid to say that all the time he was there, unless, obviously, there was a funeral or wedding, in his opinion from May until the end of August a national park warden was on duty 24 hours a day.

Before JC took over the Devon side they had a Devon warden, Skipworth was the man he dealt with, an ex-Royal Marine. But he left when JC took over. [?check] He went and had a country park at Swanage, JC thinks, Skippy. They got on very well together.

Again, all the time they had the two, the Devon and Somerset County Councils, they found it very difficult to do things. One of the things he wanted to get done was put a footbridge across Badgworthy Water, in the Doone Valley, where the footpath went across the stream. All the time from 1963 to '74 they couldn't get anyone to agree to build a bridge. There was no working together. But once he took over, he remembers phoning Dick Lloyd [secretary to the staghounds (and fellow contributor to the archive)] and asking if he could have 2 trees the hunt owned down the river, just above Cloud, so he could build the bridge. Then he phoned Ken Almond, the local youth officer, and asked if he could organise some sixth formers from Minehead school to haul the trees half a mile to the bridge site. So they cut the trees down, dragged them. It was a long way from a landrover or trailer, but he had a landrover and trailer and he went out all across Larkbarrow, Tom's Hill, out to a hunting gate. He had a lot of little kids then from the Middle School, they were quite small, about 9 or 10 years old. And he had God knows how many artificial manure bags, and had the sand and chipping. And if a little girl could carry a shovelful, she carried a shovelful, and if a little boy could carry two shovelfuls, he had 2 shovelfuls. And that is literally how they got the sand and chipping down to build the bridge.

And it just went from there. He had to link up Somerset and Devon down at Cloggs. So they cut down 2 trees on the top of North Hill, these big Douglases. Then there was another one a bit further down, where they had to build another bridge, and they had to build a bridge at Barlynch. They cut the trees down on North Hill. John Matravers was the hauler, he had a timber lorry. [pause while BJ draws the curtain against the sun] [Back to top]
 

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WONDERFUL JOB / FARMERS' CO-OPERATION / JOB LASTED 25 YEARS / CHANGES POST 1974 / AWARDS / BUILDING CAR PARKS / TARR STEPS CAR PARK / PLANTING TACAMAHACA TREE / GETTING GORSE SHOOTS FROM ARTHUR WEBBER / EARLY RELATIONSHIPS WITH FARMERS / JACK BURGE

Like he has just said, when he first got the job he was told to help the public enjoy the amenities of the national park. He really thinks that by having all the waymarked walks, and the books, and nature trails - he did a nature trail on North Hill and he did a nature trail at Cloutsham - it really was a wonderful job. Because he had the co-operation of all the foresters, and the farmers, and the landowners. He doesn't think there was a time when any farmer refused him something unless it was for a very good reason. They were so helpful. And the job did last 25 years. As he's just said, in 1974 things did change. General Wilson came as national park officer, Roger Miles came from the county planning office, as the forester [actually assistant national park officer, land management] for Exmoor.

Again, he's mentioned that they had to do something for the motorist. Again it was very simple. They had to build car parks. All done before 1974. It was all done in those early days. Because it was realised how important it was to help the farmer, and help the visitor, and help the landowner. He supposes the most outstanding car park of all was Tarr Steps. Prior to the car park being built just below Liscombe it was a bottleneck. All through 1964 and '65, he'd try and get down there with the landrover. and people were stuck down at the bottom, some at the top. Again, it's just a matter of being in the right place at the right time and having a bit of luck. He was driving down there one afternoon and the farmer who owned the field, where the car park is now, was leaning on the gate. JC stopped and spoke to him, and he just looked at JC and told him he was going to sell his farm. The farmer had always been very good and opened his gate and let the coaches go in. He doesn't know whether they gave him a handout. The bristles stood up at the back of JC's neck and he thought, 'What an opportunity'. And he said, 'Mr Floyd, will you do me a favour?' and asked him not to sell the field until somebody had got in touch with him. He went straight home and phoned Dennis Brown and Roger. Roger got in touch with Matthew Whaley-Cohen, and he thinks the 2 of them went down straight away and had a chat with the farmer. It was done within 48 hours. And it was agreed that that particular field could be bought by the National Park. And that's how they got the car park. If he hadn't been lucky enough to go along when he was leaning on the gate they would not have had Tarr Steps car park. And again, it was one of the things that the county council won a national award for.

Yes, he had said earlier on that there was an award for waymarking. He doesn't know what it was, he was just told casually that Exmoor had received a national award, because there wasn't any other waymarking system in any other national park. And the car park at Tarr Steps, he thinks Roger and Dennis between them did all the featuring. Ernie Munson and JC planted all the trees. He hopes anyone in the future who goes down to Tarr Steps, right down by the bridge, and sees that poplar tree [jumps]. He believes it's called a tacamahaca tree, and it was about the size of a staffhook handle when he planted it. Mr Oaks, from Tarr Farm, had a dozen Jersey cows, milking cows, that he used to bring through the river every day, and JC used to be absolutely petrified that one of the damn Jersey cows would bite the top out of his tacamahaca tree. He thinks it's now 70-80 foot high and as big around as his body. He thinks he planted it in '65, or '66, when the car park was being built.

Another nice story, too, of a man he got to know very well. Arthur Webber at Wheddon Cross [fellow contributor to the archive], the Webber brothers at Wheddon Cross, where he lived for 19 years and ended up as chairman of the village hall and the playing field committee. He got to know them very well. But on that occasion Roger had said to him he thought it would be nice if they could get some young heather shoots and plant some heather on the banks, and a bit of gorse [for Tarr Steps car park]. Because in those days they wanted to keep it as countrified as possible. He knew where to get plenty of heather, there was lots on North Hill land they owned, in the tracks and paths. All he had to do was pick up a bit here and there, but he wondered where he could get some gorse. He was riding a horse up from Snowdrop Valley, up over North Hill, and he noticed a field that was absolutely covered in little tiny pieces of gorse. And he went to Arthur, or Mr Webber as he called him then, and asked if he could have some small gorse shoots. AW said yes, he could have the gorse on the condition that he took the lot [laughs] He didn't know AW as well as he does now. So he dug up about 20 or 30 gorse bushes. No, he couldn't take the lot, there was about 10,000 all over the place [laughs]. But it was AW's way of breaking the ice.

In those days they all called him 'Warden'. But he got called all sorts of names when he first came down to Exmoor. Because, believe it or not there was a tremendous number of people who didn't want a warden of the national park. One of his best friends, who turned out to be one of his best and most co-operative friends, was ever so rude to him once. He's dead now. But nobody will mind him saying he's called Jack Burge, and he owned the whole of the Doone Valley. JC started on the 1^st of June, and he thinks it was the opening meet of the staghounds in August, after about 2 months, when Jack bumped into him. And he thought that JC had come down to stop him having picnickers or caravanners, or doing what he'd been doing in the Doone Valley. He had celebrated a little at the opening meet, and JC looked him in the eye and said, 'Mr Burge, if I can't do you any good, I promise you one thing, I'll never do you any harm'. And JB went and got a bottle out of the back of the landrover, and poured JC out a glass of whisky. JC can show BJ the very spot where that happened. He offered him a drink and said, 'Remember to come down to the Doone Valley as soon as you can.' But at that time of course Malmsmead was in Devon and JC only had Oare church and around that side [the Somerset side]. [Back to top]
 

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BUYING AMENITY LAND / JACK BURGE AND DICK FRENCH / NEW NPA STAFF POST 1974 / HIS OWN WELCOME IN THE EARLY DAYS / EXMOOR SOCIETY / SIGNING NATIONAL TRUST PATHS

But he got on ever so well with Jack. He was a tower of strength. They [SCC, on behalf of the NPC] bought a lot of land afterwards. They bought Tom's Hill and Larkbarrow, Culbone Woods. They bought Hawkcombe. All those sorts of places were bought by Somerset County Council, all pre-74. They bought Hawkcombe only a few months after North Hill, because the forestry people wanted to clear fell all the scrub oak in Hawkcombe, which had been planted years and years ago for the tanneries, which were at Porlock. They bought it, and he was sent down, again on the horse. There was only one bridleway which went right up through the centre, up to Hawkcombe Head, and he was told to open up what was referred to as North Terrace Walk and the South Terrace Walk. There were 2 walks on either side which join the bridleway at James's Barrow, just below Bromham Farm.

Jack was the sort of person you could go and talk to about what the Exmoor farmer was thinking. Jack's speciality would be Exmoor Horn sheep. He won championships at the Bath and West Show and had cups galore. He and his wife. But he knew how Exmoor ticked, all the way through. He was a very colourful character. And JC's brother Fred afterwards, when they had to take on sectors, took on Malmsmead and down round Brendon and Rockford, and out on Brendon Common, which Jack knew like the back of his hand. Cheriton Bridge and places. And if you had a problem, where you could drive and couldn't drive, you wanted to know what colour markings were on sheep, who the pony belonged to, if you couldn't find it out from Jack you could find it out from Dick French. They [JC and his brother Fred] got to know them all so well that you were almost frightened to go there because once you got in there you had to be pretty tough to get away because they wanted to know what you were doing.

Especially they wanted to know what the National Park was about, the new set up. They weren't dealing with the wardens after 1974 and onwards. Unfortunately General Wilson, [tails off]. He supposes he became an officer belonging to Somerset County Council in his own right, like the planning officer and the highway officer, and of course he had to have a team of his own. [Tells  BJ she knew this, because she was his secretary.] He had Roger Miles as his No 2, and then he had people coming in as planning officers, assistant planning officers, ecologists, interpretative officers, all sorts of people like that. And these people were in some cases introducing themselves, as was their job, to these farmers. And it wasn't a question of the farmer not being polite to them or anything like that, but they very often realised that the chap didn't know his backside from his elbow, as far as Exmoor was concerned, because he had just come out of the army, and he was dressed in a pin-striped suit and winklepicker shoes [laughs]. They [the farmers] just said, 'Why send him? Why didn't you come?'

[BJ asks what the difference was, as he, JC, had also originally just come out of the navy] That's quite true. The Free Press was full of letters. One man, again he's dead and gone, JC thinks he was called Mr Smith, in Porlock. He wrote pages in the Free Press of what the warden was going to do. He envisaged the warden would be tearing around in the landrover, stopping people from doing this, stopping them from doing that. He'd be hunting twice a week, he'd be doing all sorts. That was in the press. So JC wasn't that welcomed with open arms.

He wasn't even welcome with open arms by the Exmoor Society, which surprised him. He thinks they wanted a warden, but they didn't want a warden opening up footpaths. He remembers when they [SCC] bought North Hill. He had a meeting with Miss Oldham, a lady in the Exmoor Society, and Mr Spinks, the secretary, who emigrated to New Zealand shortly afterwards. He had a meeting with them up on North Hill, on the coast path, to show them how he was clearing the path and what a signpost was going to look like. Dear old Miss Oldham brought along some rock cakes. They had a cup of coffee and a rock cake and in the end he persuaded them. But there was a tremendous number of them, and they said to him, and at their meetings, that everybody who came to Exmoor should be able to read an ordnance survey map. They shouldn't need a signpost, they shouldn't need red squares. They should be able to read an ordnance survey map. But, as he said just now, persuasion, and keeping on with the job [jumps].

The National Trust was another one. The National Trust had marked all the paths in Horner. They were called Flora's Ride, Priest's Way, Granny's Ride, Lord Edmonton's Path, Judge's Path. [helicopter noise in background] They didn't tell the visitor where they went to, what distance they went. It took him 5 years to persuade the National Park [Trust] Committee that they could still have their little wooden signs, he would make new wooden signs, but he would say 'Priest's way to Stoke Pero Church, 2½ miles', 'Flora's Ride to Horner Water' and it told the visitor. After it was done it was wonderful, but it did take time. He made all the signs on National Trust land, there was no National Trust warden. They had a couple of chaps, who he thinks were more or less volunteers, who used to cut out and clear paths. Colonel Reeks was the National Trust agent. JC was responsible for all the public footpaths, and Priest's Way is a public footpath. All the other paths they had, like Windsor Walk, that's not a public right of way, but it's a path that came from Chapel Steep and went round and down into Horner. They looked after those, but JC was responsible for all the public rights of way. Colonel Reeks was relieved by a man called Major Courage, who JC got on extremely with, and Major Courage of course was happy to co-operate and help. [pause as car drives up to visit. [Back to top]
 

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DICK FRENCH AT BRENDON / EXMOOR CHARACTERS / DIFFICULTIES POST-1974

[BJ asks about Dick French] Dick French was a farmer at Brendon, he owned a farm at Brendon. A well known character. The thing JC will remember all his life - Dick has gone now of course - is how much they appreciated what they [the wardens] did, and the way in which they showed their appreciation. Dick had a lot of ponies out on Brendon Hill. JC's brother Fred was doing the normal patrolling and spotted a mare that was obviously having difficulty foaling. He dashed down to Dick, picked him up and took him out, and saved the mare and foal by doing that. A couple of weeks later there was a phone call to Fred, 'Call in when you're passing next.' And he'd had killed a 40lb lamb and cut it in 2, half for Fred and half for JC. It was just those little things. They were just doing their job, but that was his way of saying [thank you]. It was a lovely lamb [laughs].

He met characters all the way through. Some were humorous, some were good. He remembers when they did the coast path. Fred will never forget it as long as he lives. There was a man called Mr Fletcher. JC thinks they were out on Girt Down somewhere, right on the cliffs. They bumped into him and started talking. He said he'd walked down onto the beach, that he caught conger eels there and had a lot of luck with them. He said he caught one the other day, put it over his shoulder, and as he was walking home it was snapping at his heels [laughs]. Those little stories were good.

Yes, they'd invite him into their homes. As he's said just now, in some cases it was fatal to go in. He remembers going in Brendon [can't think of name] - not Brendon Lodge, it was a riding establishment. He was making enquiries about something. There was a chap lied down on a big settee, a couple of darned great dogs on top of him. He had a bandage on his leg. Before JC could ask his question, he picked up a jam jar, and plonked the jam jar on the table. It was just like a big slug in this [jar]. He said 'you guess what that is, in that jar'. And it was his cartilage. He'd had his cartilage taken out and had pickled it in this jar [laughs]. All those sort of things will live with him for ever more.

About [by] 1974 they had 12 men arriving at Ashwell at 7.30 in the morning and coming back into the yard at 7.30 at night, and he could explain to them what paths [needed attention], the workload was his responsibility. But after 1974, when these people were appointed as assistant estate officers and the depot was moved, all that was taken away. It became very difficult. If he saw a sign broken, or something like that, he was no longer able to say when they came in the morning, 'There's a sign broken on North Hill etc, go and put up a new one'. They [the wardens] lost all that control, which he supposes made the job a little bit different. [Back to top]