CD1

(58 mins)
 

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BORN TORRE FARM, WINSFORD 1913 / FAMILY BACKGROUND / COUSIN / GRANDFATHER'S BUILDING BUSINESS / WINSFORD SCHOOL

[recorded 6.4.1998]

She was born in 1913, at Torre Farm. She's 84 now [laughs], not bad. Torre Farm is on the way towards Exford from Winsford, 2 miles, in an elevated position. Where her son now is living, Richmond Harding and his family. Mother came from Winsford, the builder's daughter, James Steer, the builder's daughter. Her father originated from Brendon.

[BJ asks how they met] He was living in Winsford then. They had come from Brendon to farms here in Winsford. He was at Torre at the time of his marriage. He moved to Winsford, they moved to Kemps first, and then they were living together at Edbrooke (not her mother, but his relations) and, about 1910, they took Torre, rented it then. And mother and he were married in Winsford church in February 1911. February the 22^nd to be exact, 1911. She's the only child, 1913. She was brought up at Torre, educated at Winsford.

[BJ asks whether it was a disappointment to her parents, just to have one child] She never heard. She was brought up with her cousin, though, who had lost his mother, who was a year older than her, a boy. So it wasn't exactly like a single [tails off]. His father was living at Porlock then, but her parents took him when he was 7 she thinks, 7 years old. But unfortunately he only lived until he was 26. And died then, of, you know, TB. That was the going concern then.

[BJ asks what her early memories of Torre Farm are] Oh [sighs], now then. Well, as she said, going to school there [Winsford], and helping her father on the farm. And after she left school, when they were 14, 3 mornings a week she went in her grandfather's office, the builders in Winsford, besides helping her father - he also employed another man, a man, you see - and she learnt quite a bit, with working in the office down there. Because she also learnt how to drive a car, when she was 16. You didn't need any driving [test].

[BJ says, going back to her early days first, tell her about going to school in Winsford] Well, it was quite a large school in those days. About 48 were on the register. At the latter end of her schooling there, Exton joined, because Exton closed their school. But they did the usual things at school, you know. The first teachers were Mr and Mrs Dicker, and then Mrs Westall and her daughter, who married Mr Edward Anderson, the daughter did. And, well, it was very good really, because they learnt most things, to be useful. Sewing. Well, reading writing and arithmetic, which were the main things. And then, they also [comments that the fire, which BJ had put out with a kettle prior to the recording starting, because of the noise it was making, has started burning again. Recording interrupted while they deal with it].

[BJ asks how she got to school] Oh, they rode bicycles when they were 9 or 10 years old. Before that they used to walk, with an old woman and her family that lived in the cottage, Torre Cottage it is now, rebuilt, you know, where, what's it called lived [thinks], Babbage lived. Tufters, that's right. Does BJ need to know that? [BJ says say whatever she wants to]. Then they cycled to school. [Back to top]
 

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WALKING TO SCHOOL / CARRIERS / SCHOOL LUNCHTIME / COLLECTING NEWSPAPER / GRANDFATHER STEER / MAYPOLE DANCING / CLUB DRILL

Yes, when they walked to school the old woman would accompany them, with their family from the cottage, she would see them down. Well, they'd come and meet them. Occasionally, they had a lift from school, with the carrier, that went from Dulverton station to Exford. First it was Mr Heberdean [?sp], then it was Commander [thinks], what was he called, Bisgood was it? No. Commander Thompson. They lived up at Stone Cross, with the conveyance, he ran 3 times a week. [BJ asks what he would have been carrying] Well, he would take a passenger to meet a train, but only about one, you see, and bring back all the goods that had come to the station, for the shops, at Exford and Winsford. That was the main idea. Well, he'd bring luggage for anyone else to.

Well, for their pleasure they had sports, they had cricket on the green, in the playground, and the girls, in their playground, they played, what was their main thing [thinks], she can't remember exactly what they did, because in fact you see, she never stayed for lunchtime, the dinner break as they called it, she always went to Winsford, to her grandfather's, and had lunch. And collected his newspaper from the Karslake, as it is now, which was a shop. And another one, Mrs Barwick as she was latterly, she was a Vesey and lived next door, she did the same. She'd go to the shop and take it down to their house - they weren't delivered to the houses you see, just direct to the shop in those days. And she'd have a hot meal there and be allowed back to school when it was time, well a quarter of an hour before school commenced for the afternoon.

[BJ asks if many children went home to lunch] Not many. Because you see they were living like she might have been, in outlying districts. The Hayeses at Great Nurcott used to call in with a Mr Baker, carry their sandwiches. They did that. And she can't remember many else.

[BJ asks what she had for lunch] Oh, she had a cooked meal. Because her grandfather, well they stopped you see. He'd got men in the workshops working, they always knocked off at 1 o'clock - well the bell's still down there. So she was there half an hour before that, and she used to have to collect the lightings for them, for his grandfather and his sister, who was his housekeeper. Because his wife died early in years, her grandmother, she never knew her. Yes, she had to do chores, that's quite correct.

Maud [née Vesey] - she was called Barwick, Walter's [fellow contributor to the archive] wife, Maud and MH didn't get much pleasure up school. She doesn't know what they did do quite. But in the Summer they learnt to dance round the maypole, and the boys did club drill. The schoolteacher taught them to dance. They used to dance at the fetes, down on the village [green] and the rectory. [BJ asks who would have provided the music] Oh, now then [thinks]. She's bothered if she can, well down there {?the rectory], they'd have a piano, you see, but they didn't have a piano out in the yard. Just sang to it. No, the boys didn't dance round the maypole, it was all girls. But it should be a boy and a girl, as you know. No, because the boys did the club drill, you see.

Club drill was 2 clubs, and they were instructed by the teacher. Up and down, and out and back. She hasn't seen it done since, as she can recall. They did that to music. They just did it for when the fetes were. Good gracious, it was so long ago [laughs]. It really is. [Back to top]
 

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SCHOOL FRIENDS / FAIRFIELD ROOM / BUTTER MAKING CLASSES / LESSONS / SEWING / DESKS / CLOTHES

[BJ asks if going to have lunch with her grandfather meant that she knew the children who were at school less well] Oh no, not at all. Oh no no no no. Oh no. They were just the same with them. They always had their mates. Right through life after. Because her particular one was Mabel Hayes, up at Great Nurcott. She was her age. They did butter making together, after they left school you see. They had butter making classes down there, see. They would have been up at the Fairfield Room, what is now [thinks] it's part of the Royal Oak, what have they done, knocked it [tails off]? They haven't knocked down the Fairfield Room, it's still there with stabling under? Or they've built a house there, haven't they? [BJ says she doesn't know] Well, you can see the big window outside there. Where that's where they had all, in her day, their dances. In her parents day, before that was built, it was up at the school.

[BJ asks whether it would have been the county who ran the butter making classes] Yes. Yes, the county ran that. [BJ asks what other classes they would have run] She was trying to think. Butter making classes. She doesn't think there was much else, not at that time.

[BJ asks if the boys and girls did butter making classes] No no, only the girls, in those days. Nowadays it would have been more mixed, wouldn't it? [BJ asks who provided the cream for the butter] She can't remember [thinks]. They must have brought it, they must have brought it.

Because, of course it was in school days that they had the cookery lessons, see, and the boys were gardening. They had little plots, up by the school. [BJ asks what they would have taught them to cook] Oh everything. They had to bring their ingredients, they were told what to bring. Anything, a plain meal, a cooked meal you see. Or cakes. Because lessons don't last long, do they?

[BJ says they taught you reading, writing, arithmetic and cooking] That's right, yes. Yes. Oh yes, and sewing. Yes that was very good. Because, she remembers making a nightdress and pinafore. [laughs] She's never forgotten, when she started though, and she couldn't thread her needle, and she held it up to the teacher, 'No, certainly not, you've got to thread it yourself.' [laughs] You don't forget those things, do you?

No, she can't remember her first day at school. She can't say she can. [BJ says so it wasn't too frightening] No. She thinks it's wonderful today though, how they are taught at playschool, isn't it?

Well from there, as she said, she learnt to drive the car.

[BJ says shall they go back to her and her cousin and asks if they both left school at the same time] He left a year before her. Fourteen they left in those days. He stayed on the farm working. [BJ asks whether she always sat next to the same person at school, she'd said that she had a lot of friends] Well she doesn't know that they were allowed to sit with them particularly, oh no. No, she can't remember [tails off] Well latterly, it was just desks for 2, wasn't it? And to start with it was a great long one. Yes, you sat in a long row, well different rows you see. It would take about 5 or 6. She doesn't know what has happened to those.

[BJ asks what she would have worn to school] Oh, just a skirt - of course no-one wore trousers in those days. She well remembers wellingtons were brought in then. Because the nurse said she had to have them, to wear. She had a bad throat, you see, something like that. Like children would, tonsillitis or something. But, oh no, just ordinary dresses in the Summer, and pinafores. She's got photos of them. And skirts in the winter. She never got into trousers in her day, though. That came more when the war started, didn't it. [Back to top]
 

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FIRST WORLD WAR / CHARLIE HARDING / SPURS / TORRE FARMHOUSE / BUTTON BOOTS / CREAM AND BUTTER

[BJ says she was born just before the first world war and asks if she has any memories of those years, or can remember her parents talking about it] Talking about the first world war? [thinks] She can't say she can. She can't recall. [thinks] She remembers her father being called up. He and Mr Hayes had to go together. Mr Fred Hayes. They were being called up at Taunton, you see, for the war, to pass their exam. But she supposes being farmers, they got off. Yes, then they stayed at home farming. She supposes, she doesn't remember so much as being told, because she was only 5 when the war ended. Or 4.

[BJ asks whether there were some people who did go] Oh yes. Her brother-in-law went. There are his walking out spurs [indicates spurs on mantelpiece]. They were his spurs. He belonged to the Devon Yeomanry. Charlie, Jack's [her husband] brother. He took his own horse. And that's the proper army stirrups, you can look at the number under them. Yes, they've got an army number on them. And those spurs should have a piece of leather on them. And she's got another pair a bit bigger in the drawer there.

Yes, they took their own horses. That was in the first war. He got wounded, but he didn't get killed in the first war. Badly wounded in the head. [BJ asks what happened to the horse] She doesn't know. She doesn't know what happened to it. He even had to take his own knife and fork, or he Now his mother let him have it, you see. Because there were only 11 of everything - knife and fork and spoon - left [in the set], because Charlie never had it again, you see. You know, it was nice silver plated stuff, you see then. Well it was the best, in those days.

And, what else was it BJ particularly wanted?

[BJ asks what Torre Farm looked like, in those early days] Oh, completely different from now. Of course the trees were around it like there [indicates ?picture], big beech trees, which had to be cut down. And indoors, of course was the open fireplace. Well when she returned back there after she married, they had a rayburn put in. When she was young, in what they used to call the back kitchen they had a Larbert range, for scalding the milk, and doing some cooking. But quite a lot was done over the open fireplace, you see. And they'd got also, it's still there, a built in oven. [Asks BJ if they have one up her way. She says yes]

They had a back kitchen, and a kitchen, a dining room and a sitting room. They used to fry on the open fireplace in the kitchen. they always fried the bacon mornings, on the brandice. They always had a fired breakfast. [BJ asks what a brandice is] A round thing, BJ's seen them surely. They call them brandices. Yes, on 3 legs, that's right. Yes, her mother would fry that. [BJ asks what her mother would be wearing] Oh, just, depending on the time of the year [thinks], well, a skirt and blouse, she supposes. It was usually skirts a lot more in those days, not like nowadays, a pair of trousers. [BJ asks what kind of footwear] Oh [thinks] it was shoes then, as far as she can remember. But she remembers, you know, they had the button boots, which have come back again now.

But that was the main thing, and for scalding the milk, to make cream on the Larbert - they never did that over the open fire you see - but that one would take 2 [pans] up in the [breaks off]. And to go all the length down to the dairy was quite a walk with it, to cool [laughs]. Yes, they had a back kitchen and a dairy. They were a long ways apart. But it would make beautiful cream.

Yes, they made butter there as well. And they used to take the butter - that's in her young days, it was different when she went back again, you know when Dad retired and they [she and her husband] came back from Stoke Pero. [Back to top]
 

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SELLING BUTTER AND CREAM / WALKING / SUNDAY SCHOOL / SOCIAL EVENINGS / WHIST DRIVES AND DANCES / NURSING ASSOCIATION / SUNDAYS

They used to make butter, and take it once a week to Winsford, to local people. [BJ asks why she needed lessons] What, for butter making? She doesn't know why. They did, well for shows and that you see, you could go in for showing.

[BJ asks if she went in for showing] No. Yes, they had cream. Only local, just to Wheddon Cross. Winsford never had anything, but she's walked to Wheddon Cross with cream, when she was a girl. And eggs. You'd have to carry it carefully [laughs]. Well it wasn't much further to walk, as BJ knows, from Torre to Wheddon Cross, or Exford or Winsford, was it. It would have been about two and a quarter miles, only about a quarter of a mile further.

Luckwell Bridge was their nearest, where they went to Sunday school. That was 2 fields and a short lane, and another field. Because, it was a very good Sunday school when she was a child, because the children, from Wheddon Cross and Cutcombe came there, as there was no church at Wheddon Cross, you see. No vicar much, she doesn't think. [BJ says so it was quite a big Sunday school]. It was, it was about 40, attendance. So that was a great help, you see. Which she's heard the older ones still remark, that it was the best of their days.

[BJ asks if they were split into separate classes] Yes. Oh yes, they were divided up, you know. She enjoyed it very much, yes. You see, it was more secure, going to - well, you only had fields to go over - down at Winsford they would have had to go on the road, and it was such a big Sunday school out there. It was very good really, she can't say anything against it.

[BJ asks if she thinks she enjoyed it more than her schooldays] Well, just as much.

[BJ asks what she would have done] Well, they weren't there very long, of course, only an hour wouldn't it be, on a Sunday. Well, read, and ask questions on the bible. Read a verse from the bible. Have prayers when they'd go in, altogether. And then sing hymns, you see.

And then in the winter were social evenings, which they liked going to. Yes, they walked back to Luckwell Bridge for that. That wasn't far, you see. Luckwell Bridge was only about a mile from their homes. And the children from Rocks Cottage used to go there, and the Careys from Ashcombe - uh - and the Careys from Ashcombe. Quite a team going back.

[BJ asks how they would have seen their way at night] Oh. Oh, what did they carry? [thinks] For some things, they had a candle in a jam jar, before torches came in. But torches came in, you see, hand torches.

It was the same going to whist drives, or dances, after they left school. You walked it. And it was in those days always a whist drive and a dance, not like nowadays just a dance. You'd have the 2 things together, first the whist and then the dance, you see. When they were quite young, her father always went with her. And, as they got a little bit older, they joined up with the others, like Nurcott and that, and walked. Walked one way, and quite often have a taxi to bring them home, that was the order of the day. But they weren't very often, that was either for the Nursing Association, or the hospitals. It used to be called the Nursing Association, which was locally, in those days you see. [BJ says was that like the district nurse] That's [hesitates], yes. That was run locally. That's why they had a fete one year for the nursing, and one year for the church you see, alternate years. At the vicarage for the church and up at the Glebe for the nursing association. [BJ asks why the Glebe] Well, it's a big place, you know the Glebe up there. Yes.

[BJ asks if she went to church as well as to Sunday School] Well, she didn't come to Winsford very often then. As soon as she was 14, she did. She was confirmed and all of it. But that was different, they had got older, and could ride bicycles, you see. But it was a very good start, Luckwell Bridge.

[BJ says so that on a Sunday, she'd go to bible classes, and would that be it for the day, would she be made to go back again?] Oh, good gracious no. No. When it was anniversaries and such things, they'd have a morning service, or afternoon and evening, and they'd stay for tea somewhere, in Luckwell Bridge, as children, at any rate. [Back to top]
 

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GRANDFATHER STEER'S BUILDING BUSINESS / TIMBER YARD / FELLING TIMBER / DRIVING GRANDFATHER / WORKING FOR GRANDFATHER / LEARNING TO DRIVE / CARS

As she said, she well remembers, when she started with her grandfather, he used to have the steam engine down there. [BJ asks her to tell her about her grandfather's building business] Yes, it was a big business. Twelve or 14 men on, regular. He built quite a lot of the houses around Winsford, as well as repairs, and cut timber down in the woods for making carts and different things, as well as coffin boards. He cut them and stored in the timber house. The timber house is down where the Ryles are, not where they live, but where they've built and let. She thinks they call it the timber house. Well the timber was always stored there, and the paint up over.

Directly opposite where she lives now, where John Bray's is, was the timber yard, where a tremendous lot of timber they used to cut up there you see. Rack [indistinct] was full of timber, trees. They cut it up with a big saw [BJ says a big saw that she has in a picture on the wall]. Yes, Ann le Bas took [did] that, a circular saw. The engine was a steam engine, driven with logs. She remembers it very well. Oh yes, it made a noise [laughs]. It was quite a noise, was it. But you've got to go to shows today to see it haven't you? Yes.

[BJ asks if the yard was where all the men were based] The ones in the timber yard were the labouring people, you see. Then there were the carpenters and masons, outside to work. But these were proper timber chaps. Because he used to keep 4 horses, her grandfather, for going in the yards, in the early days, you see. The men looked after those. Albert Calloway was the great man for it, one of them. And Victor Langdon did so much of it, then that was a bit more latterly.

Yes, the horses were for bringing the timber back from the woods, they'd do that. [BJ asks who would have felled the timber ] She doesn't know who he engaged [thinks]. Well, they were all men, she expects. They were proper timber men, you see. They had tremendous saws, not like that [points to Ann Le Bas's picture of circular saw on wall], one you pull by hand, a see-saw, what did they call them? A cross-cut saw. That's right, with a man on each end. That's a cross-cut saw. That's how they cut them down, then. Like now it's all electric, isn't it?

And she's driven him times, after she learnt to drive the car, to go in the woods to mark with a hammer with his name in it, JS, what had to be taken back to the saw yard for timber, on the felled timber. She used to have to beat the name in it, to save his grandson doing it see, he could stay back in the office.

[BJ says so she left school at 14 and went straight to work for her grandfather] She can't say exactly straight, it might have been a year missed, but that was all. She did all the time sheets in the office, only 3 mornings. [BJ asks what she did the rest of the time} Home to work on the farm, cycled home and on the go again. Because they were selling milk, latterly, up at Torre. Because they gave up [breaks off] That was better, selling the milk, than making all the cream and butter. They used to have to take it out through Thorne lane and meet it [the milk transport] on the road beyond Thorne.

[BJ asks if she enjoyed working for her grandfather] Very much. Yes, because it was different all the time. Different. Taking him, you know, viewing work sometimes. Her cousin, her grandfather's grandson, taught her to drive. He died in 1994, yes. [BJ says so her cousin who was a year older than her learnt to drive and then taught her]. Yes, yes of course he did. [This is a different cousin. Another cousin, Reg, taught her to drive]. They tried grandfather, and grandfather ran into the wall, and that was it [laughs]. So, she was pleased to have learnt to.

Cars were just coming on the market, because he, her grandfather, was one of the first to have had a car. Well he owned the car, you see. He had a Climel [?sp]. Well then they gradually like, well Le Bas' had one, but very few. [Back to top]
 

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GRANDFATHER'S HOUSES / ACLAND YARD / EMPLOYMENT / UNDERTAKING / WORKMEN FROM ALLERFORD / PAINT

He kept a pony and trap, Grandfather, used to drive to view his work. No, he didn't need her then, no no no no. [laughs] He used to go out to Luckwell Bridge, Edbrooke, seeing people.

But it was very good. You know, it's a lot left to be remembered by. Like the Glebe, people often talk about it, the work there. [BJ says he was very well thought of, wasn't he] Yes, yes.

He built Ann Le Bas' house, and over where John Stevens lives at Howetown, she can't think of the name of it, the last house. And he built the Glebe, yes, and Nethercote Cottage [where BJ lives]. She drove him up there several times, when he was building that, for Kilroys. And down Coppleham. And then he built another one down on the Holnicote estate, down near [thinks], it's on the main road going to Porlock, just outside Holnicote, where one of their stewards or somebody lived. Then he built another one up at Milverton, that she knows of.

Yes, his was the only sizeable yard in Winsford. There was a smaller one up here at Farm, belonging to the Acland estate. [BJ says the Acland estate owned quite a lot of property in Winsford] Of course they did, owned it all, practically. And they'd got their carpenters and masons, you see, to do their work. And they used to have it up there. It was in where poor old Colonel Wilson has just gone from.

[BJ says Winsford must have been a very busy village] It was, because, you see, people were more employed, there were more employed on the farms, in those days, whereas now it's all contract work, besides what her grandfather took on, you see. It's not like today, there's no work for anyone. Not much, is there?

[BJ asks her to tell her about where the timber was stored] The timber was stored mainly - that was the coffin board timber [BJ asks if he would make the coffins as well] Oh yes, make them himself. He always did. Because he did main work, of course all round the district there. Yes, he was the undertaker as well. Yes, yes. Oh yes, Grandfather had his box hat and all the lot, you know. It was very very good then. But then, this is it now today, isn't it?

[BJ asks whether they would have painted the houses as well] Oh yes, do the lot. Of course they did. Yes. She can't remember. These [the row of houses where she lives] weren't built. They were built by a firm in Wiveliscombe. [BJ asks where the paint would have come from] Oh, the painter [thinks]. Well, one used to live at Dulverton. Then they've had men come from Allerford, you know, to work there. Yes, they'd walk from Allerford. In those days, that was years ago. And then they, when they would be exceptionally busy perhaps, he'd borrow men sometimes from Holnicote estate, when he built the big garage that is at Exford, for Percy Bawden, there were people coming there, from Allerford, to work. [BJ asks whether they'd walk there and back in a day] Oh yes. She doesn't know, cycled. Cycled probably. It was all bicycles latterly, wasn't it? Or horses.

[BJ asks about the paint loft] Well, in the early days they made the paint. But it was kept with paint, latterly you see. [BJ asks how they would have made the paint] She can't tell her. Because it was really before her day. She thinks paint came in being made after she was 14. They'd mix paints of course, and all that, but you had a certain [thinks] material and made the paint, didn't they, in the olden days. [BJ says Walter Barwick had told her you could see on the wall of the paint loft where they used to test the paint] Oh, she expects so. Yes, that's quite true. Oh yes. [Back to top]
 

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WORKING AT HOME / DRIVING / FARMING SEASONS / HAYMAKING / EVENING OCCUPATIONS / RABBIT NETS / MAKING SPARS / TABLE TENNIS / WOMEN'S CRICKET / BOWLING

[BJ asks whether she enjoyed working on the farm at home] Oh yes, of course, because that was their life, you see. [BJ asks what she would have done] Well, if she hadn't been getting married, in 1940, she would have joined the army. She would very much have liked to have gone as a driver. She loved driving, you see. In her latter years she drove for the ambulance. But that was all arranged in those days, 12 months before you get married. They were taking the farm over, Church Farm at Stoke Pero (where her husband came from).

[BJ asks what would she have been doing when she was working on her parents' farm] Help milking, and of course she helped with the lambing, helped with anything, as the seasons came along. It would be haymaking, and harvesting. You all had to fall in and help. Besides doing the housework - her mother wasn't too fit at one time.

[BJ asks how many people would have been making hay] Oh, they and their neighbours, about 4. It depended on what you were doing, you see. Oh yes, they'd have to feed them as well. Yes, haymaking and harvest. She's got a bent knife out there [in the kitchen], that she lost for years, taking a hot meal up in the harvest field. And she dropped one of the knives coming home, in the rut where the carts went. They always carried cider to drink between meals, but then they took them up tea. They didn't know so much about coffee in those days, it was mainly tea.

[BJ asks if they would celebrate after it was all over] [laughs] Not particularly on the farm, but as now it was always like a celebration in the Autumn. But it died out for a while. [BJ says so the picture we have of people making merry and drinking cider after haymaking isn't really accurate] No, no. No, no, there was no special specifications about it.

[BJ asks what her parents, her cousin and herself would have done at home in the evenings, when she was young] Oh, they were knitting, or sewing. And her father and cousins would be making ropes with hay - or, that was done outdoors, now what was it? No, she's got it now. It was making nets for rabbiting, you know. That was done indoors. Making spars was done outdoors, in the afternoon - making, not spars, well they'd make their own spars it's true, but making the long strand that thatched the ricks, ropes they called them. They were made of hay. You picked up a bit of hay and had a little twirling thing that went round, on the wall. That was in the barn. But in the evening in the house by the fire they would make nets for rabbiting.

[BJ asks if rabbiting was important] Of course it was in those days. Rabbits galore. They didn't always shoot them all, caught them in nets. [BJ asks if that was part of the farm income] Of course it was. [laughs] The size of destruction they did, it was quite an income, wasn't it? Oh yes. Yes, she and her mother would be sewing and knitting, while the men made nets.

[BJ asks what a spar is] A spar was a hazel stick, isn't it? Like you see the thatchers, when they're thatching a house here. It's done the same style. They do it a little bit different, they don't show the bind going round the hayricks - hayricks and corn ricks, you see. They used to have, in those days. Yes, the spar is to help keep it secure.

Then, they used to have a friend come in, when they were 14, or 16 or 18, playing table tennis. They were very fond of playing that. The dining room table was the same correct length, and they had to buy the table tennis mats [bats], and their neighbour from Oldrey used to come over, and they used to go to Thorne. That took up a little bit of time [laughs], it wasn't all work. She was very fond of table tennis.

[BJ asks what other sport was she interested in] Well there wasn't much else [thinks]. She played cricket, played cricket in the ladies' team, at Wheddon Cross. Winsford didn't, well they had a bit of a concern, but they went more regularly to Wheddon Cross. Wheddon Cross were a more sporty lot. [BJ asks whether there were many women's teams] Oh no, oh no. This didn't happen every Saturday, not like the men. But that was the other sport, outdoor sport. [BJ asks what she wore] Oh, wore their canvas shoes. Oh, skirts. They hadn't got any official [breaks off], like she belongs to the bowling club, down there [Winsford], now. But it was very good, they enjoyed it. But, you know, she thinks that was quite a lot of it. [Back to top]