CD4

(66 mins)
 

4/1

TRIPS IN THE COUNTRYSIDE / THE MARTIANS / GEORGE KING / WALKING

Maurice and AI went out quite a lot into the countryside. They used to go out on Exmoor for picnics. They also spent a lot of time down at a beach this side of Lee Abbey, Crock Pit.  Can't get down there now. The path that they went down slipped away.

On Sundays, she went to the Baptists in the mornings when she went to Delve's (great Baptist people). She was asked to sit in the choir, not that she can sing, it made the choir look larger! In the afternoons she and Maurice would go off. When he had a motorbike they went for miles in the country. When he got the car, they travelled further afield. Every Sunday, weather permitting, Maurice took her somewhere. They loved walking.

The lady who lived at Flowerdale said she'd had a visit from the Martians. This was the story through the village. The ironmonger's shop, Saunders, a very well known establishment in the village sold china. Some of the village lads decided they'd play a prank on people. Jack Saunders let them have a lot of old saucers. They put saucers on the doorsteps of quite a few houses [laughs].

That lady's son belonged to some society. His name was George King. A petition in the village got George to America and he got the society going out there as well. When he went back to Combe Martin, he was Sir George. One of AI's ex-neighbours was selling her house. Sir George King viewed it. He did not buy the house but did buy the bungalow across from AI. Each Easter he would bring people in coaches and they would make a pilgrimage to Holdstone Down. Before they went up they had to take their watches off; magnetism would affect the watches. They had built a little cairn,  'Jesus Mountain '.

AI's niece in the village drove her, Maurice (he'd had his 80^th birthday) and Carol (lives next door) up to Holston Down in their car. They walked up to Jesus Mountain and up the other side to Sherracombe. AI and Carol could not keep up with Maurice. They went across to the big Hangman and went back that way. That was the last long walk that Maurice did with AI. It was 3, 3½ miles. She was early 70s. She has been walking right up to last year. She enjoys the freedom. She is not a fast walker, not fast in anything, a very slow person. Carol envies her because she's got roots; there's a story attached to nearly every house they passed. [Back to top]
 

4/2

MEMORIES / KENTISBURY BOOK / SHEILA / KENTISBURY SCHOOL

A lot of the people that were living in the houses in Berrynarbor in AI's young days are dead. She realises you can't hold on to everything, you've got to let it go. Maurice is a great one for looking forward; he's not interested in family trees. A lot of her life has been made up with memories and she revels in them.

Combe Martin has changed as a lot of villages have. Got to accept change. People got stuck into a Kentisbury book. They were people that had gone into the village, Tony Beck for one person and her brother Benjamin got very involved with it. Through Benjamin, a person (Sheila) asked AI to contact her. AI had not seen her since 1933, but she also knows Hilary Beaumont [Note. Hilary Beaumont is the person who recommended AI as a contributor to the archive]. She was very interested in the Kentisbury book; she went to school there. Sheila is 8 years younger than AI but never forgot AI, as she was so kind to her. The night that the book was launched at Kentisbury, AI, Sheila and her sister went up to the evening. The book is called The Parish without a Village because Kentisbury is a very scattered village. Kentisbury town consists of 6 cottages, 1 farm and the house where Sheila lived just on the borders of it. Sheila's father was the chauffeur at Coulsworthy; Mrs Charley lived at Coulsworthy, quite a large house. Further down there are 2 farms and the church. Further down the road is the old school, now been turned into a village hall. Further along that road you have got the new school, opened in '29.

Still a school in Kentisbury. All the village children go to it. One or two people who have sent their children from Combe Martin as they have done Berrynarbor. They like a smaller school. AI had some very good teachers, especially Mrs Simpson. AI's mother was one of the governors for years. It was a nucleus of the village. They held the Women's Institute meetings. She joined so she could take Mum.

These people that went into Kentisbury put a tremendous amount of effort into collecting all what they have got and writing it down. They seem to come together as a village though very scattered. Berrynarbor more compact. She used to maybe resent people who went in and tried to tell them what to do. Fresh ideas make a whole lot of difference. [Back to top]
 

4/3

COMPUTER LESSONS / BUYING A COMPUTER / TRAVELLING / FIRST FLIGHT

[question about AI using email] The September before last, Miss Irwin, Maurice' relative, said they were having computer classes in the village. AI went along and took a shot at it. From the word go she was hooked. Again, she is only mediocre, not all that clever with it. She has enjoyed having it and did not realise one could get so much pleasure out of learning, especially at her age, a different way of communicating.

Maurice was very eager that she should carry on with the classes. The first session was free. She paid and went for the second session. The son of a bridge partner at Ilfracombe had a second hand computer for sale. Hugh has got a computer and he went with her to look at the one that Christopher had got for sale. He wanted £400. Hugh said it was quite sufficient for her needs. Christopher's father got her a cupboard from Argos in Barnstaple and went out and fixed it all up; Christopher took the computer and all the bits and pieces. She had the scanner, the printer, the power and the screen, but no modem. Her main idea was to send some e-mails to relatives in America and Australia. Martin, a chappy Hugh knew in the village, fixed her up with a modem and she went on from there, learning a little bit each time she goes in.

She was very sorry she did not keep up her French longer than she did. She was lazy. She has had great enjoyment of travelling and Maurice has never, never stopped her. He has never gone with her, not abroad. They have had holidays in North Wales and Cornwall. Maurice had enough of abroad during the war; he was in Italy and Africa. She has always found companions to go with. Her first adventure abroad was when her niece got married in America. No one else was able to go, She was the only one really free.

When she was 17/18, they had a little airfield down there which is now Chivenor. Maurice took her down to Chivenor one Sunday afternoon for a flight in an aeroplane. She was a little apprehensive but went up. When she came down she said it was Maurice's turn. He treated her. He wouldn't go up; he said it was tied up with wire and binder cord! [Back to top]
 

4/4

HIGHLIGHTS OF LIFE / RECREATION / REFLECTIONS

Every day has been a highlight of her life [laughs]. Her achievement in being able to cope with the work in the office and get the enjoyment out of it gave her a feeling of elation. She achieved that on her own and without a lot of basic training. She thinks, all through her life she has been a very fortunate person. People that have touched her life have always been people that she has admired and, she hopes in some cases, she had the sense to learn from them.

She reads a lot, all sorts of books. She has a friend who is very fond of books of old places. Only the other day, she was lent a book of old Pilton, just outside Barnstaple. She was very pleased to find her family, the Richards, who had originated from Pilton, were mentioned in that book. They had a hospital for lepers there and one person in particular was retained at a shilling a week to go and help with the nursing.

She used to take the Telegraph; she used to like the crosswords. There wasn't a lot in it for Maurice. She switched over to the Mail.

They don't watch a lot of television. She likes the quizzes, the  'Weakest Link' and the questions for  'Who wants to be a Millionaire'.  'University Challenge' she loves. Sometimes she watches anything pertaining to old cities; anything that brings in places abroad that she has visited. There are things she watches simply to give herself a rest from reading.

She and Maurice sit like Darby and Joan. Sometimes she feels very, very guilty; she has her head in a book. She must be more social and talk. She thinks television is a great thing especially for people who may be housebound, but in some respects it has killed a lot of family social life. They used to play chess, Maurice and herself; he taught her. She was hopeless at draughts. She could never beat him at chess.

AI doesn't ever feel really miserable. She feels sad sometimes of occurrences in life, bereavements and that. She has health, strength and a simple enjoyment from life. Perhaps a certain piece of music will bring a sad memory back. [Back to top]
 

4/5

MUSIC / APPEARANCE / NAIL VARNISH

AI is not very musical but Maurice has it on quite a lot. She can't carry a tune in her head at all. She likes light classical music. Maurice will sometimes put on FM. She hardly ever puts the radio on. She has great difficulty knowing where the stations are. She sometimes plays Maurice' cassettes or his CDs. She can hear a piece of music and enjoy it.

She takes a pride in her appearance. She never likes to go out unless she feels she's spick and span. Maurice was taking Joyce and AI to Lundy Island. Joyce had got a boyfriend. Joyce always has to have a buttonhole; she has to have jewellery. Father saw the 2 girls and said to her mother that AI, as usual was looking like a bandbox and Joyce like Barnstaple Fair! Joyce has to have frills; AI is totally different.

AI didn't want carving on the wooden pelmets when they were having their place built, the plainer, the better. In the house, everything is as plain as she can get it. She can't stand clutter; that is being a lazy person!

She wears nail varnish and likes to wear a little make-up. When she went to school at Kentisbury, a distant relative on her father's side, called Joyce, went into the village shop and bought a little thing of clear nail varnish. Her nails were shiny and AI thought that's what she liked. [aside about time going on, and if there's anything more to talk about] [Back to top]
 

4/6

LYNMOUTH FLOOD / THE FUTURE

AI's sister (Mary) in America, her best man was drowned in the Lynmouth flood. That was devastating. Mr Litson. Mary met her husband in Lynton when she was there in the dairy. In a lot of ways it made them realise that in one fell swoop a village practically got washed away. The power of water and what destruction nature can wreak on you. It stayed in the minds for a long, long time [pause to cough and drink]. They often walk up to Watersmeet and she recalls the new bridge they built up there. How high that river must have been.

Sometimes AI wishes she was 30 years younger. When she reads of things happening, she thinks what a lot of courage, grit and determination young people must have to live through this. When she goes back to London, she thinks what a lot has been taken away from us. She never minded walking down to the underground to get on the trains; she would be petrified now. It has lost a lot of its dignity. [Back to top]
 

4/7

CHILDREN / PRIDE OF PLACE / SPEECH

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AI has no family. She is very fond of children. They have nieces, great nieces, great nephews. They all go. Perhaps she was meant to look after other people; they have always been the ones to be called on if anything happened in the family.

AI is always very proud to be a Devonian, North Devon. That is her area. Collectively it is a lovely county to live in, as with Somerset. She feels part of Exmoor as well. She thinks Exmoor is a wonderful place. She has walked it a lot, sense of freedom.

AI lapses into West Country occasionally. Her grandmother never liked to hear them speaking broad Devon, so she always corrected AI. AI does not realise when she changed her way of talking. She has been asked why she talks as if she's got a plum in her mouth. She does not realise she is doing it. She heard her voice on her nephew's answering machine and it sounded like  ''er's cracking 'er jaw'. In the way they talk, her sisters are Devonian; maybe Joyce has lost quite a bit of it. [Back to top]
 

4/8

HUNTING / POULTRY / BEGGARS ROOST RALLY

They didn't follow the hunt as such but they have been to the meets. They used to go to Cloutsham, the  Sportsman Arms, up at Yarde Down, there was one at Lynmouth that they saw, usually at Christmas time. Her mother's people were great hunters. The family that AI visited in Timberscombe had the antlers all around; they revelled in it. Her father never liked it. Her uncle on her mother's side was happy if he could go out for a day's hunting. AI doesn't think Benjamin would ever follow a hunt, but Hugh, his son, is all for shooting, but not for the hunt as such. He often passes over a pheasant that he has plucked. AI cooks the slices of breast and the legs 

Maurice isn't awfully fond of poultry. In their young days they had to eat poultry because it was cheaper than taking home fresh meat from the butcher. At Christmas time, AI's mother would send 2 tea chests, 1 with so many turkeys and 1 with so many geese for the Ogmore Vale Men's Club in Wales. Her brother-in-law, and his father, were the carriers for Combe Martin to Barnstaple, Ilfracombe, anywhere. He would take the chests and put them on the railway station and send them off on the train. [asks if there is anything else]

At Easter time, they had the London to Lands End rally. They had a lot of them stay in Combe Martin when they did the Beggars Roost. Pre-war, Maurice took her out to Beggars Roost to see the motorcycles early on the Saturday morning. It was another highlight of the village at Easter.

[RECORDING ENDS] [Back to top]