CD2

(56 mins)
 

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CHILDHOOD DUNSTER / DUNSTER TODAY

As JL grew up, Dunster was a marvellous rural village, full of wonderful families who'd lived there for generations, with amazing skills. A range of wonderful rural crafts. Rarely found today in villages of that size.

None of the properties at Dunster are with the estate. They were originally sold to the Crown Commissioners and they may have sold some on to individual people. Most of the crafts sadly have gone from Dunster.

Very few of the people who used to live there still live there. Most local people couldn't afford the prices commanded. Dunster is mainly populated now by retired people from other parts of the country. Dunster is still very beautiful but is an example of a façade of rurality as opposed to a very genuine country village.

The tea shoppe is one of the few tourist attractions that was there when JL was a boy. There was only one. There were the usual 3 inns; they were still there.

In JL's childhood, Dunster was obviously a tourist attraction because of its innate beauty near the sea and Exmoor, dominated by the castle. Mild climate, masses of places nearby to go and visit. Before the war a lot of people went because they wanted to hunt, play polo, shoot or stag hunting. Package tours arrive every 5 minutes with coachloads of people today. The National Trust open the castle to a much greater degree than the Luttrells ever did. Mobility, motorways, cars, more and more people go to Dunster. A question of supply and demand, if people want 20 tea shops and no craft shops, that's what you'll get. Times gave changed, some people think for the better, some for the worse. [Back to top]
 

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DUNSTER VILLAGE SOCIETY / POPULATION OF THE VILLAGE / CHILDHOOD VILLAGE CELEBRATIONS / FESTIVAL OF BRITAIN

JL was chairman of the Dunster Village Society. There had been a Dunster Preservation Society and it had rather collapsed. JL was asked if he would take on, for a limited time, the chairmanship of it and reinvent it. It's a society that hasn't produced any great startling achievements. It's a proactive society. On the basis of majority opinion, it would try and persuade the powers that be; it's a protest organisation in that sense. Autumn supper evening every year attracts 80 to 90 people. Good supper at very limited cost together with a speaker. Affiliated to the Civic Society. JL is about to retire from it. A small, hard core of people are interested in trying to preserve the best aspects of Dunster and enhance its environment. He thinks the society may well go the way of its predecessor.

On that type of organisation there would be 70% of long-term residents as opposed to 30% of newcomers. In the village overall, JL would be amazed if more than 5% of the population of Dunster are people whose families have been in Dunster since the end of the war.

When JL was a child, on special occasions, the family did particular things. Festival of Britain in 1953. Annual fete in the castle grounds. There were a whole range of activities, fund-raising events for anything in the village. Barbecues, hog roasts. His parents would have considerable input. On Halloween, Fireworks Night, the estate would supply wood and people to light a bonfire, provide some of the fireworks. Christmas pantomimes, children's Christmas parties, party every year for disabled people. If the family were asked they were more than willing to participate.

For JL, the most memorable was the Festival of Britain when the whole village was turned out in mediaeval costume, huge mediaeval activities, Morris dancing, hog roasts, old-fashioned musical events. JL was in costume. Someone was dressed in a suit of armour on the local riding school charger. [Back to top]
 

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WORKING IN LONDON / SETTING UP LANCER'S MACHINERY / MARRIAGE TO ANNE / HOME FARM TENANCY

After he left the army, JL worked in the City of London for 2 years in insurance. Then he met his great friend who he'd been in the army with, neither was terribly happy in their jobs. His friend was an untrained but very good engineer. JL had always been interested in machinery, no particular skills. An opportunity came to represent a company in Holland, which wanted to import mechanical handling equipment into this country. Rather rashly they applied to have the franchise. They got the franchise for 2 years, set up a company to handle it and it was successful. At the end of the 2 years, they decided to build their own and it worked, the company grew and grew and became a very major player in that particular field. The company was called Lancer; originally Lancer's Machinery. JL's partner served in the Dragoon Guards and he in the Carbiniers, 'Lancer' to insult the other branch of the cavalry! JL was on the marketing side. He did it for 17 years. His partner was Neville Bowman-Shaw. JL left at the time that he got married.

Before he was married, JL lived either in London or he had a house for 6 years, which he leased in Chipping Warden near Banbury. Their factories were at Leighton Buzzard so he commuted from there. His partner went on running the firm until he finally sold it 4 years ago.

JL was 41 when he married. He met his wife, Anne, in London through his partner, who already knew her. Her family live on the borders of Northamptonshire and Leicestershire. That was the beginning of the end or the end of the beginning! They lived in London for a time. They took the decision to live in the country and took the tenancy of the home farm from the Crown Estate. It was marvellous, rather like going home. Being a tenant rather than owner didn't worry one at all. Running the farm when one had left the house was slightly difficult, but one got over that. He is very glad he can still farm it and keep it in the way it has always been farmed. He hopes his son will have the same views. [Back to top]
 

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SON AND DAUGHTER / BROTHER'S DECISION FOR DUNSTER CASTLE / NATIONAL TRUST

JL has a son and a daughter, Serena and Hugh. Hugh's at Plymouth University reading rural estate management and economics. Serena lives in London and works for a lady who runs her own firm dealing with corporate entertainment. Hugh is interested in the countryside and would like to farm. He is interested in forestry, loves animals and assuming he attains his qualifications, he will probably in due course be responsible for being the custodian of his uncle's estate at Quantoxhead; JL's brother has no children.

The decision to pass Dunster Castle over to the National Trust was taken by JL's brother, the house and all the contents belonged to him. His brother chose not to live there, preferring Quantoxhead, and he felt that Dunster was of a size that made it very difficult to maintain and look after; to secure its future, the National Trust was probably the answer. JL didn't totally share that view, but didn't question the right that the castle belonged to him.

JL thinks the National Trust is a very amazing and wonderful body. He thinks it is a sad reflection on the financial policies of a whole range of governments since the war that the National Trust has become as big as it has. He thinks they do a good job but are sadly rather political with views about hunting and country pursuits. They have become involved in a fairly major battle.

The vast majority of people who looked round the castle liked the fact that the house was lived in, they were curious that they might see the owner. However well any organisation like the National Trust are, it's sad that a member of the family no longer resides there, no longer a home. [Back to top]
 

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DICK RAWLE / JOHN HEPPER / SHOOTING / WIFE'S ACTIVITIES / CHARITABLE COMMITMENTS

[question from BJ about Dick Rawle having gone shooting with JL, and how they knew each other]. JL would know Dick Rawle from Parracombe entirely because of John Hepper, whose family used to be tenants of JL's family at Dunster. John Hepper farms at Marshwood at Blue Anchor and is an exceptionally good farmer, an exceptionally nice man. When they shoot still at Dunster, which is no longer keepered, entirely a rough shoot, he and his son Douglas do a bit of vermin control and they love going out shooting. JL doesn't shoot anymore, gave up 6 years ago, but his son likes hedge hunting (a very rough shoot looking for the odd wild pheasant in the hedgerows as opposed to having masses of beaters). They have a couple of shoots twice a year and in return for Mr Hepper putting down a bit of corn and feeding the pheasants, he asks half the guns and JL or his son ask the other half. One who shoots on Mr Hepper's side is Dick Rawle. Dick Rawle drives JL around at the shoots. He is a great character.

JL had done shooting for years and enjoyed it enormously. 6 years ago, he went back one day and he couldn't find a bird that had been wounded. He worried about it. It happened again a month or so later. The worry was becoming more than the enjoyment so he decided not to shoot anymore, apart from vermin. He is not against genuine country shooting.

JL's wife is an immensely keen gardener and he is as well. She does quite a lot of charitable work. She is a governor of Blenheim Lodge, a very successful care and nursing home. She is on the Imperial Cancer committee, until recently on the Council of St John. She is president of the Girl Guides locally, involved with the Townswomen's Guild, Women's Institute.

JL has just retired as Commander for St John Ambulance for Somerset, Devon and Cornwall. He is on the council of the Order of St John. He still runs for St John the private ambulance service, which raises money to give to the voluntary side. He is a member of a charity called the Albanian Medical Trust. He has been out there 3 or 4 times taking equipment and drugs. He was on the Exmoor National Park committee, NFU farming committee. Anything ranging from the Minehead Motor Club to the Dunster Village Society to the Pincombe Charity (gives money to clergymen and their families who are in distress). Church warden for 21 years. He has been vice chairman of the National Health Service Ambulance Trust, chairman of the Nuffield Hospital in Taunton. [Back to top]
 

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RECREATION / MOTHER'S DIARIES / GETTING ENGAGED

In the evenings JL would probably try and finish off some long standing outstanding correspondence, then he would help if needed in getting some supper and then with all the best intentions in the world, he would sit down either to read a book or the paper. He would find, within 5 minutes, he'd be fast asleep on the sofa! When roused, he would get up and go to bed!

He reads the West Somerset Free Press once a week and the Telegraph, the Spectator from time to time, the Economist. His daughter will buy Hello. He reads the Somerset Magazine.

JL watches television, documentaries, programmes on nature, on exploration, some sport. He plays a small amount of golf. He listens to the radio, probably more than he watches television. He enjoys the anonymity of the broadcasters. Radio 4 is his preferred channel. He listens to a certain amount of music, maybe on Classic FM or one's own recording machine.

Reading, organising things for the garden during the winter, doing some bookwork in terms of forestry or the farm; mainly a fairly quiet evening.

He does not keep a diary in terms of what he has done. His mother kept diaries for 40 years and then sadly left a note saying they should all be burnt on her death unread. Great tragedy because it would have been a fascinating insight.

The single biggest surprise of JL's life was the immense surprise at the age of 41 and a confirmed bachelor to find himself engaged [laughs]. [Back to top]
 

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REFLECTIONS    

To cheer himself up when miserable JL would probably take some alcohol if he found it a stimulant, but for him it has a soporific effect. He would not take alcohol. One would try to cheer oneself up at times of depression with the view that one's circumstances cannot be as bad as many others one has seen in other people. There are many people worse off than oneself and one would draw strength from that. One draws strength from ones religious beliefs, the power of something infinite to help one and certainly the support of one's friends and family. JL has not had many great moments of despair; there have been some. When faced with a crisis, there are inner strengths. [Back to top]
 

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THE FUTURE / VALUES OF RURAL LIFE / IMPROVING COMMUNICATION

In the future, one would hope there would be a greater understanding between the urban and the rural communities. JL would love to see a much greater return to the values of rural life. Materialism that exists in this world is frighteningly dangerous and corrosive. He would like to see the infrastructure of villages come back, some of which is happening. He thinks it is partly the fault of rural communities that they haven't been good at communicating to urban people.

Talking of Exmoor, a lot of people would find it extremely difficult to tell the difference between preservation and conservation. JL thinks there is an enormous difference, subtle though it may be. These definitions need explaining. He is all in favour of conservation, the ability to try and maintain a historic system of management in rural areas but accepting that change has to play its part. Preservation, keeping something as it was, is to deny the practical facets of life; life goes on, life changes. JL would say that conservation is preservation with a flexible approach taking into account the circumstances of the time.

If traditional crafts could be reintroduced, keep village shops, schools, churches open, JL feels that urban people would show more interest. He has been chairman for the last 20 years of the Dunster country fair. The whole object of the fair is to raise money for charity and promote country pursuits, to show the people from urban areas that sensational things printed in the tabloids aren't in actual fact true.  Over the 20 years they've raised a very considerable amount of money for local charities but one has also brought a much closer understanding of what rural life is really about, the problems as well as the benefits.

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