CD1

(66 mins)
 

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BORN BITTON, SOMERSET 1917 / FAMILY BACKGROUND / SCHOOL / READING

[recorded Williton, 5 March 2002]

Born Bitton, Somerset, 8 March 1917. Easter Sunday. 2^nd child of 6. Elder brother got run over by steam engine at 3. Three sisters and another brother, one sister left. Left school at 14, but would buy second hand books in Bristol. Self-taught. Arithmetic and geography his favourite.

School very good, always top of class. Main subject arithmetic and reading (out loud) and geography. Would have children's newspaper every week. [Back to top]
 

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ERRAND BOY, ALLIED SUPPLIERS / MAYPOLE DAIRY CO / CYCLING / LIVING AT HOME / HOME CIRCUMSTANCES / SIBLINGS / PARENTS' ENTERTAINMENT / CHAPEL SUNDAY SCHOOL / CHURCH / RECREATION

Became errand boy at 14 for one of the Allied Supplier grocery firms at Kingswood, near Bristol. Ambition to have his own business. Worked 8am to 7 or 8pm. Cycled 6 or 7 miles to work. Not a lot of time for friends. Gradually became 1^st hand and then relief manager for one of the Allied Supplier companies, the Maypole Dairy Co. There until 1938/39. Working at Clifton then, cycling right across Bristol. Living at home. Father's parents came to live with them [describes home circumstances]. Didn't do much with other children because they were younger. Mother played squeeze box and father fond of cards. He taught FM to play.

He started chapel Sunday school at 3, left at 14. Parents Church of England. At 14 wouldn't sign the pledge not to drink, so started going to church. Started bellringing and playing football. [Back to top]
 

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CALL-UP / LAZY EYE / MR SHARKEY / JOINING ROYAL MARINES / MEETING WIFE VERA / MARRIAGE

Clouds of war gathering. In December '39 got call up for medical. He had a lazy eye, which was really a squint [side-tracks to talk about Mr Sharkey, a non-conformist congregational lay preacher who went round Luxborough etc selling a book he'd written and gave all the money he made to Bristol eye hospital]. When he was 7 or 8 he went to the hospital and had his eye fixed, was there 7 weeks, with 3 ops until eye was straightened. The left eye.

Went into Royal Marines. Called up by February 1940. Went to Plymouth.

Met wife, Vera, in 1939, when she was a nanny in Bitton. They married in 1941 when he was on leave, in Bicknoller, her parents' home. You can see the cottage where she was born from his kitchen window. [Back to top]
 

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SON / EXCURSIONS TO BLACKPOOL AND LONDON / JOINING MARINES IN PLYMOUTH / SCAPA FLOW / ORKNEY ISLANDS / OLD IRON DUKE / ESTABLISHING NAVAL BASE ON HOY / RESPONSIBILITY FOR STORES AND SHIPPING

Had one son.

FM went to Stonehurst barracks in Plymouth. Went on an excursion by train to Blackpool at 16 or 17, with lad from Bristol. Heard Reginald Dixon playing the wurlitzer, 'I do like to be beside the seaside'. A thrill to be there, sitting in the gallery, and a lasting memory. Recalls another outing they went on, about the same time, to London. Went to the Houses of Parliament and, in the evening, to the Trocadero cinema in Elephant and Castle to see a film, one of the Broadway Melodies [describes musical accompaniment].

He joined the marines on his own. In Plymouth 3 or 4 months, then away. They were going to Norway, which capitulated, so diverted to Scapa Flow. Went to the Orkney Islands. Put ashore at Hoy. Pentonfirth is supposed to be one of the roughest passages in the world. Put aboard the old Iron Duke which had just been bombed and beached. Eventually they went ashore to build their camp on mainland of Hoy, Lyness, to help establish naval base there. Eventually he became responsible for most of stores and shipping which came up to keep the home fleet at sea. There most of the war. [Back to top]
 

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PROMOTION TO LANCE CORPORAL / SCAPA FLOW / DUNGENESS DENTIST / GUARDIAN ANGEL / PROMOTIONS / DUTIES / DEMOBBED 1946

Eventually made Lance Corporal. First months in Scapa Flow terrific. Lived under canvas, but it was not a nice place to be under canvas. Remembers wonderful sights in sky at night. [Describes going to see dentist on Dungeness Castle, and encountering him years later when he came into the shop at Luxborough, which FM ran for 22 years].

He was fortunate. There's always a guardian angel somewhere and he had a guardian angel. Eventually made Sergeant. Had home leave because he was going to be commissioned in the field. A strange thing going back to your mates and as you walk through they salute you. A bit difficult being promoted amongst your chums. Promoted to Temporary Lieutenant. With other officers in charge of all supply ships. 1943 made Temporary Lieutenant, Acting Temporary Captain. Demobbed 1946. [Back to top]
 

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WIFE'S WAR EMPLOYMENT & TB / AMBITION TO HAVE OWN BUSINESS / ERN BRYANT / BUYING LUXBOROUGH SHOP / THE MISS SCOTTS / POST OFFICE

[describes wife Vera's war employment, and how she got TB.]

They were married in '41. He had gone in marines in 1940. Ambition was to have his own business, in the country. Vera's dad's half brother, Ern Bryant [describes Ern Bryant, who eventually kept Notley Arms at Monksilver] told them about the shop in Luxborough being for sale. He'd started saving with Lloyds Bank in 1933. Shop had been owned by 2 Miss Scotts. Tilly and Rosie. They'd had it for 25 years. The post office had gone down the road to people called Shepherd. It came back to them in 1946. [Back to top]
 

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EARLY LOVE OF WEST SOMERSET / CYCLING FROM BATH TO MINEHEAD

He got his love for West Somerset in 1933, when he and the lad he'd been to Blackpool and London with cycled one Whitsun from Bath to Minehead. Stayed at Alcombe Youth Hostel. They'd just finished erecting the BBC radio station at Washford. He saw a signpost as they passed through Washford, to Treborough and Luxborough. Little did he know that 13 years later that signpost was going to mean so much to him [describes trip]. [Back to top]
 

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BUYING LUXBOROUGH SHOP 1946 / CONTENTS / CHEESE AND BACON / BUYING BACON SLICING MACHINE

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He went to Luxborough for the first time on April Fool's Day, 1946. Bought shop more or less without seeing it, on recommendation of Vera's family. They were lucky to get something. He thinks perhaps they had seen it, and met Rosie Scott. They bought contents as well. Mr Newcombe from Minehead valued it.

Contents went from groceries, haberdashery, rolls of materials, ribbons, linen shirt buttons (so you could iron over them), corset laces. Untold things. Rolls of butter muslin, tape, elastic, safety pins. Turkish and muslin nappies. Ladies' shoes, gents' working boots. The only day men had off was Bampton Fair or Dunster Show. They had to have a new pair of boots and leggings for that.

They also sold paraffin and meths, lamp wicks and duplex lamp glasses. Prickers and nipples for primuses. Hurricane lanterns, rabbit wire and nets. Cartridges. Cartridges were kept out the back. He bought them from Gliddons in Williton.

In those days you had to skin cheese, bone bacon and cut it by hand. He bought bacon slicing machine in Scapa Flow. [Back to top]
 

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GOODS FOR SALE / GYPSIES / BIRCHES AND PENFOLDS

Cheese was in truckles, wrapped in muslin to mature. Sugar came loose, they weighed it up in blue bags. Washing soda, there was no fairy liquid in those days. There were little bags of Dolly Blue, and Zebra and Zebo, for cleaning mother's grate. There were a million and one things that you had to sell, and you had to learn a different language. Tips and cues for repairing boots. [gives examples of different language]. Biscuits came loose. Glass lids for 7 lb tins.

There were Gypsies on Leatherbarrow, the hill above Luxborough. Mostly horse dealers. Two Hughes families, the Hollands, Birches and Penfolds. The Hughes in particular were horse dealers, to export to France [tells story about Mrs Hughes coming into shop]. They were there a good bit of the war, but they moved off eventually, before the 50s. Hugheses eventually bought little farm near Bampton. Birches used to be pea pickers and swede pullers for Coles at Beggearn Huish. They were lovely people. He always trusted them. They always very nice to him. The Penfolds were a lovely old couple. [Back to top]