A very snowy Hannen Room and Mill Green greeted members for the
January meeting, when Ted Fox gave a most enjoyable talk on My Life as a
Countryman.
Ted was born in Llandough, south Wales - a village with 2
streets, 2 shops, 2 churches, - but only one pub. By the age of 12, he was
helping with the hand milking on a local farm, and took a job there when it was
offered to him aged 15. (Somewhat against his parent's wishes, as his father
hoped he would train as a dentist!). As a boy he had learnt how to catch
pheasants and rabbits. One way was to sweep across the field with a net weighted
on the bottom. This they would do silently (as it was poaching!) - when one
night they heard 'What's that?' 'It's a net'. They quickly dropped the net, and
retrieved the following day, but never found out who the courting couple
were!!
Ted worked for several farmers, gaining experience. One 'liked a
drink', and would ask Ted to throw gravel at his window to wake him -- sometimes
not rising till 10.30, by which time Ted would have milked the 28 cows, cleaned
up and so on. Things got worse, so Ted moved on - to an 'old time nasty farmer'.
This one had laid off 6 men in 1 day in the 1930s - 1 he had told to go, and
told 5 others to move the family possessions out of the cottage and cover with a
rick sheet - when they refused, they too were out of work and home. Working for
this farmer, the milk from each cow would be collected in a 3 or 4 gallon
stainless steel bucket, and then weighed on the dairy scales. Sometimes they
bucket would be very full, and if any was spilt, the farmer would compare the
weight with the previous day's measure, and the cost of the 2 pints was knocked
off his wages at the end of the week.
After 3 months, Ted moved on to
another farm down the road. The 73 year old farmer taught Ted all his farming
knowledge, and they got on famously. They had 26 cows, and would grow mangles -
as large as footballs - for cattle feed. The seeds would be thickly sown, and
later hoes would be used to single them. However, the ground was heavy clay, and
he thought this would ruin the crop. The farmer showed him that with sacks on
their knees they could complete the task - it took 3 weeks for the acre of
mangles.
By the time he was 18, Ted started a 'farmer's help service' -
looking after the stock for a farmer who had, maybe, gone on a 3 day trip to
market. One farmer asked him to help move some pigs for a butcher. The 30 weaner
pigs were loaded into the van - but no matter how much hay was put down, the
pigs stayed standing, moving from side to side as the van turned corners. As the
farmer changed gear on a hill, the back doors opened, and there were pigs
everywhere - in a barn, the churchyard etc, and it too 4 hours to catch them all
- for which he was paid ? !! On another occasion, a lady who knew nothing about
the 250 pigs they had asked Ted to help, as her husband was in hospital. She
lived 2 miles in the opposite direction from his home than the farm where he
still worked ( 3 miles away). He fed and looked after the pigs for 13 days - for
which he was paid ?0 - a lot of money 40 or so years ago.
In due course,
on the way to market one Friday, he heard of a small farm becoming available
near him, and so was at the agent's office early on the Monday morning - by 9.30
am, at the age of 19? he had the tenancy of a 20 acre farm. He spent ?0 on a
horse, waggon and harness, and also bought 200 chicks to produce eggs, and 2
beef cows in calf. One day whilst having his horse shod at the blacksmith's, a
gypsy called by - asked who's horse was outside, and offered his 16 year old
daughter, plus ?00 - one deal he decided not to accept!! He prepared some of
the ground to grow peas - or any other market garden crops that he could
sell.
A few years later, he found that the gatepost by the road was
rotten. He had to dig it out to a depth of 4' 6" or so. The bus from Cardiff
passed hourly. Most of the passengers were regulars - and he noticed that one
girl sat in the same seat every day. After 4 days, he waved at her - she waved
back, and he thought 'hello' !! He made sure he was at his gatepost each day the
bus went by. He wanted to get on the bus - but what to do with his bike ? By
borrowing his sister's bike, he worked out how to do this - and so hailed the
bus one day. There was a fellow sitting near to the girl - who moved as soon as
Ted got on board - he later found out that the other passengers had been taking
bets on how long it would be before he would get on the bus. 18 months later,
they were married.
After 8 years, Ted (now 26) moved and took on a 100
acre Welsh hill farm near Pontypridd. He wanted to try some Jersey cattle, and
saw some he liked. His offer was turned down, but they failed to sell at
auction, so he haggled with the dealer, and even got them delivered without
charge. As he had several heifer calves in a row, he soon was milking 30 cows.
His Jersey bull, however, was 'the wickedest thing in the world'. Trying to move
this one day, he heard it groan, as it had injured itself, but then went for him
- twice - and injured Ted. The vet advised him that it would always be a
liability, and so it had to go.
Although we were suffering from the snow,
Ted said that a 'normal winter was like this one' - but the 1962-3 winter was
quite exceptional. Manure froze as hard as concrete in a very short time. He had
kept a kitchen tap running, and so was able to help 4 nearby farmers who had no
water. He had dug out 8ft snow drifts - by 10.30 the next day it had filled in
again.
Ted recounted many other incidents that gave a flavour of farming
life in the mid 20th century. He also brought along his hand made, highly
detailed models of a farm waggon and farm tools, and also his very first cheque
for milk he supplied to the Milk Marketing Board, in July 1957.
The next meeting is on Tuesday February 9th, when the speaker will be
Dick Bush, Chairman of the Parish Council and on Tuesday March 9th the Society
will hold its AGM (when the programme for the 2010-11 will be announced), whilst
on Tuesday April 13th Maureen Fennemore and Judi Rowlands (Wardrobe mistresses
for the Wargrave Theatre Workshop) will tell us How to source and prepare
costumes for a Festival production.
Please
note that the meetings for February and March will be held in St Mary's Church,
Mill Green, Wargrave, and not the Hannen Room, - where we are able to return for
our April meeting. .