Perks of country living

On Saturdays I went into Penrose farm to get milk butter eggs cream if possible we were always told to hide the basket if strangers were about because of rationing. Mind the village policeman had a very large area to cover, and would not have been interested in a bit of petty fiddling. His main troubles were cattle roaming onto main roads etc. Mr. Betison at Penrose farm was badly crippled but managed to do all his farm work by horses he also had a very broad ascent and a very dry but strong sense of humour. While waiting for the dairy products to be assembled I would find out what he was doing around the farm. I also helped where possible, but always wary of the unpredictability of the animals cows and horses mainly, at one time Mr. Betison had some hand reared animals in consequence they had become like pets, following him around the yard i.e.. Sheep- dog,- piglet- lamb. The sheep dog was a large English with one blue and one brown eye and looked very smart when bathed, but as a farm dog not much good as he had been spoilt rotten. At about this time Mr. Betison acquired a farmhand his housekeeper’s son from Plymouth. Arnold Barnicoat he had just left school and was a big strong lad. Arnold must have spent most of his first winter cutting hedges and ditching or spreading dung from the huge heap in the yard. Arnold when called up for National Service joined he joined the Grenadier Guards.

UNCLES WORK.

Uncle had worked in the china clay industry as a clay washer, helping to direct the Kaolin or rotten feldspar out of the rocks with high-powered hoses, but when the war came clay exports stopped so he lost his job, and had to find other work. At first he worked on the roads for Lang's , then got a job as a rock blaster in one off Richard Costains quarries. In the school holidays on one occasion I took his newly baked pasty to him at the quarry for lunch. After which he exploded the charges he had set in the morning, it was quite a sight to see half of the other side of the quarry lift up high in the air and then fall to the floor. Uncle one day mentioned that he had uncovered some rocks with plant impressions in them. He brought me home a sample, because I had said that Mr. Hart believed this could not happen in granite rocks as they are formed by volcanic action, I eventually took a sample to school and gave it to Mr. Hart too keep,. One of his hobbies was geology and one dinner break at the school showed us lots of wafer thin slides of rocks under a microscope all in bright colours. He pointed out what differing minerals looked like the piece of rock I took to school could have just been a mineral deposit. but I feel sure some of the impressions had roots on them. I remember when Dad came down for the first time Dad mentioned he had several disused waistcoats, Dad sent them down by post so that Uncle could use the pockets to keep detonators separated from explosive caps . When not at work Uncle was always doing something. The shed outside the back door held lots of tools for sewing leather repairing Shoes and boots. Uncle wore clogs most of the time. The clogs were made of alder wood with a steel band on the outside of the sole , the inside was lined with a layer of straw to keep feet dry and warm, and was changed at regular intervals. The shed also stored all our potatoes in a large bench -box, at regular periods we opened it up to inspect our supplies take out the rotten and chit the ones that had started to grow. The potatoes we grew were of differing variety’s Aran Banner Aran Pilot King Edwards and Red Kings and Sharps for Earlies. We saved our own seed these were stood in open boxes to sprout in January and planted in late February. Any potatoes that were small or unfit for us to eat were designated for the pigs. Uncle also repaired the bikes, and tire inner tubes in bowls of water to detect leeks. Battery and carbide lamps cleaned. Wallace’s bike had a dynamo to run the lights, Uncles bike was much heavier and had an Eddie Coaster back peddling brake.

In part payment for helping Mr. Betison through out the year we would be allotted a tree for firewood. so usually one a Saturday morning Uncle and I would set out for the farm with crosscut saw wedges hooks and axe to attack the designated tree. Uncle sized up the balance of the tree to decide which way it would fall, therefore where it was safest to cut. At first the crosscut made a tingling noise then it began to stick after a time and we relieved the saw by banging wedges in the cut but were always mindful of which way the tree might fall. When the cut was nearly through Uncle would tell me to get right out of the way while he finished it off. After the tree was down we went to work lopping off the smaller branches working towards the larger ones with hooks then axes and finally handsaws. The small twiggy branches we bundled into faggots and tied with string (binder twine).It normally would take number of sessions to completely get the tree into manageable sized pieces to transport home. The tree was loaded onto Mr. Betison’s horse and cart that we borrowed for the purpose. This was done on a Saturday and would take several journeys and most of the day. There was a space at the back of the shed for storing all the logs, also for a sawhorse to use for cutting the logs into small size pieces that would fit into the kitchen range. The larger trunks were cut into the correct sizes and then split with hammer and chisel, all being restacked ready for the fire.

SILAGE.

In the first autumn the farmers had the ministry of agriculture on their backs to plough up more land for crops. Damp fields were drained with grants from the government etc. Mr. Roy Solomon: tenant of the Glebe Farm; spent long hours on his Fordson tractor ploughing the eleven-acre field that faced our house. Up to that time it had been in grass. One evening while I watched the three furrowed plough at work he asked me to join him. I sat on the large mudguard, talking to him. When I went home I got told off for staying out too late, but I could still see Mr. Solomon ploughing away into the night, after I had gone to bed. The Fordson tractor, had dipped head lights and use paraffin for fuel, after being started up on a small amount of petrol. Roy Solomon was a forward-looking farmer and was young and had new ideas. I saw him putting up a fabricated structure in his mow hay it turned out to be a silage bin as big as a hayrick. As it was filled with cut grass the layers were treated with black molasses. When full it was covered with a tarpaulin to keep out the rain, and. to mature .The first time I saw him feed the milking cows with it, the smell was very strong a sweet dung like smell. I told him they would never eat that. I was wrong they loved it above every thing else in their trough.

JOEY THE FRIESIAN BULL.

In his beginning with the farm Mr. Solomon had bought a Friesian, bull to breed from. After a while all calves born on the farm were black and white. One day a number of us children were up at the Glebe farm when one of the boys from the village arrived with two heifers which were looking to go to the bull. This meant that they were jumping up on the other cows. They offered the servicing fee7/6 but Roy said let us see what happens first so down the field we all troop hoping to watch the performance. Roy had a bucket with some feed in it. Telling us to stand well back he rattled the bucket calling “Joey” The big Friesian came galloping up the field to view his new females. Had a lick and a sniff and the tried to mount the first one. It collapsed under him, as he was too heavy for them. Joey had a consolation feed from the bucket while the heifers were shepherded back to were they came from. Joey as Roy called him was doing well but had strong ambitions to increase his harem, in consequents took to roaming and taking the rest of the cows with him. Cornish field edges were either eight feet earth banks or thorn bushes or a mixture or both. Joey would fined the weaknesses, and with horns and hoof dig his way through, Roy tried everything to preserve his servicing fee of 7 shillings and six pence. He first tied a short plank across his horns to stop Joey from digging , did not work, then a sack over his eyes, then a hobble chain around the leg's, all failed. So eventually Joey was confined to the farm yard where he grew bigger and bigger . All he did was eat and service all the cows brought to him. Mr. Solomon also used horses for some of his farm work; they may have been borrowed from his father’s farm at Pen hale. Several of the children were with him in the farmyard when a boy called out that the horses were in the cornfield which would have been the next one to be cut. The field was only one field away so we all raced to get to the horses. I did not understand what the fuss was about, but was told that the horses would gorge themselves on the corn and their stomachs would swell up. The horses were soon chased from the field and suffered no ill effects, as we must have caught them within minutes of them getting into the field.
The first harvest was over, but we had had a marvelous time harvesting the hay was more or less over before we got to Cornwall. Horse, or tractor and binder that traveled around and round as the stand of corn got smaller harvested the corn and smaller, the rabbits being herded closer together. When they made there try for freedom we chased after them with loud shouts, if caught were quickly killed with a sharp hit across the back of the neck. Those who had worked all day, stooking the corn were asked back to supper, most of the others had a rabbit or two to take home. The first supper I attended was a Mr. Betison, s it was a grand spread set out by this housekeeper. Ham eggs salad potatoes, followed by apple pie and cream, or junket and cream. The sun had gone down by the time Uncle and I set off across the fields for home.

SCHOOL IN WINTER.

At school during the winter we were less able to use the playing field so card games became popular we played rummy whist were discouraged to play the more noisy games like snap beat your neighbours etc. One lunchtime Mr. Hart decided to teach us bridge, sometimes with a dummy hand, He also gave us my first remembered art lesson. He had spent the previous evening copying a landscape from a painters how to do it book, and repeated the lesson to us in the afternoon watercolour class. I think this one lesson started me on a lifetime enthusiasm for painting and sculpture, I soon got my father to get me a watercolour box of paints and a watercolour sketchbook of Whatman paper. I was continuously begging for old wallpaper off cuts too paint on, white paper was scares because all wood for paper cam from Canada and all ships would be for food or arms. For sketching I used a three-leg farm stool and I made my own easel by attaching a leg to a drawing board by a hinge and using my knees and string to support it. Drawing pins to hold the drawing in position. Mr. Hart entered me for a painting competition it was for a cottage garden and was sponsored by Toogoods the St Austell seed merchants at a fete at Fraddon. Village fetes were usually on a Saturday and lasted late into the evening with a clay pigeon shoot, bowling for a pig, flower and vegetable show ,raffles other races and games for the children . Finishing up with the local town band playing the floral dance, the Well of Keys ; over and over again until all the dancers were exhausted. I also entered Wings for Victory competition and got a second prize for all the county of Cornwall.

KNITTING & MOLE SKINS.

In school we had mixed classes. During lectures some of the girls tried to knit or crotchet, Mr. Hart was always confiscating distractions , the boys were also as bad “, bring that out to me” one of the boys produced a board with skins stretched out on it.” What is this “? The boy who was living on a large farm Arralis with about five others, Said that the farmer Mr. Jarrat had complained about the number of moles in his field .The boys all evacuees were shown how to set the mole traps, and told they could have any they caught. Setting mole traps was quite a skilled job perhaps Mr. Jarrat did not think they would catch many anyway it kept them occupied, and when they saw an advert for mole skins in the Cornish Guardian at a shilling a time! There were six skins on that board.

One of the London lads was into farming from the start, he stayed with the local taxi driver who also had a couple of fields Frank Lucas, fed his pigs and did other jobs. Then Mr. Nancarrer gave frank a pig to fatten and sell, so he bought a sow, and was into pig farming, then he changed to fattening bullocks, by the time he left school his post office savings book had a healthy balance. Frank never came back to London but stayed in the village as a farmer.

PIGS & SLAUGHTER.

When our pig had fattened to full size we had the option of keeping one for the larder and one for the market. Uncle got in touch with a trader who would come and inspect the pig for purchase when the trader arrived we would proceed to view the pig. The pipes or cigarettes were lit and the bargaining would start in earnest. Uncle would talk in scores lbs, and the trader talked in dead weight .The price per pound being agreed from the start. When agreement was finally reached there was a hand shake, and on the next agreed day a cattle lorry would appear before breakfast and the pig walked down the long garden to the lane to be loaded on the truck and off to market. Once the pig did not want to go , and put his snout down , in consequence ploughed up most of the garden before his departure. The other pig was slaughtered the following week. Aunty always asked me if I wanted to stay home from school to see it killed. I never did. The pig was generally killed in the autumn and on coming home from school, the quarters and the head were hanging above a large bath to catch the blood. After tea the slaughter man would return to cut up the carcass into manageable parts to be salted and preserved. That took all the evening every body helping rubbing salt into each part, the hams were put into an earthenware tub of salt brine. (I hated salt pork we had it ever Saturday lunchtime. )Auntie always tried to use up every bit of the pig, even its head that was turned into brawn. One evening after school the kitchen table was filled with brawn making equipment mincer, etc. the house smelt of dead meat for weeks. Once the pig killing was very late in the day, it was dark when I needed the toilet, which was at the end of the garden. I had forgotten about the pig and I ran down the garden path and brushed into something wet on the way to the back door, as I entered the kitchen Auntie screamed. I had knocked into the pig’s head, which was still hanging on the clothesline above a bath to drain, and my head was covered in blood.

A local farmer, who had a large dairy herd, delivered the milk at school. One day we were all invited to view his new milking machinery in operation. So after lunch we were marched to his farm, we were treated to tea and buns in the farm scullery before being taken to the milking parlour to see how it was done. A very good-looking land army girl was washing the cow’s udders and disinfecting the cluster of suckers prior to installing them on the cow’s tits. When one smart lad said. “Miss you have missed one. The land army girl looked and said “I don't think he would prefer it! do you?”.