Ernie Mansbridge Part 1
An interview with Ernie Mansbridge at his house, Farringdon Cottage, in Longdown on 30th September, 2016.
Ernie Mansbridge CH1 Duration: 4:03
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This is Clare Bates interviewing Ernie Mansbridge at his house Farringdon Cottage in Longdown on the 30th of September 2016.
CB: So Ernie, can you tell me a little bit about this first photograph (EM001). I know you don’t know too much about it.
Ernie: I don’t know nothin’ about it, only that that’s the one that they surmise is Beat Cook.
CB: That’s Beat Cook, so she’s the second lady in.
Ernie: Yeah, must be the same family I reckon, probably all the same family because they all worked as a bunch.
CB: Okay.
Ernie: There were seven or eight of ’em. S’probably that’s the same lot, you know.
CB: Where do you think that was taken?
Ernie: I don’t know, haven’t got a clue. Nobody have, but we know it was, the idea we’ve got is that would be ‘Arry, we call him, that was Beat Cook there, rather, then they based it on that, and that was about the size of the gang that they would have and they had a sawmill at Cadnam.
CB: At Cadnam, okay.
Ernie Where you goes up through. You don’t know where the old pie shop used to be, no? Know where the Horse and Groom is up there now? Coach and Horses?
CB: Coach and Horses, yeah.
Ernie: Round by there. There was a few fields there then, just enclosed them by trees, when you get to the first row of houses there’s a yard gate goes in and a biggish old yard. That’s where that sawmill was.
CB: Oh, the sawmill there
Ernie: They had the sawmill there.
CB Okay.
Ernie: But they travelled round as a gang. They went around all over the place.
CB: Right, so not just in the forest?
Ernie: No. No, all round as well. That’s a part of their machinery, some of that there. Not dead sure where it is, but that’s what, some of the gang.
CB: Okay
Ernie ‘Cos they always – the only reason tells me that, by the fact that they’ve got a grey horse in the shafts there, which they have on there. All the other horses a different colour, they always had a grey horses in the shafts on the cart.
CB: Oh, okay.
Ernie: And that’s how they notified who it was, near enough. Got no proof, but that’s it. That that’s who that was. I’ve had two or three come and look at it and two or three said different things (he laughs). You got to go on it. But they reckon they’re about right there, ‘cos um..
CB: And we reckon that’ll be dated about nineteen twenties?
Ernie: Yeah, back somewhere about then. Yeah.
CB: Okay, that’s lovely. Okay, so this second photo looks like a wedding photo, four people (EM002).
Ernie: That’s my father and mother.
CB: In the front.
Ernie: In the front.
CB: And what were their names?
Ernie: That was by a young Satiswell (something worker?) called, George were his name
CB: George.
Ernie: Yuh, and Kathleen was –
CB: Florence Kathleen.
Ernie: His wife.
CB: Kathleen. Yes, Florence Kathleen.
Ernie: No. Yes. Florence Kathleen was right, was Florence Kathleen. That’s Dave Mansbridge, young Dave, well, that’s the oldest nipper, like.
CB: Yep.
Ernie: Dave Mansbridge, and that’s…em
CB: Mabel.
Ernie: No… One from Eling, what’s her name, he married didn’t he –
CB: Elsie –
Ernie: Knight. Elsie Knight. Married from Eling Hill.
CB: That’s – Mabel, that looks more like; your mum’s –
Ernie: Yeah, that’s Auntie Mabel.
CB: Okay. So, an old photograph of the children (EM003); you’re on there.
Ernie: That was in the thirties that was took. In the nineteen thirties – twenties to thirties.
CB: Right. And so it’s [information redacted] –
Ernie: It was [information redacted] – wait a minute, let me get this right a minute…twenty…twenty six I was born, so it’s got to be before that, a bit before that, a bit after that. It’ll be the early forties.
CB: Early forties
Ernie: Yeah, early forties: one or two. Won’t be very old. ….?…. There was four in the fort- twenties.
CB: And the baby in the middle? That was [information redacted]?
Ernie: Yeah, that was [information redacted]. She was born a long time after.
CB: Yeah. – And then on the far side is –
Ernie: [information redacted].
CB: [information redacted].
Ernie: Yeah
CB? She’s about seventeen there I think, your [information redacted] isn’t she.
Ernie: Yeah.
CB: Okay.
Ernie: She’s got a little dog there and that’s all I can see, really.