Mary Gray, Transcript 1, Part 3
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Mary Gray Trans 1 CH3 Duration: 5:35
CB: Okay, so going on to photograph nine; (MG009) Tell me about that one.
Mary: This is grandad Soffe; stood out on the Green in front of Chestnut Cottage, alongside the A31 and in the background is Tally Ho, used to be Tally Ho restaurant –
CB: And that’s at Stoney Cross?
Mary: That is at Stoney Cross, yes. As you go up to, before you get to the crossroads, on the left hand side. And, actually, just to put this one in, when my sister and I were small, which is nineteen forties, early fifties, we used to go up there with my mother and she used to help in the house a little bit to help because they were getting older, my grand mother was getting older and we used to lay out on this Green that shows behind my grandad and take the car numbers.
CB: Oh –
Mary: And we had to wait sometimes for a car to come along to collect the numbers. I wouldn’t like to try it today.
CB: No.
Mary: No.
CB: So tell me about number ten photograph.(MG010)
Mary: That is Chestnut Cottage beside the A31 and that is my granny, Elizabeth Soffe –
CB: Oh, I see, yeah.
Mary: Yes, you can just see it, John Charles’ wife. And the cottage, if you can see a little bit in the front of it, adjoining it, is a bread oven where they used to cook the bread.
CB: Oh!
Mary: And that is the chimney that they used to smoke the bacon, and I can remember tasting the bacon where they smoked that; it was a bit hairy because it was never quite finished off and I used to object because I was tiny and –
CB: Didn’t like the hair!
Mary: Absolutely! But Grandad Soffe, he used to say “They won’t do you any harm, girl!” Yes, so that is beside the A31, you can still see part of the tree there. And as I say, fortunately, it’s still standing.
CB; Lovely.
Mary: Sadly, the cottage is not.
CB: No. So when do you think that was taken?
Mary: That would have been.. again about the same time, I would think. Nineteen twenty-nine, thirty.
CB: Yep.
Mary: Yes.
CB: That’s lovely.
Mary: Yes.
CB: So on to the next photograph, I think, that’s number eleven. (MG011) Tell me –
Mary: Again at Chestnut Cottage, under the old tree. And my grandad to the left. This was when they made spars. You can see the spars there that they’ve already cut out, and that’s one of his sons. Dick, who used to help him with quite a lot.
CB: Okay, and that’s metal, that’s metal railing in the background.
Mary: Metal railing in the background, yes; and, as I say, if you look just through the railing, that is where the A31 was!
CB: Wow!
Mary: ..?.. Quite different now.
CB: What did they use the spars for?
Mary: When he was doing the thatching the fern ricks, the hayricks, etcetera, they used to, he used all his own spars on the ricks, so it wasn’t an easy task. Often, on winter evenings, he would sit indoors and do them. To catch up, to keep enough going, yes.
CB: That’s lovely.
Mary: Yeah.
CB: So, number twelve. (MG012)
Mary: It’s a shame, I’m not sure if it is ..?..
CB: So number twelve. Who’s in this picture?
Mary: This picture, and I believe it’s cutting the turf out, because I know grandad Soffe did have turf rights with his cottage. This is his two sons, Vic on the left and Jim on the right. Jim Soffe lived in Fritham after he was married.
CB: Okay
Mary: But I’m not really sure what it is, it looks more to me like turfs than it would be hay.
CB: Yeah.
Mary: Because with hay it was always usefull, of course.
CB: What did they use the turf for?
Mary: For their fire, that’s what they used to use to burn, they had a massive sort of big sort of spread across one end of their room. Must have been fires that they used to use for all of their heating.
CB: Oh, yeah, ..?.. They look very happy, don’t they?
Mary: They do.
CB: Lovely smiles –
Mary: They do.
CB: And what sort of age do you think that one … goes back to?
Mary: ..?.. Nineteen thirty-two, I should think, nineteen thirty-two, three, that era.
CB: Lovely.
Mary: Yeah. Yeah.
CB: So number thirteen. (MG013) This looks like an interesting –
Mary: Yes, it is. The Friendly Society and the date is on there, 1914. That is sort of the parish of Minstead. I should think, definitely … Dandy Soffe; Charles is there; the sideburns, with a light jacket, and a braid round the cap –
CB: Yes, so second row back, probably one, two, three from the left.
Mary: Three from the left, second row back.
CB: And that was – who did you say? Dandy –
Mary: Yes. Charles; John Charles, my grandad.
CB: Okay.
Mary: Yes, yeah. (Long pause) Five along is Bill Soffe, that is his youngest son. Who sadly was killed, or died, in the first world war in the Navy, but that’s his son.
CB: That’s his son there –
Mary: Yes, in the front row.
CB: That’s a super picture.
Mary It is.