Caroline Stride, Transcript1, Part 7
Caroline Stride Trans 1 CH7 Duration: 7:11
CB: Okay. Number twenty-five (CS025)
Caroline: Now this picture shows the Penny family, or part of the Penny family on a pony. The person who is stood is the eldest son to the left of the pony’s head, that was Tom; and then you have got Ted and [28.0] [information redacted] Penny on the back of the picture – on the pony, and the gentleman who is – as I understand, the gentleman who is there is Alf Cavell.
CB: Okay, who was he?
Caroline: He was someone who worked for the Penny Family
CB: Oh, okay.
Caroline As a casual, self-employed, I think that’s how it worked.
CB: Right, okay. So, number twenty-six (CS026)
Caroline: I think this is two of the Penny boys again in the yard here at Blackwater, in front of the double doors and I think it’s Tom Penny and George Penny on, I guess, a New Forest pony.
CB: So that’s George that’s riding –
Caroline: George on the pony and Tom holding on to the head.
CB: Lovely. Right. Twenty-seven (CS027)
Caroline: Now this is Tom Penny outside of the house here at Blackwater, as a young man; interesting britches again, real, sort of – you know, probably the dress of the day and um – yeah.
CB: Riding a pony.
Caroline: Yes.
CB: When do you think this was?
Caroline: I would say – he was born in 1917, I think …
CB: Nineteen twenties, early nineteen thirties –
Caroline: Yeah. Yeah.
CB: Okay. Number twenty-eight (CS028)
Caroline: Now this is Ted Penny milking a cow at Holmsley. It was the home to his in-laws, and the gentleman who is stood at the back is Monty Slightam who was a Forestry Commission keeper; and it was at the time as you can see, a wooden bungalow. And Ted married [2:33] [information redacted], that’s Monty’s daughter, their only daughter and in their early married life, Ted would ride his motorbike, and you can see a motorbike in the background propped up against the bungalow, and he used to ride his motorbike Holmsley back to Blackwater to do his work here on the farm and then from Blackwater back to Holmsley of an evening. And they had – that was the house cow that supplied the Slightam family with milk.
CB: Lovely.
(CS029)
Caroline: Now this is Charlie Penny in older age and this is on the path coming round by the old dairy here at Blackwater Farm and with his old dog, Floss, there in the background.
CB; Lovely, and when do you think that was?
Caroline: The early ‘sixties I would say? Late ‘fifties, early ‘sixties. He died in 1966, I think.
CB: Okay. Number thirty (CS030)
Caroline: Now this is a picture of my grandfather, Bob House, and this picture was taken at Monkshorn at East Boldre; He was a smallholder come farmer on Beaulieu estate and he was a tenant farmer down there and this was taken in the…um… nineteen fifties, probably.
CB: Okay. And he’s been busy in the shed with his fork.
Caroline: Yeah. He never drove a car. He only used a horse in the field; it was only my father, Robert, called Bob, and his brother, Bill, Bill House who worked – first instigated getting a tractor on the land, to work the fields. But Grandad House would only have working horses.
CB: Mmm. Right. So, thirty-one (CS031)
Caroline: Now this is kale at Blackwater Farm. Kale was grown as a crop to feed the cows in the winter months. It would have been cut and taken to the cows because the cows would have been tied up in stalls during the winter months for periods of time when it was wet, and they had a manger and they would’ve been fed kale; always amazed me how tall it would have been, you know; it’s above this adult person’s head. The adult in the picture is Alf Cavell, again he would come and be a seasonal worker here on the farm with Charlie and whoever else was working here. And the two boys, I think, are probably Ted and [5:45] [information redacted], they were a twin. And I would say that was in the ‘forties.
CB: Right. Number thirty-two (CS032)
Caroline: Now this is Bert, Bert Stride, and I think it was taken down at Denny Lodge where they moved in the early ‘fifties and he married Vera, Richard’s mother in nineteen forty-nine or ‘forty-eight and they moved down to Denny when they’d been married for three or four years and it was at that time that they started as a couple in smallholding in the Forest, although they had ponies here at Blackwater before they moved down there; but certainly that’s when their sort of commoning activities really took flight when they moved down there. And Grandad always kept a good horse.
CB: Yeah, that looks a nice horse – a real shiny coat.