Kerry Newton Part 1
An interview with Kerry Newton at Bartley in the New Forest on 19th September, 2016.
Images: Kerry Newton, copyright reserved. For any rights requests, please contact the New Forest Heritage Centre in the first instance.
Kerry Newton CH1 Duration: 4:31
So this is Clare Bates interviewing Kerry Newton at Bartley in the New Forest on Monday the 19th of September 2016. (Kerry used to work with Ron Ings.)
CB: So, Kerry, can you tell me about this photograph? (KN001)
Kerry: Yeah, that’s Ron Ings, he’s riding a grey cob. It came in to be broken in and he took such a shine to it. He really wanted to ride it but because he’d turned eighty, he said “Oh, I don’t know about that”, but we eventually got him on; we got the cart alongside and he – he was already on the cart, so he literally stood up on the cart and put one leg over, and there he was sat on the horse.
CB: Really –
Kerry: And we said, “Oh, you’re on now, Ron; not sure how you’re going to get off, but go and have a ride round”. And he did, he went off and rode.
CB: That’s lovely, and when do you think that was taken?
Kerry: That was – he was eighty… gosh. That must have been … fifteen years ago?
CB: About fifteen years… And did you take that photo?
Kerry: Yep; yeah, I took that photograph, yeah.
CB: Okay, lovely –
Kerry: Yeah, really nice.
CB: And this one, number two. (KN002) Tell me about this one.
Kerry: So, Ron used to have a little caravan down in Brockenhurst, down in West Beams Farm, he used to rent it off [information redacted]. Paid a hundred and fifty pound a week, and he’d keep a caravan at the bottom and everybody used to congregate down there; and he always had plenty of tea and coffee and always Rich Tea biscuits. He loved his photograph being taken so – but he just, he – I think the more people that went down there, the merrier he was, he loved it.
CB: So how old do you think he was there. That the same sort of time?
Kerry: Yeah, yeah, I think he was about – he must have been sort of seventy-eight, between seventy-eight and eighty?
CB: Lovely.
Kerry: Yeah.
CB: That’s great. And then number three photo. (KN003) Tell me about that one.
Kerry: So that was down the side of the yard, and that – that was the outside loo, there.
CB: You mean that door on the right.
Kerry: Yeah, that brown door there. But yeah, he was just having his photograph taken really.
CB: What’s he fixing there?
Kerry: I’m just trying to think what… That cart, that’s a heavy old cart, I don’t know that he used – ah, yes, he did! So that, that was one of the heavier carts and that was used for the horses that really played up (Both laugh) So, if they played –
CB: (Indistinct comment)
Kerry: Yeah, if they played up a lot he put them on this cart because it was so heavy they wouldn’t be able to play up.
CB: Brilliant!
Kerry: Yeah.
CB: Lovely. This, number four, this is the one with the cart – a cart – (KN004)
Kerry: Yep, so that’s, um, that was a heavy old cart as well, and in there is [information redacted] and Ron…
CB: Now, I’ve got [information redacted] on the right –
Kerry: Yeah –
CB: And Ron on the left –
Kerry: And this – I can’t remember the name of this little horse, but it was very, very lively and that’s why he put it on this two-wheeled cart. Notice, it – the horse – has got hobbles on –
CB: Oh, so it has –
Kerry: Ron always used to put hobbles on a really naughty horse that was quite lively and a lot of people tended to disagree with it, but – I mean, Ron used to get horses that nobody else could deal with, so it was a last resort, really. But, if they – you know, they soon knew, and they’d only mess around once or twice at the most.
CB: Mmmm.
Kerry: But yeah, he had the hobbles on the front leg and then what it did it was: it came up through the front legs and then he’d have the rope here along with the reins –
CB: Oh, okay.
Kerry: So if the horse went hell for leather, which quite often they did, then he’d pull up on that rope and the horse would actually come down.
(An indistinct exchange omitted from transcript)
CB: Okay. When do you think that was taken?
Kerry: Same sort of time.
CB: About fifteen years ago.
Kerry: Um. I’m just trying to think. If Ron was born in …no, I think he was born in – I think it was nineteen twelve – no, fifteen. Nineteen fifteen, I’m sure he was born. So he’d be a hundred and one now, and I think he’s been gone a good fifteen years, so work that one out.
CB: Yeah, uh, fifteen; well, 2000 that would be, wouldn’t it?
Kerry: Yeah.
CB: Must be about 2000.
Kerry: Yeah.
CB: Lovely, sixteen –
Kerry: Yeah. That’s sixteen. Yeah, that’s sixteen years ago.