Margaret Day Part 3
Images: Margaret Day, copyright reserved. For any rights requests, please contact the New Forest Heritage Centre in the first instance.
Margaret Day CH3 Duration: 5:17
So on to thirteen. (MD013) Who’s this young man, then?
Margaret: This is Terry as a little boy. And um…
CB: Did he grow up in the Forest? Where was he born?
Margaret: Next door. No, he was born in New Road, in Ibsley – in Mockbeggar and then, from about the age of four, lived at Red Lawn, South Gorley, next to where we have lived, and I still live today.
CB: How old do you think he was there?
Margaret: Well, about three, I would have thought. I don’t know. Three or four?
CB: What year was Terry born in?
Margaret: 1944.
CB: Right. That’s lovely. So number 14. (MD014) Who’s this then?
Margaret: This is Terry –
CB: Young Terry –
Margaret: Yes. Approximately forty years ago, whistling his ponies and giving them a few nuts so that he can look at them, up across the Forest. He always whistled his ponies and they knew that whistle all their life. (1980)
CB: So did he holler his cows, and whistle his ponies?
Margaret: That’s right.
CB: Brilliant. So the right ones would come.
Margaret: That’s right.
CB: And how old do you think Terry was there, then?
Margaret: Um, well, early thirties?
CB: Mmm. Yep, lovely. Number 15. (MD015) Ah, this is great. Big smile on his face.
Margaret: Yes, this is Terry when he worked as a dairyman for Frank Deacon at Toms Farm, Linwood. He would have been in his mid-twenties. And I recognise it by the Morris 1000 Traveller that once belonged to Fred – I think it might have belonged to Fred Cook… I think
CB: Really?
Margaret: Well, whether we got – Yes, I reckon it was his, I reckon.
CB: So that’s my Great Uncle Fred!
Margaret: Yeah, I reckon it might have been Fred Cook’s. If it wasn’t his, he had one the same. And before we had it, we travelled to Scotland in it on holiday, camping – with no map or anything, and didn’t even know where we were. (Laughter)
CB: That’s great!
Margaret: But -um – as you can see, I’m sure that nobody would be happy to do every job that they do today on the tractor we’re looking at in this picture. With no cab –
CB: No cab, no air-conditioning, no radio –
Margaret: No.
CB: Lovely. So number 16. (MD016) Now, this goes back to what you were telling me earlier.
Margaret: This is our daughter [information redacted] and our dog Cindy. [information redacted] is filling up the water trough with the hose pipe, and in the back it looks as though it is our two Friesian heifers. Myself and the children had this task of seeing how well we could rear them up before Terry cast his eye over them.
CB: (laughs) So that was your training, basically.
Margaret: That’s right, that was our training.
CB: So he brought you two home with the milk and the buckets and said, “Rear these on for me -“
Margaret: Right. This is it. See what you can do. And that was our start.
CB: And I guess you made a good job.
Margaret: Well, I think we did. Yes.
CB: So how old was – I’m sorry, I’ve forgotten your daughter’s name –
Margaret: I’m not too sure how old [information redacted] is, but she’s possibly approximately seven, I would have thought, would you?
CB: Yes, about seven, I’d have thought. And how old is she now?
Margaret: Forty-two.
CB: Forty-two; right, so we can work that one out.
Maragret: ‘Cos her head is only to that top of that half-gate, see – that door.
CB: Oh, that door there –
Margaret: So she’d be about sevenish.
CB: Yeah.
Margaret: Seven or eight.
CB: Big task for a young girl.
Margaret: Well, they enjoyed it, I think-
CB: They loved it –
Margaret: Yes. (MD017) That’s all stuff blowing on the –
CB: Back to the yard.
Margaret: Yeah.
CB: Clearing out of the yard…
Margaret: Yeah.
CB: Boys are working hard.
Margaret: Yeah. Terry has the boys, [information redacted] and [information redacted]; still working hard on the yard, ready for him to come in with the bucket and pick it up and put it into the muck spreader.
CB: So, do [information redacted] and [information redacted] live local?
Margaret: They live in Fordingbridge.
CB: Okay, this would have been a weekend, presumably.
Margaret: Yes. They live in Fordingbridge. [information redacted] is now seventeen and [information redacted] is sixteen.
CB: Got their waterproof trousers on –
Margaret: That’s right.
CB: Lovely. Number 18. (MD018) Aah.
Margaret: This is one of my very favourite photographs. It’s my grandson, [information redacted], taking our cows back up the lane to the Common after they’ve been in to eat.