Mary Gray, Transcript 1, Part 2
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Mary Gray Trans 1 CH2 Duration: 6:23
CB: On to number three. (MG003)
Mary: Yeah, that is in Oaklands yard. There again it’s like – I dare say, Grandad Soffe would’ve thatched that, because he used to thatch in the local area, so I’d be very surprised if he didn’t, I know he did do their thatching.
CB: So that is a hayrick, and it’s thatched.
Mary: No, it’s a rick –
CB: Oh, okay.
Mary: A rick. Yeah, a rick. I think – I’m pretty sure, because the fern rick was always there – Used to gather the fern in? In October time?
CB: Oh, okay –
Mary: And then, I remember going out on the moonlight nights on the horse and cart with my dad, getting fern in. For bedding for the winter –
CB: Oh, right –
Mary: Yeah. And I’m sure that is fern ‘cos that’s where the fern rick used to be and he used to just thatch it?
CB: Oh, I see.
Mary: And that is down in the yard and apparently, that rose was planted in memory of my granny Rockley, Annie Rockley. Yeah,
CB: That’s lovely, thank you. And then, on to number four. (MG004)
Mary: Yes, that’s not so clear, that’s Levi with one of his ponies, it’s very difficult to see. He looks a little bit younger there, actually, doesn’t he?
CB: He does.
Mary: But he always wore his trilby hat, apparently; so what the pony’s name would be, I don’t know.
CB: That was probably a Forest run pony.
Mary: Just a Forest – That’s right, Forest stock.
CB: Okay.
Mary: I don’t think I’ve got anything much on the back…
CB: No, and again, probably around the nineteen twenties.
Mary: It would be. It must be, yeah, yeah.
CB: Okay. Lovely. So number five, Mary, tell me about this one. (MG005)
Mary: Number five. That is Uncle Bill. Well, William Rockley, George’s – my father’s older brother; Again by that hayrick – fern rick – on his, it’s only a little Forester he used to ride, he’s a big man, as you can see.
CB: Yeah, I can see.
Mary: And sadly he didn’t have any family to carry on, so it was all left to my dad.
CB: Amazing!
Mary: Yeah.
CB: Okay. Okay, on to number six. (MG006) Tell me about this photograph.
Mary: This is Freddy Page just to the left; he’s an an old village chappie; and my father, George Rockley, on the right and they were – It was at Coronation, nineteen fifty-three, the Queen’s coronation. And we had fancy dress and what have you in the village, and Freddy was King Rufus, who’d been killed by the bow and arrow that he’s carrying; and my father was Purkiss, who it was always said, to take him on his horse and cart, William Rufus, to Winchester to lay in rest and I think – I’m pretty sure they got first prize. If not, they got second. They held the party in part at Fountain Court up here in the village.
CB: Okay –
Mary: It was really great. I haven’t got a photo of me, but I was a Dutch girl, we were all dressed up it was really great.
CB: Lovely. Okay and that’s great. Right, so number seven, (MG007) Tell me all about this one.
Mary: This was when they used to do the Brook races. Now my father George looks quite a boy there, so I would think he’d have been about eighteen; he was born in nineteen-oh-one,
CB: Nineteen nineteen …
Mary: So nineteen twenty.
CB: Nineteen twenty.
Mary: So that will go back then, and Brook Races, now, as far as I know, they were being measured, I know, down on Brook Green, that’s near the Bell, between the two roads –
CB: Yeah –
Mary: And then they must have come on to race round Brook Common, I mean it was only a local little – it wasn’t anything like the big point-to-point or anything like that, it was just a local and there’s, as I say, one (Counts in whisper) six, the boy who works, a boy, and my father, George –
CB: So he’s at the back of the saddle, right, right at the back –
Mary: He is, absolutely, at the back of the saddle, and you can see what he’s doing, he’s checking it’s all okay, and that’ll be my father. And Bill –
CB: Yeah, so –
Mary: Bill, with the trilby hat is the third from the right and there’s a chappie stood behind him.
CB: Yeah
Mary: And he’s dressed up more as a gentleman,
course he’s older than my dad, and the other people that – unfortunately I
don’t know, I should’ve asked my father, shouldn’t I, but you don’t, do you?
CB:
No.
Mary: So that would have been a long time ago.
CB: Mmm. So, number eight. (MG008) We’re going to go on to the Soffe family, which was your mother’s side, wasn’t it, Soffe was her maiden name.
Mary: Mm mm, yes.
CB: So this, this first picture here; what can you tell me?
Mary: This was my grandad, Soffe.
CB: On the left –
Mary: John Charles to the left with a cap; and that was well-known, anyone in the cricketing field might know, was Chapman, he was England skipper, and he must have been staying locally and just visiting my dad – my grandad, rather – to see what Commoning was all about, because there’s these people in the back –
CB: I see, yes.
Mary: So I guess that was because my grandad just loved his cricket as well. I suppose that was the liaison there and that was taken at Chestnut Cottage, Stoney Cross, and there’s the big tree in the back, which still stands there, actually.
CB: Does it.
Mary: Yes. And so he used to turn out his cows; he only had, like, relatively few cows, like they all used to have, just milking cows. As I say, delivered milk just round the hamlet of Stoney Cross. So that was the situation there and also of course he did his thatching and his spar-making to couple alongside of Commoning, to keep the family going.
CB: And it was he who probably put the thatch on the fern ricks ….
Mary: Definitely on the fern ricks in Brook. And thatched ones in places up to Bramshaw – Art Davis and his little holding and quite a few that I can remember. Yes.
CB: Great. So, just going back to photo eight. We think that’s probably about the nineteen thirties.
Mary: Yes.
CB: And then –
Mary: Could even have been a bit earlier, twenty-eight, thirty, I expect.