Mary Gray, Transcript 1, Part 4
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Mary Gray Trans 1 CH4 Duration: 9:16
CB: Okay, number fourteen. (MG014) Nice group of ladies.
Mary: Yes. This is it, this is like John, my grandad’s daughter is in this one: Annie, second from the left at the back –
CB: Oh, I see, with dark hair –
Mary: They used to have, yes. When they were all in service, my mother was in service at what was called Lover’s Hall then at Stoney Cross, half way along the A31, but she used to join in with the Malwood Ladies who were all in service at Malwood and she loved her cricket and this is where this one’s taken, at the pavilion at Malwood and they used to play, I believe, in the evening. Nothing too competitive, I’m sure, but …
CB: In their skirts –
Mary: They really enjoyed it. In skirts, no trousers then. So this would have been … nineteen twenties.
CB: Nineteen twenties..
Mary: Mmm. Quite early nineteen twenties, I would think. Sadly, I don’t know any of the other … other ..?.. Yeah. Late ‘twenties.
CB: Late ‘twenties, is it. Brilliant. So, on to number fifteen.(MG015)
Mary: Yes, this is Bill Soffe, who we saw earlier on helping with the cutting out of, far as we know, turf; but he decided – this is John Charles son, my grandad’s son – he decided he wanted to go in the First World War. He was too young apparently, put his age forward that time he did, he went off and he was one that went down with a very bad ‘flu, I expect the name of it was Spanish ‘flu or something; a lot died with it, didn’t they. And he ended up in the Haslar hospital and my parents, my grandparents, then their only way to get to Haslar hospital was to get a pony and trap, their pony and trap from Stoney Cross down to Ashurst, leave it at the station and get the train down to Haslar hospital just to see him for the last time; and I know his mother always said it just broke her heart to see this long ward with all these young men just passing out. They didn’t have much medication for them, so he died there; but he was a lovely, lovely fellow, he was actually my mum’s favourite brother. But that’s so – he did, he loved the country and everything but I suppose he thought again, “Well this is a challenge”, you know; sounded quite exciting, sadly, to a lot of the young men then, didn’t it. So that is –
CB: That one, and then the next one is number sixteen (MG016)
Mary: Is this… They all look something like… Yeah, this is uncle Bill, same one, yes, that was the same one. He’s really good looking, so, he used to have so much fun with my mum because she was only eight when he died and apparently at the Christmases before that he used to put all sorts of nonsenses in her stocking at the end of the bed, you know,
CB: Lovely. So on to number seventeen (MG017) It’s a document; tell me about this one?
Mary: Well, this is, sadly, I was talking earlier on about John Charles son – Bill, as we knew him – William, went into the First World War, put his age forward to get in and then sadly he died of this awful ‘flu and this obviously what they were all awarded with for want of a better word and to the parents and it reads: “He who this scroll commemorates was numbered among those who, at the call of King and Country, left all that was dear to them, endured hardness, faced danger and finally passed out of the sight of men and by the path of duty and self-sacrifice giving up their own lives that others might live in freedom. Let those who come after, see to it that his name be not forgotten.” And it won’t, I don’t think.
CB: No.
Mary: And he is a young man who went in, I expect if he’d lived to come back to Stoney Cross, he would have been one who carried on with the Commoning because he had those instincts in him. And so, let’s hope we appreciate all that those young lives gave.
CB: Mmm. Right now, number eighteen (MG018) Tell me about this picture.
Mary: Well, this picture, I don’t know whether this would have been taken – in the fifties I expect. It’s at Skers’ Farm below us at Brook; we didn’t have a Pound in this area in those days and so it was the Jeffery family who came down from the Canterton Manor estate and this was the son, [information redacted]. He always let everyone use his yard to get colts and things in or any animals at all. This is the hayricks in the back and there’s my father, and I believe it’s my uncle, that’s Bill and George, sorting out some colts that had been driven in, ‘cos it’s very small, but I’d know by their features that’s who it is. And my father on the left, George; and my uncle on the right, Bill.
CB: Okay.
Mary: So they’re probably sorting them out for the Beaulieu Road sales, I expect.
CB: Did we hazard a guess at the age?
Mary: The age would have been early forties if not the late thirties, I should think more like the late thirties.
CB: Lovely. Thank you. Right, number nineteen. (MG019) Tell me about this lady.
Mary: Well, this lady apparently was quite a character. [information redacted], she run the old Tyrrell around at Canterton –
CB: The ‘Sir Walter Tyrrell’
Mary: The ‘Sir Walter Tyrrell, yes, next door to the now newer Sir Walter Tyrrell. She also kept a few colts but, sadly, she had only one leg and she couldn’t get out to see her colts herself so it was left to some of the Commoners to try and look after them for her. But apparently she served up a good pint to many a Commoner, lemonade etcetera to the boys, one was [information redacted], he’d remember her well, I’m sure, as a lad, because he lived in Brook in those days.
CB: Did he.
Mary: And so that’s – yes, but she never married. She had a young man for years but she never married. So that’s [information redacted].
CB: Lovely. Number twenty, Mary. (MG020)
Mary: Right. This was in nineteen seventy two, because my father died in seventy three in January and it was the last Foxhound Meet that he went to; Opening Meet, and it was up at Janesmoor Pond, up on the plain at Stoney Cross. And facing the camera is my dad, with Len Brown from Peter’s Hole, behind Minstead Church, talking to him. He was another proper old forester type. I don’t know if he did Commoning, I can’t remember. Yes, that was the very last photo of my dad George Rockley.
CB: Lovely. So number twenty-one. (MG021) This is a lovely family photograph. Tell me about this one, what you were…
Mary: This was haymaking down at Blackthorn’s Brook where Jack Young, who was laid down with the white shirt, used to live alone. And the photo is: the back one is [information redacted], another village lad, used to help with the haymaking; next to him is [information redacted] , my youngest son; next to him is [information redacted], that’s my nephew, my sister’s son; and the next one is [information redacted], now I’m sorry, but I’ve got them muddled up.
CB: That’s okay; go on, go back.
Mary: This is [information redacted] –
CB: So top left –
Mary: You might have heard of him; the undertaker in Romsey, his son –
CB: Okay.
Mary: [information redacted] next, my youngest son; [information redacted], my nephew, my sister’s son; and that is [information redacted]. As I say, he’d been a village lad all his life. And the bottom is Bob Gray, my husband, and I’m Mary Gray, of course; and that’s a little lad my sister used to have down with Richard from London, and from a home for a summer holiday.
CB: Oh, lovely.
Mary: And that is [information redacted], [information redacted] sister and [information redacted] she used to be at ‘The Green Dragon’ for years with her aunts, serving up the pints. She’s very well known. And that is, yeah, happy days, it’s when really haymaking was more of a pleasure, now it’s so mechanical but … So that would have been … nineteen eightyish, eighty-two perhaps.
CB: Lovely. Oh, that’s super. Thank you.