Through Our Ancestors’ Eyes – Page 4

Caroline Stride, Transcript1, Part 9

Images: Caroline Page, copyright reserved. For any rights requests, please contact the New Forest Heritage Centre in the first instance.

Caroline Stride Trans 1 CH9 Duration: 7:30

CB: Okay. Number thirty-eight (CS038) Aha!

Caroline: Now this was a picture taken – I’m not sure if it wasn’t the same photographer who took this picture. Again, Lily is in the background –

CB: Oh yes –

Caroline: And Andrew is holding on to her there. And this was at Bolderwood Cottage, and we had a house cow, Rosie, who was an absolutely dear cow, she was a Guernsey and I used to milk her for her milk in the cottage and supplied us as a family of five with milk. We used to walk her down because there wasn’t much grazing at Bolderwood Cottage, so we used to walk her down to the Deer Sanctuary, down to the fields and let her graze during the day or between milkings down in the Deer Sanctuary fields. And one of the jobs of the boys before they went to school was to get the cow in so that after I’d got them off to school I could milk the cow. And then, you know, at the end of the day, it would have been the same routine, I’d milk the cow in the evening, and then one of the boys would have taken her out. Normally she would walk down on her own all right but if she felt a bit of a rebel she would give them a merry dance so they’d have to put her in a halter but normally she was quite well behaved.

CB: Lovely. Number thirty-nine (CS039)

Caroline: This is Richard, again I think this is in the early ‘nineties, same photographer – I think he’s a professional photographer, just getting his – you know, finding his way in the world of photography and he came and took these pictures. Rosie the cow in the background with Richard holding the bucket and that was a calf that we bought as – it was as a steer – his name was Fudge, I remember that – and he used to suck the cow for any surplus milk; I’d milk out as much as we needed and then he –

CB: Had the rest –

Caroline: Had the rest, yeah, or I would feed him with the bucket, I’m not sure what happened now.

CB: Number forty (CS040)

Caroline: Ah. Now this is Aunt Kate outside of Blackwater Farm, Aunt Kate Penny, George Henry’s daughter, Charlie Penny’s sister, and she always enjoyed having her picture taken and she is holding a New Forest pony there. I think possibly it might be Edwardian times, looking at her dress. Certainly it was in her early life, because she didn’t get married until she was a bit older.

CB: Mmm Mmm. Right, number forty-one (CS041) Who are these?

Caroline: Now this picture here shows the Penny family, George Henry posing for one of these Edwardian pictures –

CB: Down the left –

Caroline: Is on the left; the centre I think their eldest son, Bill Penny; and to the right of the picture is Emma and she was mother, George Henry’s wife and they were the first people here, the first farmers at Blackwater Farm.

CB: And when do we think this is

Caroline: This is possibly … late Victorian, early Edwardian times.

CB: Yeah, that’s lovely. Forty-two (CS042) We’ve had this picture before –

Caroline: We’ve had this picture before, but I will just say it’s Charlie Penny as a young man outside the Blackwater Farm.

CB: Mmm. Forty-three (CS043)

Caroline: Now this again is a picture – I’m not really that familiar with the people in the picture but two, two Penny boys; I’m not sure who was holding on – it might be a man, Mr. Harrison.

CB: Okay.

Caroline: George Harrison – no, not Harrison. George Harris. And he was a chauffeur up in Blackwater House to Mrs. Compton when it was still in the ownership of Minstead Manor. And he used to come down, and this picture was taken just here at Blackwater.

CB: Mmm. Number forty-four (CS044)

Caroline: Now this is a picture of – a professional portrait of Aunt Kate Penny on the left of the picture; the centre one stood up is Charlie Penny, Richard’s grandfather, and the one to the right is Bill Penny. So that’s brothers and sister.

CB: And what sort of age then?

Caroline: Again I would say early Edwardian, late Victorian.

CB: And number forty-five (CS045)

Caroline: Now this is a picture of Agnes Lucretia Penny and that was Richard’s grandmother – Agnes Lucretia Victoria Penny to be precise – and she was stood here at Blackwater with two of her older boys. To the left of the picture is Tom Penny, to the right of the picture is Jim Penny, so those were her two eldest boys.

CB: Okay.

Caroline: Her maiden name was Zebedee and they weren’t Forest people at all. They came from London, but they settled here in Lyndhurst and that’s as a young girl she got acquainted with Charlie Penny and they married and had twelve children.

CB: Forty-six (CS046) We’ve done this one as well.

Caroline: Yeah.

CB: Forty-seven (CS047)

Caroline: Now this is at Minstead, I think it’s Yew Tree Cottage at Minstead; it’s a while, I’m a bit vague because I always think of it as Aunt Kate, Aunt Kate Penny who I’ve spoken about before, Charlie Penny’s sister, in her retirement she moved up to Minstead and lived in this little Minstead Manor cottage, but it was freehold at the time and she kept a few New Forest ponies there, she kept a pig at the bottom of the garden, so she was, in her time, she was a New Forest commoner, a smallholder.

CB: Okay. Forty-eight (CS048)

Caroline: Now this is a picture of the Royal Oak at Gorley. Why this is in our collection is the fact that before um …. can we go back?

CB: So. Number forty-eight. (CS048 as above)

Caroline: This picture is of the Royal Oak at Gorley. In our collection this is the very small baby, the child in arms on the picture is –

(Recording ends abruptly)

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Ernie Mansbridge Part 1

An interview with Ernie Mansbridge at his house, Farringdon Cottage, in Longdown on 30^th September, 2016.

Ernie Mansbridge CH1 Duration: 4:03

Images: copyright reserved. For any rights requests, please contact the New Forest Heritage Centre in the first instance.

This is Clare Bates interviewing Ernie Mansbridge at his house Farringdon Cottage in Longdown on the 30th of September 2016.

CB: So Ernie, can you tell me a little bit about this first photograph (EM001). I know you don’t know too much about it.

Ernie: I don’t know nothin’ about it, only that that’s the one that they surmise is Beat Cook.

CB: That’s Beat Cook, so she’s the second lady in.

Ernie: Yeah, must be the same family I reckon, probably all the same family because they all worked as a bunch.

CB: Okay.

Ernie: There were seven or eight of ’em. S’probably that’s the same lot, you know.

CB: Where do you think that was taken?

Ernie: I don’t know, haven’t got a clue. Nobody have, but we know it was, the idea we’ve got is that would be ‘Arry, we call him, that was Beat Cook there, rather, then they based it on that, and that was about the size of the gang that they would have and they had a sawmill at Cadnam.

CB: At Cadnam, okay.

Ernie Where you goes up through. You don’t know where the old pie shop used to be, no? Know where the Horse and Groom is up there now? Coach and Horses?

CB: Coach and Horses, yeah.

Ernie: Round by there. There was a few fields there then, just enclosed them by trees, when you get to the first row of houses there’s a yard gate goes in and a biggish old yard. That’s where that sawmill was.

CB: Oh, the sawmill there

Ernie: They had the sawmill there.

CB Okay.

Ernie: But they travelled round as a gang. They went around all over the place.

CB: Right, so not just in the forest?

Ernie: No. No, all round as well. That’s a part of their machinery, some of that there. Not dead sure where it is, but that’s what, some of the gang.

CB: Okay

Ernie ‘Cos they always – the only reason tells me that, by the fact that they’ve got a grey horse in the shafts there, which they have on there. All the other horses a different colour, they always had a grey horses in the shafts on the cart.

CB: Oh, okay.

Ernie: And that’s how they notified who it was, near enough. Got no proof, but that’s it. That that’s who that was. I’ve had two or three come and look at it and two or three said different things (he laughs). You got to go on it. But they reckon they’re about right there, ‘cos um..

CB: And we reckon that’ll be dated about nineteen twenties?

Ernie: Yeah, back somewhere about then. Yeah.

CB: Okay, that’s lovely. Okay, so this second photo looks like a wedding photo, four people (EM002).

Ernie: That’s my father and mother.

CB: In the front.

Ernie: In the front.

CB: And what were their names?

Ernie: That was by a young Satiswell (something worker?) called, George were his name

CB: George.

Ernie: Yuh, and Kathleen was –

CB: Florence Kathleen.

Ernie: His wife.

CB: Kathleen. Yes, Florence Kathleen.

Ernie: No. Yes. Florence Kathleen was right, was Florence Kathleen. That’s Dave Mansbridge, young Dave, well, that’s the oldest nipper, like.

CB: Yep.

Ernie: Dave Mansbridge, and that’s…em

CB: Mabel.

Ernie: No… One from Eling, what’s her name, he married didn’t he –

CB: Elsie –

Ernie: Knight. Elsie Knight. Married from Eling Hill.

CB: That’s – Mabel, that looks more like; your mum’s –

Ernie: Yeah, that’s Auntie Mabel.

CB: Okay. So, an old photograph of the children (EM003); you’re on there.

Ernie: That was in the thirties that was took. In the nineteen thirties – twenties to thirties.

CB: Right. And so it’s [information redacted] –

Ernie: It was [information redacted] – wait a minute, let me get this right a minute…twenty…twenty six I was born, so it’s got to be before that, a bit before that, a bit after that. It’ll be the early forties.

CB: Early forties

Ernie: Yeah, early forties: one or two. Won’t be very old. ….?…. There was four in the fort- twenties.

CB: And the baby in the middle? That was [information redacted]?

Ernie: Yeah, that was [information redacted]. She was born a long time after.

CB: Yeah. – And then on the far side is –

Ernie: [information redacted].

CB: [information redacted].

Ernie: Yeah

CB? She’s about seventeen there I think, your [information redacted] isn’t she.

Ernie: Yeah.

CB: Okay.

Ernie: She’s got a little dog there and that’s all I can see, really.

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Ernie Mansbridge Part 2

Images: copyright reserved. For any rights requests, please contact the New Forest Heritage Centre in the first instance.

Ernie Mansbridge CH2 Duration: 3:57

CB: So this is the thatched cottage – (EM004)

Ernie: That’s Uncle Frank, yeah.

CB: Uncle Frank, Frank Mansbridge.

Ernie: Yeah. He lived in the thatched cottage what’s there now. That’s the same old cottage, only it’s been altered a little bit.

CB: And what did you say it’s called?

Ernie: Staplewood Lane.

CB: Oh, Staplewood Lane.

Ernie: On the left going down, the first one you comes to after you go in this end.

CB: I know.

Ernie: Yeah.

CB: Yeah, that’s old isn’t it.

Ernie: That was Frank, yeah, he was getting on a bit, that one is, ‘cos they had the old swallowtail porch they cut him off when they done him the last time, so you don’t want to mess about with all that, messin’ about, He said “Well, I’ll put the porch on arterwards ………?because it was easier………but he wouldn’t have that, so he left the porch on.

CB: Okay

Ernie: For the cats used to live up there.

CB: Oh, did they.

Ernie: In the roof, yes. There’s one, he died. Joe Bell? come round, and said about it, what there was up there an’ that, I didn’t have a clue what there was. I shot one ….?…. Never ‘ad no complaints from ’em (Both laugh)

CB: So when – what sort of time was that photo taken, do you think?

Ernie: (Pause) I don’t know, ‘cos I could get it you know if I looked back through that registry to see when he was married an’ that, as time went but um – (Pause) around about the twenties or (Pause) somewhere like that.

CB: That’s a lovely picture, isn’t it.

Ernie: Yeah, that’s it, ‘cos that gate – she did tell me how many years she’d had that gate, it was painted, always painted white. Everything else was all black on the house, but that gate had to be kept white, and old Sid Drake, lodged there at the time, course he painted the bugger black didn’t he. He made him come straight home and scrape it off ‘fore he’d had his tea or anything and he had to repaint it back. They was a rum old crowd, I tell you. But there always used to be a white owl used to nest under there. That went right through that, like that, and he had erm –

CB: Under the porch, wow.

Ernie: An’ old Frank used to …?….up there ‘n catch ’em..?… She used to moan ’bout it…?….didn’t do much harm…?…..

CB: Lovely, thanks.

(There seems to be a break in the conversation at this point)

Ernie: Anna Mansbridge.. and Flo Benham and Elizabeth Stride Mansbridge. (EM005)

CB: Okay.

Ernie: That’s Elizabeth Stride Mansbridge, is it?

CB: On the right?

(Confusion of female voices in which ‘Florrie’ is mentioned)

Ernie: Yeah… They’ve got me, I wouldn’t know, it’s afore my time. (Pause) They’ve got so I can’t reckon – can’t replace any of them.

CB: But we definitely know the lady on the right was… who did you say, Elizabeth…Stride.

Ernie: Yeah. It relates back into they Strides, I knows that.

CB: Okay.

(Sound of tape restarting.)

CB: So this looks like – (EM006)

Ernie: Yes, that’s The White Horse, photo? Southampton. I can’t think o’ the name, the old bloke down the road’ll tell you straight away, ‘cos as they carting poles out, look.

CB: It’s timber. Sort of timber haulage.

Ernie: Yeah. God, I can’t think who that is out ..?.. That’s a little …?… used to … ?… Three or four on ’em there look. All got horses and carts, they been in for a top up of petrol or their own, I reckon, in that old pub.

(Indecipherable mix of voices)

Ernie: Yeah, the other side of Southampton. I got …?… ‘ll know straight away, ‘cos he used to live next to it. Hanged if I can think of it.

CB: Don’t worry. Might remember in a bit.

Ernie: Yeah, he’ll remember. It might come back to me, but he’ll remember, he told me where it was ‘cos we tried several places ….?…. people said and soon as I give it to him he said “White Horse and so and so”, and he told me straight off where it was, you know, he knew, I’ll find it off him, and I’ll give you a ring.

CB: Okay, yeah.

Ernie: …?…

CB: All right, that’s lovely.

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Ernie Mansbridge Remembers

Ernie shares memories of his commoning family and New Forest characters in the first half of the twentieth century.

Ernie Mansfield, transcript and audio part 1

Ernie Mansfield, transcript and audio part 2

Kerry Newton Part 1

An interview with Kerry Newton at Bartley in the New Forest on 19^th 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.

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Kerry Newton Part 2

Images: Kerry Newton, copyright reserved. For any rights requests, please contact the New Forest Heritage Centre in the first instance.

Kerry Newton CH2 Duration: 2:28

CB: Great. And this one here. (KN005)

Kerry: So, that’s David Niven. He’s getting that previous horse ready for going on to the cart. And that was up against the wall that was… Ron always used to tie the horses up against this wall ‘cos it was quite strong and he didn’t ever use any bailer twine, he’d always just put the nylon halter attached…put a knot in the halter.

CB: Yeah.

Kerry: And then actually attach it to the ring; so if they pulled back, they wouldn’t get very far.

CB: That’s lovely

Kerry: So that looks like it was – I think most of these were round the same time; this little –

CB: I was going to say, Shetland pony in the background –

Kerry: Yeah, little Shetland pony, came over from Jersey and, er, Oliver, that was its name, Oliver.

CB: That’s not you there?

Kerry: No.

CB: I suppose you’re taking the photo.

Kerry: Yeah.

CB: Okay, lovely.

Kerry: Don’t know who that is.

CB: Right, and then number six, photo. (KN006)

Kerry: So this is Ron again on one of his wagons. He was alongside a young girl, [information redacted]; she’s from the forest, she’s quite a forest family. She used to go down and help him quite a lot. Ron bred this palomino here; it was born September the first, so he named it September and this horse, I think, was probably more established, so he had the young horses next to it.

CB: To teach them, yes.

Kerry: Yeah. Yeah. But that was actually in his field. When a horse came to be broken in, he’d always take it around the field first, he’d never take it straight out on the road. So he always went round in this field.

CB: Brilliant. Lovely. And then the last one? (KN007)

Kerry: So this little Shetland pony came over from Jersey, his name was Oliver and he was one of a pair actually but this little one was so good that Ron let my daughters Emma and Laura – Emma’s on the left, Laura’s on the right – he’d let him drive … them –

CB: And Ron sat on the back –

Kerry: Ron sat on the back, always, the first couple of times; and then he’d jump off and let them go up and down the road on their own.

CB: Brilliant.

Kerry: Yeah, so that was, yeah, lovely.

CB: Okay, that’s great, thank you very much.

Kerry: You’re welcome.

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Kerry Newton Remembers

Kerry tells us about Ron Ings, the Chief Agister of the New Forest and an expert horseman. Kerry worked with Ron and describes the techniques he used for training and managing New Forest ponies in the mid to late twentieth century.

Kerry Newton, transcript and audio part 1

Kerry Newton, transcript and audio part 2

Margaret Day Part 2

Margaret Day Transcription 1, Part 2

Images: Margaret Day, copyright reserved. For any rights requests, please contact the New Forest Heritage Centre in the first instance.

Margaret Day CH2 Duration: 6:40

CB: Great. Ah. Tell me about this one, then. (MD007)

Margaret: This is Terry; myself; my son-in-law, [information witheld] –

CB: Yeah. So [information witheld]’s right, on the far right –

Margaret: [information witheld], [information witheld] and [information witheld], our grandchildren, feeding the pigs in the wood.

CB: This is up in the wood where – the other photograph, we saw him walking back from.

Margaret: That’s right, yes. And strawing up their houses for the week.

CB: Okay, and how many pigs did you have?

Margaret: We had three sows and one boar.

CB: Okay, and did you use that for your own meat? Or did you send them to market? What did you –

Margaret: Yes we did. We ate some of them and other friends had some of them; mostly they went to people we know.

CB: Brilliant.

Margaret: We knew absolutely nothing about pigs; and we were very successful with them. We never cut their teeth off, or castrated them and lost very few; and didn’t know that you had to put bars in to stop them laying on them –

CB: Oh, of course, yeah, the sows lay on the piglets –

Margaret: We were so lucky, we knew nothing about them and people kept saying to us “Perhaps the best thing to do was NOT to know anything about them” because we were very lucky indeed.

CB: That’s lovely. Ah. So tell me about this. (MD008)

Margaret: This is [information witheld] and my two grandsons, [information witheld] and [information witheld] –

CB: So it’s [information witheld] on the left –

Margaret: That is [information witheld].

CB: Oh, [information witheld]’s on the left and [information witheld] on the right

Margaret: And [information witheld] is wearing one of [information witheld] old t-shirts.

CB: (laughs) Down to his knees! Again, looks like they’re out on the farmyard –

Margaret: They’re out on the farm helping with the chores.

CB: So [information witheld] came here a lot then, he –

Margaret: From the age of approximately ten or eleven, he came every evening from school.

CB: Oh, did he?

Margaret: And helped us feed the calves on his bicycle.

CB: Brilliant.

Margaret: And that is how he got really interested.

CB: Yeah, ‘cos he’s got quite a few cattle now, hasn’t he.

Margaret: He has. And he used to come and help us rear up the calves. And out of interest of his own he would turn up and help us. And one day, we said to him.”You can feed that little black heifer calf, [information witheld]” and he said “Right” and we said “And that one’s yours!”

CB: Oh!

Margaret: He said, “To keep?” and we said: “Yes!”

CB: Aah…

Margaret: And he went home, and whilst he was eating his tea, he said to his parents, “I’ve been given a black heifer calf to keep all of my own!”

CB: Oh, I bet he was over the moon!

Margaret: He was, and he’s still got her to this day.

CB: Has he?

Margaret: Fourteen, I think. Approximately thirteen or fourteen by now. Could be even a little bit more.

CB: Wow. Now, I like this one. (MD009) Back to your pigs. You liked your pigs, didn’t you.?

Margaret: Well.

CB: No? (laughs)

Margaret: I’m sure I did…

CB: Yeah –

Margaret: And they liked me, because I always had the bucket of food.

CB: Food, yeah. Did you turn then out in the forest for pannage?

Margaret: No.

CB: No. They stayed home; they were your home pigs.

Margaret: Yes.

CB: Now… (MD010)

Margaret: These are our friends, [information witheld], and they’re enjoying a bacon sandwich in Terry’s shed on New Year’s morning; where we had all gathered for every year for about ten years, round his log-burning fire –

CB: Lovely –

Margaret: And a nice cup of tea or coffee.

CB: So it was in the morning? Everyone dressed up…

Margaret: Yes, ten o’clock. Everyone came in whatever they were wearing.

CB: Yeah; done their animals and came to see you.

Margaret: That’s right. And they all came in.

CB: And how many used to come d’you think?

Margaret: Well, to start with it was about eighteen people; but last year it was more like (laughing) forty-five.

CB: Really.

Margaret: Yes.

CB: Wow.

Margaret: And it was Terry’s Christmas party.

CB: Terry’s Christmas Party. So when do you think this was taken? This wasn’t very long ago, was it?

Margaret: No, it wasn’t. It could have been taken – say, the last couple of years. (2014)

CB: Yeah. Yeah, okay. On to number eleven. (MD011) Ah, these are the cooks –

Margaret: [information witheld] and my friend [information witheld] frying the eggs for our family and friends –

CB: For that party –

Margaret: Yes, that’s right.

CB: Oh, I see –

Margaret: Yeah. Last year.

CB: So you had yourself set up out there; looks like you’ve got some cooker tops…

Margaret: We did. And frying pans.

CB: Did you cook everyone breakfast, is that what –

Margaret: Yes, we had bacon eggs and sausage, in a roll, with tea and coffee and a big tin of biscuits and a big tin of sweets and –

CB: What a lovely way to celebrate the New Year.

Margaret: Yes, that’s right.

CB: Yes, that’s really nice, I like that. (MD012) Ah, hard work.

Margaret: This is Terry with [information witheld] and [information witheld], our two grandchildren cleaning the yard after the animals have gone back out onto the forest. They came in to eat every morning at half past six and at approximately one o’clock we opened the gates and they went back to sit up on the common and then we cleaned the yard every day and put out new bales of silage ready for tomorrow morning. Our forest ponies are in the background and we used to let them out half-an-hour after the cows so nobody had a fight.

CB: What I forgot to ask you at the beginning – what was your prefix for the ponies?

Margaret: North Hollow.

CB: North Hollow, and what was your brand?

Margaret: Um – TD.

CB: TD. Right, okay, lovely.

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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.

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Margaret Day Remembers

Margaret married into commoning , with her husband having come to the life aged eighteen. The couple began commoning with ponies, going on to own cattle and later, pigs. Margaret recollects her family’s farming pursuits in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Margaret’s children grew up as commoners; they and their children continue the life.

Margaret Day, transcript and audio part 1

Margaret Day, transcript and audio part 2

Margaret Day, transcript and audio part 3

Margaret Day, transcript and audio part 4

Margaret Day, transcript and audio part 5