Z1205/098

Female. Farmer's wife and former domestic servant b. 15.04.1924 The Informant was born in Abingdon, Oxfordshire and later moved to East Hanney. After leaving school she went into service locally and in Abingdon. At the outbreak of war she worked in the Food Office, before joining her future husband on his farm. In 1946 she moved with her husband and family to Brogborough, Bedfordshire, where they took over the tenancy of a farm owned by the brickworks. They continued to farm there until the early 1990s. The interview includes recollections of her rural childhood, domestic practices and customs. The informant attended a local school, and after leaving went to work as a maid with two local families and a household in Abingdon. She recalls her duties and the dynamics of life below stairs.The Informant's experience of farming was mainly of keeping livestock (cows, sheep pigs and horses,) and together they recall the difficulties and successes of fifty years of farming alongside the brickworks in Marston Vale. The Informant's husband (INF2) was a keen huntsman and he recalls his years of hunting with the Oakley Hunt. The couple also talk about their children's careers in other areas of work. Side A (00 mins)Date and place of informant's birth, family origins and careers, father's military career. Family move to East Hanney and description of village. (5 mins)Life at village school. Mother's work on local landowner's farm, father's work at Didcote. Local tradesmen. Grandparents near Farringdon. (10 mins)Grandfather's farm work. Play at grandmother's. Home produced food and wine. Transport between Buscot and Hanney. (15 mins)More life with grandparents. Music and entertainment, dancing. (20 mins)Arrival of electricity and motorcars in village. Mechanisation of local tradespeople. Recollections of play at home. (25 mins)Local walking and cycling. A visit to the seaside. Comparison of town and country life. Learning to cook in large school in Wantage. (30 mins)School cooking and home cooking. End of Side A Side B (00 mins)Informant's reasons for going into service. First job with local vicar as nursery maid. Move to larger house as housemaid. (5 mins)Uniform and duties. Cooking when the cook was ill. (10 mins)More inexperienced cooking. How the menus were decided. (15 mins)New job in Abingdon. Visits home on days off. Better conditions in new job. (20 mins)Visits home. Freedom in childhood. War work in Food Office. Reasons for moving to fiance's farm and the nature of work there. (25 mins)Enjoyment of work. Reasons to move to Bedfordshire. Looking round the new farm. (30 mins)Her work on the farm. Electricity and 'mod-cons' on the new farm. End of Side B C2Side A (00 mins)Sheep farming, improving the land. Her role in lambing. Problems with fluoride emissions from the brickworks. Owners of the farm. (5 mins)Emissions of heavy metal and sulphur, the effects on cows and sheep. TB and how they got rid of it from the herd. (10 mins)TB continued. Milk production and improvements under the Milk Marketing Board. (15 mins)Milk quotas. Keeping pigs and the lack of profit from them. Oldest son's career in building. (20 mins)Second son and his ponies. Children's involvement in farm and other careers. (25 mins)Informant's love of pigs. Daughter's nursing career. Changes in climate and extreme weather conditions (cold). (30 mins)Effect of freeze on farm. End of Side A Side B (00 mins)Floods. Family holidays. Change in milking practice in sixties. Drought in late seventies. (05 mins)Expansion of brickworks. Milking and cow husbandry. Advent of Shanks and McEwan. (10 mins)Informant 2 on how he started to hunt, and horses. Trips to boxing in London. (15 mins)Hunting continued. Wife's limited involvement in riding and hunting. More holidays. Review of life. (20 mins)Holidays now they are older. Recollections of hunting as a child (Old Berks Hunt). Class composition of hunting field. (25 mins)Hunt subscriptions. Point-to-points. (30 mins)More about point-to-points. END OF INTERVIEW,Original interview 120 mins

31 January 2002

From: 1920 To: 2002

item

London Brick Company,
London Brick Farms Limited,
Marston Valley Brickworks,
Oakley Hunt,
Shanks McEwan

farmer, domestic servant, employment of women, World War Two, Food Office, brick worker, tenancy, livestock, sheep, pigs, horses, army, wine, food, TRANSPORT, dancing, entertainment, electricity, cars, plays, cycling, cook, schools, vicar, nursery, housekeeper, wages/conditions, CHILDREN, electricity, land lady, agricultural land, pollution, TB, cattle disease, Milk Marketing Board, building trade, nurse, weather, ice, frost, floods, holidays, drought, husbandry - theory and development, boxing, horses, hunting, Lidlington North Common Farm, Abingdon, Oxfordshire, BROGBOROUGH, Didcot, CRANFIELD, MARSTON MORETAINE, STEWARTBY, LIDLINGTON, WOOTTON