Z1205/107

Male. Agricultural surveyor b. 08.06.1920 Side A (00 mins)Father was army officer from London. Paternal family were high-class butchers in London. Mother's family were farmers from Cambridgeshire. Father and mother's families were friends. (05 mins)Childhood visits to Cambridgeshire farms. Father served in both First and Second World Wars in army. Between the wars, was a gentleman farmer in Wavendon. Interviewee had a brother and sister. He had a governess, then attended a preparatory school locally, before going to Bedford School. (10 mins)Middle class leisure pursuits: amateur dramatics, tennis afternoons, hunting with hounds in winter. Cricket, rugby. Vintage cars. Remembers farming using horses. Boarding schools. The coming of electricity to the farmhouse in 1930s (15 mins)Wireless bought by father in 1927, powered by accumulator batteries. Home deliveries of most food. After School certificate exams, joined Territorial Army (1938) prior to expected war. Joined Peacocks in Bedford as pupil surveyor and auctioneer. Commissioned into army. 1930s Bedford. Impact of Harpur Trusts on subsidised private education. (20 mins)War experience. Commissioned into Indian Army. He was 19 when the war started and 26 when he left the army. After the war, returned to Peacocks to finish exams, then moved to W.S. Johnson, where he soon became a partner. (25 mins)He ran the cattle market at Bletchley and was a Tenant Right Valuer. Organisation of markets. Up to 1967, Bletchley Market would sell up to 200 cattle, 800 sheep, 200 pigs weekly. Creation of new town, Milton Keynes resulted in huge area of farm land being compulsarily purchased for building. Moved to Leighton Buzzard cattle market. Negotiated compensation for farmers. Thinks Milton Keynes is a big improvement on earlier new towns, thanks to more room and extensive planting of green areas. (30 mins)Took up case of local farmers in area of London Brick Company where there appeared to be fluorine poisoning of cattle from chimney pollution of grass. Eventually won compensation and buyout of these farms by the brick company. Experienced the power of the large brick company, c. 1959-60 (32 mins)End of Side A Side B (00 mins)More on legal action against LBC brick company by National Farmers Union. Reflections on the impact of localised pollution fog on the new M1 motorway and a major (1970s?) motorway crash involving up to 30 people, killed or injured. The effect of Dutch Elm Disease in decimating the elm trees in Bedfordshire (early 1970s?). account of his driving test in Bedford when he was 17. Driving a car in the late 1930s when few people owned cars. Continuing interest in watching sports. (11 mins)End of Side B. End of Interview. Original Interview 40 mins.

26 February 2002

From: 1915 To: 2002

item

Harpur Trust,
W. and H.Peacock,
London Brick Company

surveyor, AGRICULTURE, army officer, butchers, farms, World War One, World War Two, governess, Bedford School, schools, class issues, hunting, tennis, cricket, Rugby Union, horses, electricity, radio, food, Territorial Army, Indian Army, Auctioneers Institute, cattle, markets, pigs, trees, pollution, grass, chimneys, courts, legal process, National Farmers Union, M1, motorways, road accidents, injury, DEATH, Dutch, elm, London, Cambridgeshire, Wavendon, Bletchley, new town Milton Keynes, LEIGHTON BUZZARD