Z1205/157

Male. Bricklayer. Family in Millbrook for three generations. b. 03.09.1923 SIDE A (00 mins)Raised in Millbrook. Maternal grandparents in Steppingley. Childhood experiences of farming. (05 mins)Collecting milk from the local farm. (10 mins)Doing errands and odd-jobs as a child. Local pubs: The Chequers; The Ossory Arms. Toll-Road Hill. Tar Road Hill. (15 mins)The Plantation. Parson's Hill. Family in village for over four hundred years. (20 mins)Grandfather always looked after horses on Warren Farm, Millbrook. Paternal grandmother made a lot of wine and home-made remedies. As children, collected hedgerow fruit: sloes to make sloe gin; elderberries. Using fir cones as fire fuel. (25 mins)Grandmother's remedies. Comfrey-root poultice for sprained ankles. Bread poultice to draw out a poison in a septic cut. Tee-total chapel-goer. (30 mins)Children not allowed to play on a Sunday. (See Mary George booklet, giving some medicinal remedies used in village) (32 mins)End of Side A SIDEB (00 mins)The sweetness of grandmother's home-made wine. A few particularly religious families would not cook on Sundays but eat cold meals. Pet rabbits. (05 mins)Reflects on present-day notions of what is cruel in relation to killing rodents. Rats. Father served apprenticeship as a blacksmith in Ampthill. The fumes of the forge made him ill so he changed to farm work. Good with horses. 12 or 15 horses on most farms. (10 mins)Warren Farm was were the Millbrook Proving Ground is now. Children helped at harvest time, during school holidays. Workmen's pride in making a well-built hay stack. Maternal grandparents from Steppingley. Kept poultry. Most villagers had one or two pigs. Runt pig called a "Little Harry". Sometimes given to boys to look after and feed up. (15 mins)Sunday School teas in the fields once a year. A sweet scramble for wrapped sweets thrown in the air. Swing put up in the trees and races. Forty or so kids. Remembers excellent food that (Millbrook) Gran made. Her own bread and cakes. Steppingley Gran cooked Christmas cake. Recipes for rabbit, pigeon and pheasant. (20 mins)Poaching the Duke of Bedford's pheasants to feed the children. Tried to lure pheasants into gardens and shoot them with catapults. Didn't even let the neighbours know you had got a pheasant. Estate workers gradually moved to work in the brickworks to earn more money. They could afford to eat meat 2 or 3 times a week. (25 mins)He was apprenticed to be a bricklayer, through a relation in Steppingley and a village charity which paid for it. He got 8s. 6d (42 ½ p) a week, whereas workers in the brickyards got 17s.8d (89p) a week. Saturday night at the "pictures" (cinema) in Ampthill. Keen on sports: football, judo in Luton, boxing. Play football for Ampthill Town until 36. Found entertainment that didn't cost money. Experiences at Millbrook School. Chasing girls with a bat (mammal). His name was entered in the Punishment Book. (30 mins)Punished for having muddy boots, even though he had to do work on the farm before school. (32 mins)End of Side B.CONTINUED ON CS157C2 SIDE A (00 mins)Had to cycle to Ampthill for school at 11. Choice of British School (non-conformist) or National School (Church of England). Passed exam to go to Bedford Modern School but parents could not afford to send him. (05 mins)Village Trust pad the bond for an apprenticeship. Later, the Trust gave grants to help villagers attend the Harpur (private) Schools in Bedford. Another trust paid for coal for villagers once a year (now £10 at Christmas for pensioners). (10 mins)Has attended the non-conformist school, The Sands School (now a restaurant, with school bell still on top). Four teachers and a Headmaster who taught the top (eldest) class. Football team. (15 mins)Saturday shopping in Ampthill. Left school at 14. Followed his uncle, who was a bricklayer, by being apprenticed for 5 years to Puttman, a builder. Learned bricklaying, plastering, tiling. Workers had to cycle everywhere. Did a lot of works for the Duke of Bedford's estate. (20 mins)Cement and concrete mixing by hand was laborious. Informal competitions as to who could carry the most bricks in a hod (wooden carrying equipment, held against one shoulder, on a pole). "Hospital job" always kept in reserved, to do when work was short or they were waiting for another job to commence. Sometimes took eighteen months to build a house. (25 mins)Helped also to build estate roads and sewers. Worked in Milton Keynes when the new town was being built. After one year, wage went up to 10s.6d(52 ½ p) per week (brickyard workers were earning 17s. 8d). They'd go the pictures twice a week; he could only afford to go once. (30 mins)After paying for his board and lodging, he kept 1s.6d. Uncle bought clothes for him and he repaid 6d a week. Studied maths and algebra at night school, later a correspondence course. (32 mins)End of Side A SIDE B (00 mins)Took City & Guilds exam in building construction and then a Higher National Certificate. Visited The Old George (now a private house), Ampthill, on Saturday nights, playing bar billiards in the back room. Had to walk home; last bus at 9pm.. (05 mins)Never girls or women in the bar, until the Second World War. Went into the Royal Navy when he was 19, although he could have been exempted because he was building aerodromes for the war effort. All his mates were in the Forces so he pestered until he was allowed to enter. He became a signalman in communications. (10 mins)Learned Morse code and wireless operations. Sent to Chatham Barracks. Took part in Atlantic and Russian convoys, D-Day invasion and then to Australia and the Pacific. HMS Undaunted. (15 mins)Reflections on war. Remembering the good times and blocking out the nasty things. Incidents during Russian convoy patrols. (20 mins)Got married during the war. Wartime tented holiday camp inAmpthill Park. Factory workers would do farm work during the day. (25 mins)Changes in life in Millbrook during his lifetime. Pre-war estate workers keeping everything spick and span. Every house had 40 pole of ground to cultivate. Duke of Bedford sold off the estate cottages in the village. Recently a Village Hall has been built and a playing field. No shops any more. (32 mins)End of Side B.END OF INTERVIEW Original interview 120mins.

18 September 2002

From: 1920 To: 2002

CD copy of recording available in searchroom for customer use.

item

London Brick Company,
Marston Valley Brickworks

brick maker, builder, farmer, child labour, Public House, Ampthill Warren Farm, wine, alcohol, MEDICINE & HEALTH, animal cruelty, pigs, Sunday Schools, poaching, apprenticeship, wages/conditions, Millbrook School, punishment, trusts, Harpur Trust, EDUCATION, World War Two, air force aerodromes, Russians, village halls, MILLBROOK, Flitwick Steppingley Road, AMPTHILL, new town Milton Keynes, Chatham, Australia, Ampthill Park, STEWARTBY