Z1205/184

Male. Local authority forest worker. b. 16.02.1958 SIDE A (00 mins)Born in Gravenhurst. Mother from Gravenhurst. Father died when he was very young. Stepfather from Evesham, Worcestershire. Maternal grandmother from Gravenhurst. Two younger sisters. Social life in the old village hall. Doors never locked. Everybody knew everybody. Very reluctant, as a young child, to attend school. (05 mins)Loved roaming the countryside and studying wildlife. Dad worked at Vauxhall car factory, Luton. Couldn't afford to go away on holiday. Summer holidays seemed to last for ever. He and a friend were friendly with the local gamekeeper. He showed them how birds were raised. He drove a tractor form the age of 9 at a local farm. Had a boat and used to go on river through Wrest Park. Swam in a local lake. (10 mins)Gravenhurst ha d two Church of England churches - Upper Gravenhurst and Lower Gravenhurst - plus a non-conformist chapel, shop, garage and pub. Shop now closed. Village hall centre of social life. Horse and cart used to visit collecting scrap. Fred Peck, local chicken farmer, always worked in a three-piece suit, with tie. Attended local primary school, then Bloomfield School, Shefford, later the new Samuel Whitbread Secondary School. Took Certificate of Secondary Education exams (CSEs) before leaving. Enormous change from two-room infants to large secondary school with corridors and many classrooms. (15 mins)Always keen on art and painting. Parents got him a job as a sign writer, with a man designing hand-painted pub signs, but he couldn't stand working indoors. Moved to Southill on the Whitbread Estates as a woodsman. Used old-fashioned methods and tools. Chainsaws were only just beginning to be used. Hard work with axes and cross-cut saws. 8 hours a days weekdays and Saturday morning. £14 first wage packet. Looked after Exeter Wood and Rowney Warren. (20mins)Scots pine, larch, oak. Stayed 3 years. Last job was preparing the larch tree which became the maypole at Ickwell Green. Moved to work in a tree gang for Bedfordshire County Council in November 1976. Planting in winter, mainly ash trees, and weeding with a sickle in summer. (25 mins)Many species planted over the years, but mainly thorn, field ample, ash and oak plantations and hedges. Increased mechanisation over the years of spraying, using chemicals, which speeded up weeding. Now looks after 200 sites. Safer chemicals now used than the first ones, such as paraquate-based Gramoxi, which was strong and might affect the soil. Twice-yearly weeding of less than a metre area around each tree, to allow growth. Once trees are established, n further weeding is required. (30 mins)Conservation became a priority from the early 1980s. A lot of trees were planted for pheasant rearing for recreational shooting. Trees planted in corners of fields where combined harvesters couldn't get. SIDE B (00 mins)Growth of nature reserves and Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs) in Bedfordshire. Marston Thrift, a coppiced wood, is one, dating back to 1287. The wood was used for peat, furniture, keeping stock in, cooking, hunting. (05 mins)Deer counts and licensed shooting to control muntjac (prevalent local deer) numbers. Grey squirrels are another pest, destroying trees and taking birds eggs. Bedfordshire is one of the least-forested counties in England. He has the satisfaction of seeing 25-year old trees that he planted and the frustration of seeing other 20-year old trees, such as ash, sycamore, beech and oak destroyed by squirrels in places such as Campton Plantation. (10 mins)Red squirrels don't cause damage but there aren't any in Bedfordshire; only grey squirrels. Badger colony in Marston Thrift. Foxes. Rare birds such as the Honey Buzzard. A variety of bats. Rare plants such as Forster's woodrush. Rare butterflies such as the Black Hairstreak Butterfly. Looks after 7 ancient woodlands altogether in Beds, including Kings Wood. (15 mins)Planted trees on the Marston Bypass road in the late 1970s.Trees used to dull out sound of cars for local housing, as a wildlife corridor and for aesthetic reasons. Improved methods relating to tree planting and forestry management. (20 mins)Satisfaction of the work in woods because of the continuing growth of what you have planted. Courses in forestry. Optimistic view of countryside management. Educating young people about woodlands and encouraging the growth of "friends". (25 mins)Potential for more education of school-age children about wood conservation. (32 mins)End of Side B Original Interview 60 mins

8 January 2003

From: 1955 To: 2003

item

Vauxhall,
Peck, Fred

forestry worker, Bedfordshire County Council, village halls, infant schools, Countrywide Surveyors, gamekeeper, birds, child labour, tractors, horses, farmer, Samuel Whitbread Upper School, arts, wages/conditions, trees, pollution, conservation, shooting, SSSIs, deer parks, squirrels, pest houses, badgers, foxes, bats, butterflies, GRAVENHURST, Evesham, Wrest Park, CHURCH, SOUTHILL, Exeter, Rowney, Ickwell Green, Marston Thrift, CAMPTON, Ampthill Kings Wood, MARSTON MORETAINE