Elizabeth & John Price
| CD No. 2 | No. of tracks: 15 | Length: | 29′ 49″ |
| Interviewees: | Elizabeth & John Price | ||
| Parish: | Rowlstone | ||
| Date of Interview: | 24 November 2004 | ||
| Place of interview: | Church Farm, Rowlstone. | ||
| Interviewer: | Graham Sprackling. | ||
| Technician: | Clive South. | ||
| Indexed by: | Jenny Houston, tel. 01873 860638. e-mail: ienny@houston1773.fsnet.co.uk | ||
| Date: | 31 March 2005. | ||
CD Track Listing
Track 1
00:01 [TECHNICAL INFORMATION- CUT, START AT TRACK 2]
Track 2
00:01 ELIZABETH – Intro and Early Days – born 1934 at Abbeydore, lives now at Church Farm, Rowlstone.
Track 3
00:01 Moved to Rowlstone 1964 – changes since then = less activity in Parish Hall, no whist drives, no youth club – collection of milk used to be in churns
Now tanker
00:38 [CUT TO 00:51]
00:51 Roadmen doing stretches of road, now mechanical digger for ditches – no personal interest.
01:18 Used to kill a pig.
01:27 Special person would open events at Hall.
Track 4
00:01 Working Life – taught at Hunderton Infants School [Hereford], sometimes drove there, lift or bus.
00:34 Learnt to drive at School of Motoring in Hereford.
Track 5
00:01 Church – service every Sunday, midweek youth club, vicar visited – Revs Wheatley and Kirkpatrick (still keeps in touch). No Sunday school, annual outing to Weston – Rev.Kirkpatrick always worried about bus capacity – good day out, fish & chips – husband John stayed at home on farm.
02:10 No school at Rowlstone, children went to Walterstone (teacher = Miss Colley) or down to Ewyas Harold.
02:30 Social events at church – hall events – youth club – whist drives. 03:16 Games – musical chairs, etc. – Rowlands Family, no info.
Track 6
00:01 Dances – no farmers’ club – whist drives with occasional dance afterwards good dances there 1930s and 1940s (Mrs Gwillim, Bridge, used to play), but not in 1950s or 1960s.
Track 7
00:01 The War Years – No POWs at Rowlstone – Alf Gwatkin had been in Germany and married a German wife.
00:22 Saunders family (Michaelchurch) had a German (Hans) who married their daughter Nancy Saunders.
Track 8
00:01 Local Stories, etc- there was an Alehouse down in their orchard – white sheet to frighten somebody and person killed (story via Kath Ball). Local Words – Log of wood across stream to stop neighbours cattle is Called an “Argie”
01:28 [CUT FROM 01:28 TO 01:54 AND GO TO TRACK 91
Track 9
00:01 Working day as farmer’s wife – didn’t help outside – duties mainly running. house – meals had to be on time – mid-morning break for bait – dinner at 1 pm – John and his brother there.
01:20 Taking tea out to fields, basket with cake and sandwiches.
01:45 Didn’t make butter or cheese.
02:00 Made wine for a time, elderberry, also tried cider making with windfalls.
Track 10
00:01 Local Characters – Mr Tinton, roadman, also looked after gardens – played hide-and-seek with Elizabeth’s daughter, Helen.
01 No tramps, only one gipsy selling pegs. No water in house, water came 1965, electricity 1960.
02:07 Casual farm workers – George Watkins had a man rabbiting, stayed in shed – also Mr Mailes at Dulas.
02:58 Jimmy Pross or Bill Blackbird – hoe or help with hay, stopped 1960s.
Track 11
00:01 JOHN – Started farming at Church House 1952, paid £7,500 for it. Changes – brother there with him, bought some land at Cefn, Dulas no house with it – bought on at St Margarets.
01:25 Sheep and beef plus roots and bit of corn to feed stock.
01:45 First tractor = Fordson Major – horses previously before coming to Rowlstone – rode carthorses.
02:38 Markets – Hereford on Wednesday – lorry transport – some animals taken from Peterchurch Station – also Ewyas Harold Market, walked stock down Hill Lane – Ewyas Harold Market didn’t last very long.
04:10 Hereford for grading – auctioneers Russell, Baldwin and Bright, sometimes Chadwicks.
04:38 Water supply, pipe from spring on yard, better drinking water from spring down road. Pond near house, spring from rocks.
Track 12
00:01 Stock – 50 beef cattle till had more land, then 115; 100 sheep, then 400-500 ewes.
00:49 Dipped at neighbours (Farr, Penworlod) by stream till built own dip.
01:22 Shearing on yard – professional shearers came in.
02:00 Never bothered with auctions or shows.
02:20 No horses kept at Church Farm – bought pony for daughter.
03:11 A few geese and hens kept.
03:27 Had worker on farm.
Track 13
00:01 Reclaimed land – some wood, gorsty ground and bracken.
00:39 No accidents although chances taken.
Track 14
00:01 Rowlstone Mill – water wheel working but not grinding – wheel used for electric light – wheel used to winch potatoes up on to a tollet to load on lorry.
00:50 Mill stopped using wheel for electric – this was the Upper Mill, other had gone.
Track 15
00:01 ELIZABETH – Well opposite Esther’s house – hole in bank before Vicarage gate – Beris’s mother used to fetch water from Church Farm well for Lemonade.
Interview Transcript
Elizabeth & John Price interviewed by Graham Sprackling.
Tell me about the changes to the area that you have noticed over the years, Elizabeth.
I am Elizabeth Price and I was born in 1934 on a small farm in Abbey Dore. I now live at Church Farm, Rowlstone. I moved here in 1964. I’ve noticed there’s less activity in the Rowlstone Hall now…people don’t have whist drives and the Youth Club has gone. There used to be a collection of milk in churns but now we have a tanker collecting the milk. There used to be a road man clearing the ditches by hand but now a mechanical digger does it. We used to kill a pig but we don’t anymore. In the past when we had an event a the Hall we used to ask a business person or someone special to open it, but we don’t anymore. I used to teach at Hunderton Infants School in Hereford. I would drive there usually or get a lift or the bus. I learned to drive in Hereford at the School of Motoring opposite the Eye Hospital. It was a very painful experience!
Church
There used to be a service every Sunday. The minister ran a mid-week Youth
Club and he visited quite a bit. We had Mr Wheatley and when he left we had Mr Kirkpatrick who still rings sometimes since John has been unwell, to see how he is. We didn’t have a Sunday School, but we did have an annual Outing. We went to Weston once and Mr Kirkpatrick used to worry whether he needed another bus or whether everyone would fit in one bus. We had good weather. We had fish & chips & everyone had a good time. John rarely came. He used to stay at home and work on the farm. We didn’t have a school here, the children went to Rowlstone. Miss Colley was a teacher up there. Things that went on in the Hall were sometimes organised by the church…whist drives, socials and the Youth Club. We played games at the socials – musical chairs and so on. There were no farmers’ clubs or activities. There were no dances as such. Sometimes we had a whist drive which was followed by a dance. But these died out. In the 1930s and 40s there were good dances and Mrs Gwillim of the Bridge used to play, but there was nothing in the 1950s and 60s.
The War Years.
There were no PoWs in Rowlstone. Alf Gwatkin had been to Germany and had married a German girl. They had PoWs in Michaelchurch….the Saunders family had a German called “Hans” who married their daughter, Nancy.
Local Stories.
There used to be an Alehouse down in the orchard where Helen’s got her bungalow. Someone had too much to drink one night so people decided to frighten him by dressing up in a big white sheet. But they smacked him so hard that they killed him…. l think. That’s the story…Kath Ball told me but when I asked her more about it she didn’t seem to back it up. Some local words have disappeared. A local word for a log put across a stream to keep out the neighbour’s cattle was “Argie” but it’s not used any more.
Working day as a farmer’s wife.
I didn’t help outside much…l didn’t well I hadn’t much time really. I mainly ran the house. We had to have our meals on time so that work on the farm was not held up. We’d have a mid-morning break at ten o’clock when we’d have a cup of tea and some bread and cheese. Then I did a bit of cleaning. Perhaps. We had dinner at one so that the men weren’t kept waiting about. If it was a fine day, you had to be extra particular that you didn’t hold them up to get on with the hay or whatever was being done. I took tea out to them in the fields. I did this till fairly recently. I’ve plenty of flasks in the dairy. I would take cake and sandwiches and a drink, but never cider…they had to be able to work! I didn’t make butter or cheese but I wanted to make wine when I first came here. Elderberry wine….but after a few years it seemed a lot of work. I made some cider one year just by chopping up some windfalls. I took some up to Mr Kirkpatrick and the smoke came out when I took the top off….l think it was fairly strong.
Local Characters.
There were many local “characters” years ago. Mr Tinton was one. He was the roadman. Brian Tinton, his son, still works for us on a Saturday now. Mr Tinton used to come around about 10 0’clock and Helen, when she was a little girl, would go out and sit on some sleepers in the yard and he would give her the cheese out of his sandwiches. He was so kind. He used to look after some gardens…Ester’s garden was one. She had a swing there and Helen would go down with him and he would give her lots of swings. And on the granary steps he would give her lots of jumps and he played hide-and-seek with her. She’d get under the table and he would say “you think you’re safe there…” He was a big man but he used to play with them. There were no tramps in the area but we did once have some gypsies. He sold some pegs or something and I was a bit frightened. They wanted a drink of water…of course we didn’t have water in the house then, we had to carry it from a spring over the way. It was a big day in 1965 when the water was connected. The electricity came in 1960, I think. George Watkins used to have a man for rabbiting. There used to be lots of rabbits at the Court and a man would come and stay in a shed and catch rabbits then move on again. Mr Mailes at Dulas used to do that, too. Nobody came hoeing, not here. Earlier on Jimmy Pross or Bill Blackbird would come round and hoe or help with a bit but that stopped in the 1960s.
John’s Farming Life
I first started farming here in 1952 and paid E7500 for the farm. Over the years there have been many changes. As time went on, my brother came here with me and we needed more to do. As the farm was paid for we were looking for something else. We bought some land at Cefn, Dulas, but there was no house with it, so it still didn’t suit us as there were two of us. So we bought one at St Margaret’s then. We kept mainly beef and sheep. We grew a few roots and things and corn to feed the stock. My first tractor was a Fordson-Major. Before that it was all horses, but that was before I came to Rowlstone. I used Hereford Market, mostly. We took the stock by lorry. There was a train which took the animals from Peterchurch. We also walked the stock down Hill Lane to Ewyas Harold to the market there, but that market didn’t last very long. We took the animals to Hereford to be graded. Mainly the auctioneers we used were Russell, Baldwin & Bright, sometimes Chadwicks. There was a pipe from a spring that we used in the yard for water, but we didn’t drink that. We carried water from a spring down the road to drink…it was better water.
Animals on the farm.
I only had beef cattle and sheep…once we got going it was about 50 cattle until we bought some more land then it was about 115. We had about 100 sheep to start with which went up to about 4-500 ewes. We used to dip them at neighbours’ until we got our own dip…Mr Farr at Penworlod. We used to shear in the yard then, but had professional shearers as we got busier. I never bothered with auctions or shows. My daughter had a pony but we didn’t have horses here. We kept a few geese and hens one time, but not a lot. We had a worker to help us on the farm at the start. We had quite a bit of re-claiming land to do at the beginning…gorse and bracken, that kind of thing. Some of the fields were quite steep but I had no accidents though I was lucky considering some of the risks I took. I wouldn’t do it now!
Rowlstone Mill.
The water mill was still working when I came here. They had given up grinding but the mill was used for lighting. Also they would use it to winch up bags of potatoes to go on the lorry.
Elizabeth.
There was a well discovered opposite Ester’s house. One day a hole appeared in the bank just before you get to Vicarage Gate. Neil Miller, the owner, thought a fox had been digging, but it was a well. It’s surprising how many little wells there are round here. The water is very good. Beris’s mother used to fetch water from Church Farm well to make her lemonade.