D226
<F Gl1>
<S JR>
<G M>
<A 77>
<O RETIRED FARM LABOURER>
<C GLOUCESTERSHIRE>
<V DEERHURST>
<D 12-12-55>
<I SE>
<L CN S105>
<T 10:00>
<JR Oh,
well when the flood come [: came] in here,
(the) first thing you had to do was get all your stuff upstairs,
and your water and # everything.
# All in +…
You stopped up there and they come [: came] along with the boats.
And # with a pitchfork looking.
Put it up in a bundle of xxx to you and # [/] and [\] some more water xxx in the bucket look for the # parks up to you.
you ‘d be up there perhaps for a fortnight up there afore you +…
the water went. JR>
<SE Aye. SE>
<JR [!= sniffs]
I had down in the +…
one down # [/] down [\] as far as the coal house,
some years ago.
And I got about fifteen ducks.
And they got an old house there now,
and # course I pinned them up in this house.
And they were right pinned them up,
I couldn’t get to (th)em.
[!= laughs]
So I had to strip and go through this water up to here look. JR>
<SE Aye. SE>
<JR Oh,
wan’t that cold too.
I let them go.
There was a boat for about three weeks a month about this flood see?
[!= laughs]
Oh the devil in a flood it is. JR>
||
<JR Sometimes they [/] they [\] come [: came] in (the) house about six inches.
(It) might as well been a yard as six inch,
see? JR>
<SE Hmm. SE>
<JR Oh,
we ‘ve had it down in Deerhurst there,
when you xxx xxx for the local bread between # that beam and the water. JR>
<SE Ah. SE>
<JR # Oh,
awful crib [?] it is to live in a flood.
They reckon there ‘s some fellows who ‘ve been in it all their life,
and they wouldn’t come on [: of] it.
(They) won’t come out on [: of] it. JR>
<SE Hmm.
# And there ‘ll be mud and +… SE>
<JR Oh. JR>
<SE All the decorating and +… SE>
<JR All sorts used to come in the house.
# And then before this flood come [: came] in,
we used to have uh banks all way round the village,
see.
# Well,
there ‘d be perhaps forty or fifty on [: of] us,
of a night,
all night long though,
putting those +…
some dirt in one room dirt in another.
Trying to stop it,
see.
# And then there was [*stanks*] across,
what we call ‘planks’,
look.
You had to put that in the +…
Then the wind ‘d blow and we had to put bundles of rods # over it.
Stop it from washing the dirt away look.
# And then in the +…
Perhaps in the finish it ‘d come over (the) top.
Then we were done there then.
[!= laughs] JR>
<SE Aye. SE>
<JR It were like coming into a basin,
when you come in our village see.
(It) filled up like that. JR>
||
<JR And when that water was gone,
if you went to walk across a garden you know,
# water did go in up to your middle.
# (be)cause there ‘s sand down there look. JR>
<SE Hmm. SE>
<JR All under water look. JR>
<SE # Has anybody ever lost their life in it? SE>
<JR No. JR>
<SE Oh? SE>
<JR No,
a lot on [: of] (th)em have # fell in it,
and like that,
but # (I) never knowed [: knew] anybody lost their life down there. JR>
||
<SE Living there? SE>
<JR No,
well +?. JR>
<SE Upstairs? SE>
<JR Once when I was very small,
(a)bout six seven year old,
we went to my uncles up on the bank,
my mother and # four or five on [: of] us did.
# Father wouldn’t come away.
He stopped upon our +…
On [/] on [\] the shed,
there was tin on the top.
He had a barrel of cider on the top.
It was in May.
And he stopped in there and drunk this cider,
and then he planks to get in the house at night in the +…
that ‘s how he +…
He had about a fortnight there look.
[!= laughs] JR>
<SE Did he finish the cider? SE>
<JR Aye.
He finished the cider.
[!= laughs]
It was warm you know,
top of that tin and in +…
It was in May,
look. JR>
<SE Aye. SE>
<JR What you call ‘a May flood’. JR>
||
<JR I remember one Christmas Eve it come [: came] in about six inches.
[!= laughs] JR>
<SE Hmm. SE>
<JR And uh +…
We ‘d got a great big bacon pig killed.
(You) used to cut (th)em up on a bench,
you know.
# My father and two or three more ‘d been off for like a lot of cider in some sheds,
and they got too much cider in (th)em see,
and they come [: came] there and they were # falling in this water.
I and mother and old +…
We trying to get this # pig upstairs and cut it up on a bench I remember.
An awful job,
I tell you.
[!= sniffs] JR>
||
<JR I seen a chap once,
# he got a bit of a high garden.
We was +…
Some on [: of] us on this piece and there was somebody’s mother,
and he +…
She was going for a ramble.
# He got the +…
to a pig’s cott look.
We jumped off this pig’s cott.
He went in the dirt,
and he couldn’t get out.
Know how he had to get out?
He had to roll all the way through this mud and water to get out on [: of] it.
(He) couldn’t step on it see,
(be)cause it went down with you. JR>
||
<JR Like him,
he just like to get and paddle in it.
# And I went out of a night,
uh I went a-card playing afore now,
we have,
to another bloke’s house,
and # got to cross ditches and uh brooks and that.
We ‘d a plank put across her,
see?
Dark.
And I used to scrabble in them,
on my hands and knees across there.
Get back in to it look. JR>
<SE Hmm.
[!= laughs] SE>
<JR Oh,
we like rats.
We knowed [: knew] our cuts about,
see? JR>
<SE Aye.
# But it is possible,
is it?
If it doesn’t come too high,
to stop it with these banks? SE>
<JR Ah well,
them banks was looked after well years ago when there was a farmer down there name of Phillips.
He used to get so much mo- money granted him out of the parish,
see.
And the +…
when the money was gone,
we went for a week or two out of horses and carts and kept the banks good.
And then there ‘s what they call ‘sluices’.
that ‘s # flood gates,
see.
Them got to be looked after,
see.
Well,
if them gets aught older,
them ‘ll let it in.
They used to let it in and let it out look.
# Well since he died,
nobody hasn’t bothered with it.
it ‘s all gone to wrack and ruin,
see. JR>
<SE Aye.
It very much depends upon # one man,,
doesn’t it? SE>
<JR Aye.
Well,
that one as lives at uh # Morrisey’s or +…
Where the xxx,
he ‘s the one as gets it worse,
see?
(be)cause he had any cattle or anything like,
they reckon pigs he got to ship them all up to another farm,
see. JR>
||
<SE Don’t they catch eels with something round here? SE>
||
<JR Oh,
that be what they calls ‘elver net’. JR>
<SE Oh yes. SE>
<JR Aye.
Elver net.
you # gets down to the water look,
and you # gradually sweeps (th)em round.
# And perhaps you ‘d have a basin full sometimes.
Oh,
sometimes you get a lot more than that.
Sometimes less.
Then you shuts (th)em into a bucket.
# I ‘ve been wi(th) a bucket full,
got to +…
Only calls ‘a dropping bag’,
made of canvass.
well you got to shut him in that bag,
and screw (th)em look.
# Keep screwing (th)em and all the froth come out on [: of] (th)em.
Roll (th)em or screw (th)em.
Well you get as many in that bag sometimes you couldn’t carry (th)em.
You would have to drag (th)em along the ground or get a wheelbarrow to fetch (th)em.
If you gets a good time.
Sometimes they catch a lot,
sometimes none.
I been out all night afore night and never see one.
And sometimes you catch barrowfuls and bagfuls.
But they ain’t +/. JR>
<OS xxx xxx xxx. OS>
<JR There aren’t so many catched [: caught] today though.
Not so many go after (th)em nowadays.
(be)cause the banks just built +/. JR>
<OS Well,
there ‘s Roberts. OS>
<JR Oh,
he do say he catch a few,
sure it will,
but # we don’t do much at it now.
# Anyway,
they don’t catch no # salmon in the river now.
that ‘s all stopped,
see.
This rod and line job stopped that.
Clubs stopped it. JR>
<SE Hmm.
They used to go for salmon,,
did they? SE>
<JR Oh,
used to be all up the river,
salmon did.
xxx xxx xxx +…
Every so often look,
salmon nets.
# And this fishing lot,
# stopped it.
They gets more money,
look,
with these licences than they did for that net.
They ‘d pay about five or six pound for that net look.
Oh,
they gets thousands these +…
If you know how much they paid for (the) rod and line today.
Oh,
and they stopped it look.
Well,
they can’t catch a salmon on the rod and line.
Not up on this river. JR>
||
<JR Well,
when I was a lad on the river,
they used to have a tug.
# What they call ‘the tug’.
He would draw the +…
(a)bout thirty or forty behind him.
Long boats.
Then uh +…
Oh,
what they call them other things?
Oh,
traw- trawlers [?].
They used to bring # stone back down them trawlers.
Them stone was unloaded,
on the riverside look.
And put on the side of the road here,
and all in carts,
and they had to be broke [: broken] by hand,
all them stone did,
years ago.
Used to give a shilling a ton for breaking them.
# that ‘s all they had.
And the coal used to be all brought down here look.
# And from Apperley here on Deerhurst look.
Well in one they brought that coal,
they ‘d be all around with their horse and carts look,
and shut up.
You had to get in yourself. JR>
<SE # And is the river now not used half so much? SE>
<JR Oh,
he [/] he [\] ‘s used more now than ever he was.
(be)cause there ‘s this oil.
Oh,
there ‘s thousands of tonnes of oil goes up on that river. JR>
<SE Hmm. SE>
<JR Many oil # tankers,
oil tankers. JR>
<SE Hmm. SE>
Transcription by Juhani Klemola and Mark Jones, 1999 See http://digital.library.leeds.ac.uk/381/1/LSE_1999_pp17-30_Klemola_Jones_article.pdf and http://www2.iath.virginia.edu/ach-allc.99/proceedings/scott.html
