D221 

<F Mon1> 

<S Jim Thomas> 

<G M> 

<A 75> 

<O FARM LABOURER> 

<C MONMOUTHSHIRE> 

<V SKENFRITH> 

<D 10-12-55> 

<I SE> 

<L CN S103> 

<T 8:00> 

  

<SE course things ‘ll have altered a lot +/. SE> 

<JT Oh Lord. 

Aye. 

Too and be gone up dearer now. JT> 

<SE Aye. SE> 

<JT Oh aye. 

About five or six times as dear as when we bought it. 

I should say we bought this about +… 

Oh, 

thirty five year ago. JT> 

<SE Hmm. SE> 

<JT Farms is cheap then, 

you know. JT> 

<SE Hmm. 

And farming methods are different,, 

aren’t they? SE> 

<JT Oh Lord. 

Aye. 

Tractors. 

All horses in them days. JT> 

<SE Hmm. SE> 

<JT Tractors now and +… 

Them can ride all day. 

That do please (th)em I think. 

[!= laughs] JT> 

<SE Aye. SE> 

<JT They don’t like to walk today. JT> 

<SE No. 

# You liked the horses,, 

did you? SE> 

<JT Oh, 

I liked the horses. 

Oh aye. JT> 

<SE Hmm. SE> 

<JT Go and plough. JT> 

<SE Hmm. SE> 

<JT I liked ploughing. JT> 

<SE What was your best horse? SE> 

<JT Best horse? JT> 

<SE Aye. SE> 

<JT # Oh, 

I don’t know. 

We always had good horses. 

Tell you, 

he kept good horses for ploughing. 

And working. 

You know. JT> 

<SE Hmm. SE> 

<JT I ‘ve had a kicker of mine once or twice. JT> 

<SE Have you? 

[!= laughs] SE> 

<JT [!= laughs] 

Oh aye. 

Went to take he in the blacksmith’s shop, 

he had to put him in stocks to shoe him. 

# Aye. 

# Oh aye. JT> 

<SE And did he ever cause any trouble? SE> 

<JT No. 

No. 

Only [/] only [\] I be +… 

You had to be a bit careful mind. 

[!= laughs] 

What you ‘re doing. 

[!= laughs] 

When you put the harness on, 

that goes there in, 

the legs sometimes mind. 

Oh aye. JT> 

|| 

<SE You were telling us last night about the uh [/] the [\] castle. 

Who was it? SE> 

<JT The castle down Skenfrith? JT> 

<SE Hmm. SE> 

<JT Well that old castle used to be +… 

Anybody ‘d go in there till these +… 

Them got bought. 

It was all open. 

Anybody could go in there and see it. 

But now you got to pay to go in there now. JT> 

<SE Hmm. SE> 

<JT Aye. JT> 

<SE But somebody bought it? SE> 

<JT Oh, 

old George [/] George [\] Edwards, 

Skenfrith Mill. 

He bought it. 

And he sold it to some # syndicate in Hornby. 

# Some uh +… 

you know, 

in Hornby. 

I don’t +… 

# Them have done it up. 

Oh, 

men been there at work a-doing the old walls up, 

but I don’t see much fun in doing them old walls up. 

Ought to pull (th)em down. 

[!= laughs] JT> 

<SE Hmm. SE> 

<JT Great walls there. 

I dare say a yard thick, 

or # four foot thick (th)em be. 

The walls up there. 

You know. JT> 

<SE Hmm. SE> 

<JT Aye. 

And dungeons in there. JT> 

<SE Aye? SE> 

<JT Great big dungeons. 

Some in +… 

When they put (th)em in +… 

You know. JT> 

<SE Hmm. SE> 

<JT Oh aye. 

And stocks. 

By the [/] by the [\] door. 

If you had done anything bad, 

them, 

they put you in there and everybody see you. 

And they knowed [: knew] +… 

they be see you had done something wrong. 

[!= laughs] JT> 

<SE Oh. 

And is Skenfrith like a busy village? 

Is there plenty going off? SE> 

<JT Oh no. 

Very quiet now. 

Oh no. 

No. JT> 

<SE Well, 

you say ‘now’. 

Did it use to be? SE> 

<JT Well, 

it was about the same but there was more people about years ago down there. 

Ain’t the people about here used to be. JT> 

<SE Why ‘s that? SE> 

<JT I don’t know. 

They +… 

When them big estates was on. 

You know, 

there was a lot of men kept on them estates, 

(be)cause uh +… 

Carpenters, 

blacksmiths, 

painters and all that +… 

You know. 

They was to manage that +… JT> 

<SE Hmm. SE> 

<JT Keeping it going then. JT> 

<SE Hmm. SE> 

<JT Oh aye. 

well my father worked on this here estate at Bradbrook, 

I should say, 

I think somewhere over forty years. 

On this +… 

Never from there. JT> 

<SE Hmm. 

Doing what? SE> 

<JT Oh, 

farmhouse. 

Oh, 

the hedging, 

any- anything. 

Anything 

Workman. JT> 

<SE Hmm. SE> 

<JT Oh aye, 

he was +… 

Been there a long time. JT> 

<SE Hmm. SE> 

<JT Then we boys started farming a bit, 

you know, 

and we got on a bit, 

and +… 

# Down here at a place called ‘the box’. 

# On that # farm just down on that road there. 

By that road that do go down here. JT> 

<SE Hmm. SE> 

<JT I were there I dare fifteen years. JT> 

<SE # Hmm. SE> 

<JT Oh aye. 

# [!= coughs] 

What have we been up here now? 

I dare say # thirty years, 

on this. 

Fifteen years I farmed the White House till you got bad. JT> 

<OS Yes. 

Something +… 

I got me a # xxx xxx. 

About # twenty year it is now xxx. OS> 

<JT Oh, 

maybe over thirty years. JT> 

<SE Hmm. 

Hmm. 

And uh did you have to go out to farm service? SE> 

<JT Oh Lord, 

aye. 

(I) been out to farm service when I was a boy. JT> 

<SE Hmm. SE> 

<JT Aye. 

Milking cows and +… 

[!= laughs] 

No, 

I didn’t like that. JT> 

<SE No? SE> 

<JT Oh no. 

Especially on a Sunday. 

# Then they got a wagoner and # it was a bit easier then on [/] on [\] us on a Sunday then. 

# And I almost took waggoning after. JT> 

<SE Oh yes. SE> 

<JT Aye. 

Waggoning. JT> 

<SE Hmm. 

And did you have to go far? SE> 

<JT What uh? 

Oh +… JT> 

<SE Driving? SE> 

<JT No. 

No. 

Only on the farm like. JT> 

<SE Hmm. SE> 

<JT Oh, 

when we did go to Abergavenny, 

you did got to start from here about five o’clock in the morning. JT> 

<SE Aye? SE> 

<JT To load to get there to +… 

it ‘s twelve mile, 

you know. JT> 

|| 

<JT Oh no there ‘s +… 

No, 

the old market ‘s alright. 

Abergavenny is now. 

it ‘s a good market. 

(They) come from the hills down there to buy a lot of stuff. 

Especially # apples and eggs and all these have to come off the hills down, 

them do. JT> 

<OS [!= coughs] OS> 

<JT Down there. JT> 

<SE Hmm. SE> 

<JT Oh aye. JT> 

<SE And of course you meet your old friends down there,, 

do you? SE> 

<JT Oh well. 

We meet some of them. 

Aye. 

Oh, 

we do meet our old friends. 

Go there we ‘re to find any amount on [: of] (th)em. JT> 

<SE Hmm. SE> 

<JT Aye. 

it ‘s like a day off, 

you know. 

# Oh aye. JT> 

<SE And you like [/] you like [\] going to market then? SE> 

<JT Oh Lord. 

Aye. 

(I) like going to market. 

Oh, 

I do go now. 

Once in three weeks, 

once +… 

Or a fortnight maybe. 

You know. JT> 

<SE Hmm. 

Hmm. SE> 

<JT But you can’t go there without spending mind. JT> 

<OS [!= laughs] OS> 

<JT [!= laughs] 

Not today. JT> 

<SE No. 

No. SE> 

<JT [!= laughs] 

Cost of xxx xxx there ‘s half a quid gone. JT> 

<SE Hmm. 

Yeah. 

course prices must have gone up terribly since you were a lad. SE> 

<JT Oh. 

Lumme. 

(A) sheep was about fifteen bob. 

You could buy a lamb for about fifteen bob. 

# And now I may dare say they ‘re about six to seven pound. JT> 

<SE Hmm. SE> 

<JT Oh, 

terrible it ‘s gone up,, 

innit? JT> 

<SE Hmm. SE> 

<JT Oh, 

it ‘ll have to come back down just now there ‘ll be a drop I believe. 

Uh, 

you can’t keep going on up. JT> 

<SE No. SE> 

<OS [!= coughs] OS> 

<SE No. 

Did you have much to do with the sheep? SE> 

<JT Oh Lord, 

aye. 

We had done a lot of the sheep, 

I did. 

Aye. 

Oh Lord. 

Aye. JT> 

<SE Lambing time? SE> 

<JT Lambing time, 

and on the routes. JT> 

<SE How do you go on at lambing time? SE> 

<JT Oh well, 

they got to get up in the night, 

and sometimes you ‘ll stop up almost all night. 

# Oh aye. JT> 

<SE Hmm. SE> 

<JT Aye. 

Perhaps we did have different winters then. 

A bit rougher winters. 

(th)an what we do now. JT> 

<SE Hmm. SE> 

<JT Aye. JT> 

<SE Do you think so? SE> 

<JT I think so. JT> 

<SE Hmm. SE> 

<JT You know, 

more rougher winters. 

Oh aye. JT> 

<SE And were the sheep in bad condition then like? 

If you +… SE> 

<JT No. JT> 

<SE Had a bad winter? SE> 

<JT Oh well, 

they xxx +… 

Yeah, 

you got to feed (th)em then mind in some form. 

You get a bad winter. 

Oh aye. JT> 

<SE Do you remember any particularly # bad lambing times? 

When you had +… SE> 

<JT Well there were sometimes when you get a cold wind and # you know, 

and snow. 

it ‘s bad on the lambs then. 

You got to pick (th)em up and take (th)em in or [*summat*]. 

Coal. 

Freeze (th)em xxx xxx xxx. JT> 

<SE Hmm. SE> 

|| 

<SE Oh, 

you must tell me how you net rabbits. SE> 

|| 

<JT Well you puts it down, 

we ‘ll say +… 

Well, 

you know where (th)em be, 

where their home is like, 

by a wood. 

# You know, 

and # get the net there quiet. 

You [*mun*] be very quiet. 

And then get down round [/] round round [\] (th)em and drive (th)em back into this net. 

Oh, 

it ‘s a bit of fun, 

you +… 

But you +… 

If you go on somebody else’s ground, 

you daren’t +… 

You fancy they be coming behind you sometimes. 

[!= laughs] JT> 

|| 

<SE What was that tale about the murderer? SE> 

|| 

<JT Oh well, 

they know there went in this here +… 

that ‘s the wood down here. JT> 

<SE # Oh yes. SE> 

<JT Oh, 

not far from here. 

They knowed [: knew] he was in the wood, 

had killed somebody. 

# And uh # [/] and [\] he went in this wood and they surrounded this here wood. 

# You know and # [/] and [\] there was a man a-loading charcoal onto the mules. 

In bags +… 

He put (th)em in bags, 

you know? 

And so uh # he got up to where this mule fellow was and they puts # charcoal round him and the bag on top of the # [/] on top of the [\] mules see, 

and him is in the bag. 

And the charcoal. JT> 

<SE Hmm. SE> 

<JT Shoved him in the bag and put this charcoal round him. JT> 

<SE Hmm. SE> 

<JT Put him on the mule and they him brough him out. 

# And was two xxx to xxx +… 

oh, 

about a mile and (a) half from here up on the crossroad, 

and I ‘d uh +… 

And I heard my father say he was never seen after. JT> 

<OS [!= laughs] OS> 

<JT [!= laughs] 

And away he went. 

[!= laughs] 

Aye. JT> 

<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