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1 SO I CUTHEROEADVERTlSERfiUHES www.clitheroeadvertiser.co.uk Thursday,January9,2014 Thursday,January!),2014 www.clitheroaadvertiser.co.uk CLITHEROEADVERnSER&TIMES VALLEY NOSTALGIA • John’s fond memories of his years SPECIAL FEATURE - 1


t their first mee­ ting of 2014, members ofthe - Rotary Club of. Clitheroe enjo- .


yed a rare treat. The speaker for-their


" "■ weeklymeetingatThePost House Hotel was fellow Ro- tarian John Myers MBE, who told of his school days and growing up on his fa­ ther’s farm in Whitewell in the 1920s and’30s. Several members were


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• so enthralled with John’s recollections that they felt they deserved a wider audi­ ence and would make good reading in The Clitheroe Ad­ vertiser and Times. We are


-^V happy to oblige and hope you enjoy them too.


1 I


often look back to my childhood days - so here we go with a trip down memoiy lane, visiting the period 1935 to 1945, as I rememberit.


I was one of four chil­ dren. My Father, John Myers,


• farmed Higher Lees Farm, which had been in the family for several generations. High­ er Lees was part of the Duchy of Lancaster Estate - King George VI was our landlord.


. The rent for the 106 acres was £72 a year. We did not need to keep accounts - the Inland Revenue accepted that the


-trading profit could be based on twice the rent paid, so we paid tax on £144. I did not look forward to


starting school in September i935»attheageoffive-and- a-half. My life revolved en­ tirely around the farm and I _ thought my father would not be able to manage without me - 1 had my own little jobs to do. However, I didn’t have a say as to whether I attend­ ed school and I had to go to Whitewell school. : As we had no car, my


sister and I had to walk the two miles to school and that was taking the shortest way through the fields. If it was raining we were kitted out in souwester, mackintosh and wellingtons and like most children at Whitewell, we usually wore clogs. How


: times have changed. Parents -today would never dream of sending children of that age on their own.' If we didn’t arrive at school


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no one would know until late afternoon when we failed - to arrive home. Neither the school nor the farm had. - •' means of ready communica-


‘Trailers were


said to be unsafe. There were


stories o f horrific accidents caused by trailers...’


tion, the only telephone in the area was at the Whitewell Ho­ tel, now The Inn at Whitewell. • Afteralotofconsidera- tion, my parents decided to


.buy a car in 1936. This was probably one ofthe biggest commercial decisions they • ever made. It was a Vaux- hall 12-6 costing £100 from Wellgate Motors. £100 would probably buy five cows. Not many children at Whitewell enjoyed the luxury of car trav­ el to school, butifitwasn’t wet we still had to walk. Prior to the car, family


travel was by horse and trap or horse and rally cart. The trap was for taking calves or fat lambs to Clitheroe Auction six miles away, situated on Railway Road, where the mar­ ket now stands. I remember Wrigleys doggers had a hut along the railway sidings, now Booths car park. Most coun- try people wore clogs with clog irons and Wrigleys were kept busy. My first clogs had a strap and I looked forward to having lace up clogs. The rally cart was for fam­


ily transport on special occa-- sions such as the annual visit to Chipping church at the Harvest festival, some four miles away. My grandparents lived near the church so the horse spent the day there: As other close relations lived in the area, we all spent the rest of the day at my grandpar­ ents’, but of course we had to be home for milking, at five o’clock. My family regularly sup­


ported Whitewell Church, where Mother was organist, ■ Father was Church War­ den and I was bellringer and organ blower. This involved ' standing at the back ofthe organ and providing com- ■ pressed air by means of bel­ lows - no electricity to drive . a compressor. As Whitewell church was only two miles away we had to walk each V Sunday.


Of course later the car was


used for these expeditions. It was also used to transport calves and fat lambs to Clithe­ roe Auction. The back seats were removed and provender sacks were used in an attempt to prevent contamination. Some farmers used trailers, but my parents didn’t con­ sider this an option-trailers were said to be unsafe. There were stories of horrific ac­ cidents caused by trailers - 1 think this could have been due to overloading or poor maintenance. When we first got the car .


Motherwasthefirsttotake .. driving lessons from a neigh­ bour-Aunty Clara Porter - no driving schools in those days. I remember having a puncture. Aunty Clara, with ' my assistance, knew how to ; change a wheel. People on ' the whole were much more resourceful, especially those living in the country. Father found driving


quite difficult and could not adapt to a steering wheel ■ ■ and pedals in place of reins and verbal instruction. For some time he would lean. forward when going up hill - this was to put weight onto - the imaginary shafts. During the latter 1930s we became more adventurous-we en­


joyed outings to Blackpool and Morecambe and went to more agricultural shows. Winter travel could be dif­ ficult as salting and gritting only came into being in the late’40s. -- Anti-freeze had not been discovered, so if there was a


■ likelihood of frost, the water was drained from the car radiator. Motorists were ad­ vised to carry a shovel and snow chains. Of course the war brought petrol rationing. We got supplementary petrol coupons because we were producing food, but there was no petrol, or at any rate very little for social use. Many people laid up their


car for the winter and saved petrol for summer motoring. Laying up meant jacking it up to tsike the weight off the tyres, draining off the water • and wrapping it up to keep it ’ dry and warm.. Now about the farm. Dur­


ing the ’30s we employed one farm man. Part of his wage .■ was in the form of his board and lodgings. We kept poul­ try, sheep, cows, pigs and two workhorses, not to men-, tion various other unwanted animals in the form of foxes, rats, stoats, weasels and badg­ ers. We kept about 100 hens. Each year we hatched our;


own chicks. We bought two -■ or three breeding cockerels, which were let loose amongst the hens during March. About five broody hens,


known as clocking hens, were chosen to sit on 10 eggs each during the three-week incubation period - we had no incubators as there was no electricity. As soon as the chicks appeared they, along with a clocking hen, were transferred to a chicken coop. This was a little wooden box about two feetwidewith ' bars at the front so that the hen was imprisoned but the chicks could wander at will. . I remember occasionally


we would hear a terrible fear­ ful squawking from the hens in the coops. One day I rushed out to see what the excite­ ment was about, only to see a hawk flying away with a chick in its talons. Consequently my father went in pursuit ofthe marauder, found the hawk’s nest in a nearby tree and: blasted it with his shotgun. The offending bird was then strung up near the chicken coops in an attempt to dis­ suade any future predators. - Ataboutfourweeksold the chicks were taken from ■ the hens and placed in an empty shippon. Perches were placed across the boskins and the chickens were encour­ aged to roost bn these each - night-at first they had to be lifted onto the perches where they would remain all night provided it was dark. If we did not lift them they would crouch in a heap on the floor, , resulting in some of them suf-;


focating. They were allowed to roam in the enclosed yard during the day but locked in each night safe from the foxes. At eight weeks old the male birds were sold for ta­ ble use and the pullets were transferred to a hen cabin. At first they were only al­


lowed limited freedom in an area contained by wire net­ ting. Young birds had a desire to fly to freedom over the net­ ting and then roost in a tree. To overcome this, the long feathers from one wing would be clipped off.


■ This simply introduced


an imbalance resulting in the bird flying in a circle. Hope- ' fully the young pullets would lay eggs in the nest boxes in the cabin. To encourage this,- a pot egg was placed in each nest box. Some birds, how- • ever, would layjust anywhere. It was not unusual to find a . nest under a hedge contain­ ing eggs. That was provided a stoat, weasel, badger or fox hadn’t found it first. To provide access for the


hens each cabin had a hen hole, just large enough for a hentosqueezethrough.lt was also large enough to al­ low a fox or badger to enter. To deter these a short piece of chainwashungdown over the hole. The theory was that the predator would think it : was a trap. It seemed to work! Now about the sheep. We -


kept around 60 lambing ewes ■ which were served by one tup. Tupping time was Octo­ ber or November. The tup’s chest was marked with a red riddle which would mark ■


the ewes he’d had his way


with. Hence lambing time was April,’ during which time it was necessary to visit the sheep which were in the croft next to the house at no more than three-hourly intervals and help with any difficult births. If a lamb died, or had been stillborn, it would be skinned and the skin • wrapped round a spare lamb ' which had lost its mother, or it may have been one of a set of triplets - sheep can’t usu­ ally cope with more than two


An old view j ofWhitewell :■ and Whit Church, where John 3 and his


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parents ail played ! active rolesf


►. ARihbleVallyehaymaWrig'sceneinttie1- ' 1930s, notonJohn’sfarmbutonejusta fewmilesawayatNewton


j- r y » * '•> ? *" ’X S* ^ 'Xr‘ ■* __ ! ^ ^ _ 1 ' \ ' ' 1 - ' * ^1. n jjk j-'T p a ay* H'.'f ^ ^ - ' ' growing lambs were taken to Clitheroe


Auction, six at a time in the back ofthe car. Each year the sheep were dipped by sub­ mersion in a solution of sheep dip, which prevented various diseases. The sheep were sheared


or clipped in June by hand shears. Myjob was to fold the fleeces, but as I grew older I was promoted to a clipper. In the early ’30s we kept


20 milking cows, which were milked by hand twice a day-


- averylaboriousjob.Themilk was filtered through a metal


gauze and in order to cool it, the churns were placed in the trough containing run­ ning water. However, there were great changes in 1936. A milking machine and dairy were installed. The dairy had proper washing facilities with a state-of-the-art milk cooler involving a much more hygi­ enic strainer known as a syle. The milking machine was powered by a Lister petrol en­ gine and vacuum pump. Milking now took half-an-


hour rather than the one- and-a-half hours previously. The installation of the dairy was part of a contract agree­ ment with Whitewell Dairies of Accrington and we now had a guaranteed price for our milk. The milking herd was mainly Shorthorn and the cows were served by a Friesian bull. There was no Artificial Insemination in • those days. The milk was a better price


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in the Autumn so we tried to have the cows calving in Sep­ tember to October. The bull, calves were taken to market for veal and 10 heifer calves were reared each year to


join our own milking herd in three years’ time. The young stock were wintered in out buildings where there was no ready water supply, so once a day they were let out into the ^joining yard where they could take in a day’s water re­ quirement from a trough. Each year we bought


Iambs - feeding three with facilities for only two could mean complications. Hopefully, the new mother


would accept the jacketed lamb as her own. Of course thejacket was discarded once the ewe and lamb had bond­ ed. Sometimes a lamb with no mother had to be bottle fed. New born weak lambs would be kept in a special pen in the farmhouse kitchen for a few _ days. Atabout two months-. ■ old the male lambs were castrated so that they would fatten more readily. At about four months old the fattest


three one month old pigs which were fattened for in- house use. Each pig would be slaughtered at nine months - old when it’s dead weight would be about 15 score, a pig’s weight was described in scores of pounds. During the war however, we were only ■ allowed to rear two pigs. In order not to lose out on total weight of pork, each pig was fattened to 20 score-three- and-a-halfcwts-huge by to­ days standards and including alotoffat.


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Pig killing was quite an occasion. My fatherwould


perform the operation and the carcass was hung up in the bam porch overnight - high enough to be out of reach


. ofany hungry fox. After pig killing the breakfast menu in­ cluded black pudding. The various hams and


sides of bacon were salted and placed on a stone slab in the farm house pantry. After three weeks the brine was : washed off and the sides of bacon rolled and trussed with special twine on the kitchen ’ table. ’


• ‘ The other pieces of pork ,


were wrapiped in muslin and hung up on the various hooks attached to the kitchen ceil­ ing. I remember friends and relatives coming to visit us and leaving with pieces of ham or bacon-especially , >


during the war years. Being farmers with our own supply of food, we had to surrender some of our meat coupons


. in wartime. There were ru­ mours about farmers keeping more than their allocation of pigs and hiding the carcases in the hay-out of sight of the Ministry of Food Inspectors - there was always a ready mar­ ket for black market food. We never had a tractor on


our farm. Two horses pro­ vided the motive power. Hay time was the hardest time of year, especially if the weather was rainy. Ideally, we needed three weeks of warm, fine weather. The additional help came from two Irish lads, apt­ ly named Pat and Mike. Each year, on the third Tuesday in June, my Father would meet them at the Station Hotel and negotiate a month’s hire. If hay making was not complet­ ed in the month they would be hired for a further period. During the war years Pat and Mike never turned up at the Station Hotel. By 1944 Italian and then


German prisoners of war were available for farm work. The Italians just would not co-operate - they indicated that they didn’t understand what was required ofthem. The Germans, however, were quite willing to help - by now it was becoming more obvi­ ous which way the war was going - they probably thought they were more likely to get a better deal if they co-oper- • ated. The’30s were happy times


for me - 1 loved life on the farm. I remember quite viv­ idly the events on the third of September 1939. As the Ger- . mans were tying to starve us, it was very important for us to produce more food.-both for human consumption and :


for animal feed, which in turn meant more food for England. We knew that if there was a war, we would have to plough five per cent of theland. . Shortly after Neville


Chamberlain’s announce­ ment on that Sunday morn­ ing, Father and I went on a farm walk to choose which field we should plough. Not many farmers in the Hpdder Valley were familiar with ar­ able techniques. I had no idea what a plough looked like and


just could not imagine how a machine could turn a green field black side up. The Government spon­


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sored War Agricultural Ex- ecutive Committee, better known as the War Ag, were to provide us with all the advice we would need and they had the tractors and machinery to do the cultivations - all at a cost of course. I was obsessed by these


.technical innovations - this was my first introduction to modem machinery- up to now we had had horses pull­ ing quite primitive machines. We were advised by the so- called advisors from the Min­ istry to grow oats mixed with peas, beans and clover, which would make the best silage. This we did in 1940 - we at­ tended War Ag demonstra­ tions on how to make the best silage - up till now our stock had been fed purely on hay throughout the winter. The silage was a disaster


and the cattle refused to eat it, so it finished up being spread on the land and ploughed in the following year, o much for the professional advice! As the war progressed we had to plough 30% of our 106 acres. We grew up to an acre each of potatoes, turnips or mangles, and marrow stem kale. The sowing, thinning, weeding and harvesting of these root crops was done by hand. We planted mainly oats, but did not attempt to make it into silage.


. The oats were allowed


to mature and ripen. The ripened grain was cut and bound into sheaves by the War Ag reaper and binder. The sheaves were propped against each other in sixes, called stooks, and left like that to finally ripen and ma­ ture. The sheaves were then moved by horse and cart to the farm where they were' made into a stack. I remem- ■ her when cutting the oats, the rabbits would all gather : • in the last small area of uncut. com. As they made a dash for freedom, the tractor driver would attempt to shoot them.


with his 12 bore. Sometimes however the tractor would be driven by a Land Girl-some - Land Girls were quite enthu­ siastic and adapted to this sort ofwork quite willingly, whereas others would not like getting their hands dirty. The corn we grew attract­


ed a lot of rabbits - 1 used to' snare them and I had a ready market for them at the butch­ ers in Woone Lane - a shilling each. Some local contractors had threshing outfits which went from farm to farm. This required eight or nine men and local farmers would pool their available labour. There was a great sense of'


communal spirit in wartime and we all helped each other. One of the local contractors was B. Dugdale and Sons. I remember Billy Dugdale and John Spurgeon operating a thresher and baler. When most of the stack had been cleared the rats would ap­ pear-1 remember one man brought his Jack Russel with • him, which seemed to en­


joy being involved in the rat extermination process. The day’s threshing tradition­ ally ended with a wholesome meal for all around the farm­ house kitchen table. I had a cousin who lived


close by and aged about 16 who regularly helped us on the farm. He joined the LDV - Local Defence Volunteers, later called the Home Guard. He had a motorbike and was qualified as a dispatch rider in the Home Guard, and so he was entitled to Petrol cou­ pons. I asked about his Home Guard activities, but he re­ fused to tell me as he said he was sworn to secrecy - it was so important that the enemy must not know about our de­ fences! -• - I attended Whitewell


School up to the age of 11 in 1941. There was no play­ ground-we were let loose in . the surrounding woods - the 11 pupils often couldn’t hear the bell which signified the end of playtime. However things changed in Septem- . beri939. Suddenly therewas an influx of 50 evacuees from Liverpool, Manchester and Bradford.


■ They were quite street­


wise compared with us coun- . try gobbins. They thought that milk came from a bottle - not a cow. The evacuees were accompanied by their own teacher, but there was not enough room in the small school building and within a few weeks most of them drift­ ed back to the,city life they seemed to prefer - some went


back within afewdays. At this time everyone had to attend the Whitewell Hotel to be fit­ ted with gas masks and then had to practise wearing them for 10 minutes a day.


My education, I fear, suf­


fered somewhat-no disre- specttomyteacher Janet Slater. There were no facili­ ties for sport - the first time I »- -


visited a swimming bath was after the war had ended. In 1941 when I passed the Gram­ mar School entrance exam the war situation was getting very serious. We expected a German invasion any day. My Father was becoming more 9 and more crippled with ar- . thritis, labour on the farm was scarce and so my Mother and I were obliged to help out all we could. I was up each morning to '


milk the cows at six o’clock and then take the milk in churns to the road end to


■ meetthemilkwagon, which took it to Accrington. I then


caught the school bus at •


8-15. In 19401 spent my 10th birthday snow clearing, try- * ing to clear a path for the milk wagon, but the snow drifted and blew back in faster than we could clear it. The wagon never did ar­


rive and we were snowbound foraweek.Thecowscontin- ued to produce milk. We filled every available container with milk and made butter with the cream-the whey _ was tipped down the drain • or fed to the pigs. After afew days some farmers took the milk by horse and cart in con­ voy through the fields to meet the milk wagon at Mytton. Finally, a squad of Royal


Engineers stationed at Low Moor came to our rescue.T - wasexcusedschoolwhenit was games, and at many times excused school altogether. I often cycled to school for


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various reasons. My help was needed on the farm - every­ one had to help with the war effort whenever they could. Running the farm became 0


increasingly more difficult. n We had never the luxury of electricity on our farm. It was 5


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to have been installed in Sep­ tember 1939, but this was not to be-we had to wait till 1945' -“ r Lightwasproducedbycan- dles or paraffin lamps which ■ £ were hung on hooks around the farm buildings. My Father wassocrippledthathecould ’ not continue farming. I could have taken over in 1945, but ’ ^=*5.. really I was rather young at 15. So we decided to sell up in


September that yetu* - a rath­ er sorrowful goodbye to life at Higher Lees.' -


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