Sound Recordings, Somerset

Description

[Collector announcement]; Fred Mullins [tape box label reads Frank Mullins], recorded at Exford; talks about working in service on a farm at the age of eight; leaving school aged twelve and working on a farm until fourteen; timber throwing at fifteen; job of stable boy - wages, lodgings, laundry, insurance; job as Second Horseman; describes both jobs; working in a livery yard, preparing horses for use by summer visitors (pre-World War Two) hunting on Exmoor; 400-450 horses stabled in the village in 1937; describes starting as a stable boy in 1921; working at his present location for a Captain Cox; describes stag hunting on Exmoor, pre-World War Two; talks about horse husbandry; rabbiting and fishing (tickling) as a boy. [Tr. 1] Mr. Nicholls (Foreman on an estate timber mill), recorded at Watchet, describes the processing of wood at a local timber yard, tree planting and felling. [Tr. 2] Harry Wensley of Wheddon Cross talks about his schooling, and walking to school at Winsford; describes haymaking and thatching hay ricks, harvesting and baling - compares past and present; agricultural employment situation, self-employed jobbing and winter jobs on the farm. [Tr. 3] [Collector announcement]; Stanley Jury of Wootton Courtenay talks about agricultural work, milking cows as a child before/after school; horse driving (ploughing) at the age of twelve; describes a typical working day; living in; wages; mixed farming in the past, labour-intensive; reaping, tying by hand, use of sickle for cutting; employment situation; help from men from neighbouring village ( Luccombe) during harvest time; farm labourers' wages, privileges, income supplements (egg collecting, mole catching); describes mole and rabbit catching; compares labour intensive and mechanised farming methods; the skills and experience needed by the modern farm labourer; describes rabbit catching and making wire snares [demonstrates with some string], gin traps, the use of ferrets and nets; driving animals to markets in Washford and Wheddon Cross; bargaining over the price of animals. Stanley Jury continues to talk about bargaining for the price of animals at market; also, the role of the farmer's wife on the farm; describes breaking in and training farm horses; tells of a riding accident. [Tr. 4]

Metadata

Identifier	cbzmbq8l
IRN	414690
Class Mark	LAVC/SRE/A639r
Level	Item
Type of Record	Archives - ISAD(G)
Peristent Link	http://prototype1.library.leeds.ac.uk/cbzmbq8l
Collection(s)	Leeds Archive of Vernacular Culture
Category	Archive
Parent Record	Audiotape Sound Recordings
Creator(s)	Ihalainen, Ossi
Date	1971
Size and Medium	1 x 12.7cm open reel spool, Duration: 56' 32".

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