Joe Harford Evacuee Page 2

The Four Seasons

In those far off days the four seasons were so precise, everyone a favourite as mentioned by Ken Sadler. The winter was quite harsh, I well remember Rodney Meadow opposite the Rodney pub frozen like a lake, we couldn’t wait to get out of school. In spring summer and autumn the class would go on walks, somewhere from the rear of St Peters following the line of Manchester Lane, the brooks after winter were flowing with crystal clear water and was taught how to make a watertight cup with our hands to drink the Poor Mans Wine, I still do it today but not out of todays brooks. We were taught to close farm gates and what berries to eat and what not to touch, where we could go and not go, it was a none stop holiday for us townies considering we hadn’t seen apples growing on trees but in boxes. The whole period was a wonderful experience like a dream you didn’t want to wake up from.
 
On the way home from school there was a sweet shop on the same side as the school just before the corner of Main St and Woodville Rd, it’s a house now with steps up to the front door. One day I went in for a bag of Bulls Eye sweets my favourites, but I only had a farthing, which to all who don’t know is a quarter of an old penny, an old penny is half of today’s 1p, ok. Where was I ?  Well I was informed by the lady that the smallest amount I could have was a Halfpenny’s worth, that’s two farthings.

I went outside waited a minute and went back in and asked for a halfpenny worth of Bulls Eyes, waited for the lady to hand them to me put the farthing on the counter and bolted out of the shop and down the road. Afterwards I realised that I could never go in that shop again, probably she had a little smile to herself because she would know who I was.

Back to the farm
               
One of my joys was to go with Mrs Fish in the governess’s cart on a Sunday morning with a churn of milk and my job was to fetch the jugs from the houses to be filled with milk and take them back. The rides on top of the hay carts on those lovely summer evenings, the evensong of the birds, the fresh air, it stays with you for ever. Can you picture Woodville Rd without any traffic, with a herd of cows ambling up towards the farm? It’s strange because It’s gone a full cycle and being a keen vegetable gardener, when children visit they are fascinated to see the vegetables growing in the ground having only seen them in supermarkets.

Well all good things come to an end, first we went scrumping and was caught by the farm hand a youth of 17-18 who emptied our pockets dipped them in, erm, you know the stuff you find in farm yards and offered them back to us, no thanks. Another day I was walking round the yard and peered into one of the buildings and had a feeling there was something in there, perhaps a horse or a cow, so I gave it a prod with a broom handle. Well this thing let out a mighty roar which put me into a fast reversing motion, Holy milk churns, it was a 100 ton BULL, there is a bit of good and bad luck goes with this tale, the good luck was that the BULL was tethered to the wall, the bad luck was the farm hand’s size 10 boot that made contact with my rear end, the first was a bone shaker the second wasn’t so bad because I had got into forward motion making a fast exit up the yard. In all this brother Tom had jumped on his back and was hammering 10 bells out of him.

I didn’t hear the last of it because it was reported to the school. I think it was the BULL thing because there was these two small boys standing on the pavement outside the school when down the road came Mrs Spencer (Pic 6), happily on her way to see her mother Granny Smith (Pic1) who lived next to the Rodney Pub, when a Nun and a teacher happened to be blocking her way. After a long conversation Mrs Spencer was seen heading back home holding two urchins by the hand.

What follows is a first hand account told to me by Mr and Mrs Spencer years ago when I was a young man, you see I still visit Hartshorne every year have done for 46 years .Firstly when I asked Mrs Spencer why she took us in she told me at first she didn’t apply to have any children because her son Eric had joined the army and she was keeping his room ready for him on his return , then she saw these two little lads and thought if I look after these two little boys then the good Lord will look after Eric for me and bring him back safe. Well Eric did return safe, and I like to think we played a small part in his safe return.


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