My life as the School Cook in Swanage

I left Mount Scar Primary School in Swanage as a pupil, aged 14 on a Friday in April 1944, and started work in the same school’s kitchen (new canteen) on the following Monday.

At first I was a Kitchen Maid, progressed to a Vegetable Cook, I then became the Cook, and then the Supervisor.

After 49 years, working in the same Kitchen at the age of 55, I closed the door and locked it. From the early 1990s, school dinners were no longer being made available for the children, and the Canteen was no longer being used for cooking school dinners.

Meals had previously been cooked there for the Swanage Infants and Primary Schools, St Mary’s Catholic School, Herston Church of England School and St Mark’s in Corfe Castle.

Meals on Wheels for the area were also cooked there on 3 days each week. What started with the cooking of 190 meals a day, ended with 600 meals being cooked each day. Ordinary home cooking type meals were cooked there such as roasts, soups, stews, pies and puddings.

Written by Rose White.

Working Life

Cooking, sewing and... aeroplanes

When I left school I went into service at Greenham House in Drimpton. Lady Gibbons lived there, I was the cook.

In the photo you can see the Parlour Maid at the back and Mrs Norman who was the wife of the gardner and driver. There’s also the man who helped the gardner. I wouldn’t have gone into service if I’d known it.

I had to stay up till 9.45 to put the bottle in the bed. I worked till 9.45 every day on only had Thursday afternoon and every other Sunday off. I’ve always liked cooking, I made all my four children’s wedding cakes. Sewing and cooking I loved.

When the war came on I left service to work at the shirt factory in Crewkerne (image below). We made uniforms for the army, navy and air force and we made our own uniforms. I was 19 then. I remember a time when we marched through the streets of Crewkerne and all the people came and watched us. It was a special day and great fun.

Then I went to work at Merriott Mouldings where we made parts for Hurricanes, I loved it out there. I was ever so happy and felt so free. I cycled there from Drimpton.

Written by Kath Taylor.

Working the water meadows and making rook pie!

I was born at Corner Cottages, on the road to Woodsford, in 1928. My father worked on the farm at Mr Coleman’s. He was a labourer on the farm and worked in the water meadows (down by the River Frome).

He moved there before the Coleman’s in spring 1928, when it was Mrs Chilcot at the farm. But from the time he’d accepted the job to when he moved in, she’d died and Fred Coleman had taken over.

My father was born at West Stafford, at Stafford Dairy. My mother came from Long Bredy. Mother worked in the dairy at Lewell and that’s how they got together. Years ago people used to rent the dairies off the farms.

We lived next door to the Goddards – Auntie and Uncle Bill to us. He was a carter at Lewell dairy. We had a copper for washing clothes in a shed there and my mother would have it one Monday and Mrs Goddard would have it the next.

My father used to flood the water meadows every winter – running the water down into the ditches from higher ground – to make the grass grow for when the cows went down into the meadows in spring. Nobody does that

anymore.

I left school and started work on the farm at 14. When I started working I was working with my wife’s father, with the horses. Harvest time was one of the best times because the weather was fine and we were all together.

I always remember plough Sunday in early January when everyone’d take their plough to church to bless it before starting to plough for the year.

In the spring we were mainly hoeing and singling the crops – mainly piece work, where you got so much an acre. When I started I got about 3 pound a week. I saved up a bit for when we got married.

I worked at the Coleman’s farm all my life except for 6 months when I went down to work at Woodsford Farm, because they said I could earn more. But I did a stupid thing by going there – all I did for 6 months was plant and pick potatoes, so we came back to Lewell Corner!

In the springtime the farmer used to go rook shooting. There were rookeries out at the woods at West Knighton – ‘the Dungeon’ they called it, and down at the river at Lewell.

Fred Coleman was very good with we nippers. He used to put us in his truck and we go out and pick up the rooks for him. About May time it would have been. And we’d make rook pie – just with the legs and breast, mind.

At harvest, when the binder had cut the corn, we would stook it up in the fields to dry – 8 bunches in a stook. The oats used to stay out there longer – three Sundays they used to say. Barley and that, if it was ripe and the weather was dry, we used to take it straight in.

When I worked there it was a mixed farm, potatoes – especially during the war, about 70 cows, and sheep. Mr Coleman was a good boss. They were good people.

At the farm there worked 2 carters, 2 or 3 labourers, a dairy man and a shepherd. Up over the railway line there used to be a little cottage where the shepherd lived. And there was a gate keeper’s cottage – Mrs Crook and Mrs Bishop used to open the gates at the railway line for us to cross with the horses. Mr Crook used to work at the station at Moreton.

We used to take life as it comes. I don’t think we used to hate anything – just the weather! – when there was wet weather and you couldn’t do much except dung spreading, with a mac on and bag around your shoulders.

With the horses they used to ‘rough’ them, take some of the nails out of their hooves and put bigger headed nails in so they wouldn’t slip. The blacksmith used to come and do that.

They had about half a dozen horses, two teams, shire crosses, called Captain, Punch, Jolly, Prince, Sergeant and a young one called Boxer. I had Boxer out one day and we were coming along the road and he was jigging along and I went to move the pad to keep the shafts in place and he just took off! He shot off down into the yard and hit the cart against the wall and I was thrown off and had to have 17 stitches in my head!

We worked form 7:00am until 5:00pm, with half an hour for breakfast and an hour for lunch. I could just nip home for a fried breakfast.

Except for haymaking and harvesting, though, when we’d work until 8:00pm.

Sometimes we used to go to Weymouth to sit on the sand, but I never went on a holiday in my life except to visit Gran at Long Bredy.

Written by Peter Steele.

Car parts and quiches

I left school when I was 15, nearly 16 and got a job as secretary to the boss’ son at New Autofactors. They sold electrical domestic appliances, small parts for cars and car tyres.

I worked 9.00am – 5.30pm, 5 days a week with one hour for lunch and 9.00am – 12.00noon on Saturday mornings.

I carried on working at New Autofactors until I became pregnant. When my youngest son was coming up to school age, I started doing domestic work for a local teacher and for a lady in Clarence Road who mainly wanted someone to talk to.

I also did cooking and general housework which I enjoy. Then I cleaned at The Victoria Hotel for 16 years, I also did cooking for them. I used to make quiches when they had parties.

Then I got a job for a lady doctor doing general sewing. I did all these part-time jobs to get out, the money wasn’t greatly important but it was nice to have some money of my own. I also did my husband’s accounts for his business as a painter and decorator.

Written by Patricia Matthews.

From Genges to Wynford Eagle on the back of a motorbike

I started work as a dress maker at Genges, on the corner of Trinity Street when I was 15 in 1926.

Seven or eight of us worked upstairs, the dress makers, the coat hand, the sleeve hand and us apprentices.

The forewoman took all the fittings. Above us were the tailors and they’d sit on the floor surrounded by mountains of fabric and cotton.

I did 5 years at Genges, 4 years of that as an apprentice. I used to come in by train from Moreton every day for 5 pence ha’penny!

I got paid five and a half shillings for the first year and seven and a half shillings for the second year. We worked form 8.30am to 7.00pm and then I get the train home and start sewing again!

Later I became a young ladies maid for the three daughters of Lord and Lady Wynford at Maiden Newton. I had to put all the clothes out that they were going to wear for the day, and put them all away when they were finished with them.

Often I couldn’t have my half day off because they always had their entertainments and I had to see that they were dressed for a ball or for tennis or something like that.

I worked for five years at Wynford Eagle. Lady Wynford was very generous, if there was ever a dance in the village, for the scouts or some good cause, she would send a chauffeur to take us there and bring us home.

My husband was my only transport when I was in service, he would collect me on his motorbike, otherwise it was a six mile walk back to Dorchester. There wasn’t transport like there is today. I used to love to ride on the back of his bike!

Written by Gwen Spicer.

A maid in service before the war

I had my first job when I was 14 years old and went into service when I was 17 years old.

I worked for a family at Milborne Port and to begin with, I worked in the big house for an elderly lady who had two sons and two daughters. I had a half day off every other Sunday and half a day off in the week.

When I first went to work there, there was an Italian cook who was a displaced person and she would not let me eat in the same room as her. I had to eat my meals standing up in the room where we cleaned the silver, which had no table or chairs. I was very unhappy at the way she treated me and told the old lady, who was very kind, that I did not want to stay and be treated like that.

The cook was sacked and they advertised for a new cook. I was asked to do the cooking meanwhile and one of the daughters helped me.

An Irish girl answered the advertisement and she and I talked about the job but she was worried that the family would not let her go to Mass every Sunday as she was Catholic. The family were Church of England and went to church at least once every Sunday. I advised her to be honest and tell them and see what they said.

The family gave her the job and allowed her to go to Mass early every Sunday and they had a late breakfast. The cook and I worked together until we changed houses but we remained friends until she died 4 years ago.

The eldest son was married with 2 children and his wife was expecting another baby and so they needed a bigger house. The elderly lady bought a little house nearby and the cook went to work for her and I moved to a different house with the youngest son and his new wife. I got on very well with the young couple and especially the wife who was very kind.

I used to go to dances which in those days went on until 2am but my employer made the cook who was older than me, take care of me make sure that I got back to the house by midnight.

Written by Rene Wilton-Blackmore.

From Bridport to Bovington

I learnt my trade at Brit Engineering in St. Andrews Road in Bridport. There are not many of us left now.

Then I went into the Fleet Air Arm. We used to do motor cycle road racing round Bovington Camp.

Written by a Dorset resident.

The perils of being a milk woman

I used to go out on the milk round every day in the van.

One day I called on a customer who had a nice dog called Carlow, he would always come out and greet me but on this particular day he didn’t come. I was greeted by the woman pointing a sword at me.

I could see it was really sharp and had been well looked after. She said 'I’m Nelson today and you’re going to be my prisoner'.

The sword was really close to my face so I just went in. It was a really old converted mill house and it had a huge door that creaked. She locked us in and put the key in her bag.

She said, 'You haven’t seen my bedroom, have you?'

I said 'No' and wondered what on earth was going to happen to me.

We went up the stairs and I could feel the point of the sword in my back. Then we walked into three of her bedrooms and when we got to her bedroom I thought, 'This is it.'

I turned round and the sword was in my stomach. The woman said, 'Are you frightened of me?'

Then I felt my guardian angel near and said, 'No, I’m not. You’re my friend.' So she put the sword down and it cut the end of the rug right off.

I said my guardian angel was looking after me because out of the cloudy sky came the sun and it shone on a beautiful tapestry of The Blue Boy. I thought 'How lovely,' and she said, 'That’s my favourite possession. I keep the sword so that if anyone came up here I could run them through with it.'

I said we should put it away and go and have some coffee and then she said we should have something better than that. So the dog and I went down stairs to make a start on the coffee and on the table was a dagger with a long blade. I got my brain together and thought.

I said, 'Could we go into your lounge?' and she said, 'That’s all right because that’s where the drink is.'

We went up there and she brought sherry out and we drank the whole bottle up. I had to drink it because there was nowhere to tip it.

Then she said she’d got another bottle and I said I’d have to go because they’d be looking for me and send the police. She looked frightened and said, 'I’d better let you go then.'

I carried on and finished my round. My husband said, 'Why didn’t you jump in the van and get away?'

The next day when I delivered the milk, she wouldn’t open the door so I left it next door.

Written by Eileen Raymond.

Working in Weymouth and Portland during the 1950s and 60s

I have lived in Weymouth for 60 years. I’m originally from up North and my father worked on the railways.

We always went to Bournemouth for our holidays and I loved Dorset.

My husband was in the Navy working at Portland. I was the manager of the Creamery shop in Weymouth. I also worked at the Post Office in Wyke and also for the Atomic Energy Service.

I remember the excitement of the Portland Spy ring, we couldn’t believe it. That Harry Houghton was a bad lot. They say Ethel Gee had loads of money hidden in her bedroom, it was the talk of the town.

My husband died suddenly when he was in his early forties and I was left to bring up my son on my own. My sister used to look after him while I was at work and I gave her half my wages. It was hard then because there was no help like there is today.

I used to sing with a group called Happy Family. We played in the hotels during the holiday season, I even used to sing a song in French!

Written by Ida Goddard.

From housemaid to cook

When I left school I worked at the Manor House at Compton Valance.

I then got a live-in job at Herrison Hospital working in the doctors’ quarters, cleaning and making beds.

I left Herrison Hospital and worked at Colliton Club in Dorchester as Cook.

I got married and had 3 children then I returned to work at Colliton Club as cook. I worked there for many years until I retired.

Written by June Page.

A career from packing eggs to hospital beds

I left Dorchester Modern School when I was 15. My mum worked for Dr Hasler as his housekeeper and when I left school I went to work for Dr Hasler too.

He was based at Dorset County Hospital in Princes Street and lived in Dorchester. I had to help with the housework as well as take phone calls and messages for him.

When I was about 17 or 18, I went to work at the Chicken Farm at Bere Regis. I worked for Mr Thomas in his Egg Packing Station.

I lived at Winterbourne Kingston at that time in a 3 bedroom property with a conservatory. Either Mr Thomas or his son would come around in a van every morning to pick up his workers.

I had to check for any cracks in the eggs. Any that had cracks were marked with an ‘X’ and put to one side in a box. We put any ‘double yokers’ to one side too and staff were able to buy these. Any broken eggs were put into a bucket.

When I was about 19 I went to work at Damers Hospital as an auxiliary nurse on the Geriatric Ward. I used to work downstairs with Sister Frances but I can also remember Sister Griffin, Staff Nurse Heddon and Sister Moore. I loved working with Sister Frances.

I remember having to lift the patients between us, we used to have lots of fun.

One thing I do remember is that Sister Heddon used to colour her hair pink, blue or purple and we all thought it amusing to guess what colour her hair would be as she changed the colour quite regularly.

I worked at Damers Hospital for about four years before getting married and then I reduced my hours and only worked there occasionally.

Written by Pam Pearce.

Woolworths in Dorchester

I left school at 15 and worked at a paper shop, I didn’t work there long before I got a job at Woolworths in Dorchester. I worked at Woolworths until I had my first child.

I went back out to work after having 5 children, doing work that fitted around caring for the children.

The picture to the right is on my wedding day at St Georges Church, Fordington, Dorchester in July 1955.

Written by Heather Mitcham.

A working life in South Dorset

I was born in Friar Waddon in 1933 where my father was a farm worker.

After two years the family moved to Sutton Poyntz where my father worked on Henry Diment’s 600 acre farm. He lived in a farm cottage at 30 Puddledock Lane. The cottage had an outside Elsan toilet.

Carthorses were used instead of tractors, which were so expensive and I worked with four teams of the horses.

I attended St. Andrew’s School and when the war started the class sizes rose because of the number of war evacuees in the area. When I reached secondary school age, I went to Cromwell Road School in Westham.

I left school at 16 and went to work for a Mr Carter who had a sign writing business in Coombe Valley Road, apart from the time when he did National Service in Wrexham.

I become an accomplished sign writer making tradesmen’s signs and also decorating cart wheels. I worked for Mr Carter for 8 years.

After 24 years in Sutton Poyntz, my family moved to Mr Saunder’s Farm in Broadmayne and they were housed in Watergates Lane.

Written by Chris Gregory.

Dawkins of Axminster

I used to work in Dawkins in Axminster Square. It was a great big shop that sold everything.

Miss Shepherd ran it and Mr Burrows was the manager. Miss Shepherd wore great big hats, she was such an old fusspot and she controlled everything that happened in Axminster but she was really nice.

I worked in the dress and coat department and they had these things that you put the money in. You pulled a string and the thing went off along a track on the ceiling and went to the office. It was quite unique and messages were sent, money paid and change sent back all through these things.

We lived in at Oak House as they preferred you to do that rather than to go home. Miss Shepherd’s girls were very special and well known around Axminster. It was fun in Oak House, very enjoyable.

We had to be in by 10pm though or we got a telling off from the housekeeper.

In the summer about six of us went along the Kilmington Road, we’d walk all across the road and sing at the tip of our voices. I was about 21 then.

I left there to get married.

Written by Peggy Baulch (nee Webber).

Bicycle shop in Bridport

My family had a bicycle shop in South Street, Bridport called C. W. Gibbs.

We sold and mended bicycles and motorbikes and other things, I used to help my dad with the bikes.

When I came back from the Air Force in the war, my dad had changed the sign to say C. W. Gibbs and Son. I was very proud, that meant a lot to me.

Written by Jim Gibbs.

Wheeler-dealing in Bridport

My Father, Harry Richards, was a well-known character in West Dorset. He was the local wheeler-dealer who, upon returning from the Second World War where he served as a paratrooper, started his scrap-metal business from a wheelbarrow.

The Richards’s first rented land from Gundry’s, in Folly Mill Lane in Bridport, where we collected, sorted and sold on scrap metal from industry and farms in the area.

I drove and unloaded the lorry after school, and remember this as hard physical work. From 1964 we also bought up cars from the auction and Harry bought 14 acres of land at Slape Mills, outside Netherbury, which became their new centre of operations.

On Saturday mornings many customers arrived; builders, plumbers and roofers looking for metal. Milk tanks from the local Dairy Factory were cut up small with acetylene cutters, loaded onto a goods train and taken to Poole Docks to be used for building new ships.

The Richards family were contracted to cut up and dispose of the gas containers in Bridport and Lyme Regis when they became redundant.

Written by Brian Richards.

Teaching for £2 a day

By this time as the children grew it became increasingly difficult to manage as things were getting very expensive and my husband was self employed as a farming engineer and I had a chance to get back to teaching.

I was very interested in W.I. and they came one evening and talked about food and I said to the girl, 'that’s the kind of thing I could do in my spare time.' I don’t know where that was going to come from!.

She said she'd give my name in and the next morning, the phone rang and the gentleman said he understood I was qualified and all the rest of it and he said I could go tomorrow to Puddletown to teach.

I said, 'Oh that’s different from what I said,' and he said it was paid £2 a day, so I said yes. £2 in those days was a lot of money.

I told my husband what I had undertaken to do but he wasn’t very interested because he thought it was W.I. and he used to say they were scandal-mongers, but when I said I was going to go teaching he was surprised but when I said I was going to get £2 a day he was very keen about that, and so I did go back for 3 days to Puddletown.

I found that after in September there would be a job there for 3 days a week. As my son was due to start school in January I thought I should be able to fit it in.

My husband was self employed on the property all the time, so I started back as a teacher and then eventually I worked my way through various experiences.

Eventually I did get a job at Bovington teaching only needlework. I wasn’t so keen on the cookery so I took over the needlework and I was there until I retired. I was working at Bovington but half way through, we got sent to Wareham. We became a comprehensive school and Bovington was left behind.

Col Came was replaced by a different Head Master, he had been an excellent Head. But of course there were Army children involved and they knew one another well enough to know that discipline would be good.

Sometimes they ran away but you could usually find them hiding in one of the tanks that was on display and that was when the Junior Leaders came back. There were young cadets being trained at Bovington.

Well I was very happy there and then eventually I retired. I was very busy then but you do have time to look back and think about things that you have done and the older you get the more you remember funny little things. It’s easier to remember what happened then than what happened yesterday.

Written by Peggy Wyatt.

Happy times at Monkton Wyld Court

When I was 17 I worked at Monkton Wyld Court, which is situated in the small hamlet of Monkton Wyld near Charmouth. It was a lovely large house/hotel which had 14 bedrooms, a paddock and various animals and land surrounding it.

I would look after my employers children as well as any children of guests, the children had their own nursery and dining room.

During the summer months when the hotel was full of guests, the staff were accommodated in an old railway carriage in the grounds. I had already arranged to attend the Baby Hospital in Fulham to do some training but I couldn’t attend until I was 17 years and 3 months, so I worked at Monkton Wyld Court for about a month before leaving to go to the Baby Hospital in Fulham.

I didn’t finish the course and returned to work at Monkton Wyld Court when I was 18, where I worked for a further 3 to 4 years until war was declared and the building turned into a school. I had many happy times there.

Everyone helped each other with the various jobs around the hotel and I was always willing to learn new skills and offer my help where needed. I remember putting the children to bed and then going down to wait at tables. I also remember having to catch the pony to ride up the hill to milk the goats.

The Bank of England was evacuated during the war to Hurstbourne Priors near Andover. My employer recommended me to work in the stables they had on site. I worked there for approximately 6 months before I joined the Wrens at Portsmouth.

I remember when I arrived being asked if I could cook and I said ‘yes’ as I had often helped with the cooking at Monkton Wyld Court and so I was given the job as Officers Cook. I was stationed at Yarmouth, Isle of Wight where I met my husband who was in the Marines and also stationed at Yarmouth.

Written by Brenda Woollard.

St Gabriel’s Mother and Baby Home in the 1960s

In the 1960s, my mother worked at St Gabriel’s Mother and Baby Home near to the Rembrandt Hotel in Dorchester Road, Weymouth.

The home was for girls from out of the county who were expecting illegitimate babies.

They came to St Gabriel’s when their pregnancy started to show. The babies were born at Portwey Hospital, Wyke Road, Weymouth.

After the birth, the mothers went back to St Gabriel’s until about four weeks after giving birth. Then the babies were placed with foster mothers when they were about six weeks old.

By then I was married and had a young family of my own. To help pay the mortgage I became a foster mother and fostered thirteen babies at £3 per week each.

I had to take them up to Dorchester for a medical examination to enable the doctor to decide whether the baby was fit to go for adoption.

I was often very sad when I had to hand the babies over. Because of my experience fostering babies, I became an auxiliary nurse at Portwey Hospital and was there for seventeen years. You can see the photograph of me to the top right of the page.

Written by Sylvia O'Connor.

From the Green School to North Square

I stayed at the Green school until I was 16 and in a way I was at a disadvantage because I didn’t want to be a nurse or a teacher, the only jobs open to women then and I did not have any office training.

So, I went and worked for a friend’s father in North Square in the butcher’s shop. The shop had no front to it, and in winter it was so cold that we sat with our feet in a bag of straw.

Market days were Wednesday and Saturday and we had to work on the market stall. We stood up all day and had to stay until we had sold all the meat, sometimes until 8 o’clock at night.

I think that it was the only butchers in Dorchester which had a fridge. I was still working there when the war started.

Written by Madge Swain.

Working at the hospital

In the 1960s I worked in the office at Damers Road Geriatric Hospital, Dorchester, which had been the Dorchester Workhouse.

The patients were people with dementia and with terminal illnesses, including one young woman who had several young children.

I did administrative work for the in-patients and dealt with medical files for the Geriatric Doctor, Dr Salvi, and handled the pension books.

So many of them could not sign their own names and had to make an X. I had to go to Maud Road Post Office to draw out their pensions. The patients had to stay in their beds all the time.

The nurses were very jolly and amusing, there was also a hospital secretary, Mr Beauchamp, a deputy secretary and a matron.

Written by Julie Antell.

A village school teacher in West Dorset

I worked as a part time teacher of 7 to 8 year old boys and girls. I shared a class of forty children with the headmaster.

The subjects we taught were the three R’s – reading, writing and arithmetic – as well as history, geography, religious instruction, games, and art and craft.

Later, a full time teacher was appointed and I became the teacher of remedial reading.

I had a desk in a corridor and the children were sent to me one at a time. I used the Beacon readers, I had to stop teaching five minutes before the end of each lesson so that the children could walk along the corridor where I taught.

Written by Sonia Hewitt.

Feet in straw boxes

After school I went to work in my Dad’s butcher’s Shop in North Square.

It was very cold in the shop and there was no glass in the windows, just shutters. We sat with our feet in a box of straw to keep warm.

The market was opposite and if the meat didn’t sell in the shop, we had to go out and sell it on a stall in the market.

Written by Joyce Ray.

A career in nursing

I trained as a nurse and midwife in 1943 in a career lasting 25 years. At that time coal fires were still used in hospital wards, and as coal was still in short supply after the war years, an allowance was given for this purpose.

The fires burned night and day. Most of the hospital cleaners had been called up for war time duties, so it was left to the nurses to clean the wards to a high standard.

Sister used to say, 'I consider this to be a nurses job will you do it.'

Among the casualties in the hospitals, were civilians, and service personnel. It was sometimes difficult to keep the men in the wards, some tried to escape out of the windows. When nurses had been away on leave, they always had to report back to Matron telling her where they had been, which some did not like doing.

Later on when I won a scholarship sponsored by the Ministry of Labour, I worked in the private sector, in industry, as Sister in Charge, one job was with Stork Margarine.

Employees would sometimes show me a tablet they had been prescribed, an ordinary plain white tablet, and say 'what is this tablet for?'

They thought I could tell from looking at a plain white tablet, what ailment it was for.

On sports day one year, the doctor and myself entered a competition to guess the weight of a cabbage, it weighed 17 pounds, I won it, but could not see myself eating that much cabbage, so gave it back.

I enjoyed my nursing career, but left it all when I married.

Written by May.

Leigh residents reminisce - Straw-filled bloomers!

Monday was always Wash Day. The washing was boiled and then ‘blued’ with a little blue cube and then collars were starched with a powder that you mixed to a paste.

The clothes were hung on the line to dry and there was quite a lot of competition to see whose washing was whitest! One of Edith’s uncles was very naughty and stuffed the next door neighbour’s bloomers with straw as they hung on the line!

Everybody helped with the harvest and people could remember riding home on top of the trailer loaded with hay. Edith remembered the poor old horse which had to walk round and round in a circle to wind up the elevator which carried the hay to the top of the rick.

The children had to make the horse keep walking. During the war, Bet remembered soldiers helping out with the harvest to repay the hospitality they had received during the winter when her mother had fed them. Grace used to ride horses, her brother and sister hunted with hounds and Edith also followed on foot. She remembered once seeing a fox being driven by hounds into a farm yard and it was so frightened that it jumped at the stable window, but the huntsman caught it and threw it to the hounds.

People were very hospitable then. Edith remembered that there was a cattle drover known as ‘Tibby’ who used to drive the cattle to Dorchester market from the farms around and who would appear at their door, having walked back from Dorchester and was by then drunk on cider.

He would ask for some bread and a flask of tea, and her mother would give it to him. Bet said that there was a man who used to live under the roots of a tree on Toller Down. All sorts of tradesmen delivered, Mr. Jones delivered groceries in Leigh, the butcher came round on Wednesdays.

Grace’s husband was a baker, the bakery had been founded in 1929 by Percy Fudge and they used to deliver bread and the famous dough cakes from two shops, one in Sherborne and one in Leigh. Grace’s mother-in-law kept the shop going during the war while her son was away fighting.

Later, when supermarkets arrived and produced cheap processed bread, the family business started making speciality biscuits and although it is not still in the family, Fudge’s biscuits are sold nationally and in very upmarket establishments in London!

Spoken by Kath Harvey, Edith Jessop, Bet Coffin and Grace Fudge.