- St Mary the Virgin
- malting
- pubs
- mummers
- [Tom Robinson]
- general photographs
Tom Robinson
hear one of Tom Robinson's Marshfield weather sayings
 |
Tom Robinson is Marshfield's oldest resident |
an interview with Tom Robinson, 18 February 1998
Tom Robinson is Marshfield's oldest resident, having been born in July 1897.
Tom, just tell us about your memories of the last remaining malthouse.
Geoff Ball (?) was the last remaining maltster.
And where was the last remaining malthouse?
It was the third house on the right-hand side after Touching End
Lane, going up the High Street.
And who owned that malthouse?
The Knights.
And is that the family that Dick Knight belongs to?
It was Dick Knight's great-grandfather.
Do you know who else worked there?
Only this man Geoffrey Ball (?) who was there as a maltster.
Can you describe what the malthouse looked like?
Just like an ordinary house -- a house and a big barn. If you
go into Touching End Lane, you can see the malting house.
Where did the malt go? Did they still brew in Marshfield?
Beer was brewed at the Lord Nelson in my time. The malt was also sold to different breweries but
which ones I don't know.
Was the town a very different place back then?
Oh, yes. It was really just the main street. All these other places
were added on since. They were all farmland a few years ago.
Was there still a market in Marshfield when you were a boy?
Two markets -- on the 24th of May and the 24th of October. But
in my early days, they were in the street -- the sheep were penned in Marshfield Street.
Were the markets in the same place or did they happen in different
places?
No, in the main street. In the market place was all the fun of
the fair, the roundabouts. The 24th of May and the 24th of October
were both big days, quite big cattle and sheep fairs.
And what else did people come to trade at the market? You had
cattle, you had sheep. Did you have a funfair?
It was Courses (?) Roundabouts in they days, always set up in
the market place. There were different people with different stalls
selling different things.
What kinds of things?
One man sold boxes. One man was black and said he was the son
of a priest of Africa.
What kinds of things did Marshfield people do? What was the business
they were engaged in?
Only agriculture until, I think, the war, when people from Marshfield
began to work at the quarries. Of course, there was horticulture
on the two estates near here. One of them had as many as 20 gardeners.
How many pubs were there?
Seven.
Can you name them all?
Yes. The George -- that was up near the almshouse. Then we come
down to Sheep Fair Lane, where there was the White Hart. And then,
on the right-hand side next to a big shop up there was the Angel.
Then we come down to The Catherine Wheel, then to The Crown, and then the Nelson. But before my time there was one in the Hay Street.
Were they all very different pubs? Were some of them smart and
some of them rough?
No, they all relied more or less on local trade. Of course, a
lot of the landlords had a trade. Some was farmers, some was butchers.
And were there other tradesmen? Were there coopers or blacksmiths?
Oh, yes. Where do you want to start? Bakers -- there was one called
Andrewses, another called Aldbrough (?). Then we come down to
Hinton, and then Walkerses and then Hayses.
So five bakeries?
Yes.
How many people lived in Marshfield then?
Round about a thousand, they reckoned.
And what about the other trades, the shops and the other businesses?
We had two honest (?) bakers, two blacksmiths, three wheelwrights,
a basketmaker.
Do you remember the names of any of the families who were in these
trades?
The bakers was Andrewses -- they lived up top the street. Then
come down to St Martin's, they was Hoopers. This is in my time.
There was another in the street -- Fishlock. Then we come down
to Hintons.
So Fishlock was a baker?
Yes. Then they left and went to Bristol. Sidney Fishlock. Then
we come down to... it was Walterses in my days, then Hayses ...
Byatts (?). Those were the ones in my days. Now we got no baker.
Then we had three boot repair people here. Two builders, the Beazers,
and a man named White.
When you say 'in my time', when do you mean?
Back when I can remember, in my memory time.
Before the First World War?
Oh, yes.
Did you serve in the first war?
Yes and no. I went to join the army, went down Bath. And when
I went in, the officer said, 'What do you want, young man?' I
said, 'Join the army, sir.' He said, 'Well, you go back to mother
and have a few more apple dumplings. Then come and see me.' Because
I was small for me age. Then I was called up and I went down and
I was rejected. And I said, 'Surely, sir, there's something I
can do?' And they passed me for B2 -- that was the lowest.
So what did that mean?
More or less what you might call labouring. You had to do your
training, of course, but after that ... what you might call the
Labour Corps -- I was put in that.
Where did you work in the Labour Corps? Was that just round here
in Marshfield?
No, no. Many places. I was in Devon, in Bristol, on Salisbury
Plain, in France and Germany.
Coming back to the families that you were talking about and you
named some of the people, can you think of other families that
have been in Marshfield for a long time, the particular trades
they were engaged in? We know that the Fishlocks have been here
for a long time ...
The Knights have been here a long time.
They were maltsters? What else were the Knights? Can you remember?
Or were they only maltsters when you were small?
Only Dick Knight's [great] grandfather was a maltster. Then, after,
Dick's grandfather and father, they went into farming. Although
Dick's great-grandfather was a farmer -- he had that as well as
the malthouse.
Did he have the land that Dick farms now, up at West End, or was
it a different farm?
Different.
Who were the big farmers, who owned lots of land?
People named Shapford, up at the Home Farm. That was the biggest
farm in Marshfield.
Do you remember other old families, like the Englands or the Pullens?
I knew George's mother but not his father.
Where did they live at that time?
Where George lives now, in Hay Street.
I understand that, at one time, one of his ancestors ran the Lord Nelson.
Not in my time. I've been told that, but I don't know that.
You mentioned the Beazers. They're an old local family ...
The Beazers was the shoemakers. You've heard that the Beazers
were the building people? Well, now, their father was a Marshfield
man, then his son went to Bath and started the big business.
So it's all the same family ...
Yes, but the Beazers are shoemakers. And another family of Beazers
have nothing to do with Beazers the builders.
Jackie and Danny White -- he's in the mummers and his wife runs the teashop -- were
they the same Whites who were the boot repairers?
No, no, a totally different family.
I wanted to ask you about the mummers as well.
They started in 1932. The British Legion had the hall up there
and a billiard table. And I was up there one day, sat down, and
with the newsagent Downsall (?), and in walked the vicar. And
he said to Bill Downs, he said, 'William, my sister wants to know
about the Marshfield Paper Boys' -- not the 'mummers'. And he
asked him about getting some boys, and Bill said, 'No, we won't
get any boys to do that. But there's Tom there' -- that was me,
sat next to him and another lad called Teddy Beazer. Then the
vicar said he was going to get his gardener and two bell ringers.
And that's how it started. And they were 'Paper Boys' when we
started, not 'mummers', but they can't say when it changed from
'Paper Boys' to 'mummers'.
So where did the tradition come from before 1932?
Reverend Alford's sister was interested in these old tales, and
she had heard about the Marshfield Paper Boys, and she asked the
vicar if he could find anything about it. And that's how it come
to start.
And were you a mummer?
I was Doctor Finnix ... This will make you laugh. In they days,
the bicycles had no lamps. I was riding to work, in the dark,
and there was a cat in the middle of the road and I rode over
the cat and fell down and injured my thumb. And it was that painful,
I couldn't do it. So I learned my brother and he done it. And
afterwards he wanted to carry on so I went reserve for a while.
So I didn't do it too many times.
Do you still remember any of the words?
I'm afraid not ... One was: 'I can cure the itch, the palsy and
the gout/All pains within and none without.'
So where did the vicar's sister get all the story from?
Are you going to see a man called Desmond Oates? Well, he got
it from old parish magazines -- it was before my time.
Where did the mummers perform?
In them days, we met in the church hall, then we come out and
about in the village, and then along into the market place and
then down here -- what they call the East End -- and then in front
of the school and then just by the post office, and then another
place just past the malting house, then St Martin's Lane and then
the almshouses. We done it eight times. Of course, there weren't
the traffic about that there is now.
So each time you performed it, you did the same play, eight times
all around the town?
Yes, yes. That's the original. But there's more traffic about
today ...
It's more difficult ...
Yes.
And who made the costumes?
My mother done mine.
What's happened to your mummer's costume? Did you pass it on to
somebody else?
My brother, he had it, and what he done with it, I don't know.
The man who did most of it was named Downsall (?). He made it
copyright.
Why?
I wouldn't know. He put his record (?) into a museum in Bristol.
What was your costume like?
It was an old macintosh with all these paper strips sewn on it.
They cut all the paper into strips and sewed them. I don't know
how many. Took them ages to sew them all on -- and then around
the hat.
And did everybody make their own costume?
Oh, yes.
And did some people pass their costume on when they passed the
part on?
Well, I expect so, I wouldn't know.
What was your character?
Doctor Finnix. Then my brother took it on and he played Dr Finnix.
How often did the mummers perform?
Only on Boxing Day, but we had several practices before. Most
of the information was got from a man named Arthur Oates, Desmond
Oates' grandfather. Most of the words were got from him.
And then just passed down from person to person?
Yes. They still use the same words.
Did anybody ever write it down?
Oh, yes, because the television, they come up with a big van and
televised it in the market place one time.
Can you remember when that was?
Well, I should say in the early thirties, a few years after it
started.
Can you remember that happening?
I remember but I wasn't in it, because my brother took on my job.
So you missed out on being famous ...
[Laughs]
... until now! Didn't they go and perform it in London?
Oh, they did the Albert Hall, they did the Bath Assembly Rooms,
they did it up Cheltenham. That was in the early days.
When were the 'early days'?
When we started in 1932. This was on top of his [his brother's?
Downsall's?] work, you know. He was a newsagent and, of course,
he got to go to all these places. And I didn't go. As I said,
my brother wanted to carry on, so I let him carry on as I went
reserve.
So did people collect money? Did people get paid?
They used to give it to different charities.
How much money did they get?
I wouldn't remember. I don't think I ever knew. I don't think
I was ever interested in that side.
How much did people earn when you were a child? How much money
did somebody working as an agricultural labourer earn?
What, a weekly wage?
Yes
My father, 14 shillings a week. And 11 in the family. That was
before the 1914-18 war, mind. When my son was a big strong lad
in his early teens, he earned £1.50 a week -- that was 30 bob
a week gardening. But, mind you, you could buy something with
the money.
How much was a loaf of bread or a pint of beer?
Tuppence. The first time I got drunk, on Wadsworth beer down at
the Northey (?) Arms down Box, I got drunk on five pints of beer
and a packet of Wills's Gold Flake for one and a penny. The beer
was tuppence a pint and the Gold Flake was tuppence for ten cigarettes.
How old were you?
Sixteen, seventeen. I was born in '97 -- this was before the 1914-18
war.
So, at that time, if your father was earning 14 shillings a week,
was that quite typical? Was that what most people earned?
That was average wage about then, oh, yes. That was for what they
called a 'day man'. On the estate was the carters and the shepherds,
who put in the most time -- and the cow men.
And what did they earn?
I wouldn't know. I can't remember.
Who were the wealthy people? Who were the people who earned the
most?
Squire Taylor of the Ox (?) and Squire Firth of Athrick (?) Hall
and then Major Pool.
What did the major do?
He was a retired army officer.
And who were the wealthiest traders?
I should say the Bubmans (?). If you go up the street opposite
the post office, there's a big shop. That was the biggest people.
Then, you see, the grocer shop. They had to pay a lot because
-- what they done, they supplied all the surrounding villages,
and that all had to be packed up by hand, so there was a lot of
work to be done. You see, everything come loose -- tea, sugar
-- all had to be packed up so they needed more people in the shop.
Then people did go with a horse and a cart and deliver round to
the outlying villages.
So presumably they had lots of people doing the deliveries as
well.
Oh, yes. Now we got one shop.
And no bakers.
No bakers.
But you still have a few pubs.
Three. See, the Angel and the George and the White Hart -- they
all closed down in my time.
Did they just gradually close?
Oh, and the King's Arms -- I forgot about that, in the market
place. That was another big pub.
Why did they close?
I don't know -- the trade, I suppose.
Just not enough?
I suppose.
When did the market stop, or do they still have market days here?
No. I can't remember ... couldn't give a date. Those were two
big days. We used to see all the people here, selling their horses,
as they do at these fairs. All the pubs were crowded all day long.
Open all day?
Open all day. That was our harvest time.
It must have been fantastic, lots of atmosphere. Did people come
from miles around?
Oh, yes, to bring their sheep and their cattle.
How did they bring them? Did they just drive them here?
On the road. No cattle trucks like these days. In my young days,
I worked for a horse and cattle dealer, and he used to drive cows
to Chippenham, Sudbury, Yeat (?), Bridgeait (?) and Bath, all
on the road. Everything had to be driven in those days. Only thing
they would take was fat sheep in horse wagons. All the rest were
on the road.
And why did they take them in horse wagons?
Because they were too fat to walk far!
Were they being taken to slaughter?
Oh, yes. They were sold to butchers.
Were there separate drove roads or were the drove roads just the
same as the other roads?
There was drovers. They went to fairs and markets and would take
the stock to the station and that. My boss -- I did all the work
in them days.
So would that take you more than a day sometimes?
Oh, no, I'd do it in a day. When we'd go to Chippenham with what
they call 'in cow heifers (?)', we did take them to halfway down
on the Thursday and get up on the Friday morning and go down and
pick them up and take them on into Chippenham. But all the rest,
the markets, we did take them from there straight into the markets.
All had to be done in them days.
So how many people would work together? If you were taking a herd
to market, how many agricultural labourers would there be? How
many people would take a herd?
It was all according to ... If the farmer had something to sell,
he was going to take it to market, his men did take it.
So how many men might go? Just one or two or ... ?
Sometimes two, but mostly I did do it on my own.
And how many cattle or sheep?
All according to how many he bought. He might buy a bunch of cattle,
he might buy two or three, he might buy a flock of sheep.
So how many animals might you be responsible for? Might you have
a big flock of -- oh, I don't know -- 50 sheep?
That did vary a lot. You couldn't name a number, really. All according
to the sale ... I don't know whether I told you all the tradespeople.
I think I have ...
You told us lots and lots. That's fantastic. I hope we haven't
exhausted you. Lots of lovely bits of information there. I hadn't
thought of being able to get drunk for one and a penny! You'd
struggle to do that now!
They tell me it's £1.80 a pint! That breaks my heart. 'Course
I haven't been to a pub for several years now.
Do you manage to get out at all?
When I was 98, I fell down and fractured this hip, and I went
into hospital and I was in there 31 days. Come home for a month
and I was sat in that chair and I wanted that spitoon and I come
to get it and I turned around and I was on the floor and I broke
the second leg. So, 'course, I haven't been able to get out since
then. They done that patch for me and I can walk round the bungalows
with my trolley.
Did your father or mother, or your grandparents, ever tell you
stories about when they were little?
My grandfather, he joined the army and done 21 years and come
out and joined the police force and done his time. Come out of
the police force and went woodman on the Earl of Pembroke's estate
at Wilton. And he lived till gone 90.
Was he from here originally?
No, no, Wilton in Wiltshire.
What about your grandmother?
My grandmother, I don't know, she was 80 something when she died
-- my grandmother Robinson, my father's mother.
What about your mother's side of the family? I'm trying to find
memories that go even further back than you.
My grandmother were very strict ...
So did any of your people come from Marshfield?
My father was a Marshfield man, but my mother, she come from Wilton
and Salisbury.
How did they meet?
She were working in the vicarage, domestic service.
She was a maid?
Yes, yes ... A cook, with the Trapmans' (?) family.
When you were in the Labour Corps, during the war, did you ever
see a place you wanted to live in rather than here?
We was in camp, you see. For a long time, I was attached to the
Veterinary Corps, 1st Reserve Veterinary Corps. Then what we was
doing then was the fodder for the horses and looking after the
horses, that kind of work.
Do you remember talking to other people in the village when you
were young? Do you remember talking to them about their past --
your family or friends, older people ... ?
I don't know. I don't think I can answer that properly.
I just wondered if people talked about the past, further back,
because the malting was busier -- it had almost died out by the
time you were a young boy. But in the past, it had been quite
a big business here, hadn't it?
I'm sorry -- I'm letting you down today.
Don't worry!
My hearing's got very bad. I've got an infection in me ear and
I think that's the trouble.
Right. I'm just thinking back further in time, the malting was
busier, wasn't it, than when you were a small boy -- there was
more malting, more pubs ...?
[Whining from a deaf aid]
Can you hear me now, Tom?
Yes.
Good. I was just wondering if anybody you can remember talking
to had memories of the place further back, when the malting was
busier, when there was more malting, more brewing, and whether
you have any recollections of talking to old people ...
Nothing about malting ... About weather, yes. You see, in they
days they had no wireless. They had to go by their own signs,
and they were true.
What kinds of things did they go by? Did they have old sayings?
Yes. Do you know Michaelmas Day? On the 2nd of February? Now let's
get this right ... 'Michaelmas Day, clear and bright/We're in
for another fright./Michaelmas Day, dull and rain/Winter's gone
and won't come back again.'
And that was one of the sayings?
That was one of the sayings. And 'February without rain/No good
for grass or grain' ?and that's true.
Well, we haven't had any rain in February so far ... Maybe it's
going to be a bad year!
On the 2nd of February, I forgot what the day was like. I was
always looking forward to the 2nd of February. And the old farmers
used to say: 'See a lark in the meadow in the middle of May/That
was a good load of hay.' There was a lot of old sayings about
that ... Buckthorn's (?) cold spells, do you want to know what
that is? The cold spells: February the 7th to the 10th, April
the 11th to the 14th, May the 9th to the 14th, June the 6th to
the 12th. The warm spells: July the 12th [missing words], November
6th to the 12th, and December 3rd to the 9th.
And who worked that out?
I don't know. I just put it down in my diary. You see, there's
what they call the 'blackthorn winter', in April, round the 9th
to the 14th, and these cold spells are within three days of those
dates.
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