Farming At Stocks Farm 1957 58

A Memory of Meonstoke.

Ernie Styles and I started work on my stepfather and mother's farm (Patrick and Annette Lawford) when we were both 17 (1957). There was also Reg Whittear (mechanic/tractor driver, John Spreadbury and George Langridge. Bert Tyrell did the pigs. Shep Frampton, who had known Patrick at Lichfield Farm, near Sutton Scotney, must have been in his 80s. He walked up from the village daily and was known to graft roses onto the wild roses in the hedge, on the way up. I helped him with the sheep. Often we made a pen on Peewhit Island, on Tom Parker's boundary. We seemed to be endlessly trimming sheeps' feet. At 17 I was big enough to catch the big Clun ewes for shep in the hurdle pens. A few years earlier I had been helping shep and one of the hurdles next to me was pushed over by the ewes wanting to make their escape, they hadn't cared that I was actually under the hurdle as they scrambled over me. Any sheepdog we had automatically went and sat by Shep as soon as he arrived. He used to give them a piece of his cheese and pickled-onion at lunchtime. One sheepdog called Patch was very defensive about the farmyard. Tom Parker and a groom drove past in an exercise carriage and pair. Patch ran out and startled the horses, turning the carriage on its side. It was soon righted and Shep, who always had a yarn with Tom, berated him for driving the pair too fast!  I used to go home to the farmhouse for lunch and If my parents weren't there Bert Tyrell's wife used to cook. She was a dab hand at scrambled egg, which she made with a silver spoon. If I was late back Shep would say "Did you have fish for lunch?". Shep and his wife only had two children, Ted who was head shepherd on the Stype estate and always won the Smithfield Show with his champion flock of Hampshire Downs, and a daughter who was a senior nurse. His grand-daughter was very pretty and used to come and help Shep and I with fencing. We took turns to stand in a trailer and smash in fencing posts. Shep was a bit sceptical of the Tyrell family as they had a lot more children than his, "They Tyrells breed like rabbits" he used to say. 
One of the worst jobs in the winter was to take the tops off the sugar beet with a sharp knife made for the job. You held the beet in your left hand and then chopped the greenery off. If it was a cold morning your hands soon froze. I managed to take the end off one finger but didn't notice it until later! We then threw the beet in the big 4 wheel, 6-tons trailer and then took it in to Droxford station. John or Reg used to drive the Fordson Major tractor pulling the unbraked trailer. We used to stand on the drawbar behind the tractor to keep out of the wind. At the top of Buckshead Hill the driver slowed and checked to see if the icy hill was clear. You would not have stopped the 6-tons in its voyage down the hill. At the station we pulled up to a 20-ton British rail truck and Reg and I would shovel with beet prongs until the trailer was empty. The sugar beet went all the way to Kidderminster. 
John Spreadbury and I started the Meonstoke football club. We met in the Malthouse pub  next to Cooke' store. Tober Adams and Bill Miles came from Harvestgate farm, they were as broad as the were tall and played back. George was a good friend of Ernie's and played in goal. Bert Tilbury from the Malthouse was centre . John and I were half backs. No overseas players all locals played. We played HMSMercury at Leydene once but I can' t remember the outcome. 
Peter Cobb lived in the village and played for the cricket teem. His father used to umpire. Peter and I went skiing with David Williams from Bramdean and stayed in Engleberg. I made the mistake for taking a T bar ride up the mountain with Peter. We were both beginners. As soon as you stood on the tow ready to be whisked up the mountain, the T bar caught us round the back of our legs and jettisoned us into a deep snow filled gulley on either side of the lift. We had great difficulty in extracting ourselves much to the mirth of more experienced lift users! When we arrived back at Heathrow David, Peters brother, kindly picked us up in his A35 van. As we drove down the A 3 early in the morning it started to snow so we found some rope and David towed the ski experts down over Hindhead! 
I was at school with John Haines and Geoffrey Biggs who both lived in the village. Lady Biggs was tremendously kind and asked me to Christmas parties. The problem was Geoffrey was a bit older and a scholar. His games were more than I could understand. You had to find what was tagged to your back, in my case Juppiter. You then searched out the female counterpart. Just put a J in front of United Nations Organisation said Geoffrey. Luckily my partner found me before my bewilderment became apparent! Geoffrey suggested that it would be sensible to learn Greek before my Common Entrance so that I would be put in a higher form. Perhaps that's why I went farming!

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