Lockengate Of The 40s

A Memory of Lockengate.

I  lived in St Austell as a child but my Uncle Ewart and Aunt Ruby farmed at Trescoll Farm, Lockengate. From a very early age I spent every holiday with them and although only four or five years old at the time, I remember well and fondly those wartime years, the Land Army girls and the two shire horses. (The first Fordson Major tractor didn't arrive here until the early '50's.)   Trescoll was up a long lane from Lockengate and each morning Uncle would harness up one of the horses and after hand milking his twenty or so South Devon breed cows would  load the churns into the cart and take them down to Lockengate where there was a concrete block stand onto which they were loaded ready for the Milk Board lorry to collect.
  Lockengate was at the junction of the Bugle-Lanivet road (the A391) and the road to Bodwen and on the corner opposite the farm lane was Mrs Grose's shop.
One of my occasional chores was to walk down to her shop to buy baccy for Uncle. Probably one of my earlier brand-awareness examples would be St Bruno tobacco, in those days only available as a 1oz hard block wrapped in foil. The main road saw only two or three vehicles an hour so it was quite safe for this young lad to go alone. The shop consisted of one small room entered by a "stable door" and wartime rationing being still very much in force there was only a limited variety of goods for sale. Brands I well remember are Reckitts Blueing for whitening(yes, really!) the laundry; Woodbine cigarettes, Swan Vesta matches, Birds custard powder, Typhoo tea, bottles of Camp coffee, Hp sauce, Colemans mustard and Cherry boot polish, which apart from black was also available in a dark brown that was described by the "N word" which political correctness no longer permits us to use.  
On the diagonally opposite corner to the shop was a single story house belonging to the Hambly family. This house was somewhat of a curiosity as it was constructed entirely of corrugated iron, both roof and side walls. It no longer exists but its uniquness remains clear in my mind.    I have only happy memories of Trescoll and Lockengate.