Meat. We had to make do with our ration of beef and mutton. Pork products we had by the barrow load. Ordinary people could give up their bacon ration and were allowed to keep a pig instead but at the start of the war the government took half the pig when it was killed. Farmers … Read more
My father started to salt his own pig, the shoulder, ham and sides of bacon. I would be sent to Wrights the grocers with a wheelbarrow and return with a block of salt 2 & ½ feet long and a foot wide and high. The cold slab would be deeply covered in salt and the … Read more
Preserving. One could use the sugar ration and occasionally get extra sugar for preserving. My father’s orchard contained a Conference pear and another type of pear tree, Victoria and Damson plums. Green gage plums could be bought from the Ramsdens who owned the Tetley Hall Estate. Every autumn my parents put up about a hundred … Read more
Dietary Supplements. All the lads were at it. I firstly with my cockerels and two year old hens. We all were after rabbits and woodpigeons, which the farmers regarded as pests. Rabbits at first without much success trying to use snares. Then my father bought me a Webley air rifle for a birthday present. My … Read more
Pig potatoes. The small potatoes would be scooped up and taken to the fold yard. Every farm had a yardman who looked after the cows, pigs, chickens and other livestock In the farm building where the pig potatoes were stored would be a large copper where the potatoes would be boiled before being fed to … Read more
Submitted by Bill Goldthorpe Mill Road, Crowle, Mill Trod was the name given to Mill Road by the older inhabitants of Crowle when I was a boy, although by then the official name was Mill Road. I feel very sad that many of these old names have been modified. Mill Trod, makes me think of … Read more
I am proud to admit being a 50% Gervi by inheritance and a born and bred Gervi until the age of 18 when I went to University. At this time immigrants into the Isle were rare. It probably accounts for my bizarre sense of humour which is constantly getting me into trouble. So here goes … Read more
It is suprising what you can find with this family history lark. My engagement was not as complicated as this and there is no way Major (he was in the Pay Corps) Hubert Leslie de Courcey ( he added that bit himself to sound posh) Grylls would have coughed up 26 marks when I married … Read more