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Leslie
McLaren & Arthur Wood |
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Leslie was born
in 1927 at Bawtry near Retford in Nottinghamshire. In the 1930s his family
moved to a farm in Cotgrave, and in 1939 to Laurel Farm at Stanton-on-the-Wolds.
He went to school in Keyworth where he met his friend Arthur. In 1947 his
father David obtained the tenancy of Holly Farm on Main Street, Keyworth,
where the family is still farming. Arthur was also born in 1927 on Lings
Lane at Keyworth, where his father owned land. He has lived in Keyworth
all his life. |
| Laurel Farm:
Laurel Farm was part of the Widmerpool Estate. Mr Towle from Loughborough
owned it in the thirties. Father was manager of Laurel Farm for this Mr
Hallam [who lived] at Bassingfield - his farm was on the Manvers Estate
- - part of Cotgrave Estate. At Laurel Farm, we lived in the farmhous. Ttwo
men were living in with us that helped on the farm, Wilf White and Bill
Pearson. They came from North Nottinghamshire. They took a job there and
came to live in the farmhouse - lodged with us in the farmhouse. …There was German prisoners helped at harvest time - with the harvest - to get the harvest in. And there was Alf Bonser; he was a stockman; he looked after the cattle; he lived in the cottage across the field. …[Mother] looked after us - fed us in the farmhouse. She kept poultry and she collected the eggs; …She used to sell the eggs; …they used to come from around …buy them. The wireless station, the Home Office wireless station, were there at that time, and they're as quite a few people working there. And they used to come and fetch the eggs. …She used to have to cook a bit for the German prisoners, because with working on the farm - she had to find them a bit of food at dinner times. …They used to eat in - generally in one of the sheds on the farm. …We used to come at - one of you used to come down and collect it. She used to get it ready for 'em in a basket and mash the tea for 'em. …The oven wasn't very good, but the agents said it would be too expensive to put a new oven in. So she had to manage with the one she'd got … the old-fashioned open range you know with the oven and grate in the middle …black-leaded range and the boiler for your water at the other side. …You had to fill that up out of the pump in the kitchen … water pump in the kitchen …from a well. …It was very deep, …not the soft water well, but the drinking water well in the garden; it was very deep. …[The soft water was] from off the house. |
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Steam ploughing at Laurel Farm: Two hundred and twenty acres, thereabouts, a mixed farm it was. Mainly heavy soil, but there was some around the farm of light soil, but it was mainly heavy clay land. The steam cultivators, they used to do the ploughing up till about 1941, and then the caterpillar tractor took it over. …Contractors, they were the Beebys of Rempstone with the steam tackle, and there was Henshaws of Redmile. They used to come with a caterpillar and do the ploughing. And the rest of the work was done with the horses then on the farm. I think
[steam ploughing] accidents were fairly common. If the rope broke, that
could be dangerous. …The same with the horses, …you had to cart
the coal and the water to them - these horse and carts. And I think the
horses weren't too keen. The steam engines, when they were chugging away,
when they were doing the ploughing, frightened the horses a bit like. |
Dixie Ball and threshing
team |
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David McLaren with
horses |
Holly Farm: There was seventy-five acres, and then a further twenty five acres just down the lane that belonged to a Mrs Webster. …A hundred acres we started off with at Keyworth like. …[We] bought various lots of land over the years, some at Stanton and some up the lane here and Holly Farm …bought some off Flinders Farm and some of Lings Farm as well - next door here. It's all sort of, throughout the years like, bought different parcels of land. …Stanley Armstrong [farmed at Lings Farm], Stan the potato man, we used to call him. |
| Horses at McLarens
farms: On the farm [Stanton] up till ... there wasn't a tractor on that
farm when we was there. No, we didn't have a tractor; it was a bit old fashioned…
that was the trouble, too keen of his horses… we used to have about
nine, eye… Depending, because it would vary a bit like, with perhaps
breaking them in; and then there'd be some of them sold. But you see at
harvest time, when you were bindering, you used to have - run one team for
three hours, and then change them. So you perhaps every three hours you'd
put a different set of horses on. You could do about fifteen acre a day
on a good day like… Used to go to ploughing matches… We used to
bind a bit of corn, and that sort of thing, help with Frank Bryans, George
Webster, used to help them with the harvest like. Used to sort of all help
one another like, near neighbours he did. He didn't do a lot, he did more so when he was at Cotgrave, but he did used to breed heavy horses - they'd come from Melton - and break em in. Sold one or two to the breweries and them places. There were twenty-eight at Shipstones Brewery at that time. Used to go down there, have a pint or two with the head horseman, have a look at the horses. |
David McLaren at |
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David McLaren |
Horses at Woods farm: He had about forty-five acre, I think all together. He used to milk about six cows and he'd probably have about twenty-five/thirty ewes. And we also had one field on the plough. But of course when the war came we had to plough another one up, so we had two on that time. Well the lot on it were mangles, and turnips, kale - for the cattle during the winter. It was good land up there. It wasn't strong like it is, some of this at Stanton. We always had one [horse], and if we wanted to do any mowing, we always borrowed one. The latter part of the time, he always borrowed one off Mr Elliott, and he had ours back when he wanted mowing. The last we had come from Holly Farm, not Les's, George Webster. The last one, but the one before that, he came out of the pit. Oh eye, he was a strong little pony, but he got the same disease as the colliers get - with the lungs, with the coal dust. But if there were a bit - some of the weather, it was a bit foggy or something like that - he used to have a job breathing. But oh, we used to do everything with him… Robin … he was. |
| Move to Inglenook: It would be just before the war, the farm that Mr Elliott had - and the cottage, where we were, belonged to my dad's uncle, and when my granddad died, he sold it, so of course we had to get out. So we went up to Inglenook. …It were ol;, it was the oldest place, bar the church .Actually, it were older than the barn. …It was before we went there - it were thatched. We used to have a photograph of it when it were thatched. [The barn] that belonged us. After we'd been here, oh quite a number of years, Dad had a chance to buy it. And he also bought the farm, the field at the Factory Yard as they call it - down opposite side of the road where Stockingers Factory was. There was a field down there that he bought. | |
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Wytrack elevator |
Wytrack
elevators: [When I left school] I went to Ferreira's, and then Walker.
I drove it [a caterpillar tractor] a long while before I could drive -
drive on the road. But they used to send, say, send a land girl to move
the tractor for me. And when she come, she said, "Oh, I can't drive
the thing", so she used to have to sit on the toolbox, and I had
to drive it. …Fresh air treatment that was; you got cold; you put
another topcoat on.
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Published by Sandra Ford August 2001 Email: sandrafordwolds@yahoo.co.uk
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Full
transcripts and audio recordings of the interviews are available
through the Nottinghamshire County Libraries and the Nottingham City Libraries. |
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