{"id":702,"date":"2018-03-17T19:56:57","date_gmt":"2018-03-17T23:56:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=702"},"modified":"2018-03-23T14:27:18","modified_gmt":"2018-03-23T18:27:18","slug":"lower-wooden-farm-marjorie-and-nsncy-plucking-chickens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=702","title":{"rendered":"Lower Wooton Farm…Marjorie and Nancy plucking chickens"},"content":{"rendered":"
LOWER WOOTON FARM, HEREFORDSHIRE, CIRCA 1965<\/div>\n
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alan skeoch<\/div>\n
march 2018<\/div>\n
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LOWER WOOTON FARM is \u00a0a designated \u00a0historic \u00a0property near Almely, Herefordshire, England. \u00a0 \u00a0When I first visited the farms back in 1960 the farm was just a name\u2026no directions, no real \u00a0address. \u00a0But Grandma \u00a0and Granddad Freeman talked \u00a0about the place \u00a0regularly back in Canada and since I was<\/div>\n
working in Ireland the chance to find \u00a0Lower Wooden Farm presented \u00a0itself. \u00a0I was travelling blind. Flew to London when Irish job was over then took a train from London to Hereford and then stood on the platform, a confused and obviously lost 22 year old Canadian.<\/div>\n
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\u201cCan I help you?\u201d \u00a0offered a man on the same platform.<\/div>\n
\u201cMaybe, Have you ever heard \u00a0off \u00a0Lower Wooton Farm?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cSure, Cyril and \u00a0Nancy \u00a0Griffiths live there, a \u00a0council farm\u2026very old\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cIs it far?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cMaybe half an hour away\u2026twisting roads\u2026.I am \u00a0going that way, would you accept a lift?\u201d<\/div>\n
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He was a local bank manager and delivered me right to the farm. \u00a0Pure luck. That was \u00a01960. \u00a0Five or six years later Marjorie, Eric \u00a0and I played \u00a0a return visit. And \u00a0we were treated \u00a0royally. \u00a0Since the farm is historic, the\u00a0Griffiths \u00a0could not make any changes. \u00a0As \u00a0a \u00a0result Lower Wooton farm was like \u00a0a time machine\u2026rolling back I \u00a0believe to the 16th century (but not sure of that).<\/div>\n
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Nancy Griffiths and Marjorie are in the tiny ancient kitchen plucking the feathers from two chickens freshly killed for us.<\/div>\n
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David Griffiths, their son, became a \u00a0good friend and we have shared much over the years. \u00a0Sadly Cyril and \u00a0Nancy are gone now. \u00a0But David and \u00a0his wife Shelagh and the boys Charles and Alun are thriving but no longer tenant farmer on Lower Wooton Farm.<\/div>\n
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The woman in the black sweater\u2026Polly Griffiths\u2026was the link that made the rediscovery possible. \u00a0Polly and Louisa Freeman (my grandmother) exchanged letters for half a century both\u00a0remembering their years as part of the grand Eywood \u00a0Estate\u2026a 1500 estate near Kington that had similarities to Downton Abbey. \u00a0The manor house, a grand building, had just been demolished a few years earlier. \u00a0 The gardens, however, where Granddad \u00a0was \u00a0head gardener in the early 20th century, were still intact. \u00a0Grandad\u2019s name was even prominent on the espaliered peach trees \u00a0in the glass encased south facing wall of the bricked enclosure. \u00a0 Granddad \u00a0was \u00a0glad to leave England \u00a0for Canada around1908 \u2018got tired of \u00a0tipping his hat to his betters\u2019 as he once said to me. \u00a0Life on the English grand estates was \u00a0a \u00a0matter of class. \u00a0 More of \u00a0that later.<\/div>\n
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alan skeoch<\/div>\n
March 2018<\/div>\n
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Nancy\u2019s small horse took liberties it \u00a0seems<\/div>\n
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When we arrived \u00a0on Lower Wooton farm in 1965 there as a bit of trouble. \u00a0A \u00a0cow \u00a0was having trouble getting calf out of her womb. \u00a0A breached \u00a0birth.<\/div>\n
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\u201cBoys, give a hand.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cDoing what?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cHold this rope while I reach in the womb and get a \u00a0loop around the back legs.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cGot it.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cNow pull, firmly but gently the moment she goes through another effort\u2026now\u2026now.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s coming\u2026legs are out.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cKeep the tension.\u201d<\/div>\n
WHOMP!<\/div>\n
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\u201cOUT CAME THE CALF\u2026FLEW THROUGH THE AIR AND LANDED \u00a0ON ERIC WHO STILL WAS WEARING<\/div>\n
HIS BEST TRAVELLING CLOTHES. \u00a0A LOT OF GUCK. \u00a0I THINK THE CALF WAS \u00a0ALIVE\u2026but that is \u00a0a long time ago.<\/div>\n
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After that there were other things to do, like moving this lead of straw after a threshing. \u00a0Eric and \u00a0Cyril in the foreground. \u00a0David on the load above. Marjorie<\/div>\n
was \u00a0not here\u2026she was being trailed by the pony as \u00a0if \u00a0it was imprinted and thought Marjorie was a \u00a0mare.<\/div>\n
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Animals on Lower Wooten Farm were treated as \u00a0pets\u2026except \u00a0for the two chickens being plucked above.<\/div>\n
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alan skeoch<\/div>\n
March 2018<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LOWER WOOTON FARM, HEREFORDSHIRE, CIRCA 1965 alan skeoch march 2018 LOWER WOOTON FARM is \u00a0a designated \u00a0historic \u00a0property near Almely, Herefordshire, England. \u00a0 \u00a0When I first visited the farms back in 1960 the farm was just a name\u2026no directions, no real \u00a0address. \u00a0But Grandma \u00a0and Granddad Freeman talked \u00a0about the place \u00a0regularly back in Canada […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=702"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":808,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702\/revisions\/808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}