THIS TAPE HAS BEEN RECORDED ON THE 5TH OF JULY 1979 AT 16 COWGILL STREET, EARBY. THE INFORMANT IS HORACE THORNTON, TAPER AND THE INTERVIEWER IS STANLEY GRAHAM.
Tape 79/AD/6
Now, on to a very important subject Horace, pocket money. Did you have pocket money.
R- Not until I were working.
Aye and what did you get them?
R- Well, a shilling or twelve pence. But before that any errands I ran, any jobs I did for anybody or if I’d been messing about on a farm helping a farmer, he’d happen give me sixpence. Well you'd turn it all in and you’d to remember, no keeping any money, that were the thing we were short of most, cash.
When you started work you'd he tipping up?
R- Yes.
Yes. It seems to have been quite usual round about to give a penny in the shilling pocket money, would that be about right with you?
R – No. I didn’t get so much. No.
Aye. What would you spend, if you had some pocket money what would you spend it on?
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R - You could get to the pictures for a penny. Saturday afternoon and you either come out of the pictures, you’d have a pennorth of chips or a pennorth of tripe bits. Where the bus station is at Skipton there used to be a tripe stall and a fish shop. One half you could go and sit in, and the other half were the fry, for the fish pan and they could buy tripe. You’d get a pennorth of tripe bits, bits that they’d cut off. Slice a piece off and cut it up, put it on a paper and salt and vinegar. And you could either sit down and eat it or go out and walk towards home eating it. But that were the main thing. And there were a fellow called Morris run the picture house in Skipton then on Sackville Street, and at Easter and Christmas time there were always something, a gift for you, an apple or an orange. They’d he very cheap to him but you can reckon it up when it were only a penny to go in. But everybody that went to the matinee would get an apple or an orange. Of course you were going the year round and there were a lot of these pictures. ‘Continued next week’ left you with your hair stood on end, Moonriders and the Clutching Hand, I remember them yet you know and you’d come out with your hair stood on end.
Aye, we’ll get on to the pictures in a while. Did friends call at your house often?
R- Ob yes, they’d call for you.
When they called they more or less called for you to go out. They wouldn’t call to visit you?
R- No they wouldn't stay in. No.
Aye, how did you spend Saturday when you were young?
R- Well, it were the same as any other day and there were a football team in the village. We’d watch the football, and a cricket team. You could either go to the football or the cricket team or wandering round on the moors or anywhere. A gang of you that you’d say “Where have we to go?” You'd meet in the centre of Carleton and it were “Where have we to go?” “We’ll go to such and such a place.” Or we’d come over towards Broughton when the gamekeepers were watching out for you, any pheasant eggs…
How about concerts, theatres?
R- No theatres.
Music Hall?
R- No, not when you were young. You didn’t know there were such a thing.
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Did you ever see any travelling theatres about?
R- No.
Can you ever remember the family at home discussing politics?
R- Never. It’d be, well, when I, up to being ten when my father died, well everything just goes over your head. You’ve to be seen and not heard and you didn’t really know what were going on. And we weren’t interested in politics, you’d hear people arguing and Liberals and Conservatives, Gladstone and all them people and rowing a bit, but it didn't concern us.
What views did your father hold, do you know?
R- Well, he were the secretary of the Conservative Club, long service medal. You can tell what all the family were like. And I have a brother and a sister just the same, but I’ve a brother that isn’t and I aren’t.
Why was he a Conservative, do you know?
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R- I don’t know, it’d be because, I don’t know. Church people were Conservatives and the Chapel were Liberal. And Labour didn’t go anywhere. That were how it were considered in those days.
How about your mother?
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R- Oh, Conservative. Business people and the farming community and all the people at the big houses would all be Conservative.
Aye. Of course. Skipton would be returning a Conservative.
R- Always has done, except once and it were a Liberal. I believe, a long time ago when the Liberals were in power. But there used to be a fellow called Roundell.
Roundell yes.
R - The boss of Gledstone. And then there were Rickards, MP.
Yes, aye.
R- Aye. And then there were this Drayson, he were a dead loss Drayson were.
Aye. He were really weren’t he.
R- He were never at home. He were never in the country.
Aye. Was either your mother or father actually a member of the Conservative Party?
R- Well, me mother were in the Women Unionists.
The Women’s Unionists, aye.
R- Well, whether they’re in the go now, I suppose they are?
Ah well, it’s still the Conservative and Unionist Party.
R- Yes, and they used to have trips off. Go to, go on day trips to Scarborough and places like that the Women’s Unionists. And they used to run trips to London. You set off at Friday night and go down to London, have a trip round London and go to Windsor and all in a day, all your meals provided for about 25/-. I’ve been on them when I were a lad. Aye 25/- to go off at Friday night, you'd get
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into London happen six o'clock at the morning, go to Lyons Corner House for breakfast, and then you’d get into a coach. Oh coaches used to be, 500 of you. Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey then go to Lyons Corner House for your dinner, and then off to Windsor, aye Windsor were the usual place you went to, look round Windsor Castle. And then back home, and then you’d the evening free to wander round London. But I know I went once or twice, I went and an uncle of mine went and sort of , he were in charge of me.
If there were an election would your father or your mother or both of them do any work for the election like canvassing or like that?
R- Probably they would. I can't remember me mother doing anything like that, just me father would probably be addressing envelopes and that sort of thing.
What can you remember about elections when you were young?
R- Nothing really. Nothing. Until you're getting into your twenties and you begin to think and take a bit of notice, get influenced with things that are going on you never took any interest of it.
What were your politics?
R- Well, Conservative till I got out into the world a bit and I thought “This is no good for me.” The old policy and the cotton bosses, and I thought “Well, if these are Conservatives I don’t want to be one!” And after the
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first world war there were lads coming back out of the army you see with their
views, and that influenced you a lot.
Now, that’s interesting. Would you say that the fact that these lads had been away at the war, had it altered them?
R- Yes, it had. They’d a different outlook. Raw country lads you see and then being shipped abroad and conned with all this propaganda stuff and then they realised what suckers they were. It happened the same after 1945, what a majority the Labour Party had, two to one weren't it, 1945 election.
And so what did you swing to then?
R- Labour.
Labour. Of course, I mean, the Socialist Party were only just really rising then weren't it, I mean, like the first the first big one was the
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1906 election weren’t it when they got the first seats, and 1908 when the Liberals got back in they got a lot then. But really the Socialist party didn't come to, didn't really get hold until about 1920 did it, something like that. And when you say that you looked at the mill owners you know and decided that Conservatism wasn’t for you. you know, did anything actually push you over the edge. Were you out of work
you know, did something like that really ..
R- No it wasn’t the matter of being out of work, but the way you were treated at work. You see, if you were running a set and you hadn't finished at Friday
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well you'd to go in at Monday morning, and the set, the rest of the set .. start
at seven o'clock, it might last while ten o'clock, and then it were “Go and sign on.” Not let you stop the rest of the day, “Go and sign on.” Sort of tricks like that. Don't say “Well, you’ve got up and you’ve come to your work. You can’t sign on, you can’t go to the Labour Exchange because you’d work to be done.” There were no saying “We’ll pay you for the rest of the day. Just pass your time and clean up a bit.” But there were none of that.
Did you ever get the feeling in them days that .. and especially when you think about people going to war to fight .. It's probably a leading question this but it's the way that it often strikes me. I often think that in many ways people have been, here again we've got to get down to the class job again, you know, working class people were regarded as expendable.
R- Yes, they don’t care two… Con ‘em into going fighting for their country and they don't own a blade of grass. Now I had an argument with a chap out on a walk. And I had walked this footpath for 60 years and I were going on this footpath with a party of men and women and as we're going along they said “There’s someone coming.” And across at the hall a door opened
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and a fellow come bouncing out with two big dogs. Come round to us and sort of blocked the way. And “Where do you think you are going?” I says “Well we are going down here, there’s a footpath down here to Bell Busk Station. It’s always been a public footpath.” “Oh that may be but I’ve been to the magistrates and got this footpath stopped.” And he were fumbling with this paper in his pocket. “Just read this paper, you’ll understand it.” I says “I’m reading no paper. How old are you?” He says “I’m 49.” I says “Well, I’m 72 (that was last year), and I've walked
this footpath for 60 years I came with an uncle of mine when I were 12 years old. I’ve walked this footpath, but you’ve got your money in.” He says “Well, I’ve bought this place, it’s mine now and people’s gone anywhere and I’ve stopped that.” I says “Well, that may be. You’re in textiles aren’t you? Been in textiles?” Oh yes, he was such a body. “Well, I’ve worked in textiles all my life and I’ve worked just as hard, probably harder than you have and you own this and I don’t own a blade of grass. And you’ll deprive us of the pleasure of walking on it. I’ve never been stopped by anybody and I’m not being stopped by you.” And I walked on, just walked on.
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And he shouted after me “I'm not wanting to deprive you of your pleasure - he said - Next time you want to come - he says - just ring me up and ask permission.” I says “No bloody fear!” I were asking no permission to go on a footpath that I knew had been open 60 years to my knowledge and I had walked it many a time.
Yes, I agree with that perfectly. Them’s my sentiments exactly Horace
R- Well I just told him straight. And some of them, they daren't speak, and they said “You just did right” But they didn’t they just, but when I said come on, let’s be going, a lot of them come forwards, but some would have turned back.
Yes. When you got interested in socialism Horace, did you, were you active you know, were you a member of the party?
R- I joined the Labour Party, paid a subscription to the Labour Party but I didn’t take any part in it. I paid.
Yes, Was that privately or through the union levy?
R- Well, I paid the union levy and then I paid into the Labour Party here you see.
Yes that's it. Tell me something, something you said then… One very interesting thing round here is, going back to the days of the Clarion you know, the ILP, the Independent Labour Party were very strong in Nelson and they had a higher proportion of conscientious objectors in the second world war than any other town in the country. And basically that was due to the old ILP tradition I think.
R- Yes, pacifism.
What's your attitude towards things like conscription and pacifism?
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R- Well, I'd really no fixed ideas on it. And I said to my wife if I’ve got to go, I’ll go. But they were coming round wanting you to join the Home Guard and I didn’t fill it in. And a chap come here and sent me a form to join the Home Guard and I didn’t fill it in. And a chap come here, he were the commander in chief of the Earby lot and I told him I’m joining no Home Guard. You’re not getting me playing at silly buggers crawling round in a dyke bottom with the branches of trees in me hair. He came here and he wanted me to take lodgers in, these people that had come from Coventry to work at the Rover, ammunition factory, well tank factory weren’t it at Earby. I refused point blank to have anybody because we’d heard such tales about them coming home drunk and going to bed and filling the chamber pot and letting it run over on to the bedroom floor and I weren’t having that. And both my wife and myself were working full time. I were working at Skipton and I weren’t getting up and going out at six o’clock in the morning and leaving my wife in bed with strange men in the house. And I refused to have them. They couldn’t compel you to have them, you could be compelled to take children, refugees, but not lodgers and feed them. And we didn’t have them. And then they wanted me to join the firewatchers and I didn’t do that, I refused to do that. If I’d have been working in Earby I suppose I’d have been compelled to do it, firewatching at these factories but when you’re working away they don’t know what you’re doing and I told this uncle of mine and he said Oh, get a form and I’ll fill it in for you to say that you’re working there at night on the farm. And that did the trick, I didn’t do anything. I suppose that it wasn’t really patriotic but I’d have gone if I’d been called up, I’d have gone but reserved occupation, and I hadn’t to go.
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R- I were forty when the war started, forty in 1946 I think I’d be about 40. I were getting on then to be going into the army.
We’ll get back to politics, we just strayed off the path a little bit there, but anyway, it doesn’t matter. Did your father usually vote in elections?
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R- He’d vote, be sure he’d vote when he were Secretary of the Conservative
Party.
Yes, that’s it. Do you think that your father ever felt his job would be at risk unless he voted for a certain party?
R- Well, they couldn't do it openly, but when you're mixed up in them, church, verger at church and mixed up with all the bosses and everybody else, I mean. And I suppose his parents had been Conservative and grandfather on me mother’s side, business man, he’d be Conservative.
Yes, I think that what that question’s aimed at, really, is the fact that you know very well [there can be pressures] On a slightly different tack, there were .. well, for instance, there was one mill at Harle Syke and it was a well known fact that unless you were a member of the chapel up at the top of the road you didn’t stand a chance of a job at this mill.
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And really I think that what we’re aiming at here is .. did people think that there’d be any chance of them losing their job if, say, the mill owners knew they'd voted socialist or something like that. Have you ever come across anything like that?
R- No I haven’t but I suppose if they did find out and there were any trouble they’d say well he is a bother maker and we'll get rid of him. And people said to me, here in Earby about the parents trying to form Unions, or being a Union man and complaining and they’d get sacked and word would go round all Earby and he couldn’t get a job anywhere in Earby. See?
That’s it, yes. We’ll come on to that later with the Unions. I shouldn't have pushed that question that much there. Anyway, did your mother vote in the elections after 1918 when they got the vote?
R- Oh yes she would do. I mean, the Women’s Unionists, they’d all vote.
Aye.
R- I’ve had a vote all my life and I've never been on the winning side yet. That’s because Skipton division, there's never been a Labour man.
Yes, you're not the only one that has said that to me.
R- And so this time and last timeI1 didn't vote for anybody, I didn’t vote. And I don't vote any time, either in Council Elections or Common Market or going into Europe or anything. I just didn’t vote.
Yes, which is I think a very good argument in favour of proportional representation.
R- Oh yes.
Yes, because it gets you into the stage where you think “Well. What the hell’s the use of me voting?” I mean, look, there's plenty of people here as you say that have voted for 25 years in the Skipton constituency and longer, and never ...
R- Yes, 50 years.
And never seen the vote do any good at all.
R- No, and you see if, as you say, [PR] if you vote you would get a look in sometime.
That’s it, you would feel that you’ve done something, it feels like a wasted vote doesn’t it yes.
R- It is yes. And still, when you look at it, it’s a wasted vote not voting.
Yes, difficult thing that really.
R- But the way things have been lately, with the. Labour Party having a Conservative Prime Minister, I just thought “What’s the use of voting for any of ‘em. One’s no better than the other.”
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Yes.
R- I mean it were Callaghan that lost the Labour Party this election, nothing else. In my opinion. And the Labour Party, the body of the Labour Party can see it and they want rid of him. It were definitely him, I mean, it were all Tory policy. Saying one thing and doing another. Wouldn’t take us into the Common Market and they were determined to get us in. And Harold Wilson, well of all the two faced hypocrites that ever lived, he were one.
Well, there you are.
R- With all his carrying on with Marcia, Lady Falkender and Lady Kagan, Lord Kagan and that Eric Mitchell, the same as in the Jeremy Thorpe trial, That chap that had been giving to the Liberal Party?
Hayward?
R- Hayward. He said, did he do it for getting, did he want an honour? He said “Oh, I’ll not get an honour. I don’t make raincoats.” He said it straight out.
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Do you know what your parents thought about the Suffragettes?
R- No, I don’t, no.
Did you ever hear the subject brought up at all?
R- We never discussed politics or religion in our house in no shape or form.
Was that a rule or was it just an understood thing?
R- It wasn’t a rule and it wasn’t an understood thing, but we just didn’t do it. We didn’t do it.
Right, we’ll have a look at your education now Horace. What school did you go to?
R- Carleton Endowed School.
Carleton?
R- Endowed, it were a church school.
Endowed, that’s it. And .. how old were you when you first went there?
R- Twelve. The day I was twelve I went half time.
Ah, when you first went to school.
R- Oh, to school!
Yes, sorry, yes.
R- Well, I were going before I were three. And I went in a pinny and frock, I hadn’t been breeched then.
That’s it, yes.
R- Because I’ve a photograph taken in the class. Sat on the floor and a pair of clogs on, brass toe caps.
We’ll have a copy of that! Do you know how old your parents were when they went to school?
R- I’ve no idea. They’d have to pay in those days, They had to pay.
No. Yes, that’s it.
R- Penny a week I think it were.
Yes, before the education act. That’s it, aye.
R- Yes, they had to pay.
And that was an endowed school, church school, so that came under a board of management and the vicar would be on it. That's it.
R- Yes, and Slingsby were the chairman.
Aye, over at the mill.
R- Yes you see? And Slingsby and the school master were hand in glove. The school master's job were to find labour for the mill. And before you left, when you were leaving he called you to his desk and said you’re leaving in such a date. And wish you luck and said that Slingsby had a job for me if I wanted it. That’s how it all worked.
The system. Yes, we’ll get on to that when we got on to when you first left school. What do you think you gained from that school? Was it a good school, did you think it was a good school?
R- No, it wasn’t as good as the ordinary schools. It wasn't as good as Skipton school because Church schools never had any money for extra activities. There wasn’t swimming lessons, there wasn’t any woodwork classes, there wasn't anything for the girls. Only just the three Rs. You see, there was nothing like that. Well, you talked to lads at Skipton and they were having all sorts, they got a far better education in the County schools than we did at Carleton. Now my daughter’s moving from Mansfield to a place called Tickhill and there’s two schools there, there's a church school and a County school, and a choice. Well I says for God's sake don't send him to a
church school. Because they haven’t any facilities. And they've been to look and enquired at both schools and she says “You are right dad, they’d nothing at the church school.” At the county school they've outdoor
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activities, all sorts of things that they haven’t at the church school at all.
Did you like school?
R- Yes, because I were always good. And I were far ahead, I’m not swanking but 1 were far ahead of anybody else.
I can believe that.
R- Yes, because you went to work half time, there half time at the mill and school half time and after I were twelve it were just wasted, I’d done all that there were to do at that school. I just sat and read, passed me time on.
You’ll have been a big reader will you?
R- Yes and my wife is. She’ll do eight books a week. Of course she has a lot of time to pass on. But she is a great reader and she can remember.
That’s it, good thing.
R- She’s brainier than I am, she is.
What were the teachers strict about at school?
R- Discipline, you daren’t step out of line. And there were our teacher, the headmaster were a man called Mr Lilly and there were a man called Baghurst, he came from Bradley on a bicycle every day. And then there were two more teachers, Mr Lilly’s daughters, Edith, called Miss Edith Lilly and the other one, we just called her Miss Lilly. I don’t know what her Christian name were. That were what the staff, oh, there were Miss Bridge, took the infants, the very youngest children. They got the usual things, it were reading and writing and arithmetic and then grammar, but very little.
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If they punished you, what were the punishment?
R- Cane. You went out and you had the cane, held your hand out. And the women teachers had a blackboard cleaner, you know a block of wood with felt on and they’d rap your knuckles with that.
Did you have a chance, from there, to go to grammar school?
R- No you weren’t asked. They knew you’d have to go to the mill and earn some money. But several did, the postmaster’s son and a guard on the railway and two other persons, a girl called Dorothy Garnett, her father were a barber, and a tackler [his child] at the mill and a big pal of Slingsby’s, he depended on Slingsby who got the [scholarships]. You see there weren’t many places, it were what they call a foundation scholarship and there were only one or two. That’s what I can remember, not above half a dozen in all my school career that went to the grammar school. Well, I’d a brother, youngest brother, he got word that he’d passed for the grammar school and he…
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Who were that, Cyril?
R – Edwin, he is the youngest.
Edwin, yes.
R- Got word that he passed for the Grammar school and he’d to go one Saturday morning to a selection, in front of a selection board. And they asked him various questions and he answered them correctly. And they say “What does your father do?” He says “I haven’t got a father.” Well, how did he manage, how did they live? Well, he’d brothers and sisters who worked and that finished it. You see they needed clothes provided and so he finished it. He passed, he got word and the headmaster asked him and he said “Oh no, they’ve turned me down.” He were amazed were the headmaster, But he said, you’ve passed. There might have been twenty for ten places, it were just the fact that we’d more money, he’d have been to clothe. We couldn’t have afforded to provide him with grammar school clothes and it just wouldn’t be the class that were going to the grammar school. He’s never forgotten that.
No he wouldn't have done. Have you any idea how old your parents were when they left school.
R - I haven't.
No. And when you'd left school did you go to night school?
R- No. Now me mother said to me “Would you like to go to night school?” And going to night school meant walking after you’d done your work at the mill, walking to Skipton, summer and winter and walking back and doing homework twice a week. And I said no and she said all right and didn’t press it any further.
Yes. One practical thing that I’ve heard about that which has struck me about that is the fact that in them days you’d be working to .. now would it be half past five? Half past five.
R- Half past five, half past five.
And night school started, was it at about seven o'clock?
R- Seven o’clock, yes.
So in other words, by the time you'd got home, dashed a cup of tea down, got washed and changed, and got off up the road …
R- Yes and walked two miles.
And walked, yes. And bad weather.
R- No bicycles, none. And I said no.
Yes, did she seem ..
R- I hadn't really given it a thought but I said no. It wasn’t the fact of walking I don’t suppose, but that’s what it would have entailed. But I knew when I’d left school at 13 and started work in the mill at six o’clock and hard at it until half past five when I got me tea, I used to sit down and sleep until bedtime. Then me mother would waken me up, I’d get washed and go to bed. And that were it. What time had you for learning at night school?
Yes, when you were at school did you go home for your dinner?
R- Yes, because we were only fifty yards away.
Yes, that’s it, aye.
R- We could come out of the school yard, climbed a wall and across a field and we were in at our back door.
Do you ever remember anything about the inspector coming, can you remember the school inspectors coming?
R- Yes. You had to [answer questions] but it were mainly on religious subjects, a church school. You had to say the Lord’s Prayer, he’d pick odd ones out and say such a Commandment and you sang a hymn and then a report would come in in due course, ‘We were well up in religious studies.’ And that were the sum total of it.
How about the attendance man?
R - Well he did come round and there used to be a board put up every day with the attendance numbers. Why on a board, chalked on a board, I don’t know but it always used to be up the attendance were 99% or 100% or 81%
Perhaps on bonus ..
R- Yes. And they used to close the school if there were a measles epidemic or things like that.
How about medical inspections, you know .. the nit nurse, or anything like that.
R- Well, she used to bother more with the girls you see. She just like gave a glance at the boys and, but it were girls that she bothered with.
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And did your parents ever visit the school?
R- Never.
Never?
R- Never.
Did they show any interest in your work that you were doing at the school? You know, in your school work.
R- No, you didn’t get any school reports, nothing.
So the school never got in touch with them about how you were getting on?
R- No, they’d no interest in it. It was between the mill owner and the school master.
Yes. So the only job that your teacher would suggest that you did was to go into the mill.
R- Yes they told, he told everybody that. And if your parents hadn't a job for you, something else, well farmer’s sons went on to the farm or went out to another farm you see, working for somebody. And occasionally, one lad went as apprentice joiner, that's about it. And he used to cycle to his work and he attended night school. But I don’t suppose that he ended up any better or any worse than anybody else.
Aye, that’s it.
R- But I know one lad that were in my class, they have a word for it now, he used to write his words backwards.
Aye, dyslexic is it?
R- Cat and dog they were, he could never get them right. And he used to get caned and played hell with but he finished up a wealthy man. So I says, “What does it matter?” I'm not saying a wealthy man but more money than I have. He went into farming.
Who was that Horace?
R- He went into farming and his brother went into farming and they were real dummies and they’d no farming connections but they didn’t… they’d two farms and did very well. Worked hard, very hard workers, but he could never write.
On the whole Horace, looking back, was it a good education would you say?
R- Well, it was as good as we know anything about. But it’s not like they’re getting now, anybody that is interested and brainy they have a chance now. And I don’t, I never thought about it, was I particularly brainy or not, but my wife says I am. And one thing, I did use to read a lot, I don’t do as much now but when there used to he those Brain of Britain come out, not on the television, on the wireless I could answer the questions before the chaps that were being questioned could answer them. Not them all but lots of things and when they come on now I know a lot of the
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answers that they don’t. But I’m no good when they get on to the Greek and ancient history. I don’t know these other persons, I know part but as I say I were fairly good, I were better than any of the others round about at the school because I were way ahead of them, it were no trouble to me. And I’ve a nephew, a grandson that’s particularly bright at school and the teachers said “He’s always right it’s no trouble to him.” And he gets to have a book and he gets stars, well he gets half a dozen of these stars at once. And when I see him I’ll say “How are you doing at school James?” “Oh all right” or “Oh we do this and that.” So I said “You must work hard James.” So I’ll give him something and say that’s for working so hard and he told me he didn’t work hard, it was easy. That’s just what he says, it’s easy. That’s what he says, he’s not swanking, he’s not a bighead, he’s only ten. Because he says it’s easy.
Yes. There are some people it does come easy to, there’s no doubt about it. Do you, well there’s two things, do you… I’m asking two questions at once. Do you regret at all not having had the chance to go further with your education. Do you think you could have? Do you think you could have gone further with your education?
R- I could, but I’ve don’t regret it. Because I always, if I’m talking to my wife I always say this, “It’s no good regretting something. I might have fallen off my bike when I were twenty and killed myself.” I’ve no regrets.
No, I know exactly what you mean.
R- I haven’t had it easy but I’ve never bemoaned the fact. We’ve kept it straight, we’ve never bought anything until we’d the money to buy it, never a pennorth of anything. There’s nobody comes here for debts, never has done. No insurance man, no penny a week or shilling a week or anything. If we get anything there’s money to pay for it and if we get a job done and the bill comes the money is there the day after. I don’t think I’d happen be as concerned as my wife, but the day after, “Get this money down.” And we brought up our daughter the same way.
There’s not a lot of it about.
R- No.
SCG/19 February 2003
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