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mc_english_kent03_b_part1

Recording date1976
Speaker age87
Speaker sexm
Text genrepersonal narrative
Extended corpusno
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I remember when I was a boy at Cranbrook, they told me one day to carry some hop poles down to the baker, Mr Dinker, down in Well I loaded up these hop poles up on the cart, half a cord, and you had to mind how you loaded'em to get half a cord o' chopped hop poles on a Well anyhow, I got them on the cart and sauntered away down there in Cranbrook town with these and just round the corner, down Stone Street on the left, that's where his shop used and I had to carry all them hop poles round into his bakehouse an armful at a That took me a long time. The old oxen, they stood out in the street chewing their cud, n-- they didn't seem to worry about anything. When I'd finished they was still there and I took'em home again, I used to have plenty of room, everybody was afraid of'em 'cause they had such great big horns, but they wouldn't hurt anybody. [INTERVIEWER] Some, Oh they used to have all sorts of remedies and secrets of their Well, of course, we all know that there was a secret for travelling those great big stallion horses in the, what I mean to say, in the breeding time they wouldn't go along with any ordinary person, They saw something interesting they'd go there, if you wadn't properly prepared for it. I remember a man telling me once that a chap went down to the field to catch one and have it home, and that swung his ha--, head round and, and tore his inside right out. They would, they're, they're very very vicious. But of course he hadn't, wasn't properly tackled up, and that is why they always wore a line on the off-side of a stallion to stop him from swinging his head round towards you. But they'd always got their, you know, their secrets. Well the real secret of it is from a foal, when a foal is born. It's no secret today because you can buy books with it all printed in there. And eh when that foal is born it's got on its tongue, they's what they call the spearmint, and that is the first thing that mare will go for as soon as she has dropped that foal, and nine times out of ten if everything is alright, that mare will stand up and drop that foal. They don't lay down like another animal. Uh, that's how they do them, and so do the zebras and all that I've seen pictures of'em, you know, bringing their foal into the world. But same as I say, that is that little thing, and that is the first thing the mare will go for. She'll have that and she eats it. In those books that I read about it, they said that they understood there was something in the colt's mouth. They said but they'd never found it and they didn't know what become of it, but I know. Same as I say, that is the first thing that mare will do. She clears that colt's mouth so that it can breathe, and she eats that. Well now, if anybody was clever enough and quick enough to get that and run it down to an oil and put some oil of rhodium or aniseed along with it... Rhodium's the best thing. And, uh, it will run down to an oil and always have a little of that along with you, put a little on the horse's bit or anything and a little bit on your clothes somewhere, and that's alright, he'll never attack you. That is the secret of travelling then. Well now, ehm, I don't know if ever you've heard about that But, uh... I, eh, had a book, I was lucky enough to get hold of it, it's called "The Pattern Beneath the Fur", and that is very very interesting for anybody All about the old methods in the West Country and these old men where they used to believe about these here ghosts and one thing and the But, ehm, they must have had some very very hard old times. But however they used to get thr ough with it [INTERVIEWER] [INTERVIEWER] Oh yes, yes. Well not quite they used to get an old frog you know down there that was th eir idea [INTERVIEWER] Right, Would that pick it up? Yes, well... [INTERVIEWER] He's [INTERVIEWER] Sh. Right. Well no, I hadn't, I never bothered about that. But, ehm, that's what they used to use down in the West Country, that old toad, you'd find him under an old log of and, uh, well they used to chuck him or would kill him and chuck him away somewhere till he rotted, and got the bone out of It's more or less like a tiny wishbone, similar to the wishbone in a chicken, in a bird. And get that and they used to powder it up and put a little something on with it. That will work, that'll do the same thing. N Then there was a theory about it, uh, if you kept it, you know, there was always something that happened to you, you had bad health or some fine thing or other, and... I read of an old horseman, he took it up the garden and buried it. And afterwards, uh, well their health improved But he said it was never the same, not with the animals. That is, uh, one or two of their secrets, I dare say perhaps other people have got other methods, I wouldn't know about that, but that is one the old, true Same as I say, the colt's spearmint. Now that spearmint, if you was going to use it for a stallion horse, it must be from a filly foal, [INTERVIEWER] And if you was wanted, uh, well you got it, it was a horse colt that you'd get But that would never work so safely with a stallion. You could never, never, never be sure, but providing you'd got the filly's spearmint, he would never, he would never harm you. But if you'd got, uh, the colt's spearmint and you'd got a horse that was apt to kick and be bad tempered, if you rubbed a little of that oil on it, well then when you went out in the morning, that would behave That would keep it quiet all day. No, no. No, uh, nothing at that, not with the old bullocks. We just, you know, same as I say, started'em, wherever you started'em so you kept'em there. And then, 'course, naturally, they knew their place, you see, and they knew their name. You say yea to'em, always used to say yea to'em to come to you. And when we used to break'em in we used to have a, a stick, oh, about five or six feet long, and have a little spike in the end of and when you said yea to them, give'em a prick in the shoulder, that old bullock. Well of course that used to make him shoot forward and that used to naturally bring'em to you. That's how they learnt that. And they never forgot that either. I know when we'd been harvesting sometimes, more latterly, when we got'em to work, we used to use a whip. But, uh, if when we was harvesting, we used to stick the whip in the back of the wagon and carry on picking up the sheaves and that, and if you wanted to set up just pull a straw out of a sheaf and tell'em. You could guide'em with that straw just as if you'd got a whip or a goad. They never forgot that spike. But we never had no bother with'em unless we were in the summertime when the warblefly was about that was the only time And you'd soon know if he was about. We never heard it, horses never hear it, but those bullocks do. All of a sudden you'd see one of their tails go up and they'd been a-wave that to and fro in the air and that wouldn't be long before the others they done the same. N Then you'd got to look out because they was very soon going somewhere. The only thing to do was to keep the old bullock fastest so they kept coming round in circles. [UNCLEAR] you let them break away from you, go off [UNCLEAR] They'd make for a pond or a wood or anything. Anything to get away from the fly. But we never had much bother with'em. We didn't used to work'em on the summertime when it was very very hot and that and... Used to manage with the horses n Well [INTERVIEWER] Well they came from Wales those what They was Welsh Runts, that is a, a breed, a, a breed of its They are black, the insides of their mouths are black and their eyes are black. They're black all over, those old oxen that we had, there was-- hadn't got a white hair in'em that I know. They was absolutely black all over. They used to look ever so fierce, but they wadn't, they was quiet Years ago they used to use almost any bullock in an ox 'Course some farmers used to take a pride in'em and have all Herefords, all those white-faced one. Another one would have all black ones, and another one would have all red ones. Used to be a team at, uh, Glassonbury, at Goudhurst, they was black ones, and a, a team at Hawkhurst, ehm, they was red ones, under the Pipers, they used to We broke in some red ones, two big old red steers at Sissinghurst And he bought four from Mr Powter's sale up at the park here in Tenterden, years ago, Lamb and Lion one pair was, and the other was Earl and Marquis, I think. And they belonged to Mr White the auctioneer, and we had them to work on the farm to and when they went back up there to his farm, nobody wouldn't work'em, so he fatted'em out and, and they was killed. But we kept Lamb and Lion, they worked on the farm for several years. Well, I don't know of anybody about here bred'em, they used to come right up from Wales. Yeah, they was bred in Wales. Yeah. They was a heavy bullock if you let'em ki--, you know, get their full growth before you started working'em. Anywheres round about three years old, they used to be a good big bullock then. Hm. Yes. We had four youngsters from Wales what we broke in. But old Winch and Winder, they're, they, they came from Cornwell Farm at Goudhurst, under Mr I don't know, I suppose in the first place he must have got'em from Wales, he'd got others besides them, but, when Mr Chopman first took Goddard's Green Farm he had those two oxen come there with Uh, well I suppose some of it was come by train, but in those days they used to walk'em miles, you They would walk'em as far as they could. N Then put'em on rail. Hm. Poor old things, they used to have a time of it on rail in those days They get shunted off and perhaps stop there hours before they had anything to eat or drink. I've had'em when they've come off rail sometimes, they would eat anything, almost starved. 'Course things are different today. Everything travels faster, dudn't [INTERVIEWER] They used to years ago, oh yes, put little plates on them. Just nail it to the outside of the hoof. You, you wouldn't join their claws together, you see, 'cause when they walked they moved those claws, didn't Yes, they used to have a little plate, and I've heard my father say that, uh, the old oxen got used to it, when they used to go to the forge to be shod, a lot of'em would lay Used to have some straw down there. They used to lay down to have these little plates tacked on'em. Hm. But I never, I never remember'em being shod. I have sometimes ploughed up the little old ox shoes where they've come off and they've lost'em. Hm. Little flat plate. Three little holes round the outside of it. Oh, the-- eight was a full team. Yeah. It was always think that two of them, you know, average one horse, but no one horse'd never pull two of them away. They was far more powerful than any one horse. Two of them together, you got'em properly worked. If ever they got more than they could pull, you know, they would kneel down and lay their chin on the ground.
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