Tag Archives: Wellow Farm

Eileen and Peter Smith: Thorley, Blacksmith’s cottages

When Ralph came back from the war, he didn’t want an indoor job so he went to work at Wellow Farm, and we lived in one half of Blacksmith’s Cottages. That didn’t last long. Ralph had arranged to play cricket one Saturday when they’d been told they would have the afternoon off. The foreman changed his mind and told him he’d have to stay on, haymaking. Ralph told him the hay wasn’t fit, and he’d committed to play in the team. The foreman told him to collect his cards, and we had to move out of the tied cottage. We moved back to stay with my parents in Yarmouth, and applied for a Council House. Eileen Smith nee Lansdowne b 1921

Ralph Smith as a boy, with Mr. Kingswell of Wellow Farm in the rickyard with lurchers

Ralph Smith as a boy, with Mr. Kingswell of Wellow Farm in the rickyard with lurchers ready for hare coursing, 1920s

My earliest memory of Thorley is from when we lived at Blacksmiths Cottages, the one nearest the church. We didn’t have an inside toilet there, only an Elsan chemical toilet in the shed. As I write this I can smell it even though 63 years have gone by since I last used it!

Blacksmith's cottages 2013

Blacksmith’s cottages 2013

Peter Smith b 1946   

Pete Smith: Thorley, Broad Lane 1950s

Broad Lane above Thorley

Broad Lane above Thorley, looking towards Yarmouth and the Solent

Broad Lane

The fields at the top of our garden at North View were owned by Wellow Farm and although they were large, they still had hedges. Sheep or beef cattle were often grazing the fields and I remember going with my Dad ( Ralph Smith) to visit a shepherd up Broad Lane who was living in a field in his shepherd’s hut. This was a wooden hut on wheels that had steps up into it at the back. It had a primus stove for cooking, an old table and chair, and a makeshift bed. It was all very basic but the shepherd seemed happy enough to live there.

 A few years later all this changed when the hedges were grubbed out by a crawler tractor to create huge fields. It was the first time I had seen a crawler tractor and I remember being impressed by the sheer strength of the machine as it grubbed the hedges out. The technique used was fairly brutal: an assistant would wrap a length of chain around the trunk of the bush to be removed and the driver would haul it out, roots and all. Later all the hedging was burnt. The crawler used was not a nice shiny new one, it looked dirty and well used.  It was something of a mystery to me about how the steering worked as it had no steering wheel.

From time to time, and especially noticeable during school holidays because we were always around, were sudden loud explosions. Mum used to say “That’ll be Uncle Joe again,” meaning that Uncle Joe (who was the last Newbridge Blacksmith) had gone to work at the Quarry at the top of Broad Lane. There they used explosives to blast out the chalk so that it could be dug up and crushed for roads and other uses. The explosions varied from a dull thud to a loud window rattling noise even though we were over a mile away as the crow flies.

Peter Smith b 1946