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wooding
Posted by
Vanda
,
19 November 2010
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Back in the 1960’s there were no Garden Centres and as we lived in a Chalford there were lots of woods where we could get bean sticks and the like from.
We had a large garden of about and acre which consisted of steep terraces and a large vegetable garden at the back of the house which backed onto the road leading up to Chalford Hill.
We also kept chickens for a few years until a fox killed them all. We had one particular chicken who would only lay eggs in the arm chair and when Gran banned her from the house she got egg bound and died.
As children we “helped out” with the gardening and would go “Wooding” on lots of occasions with Mum and Gran, not to forget Tinker the dog.
Going off topic slightly, I can remember one day when I was about 6 years old, I was helping Gran in the veg plot and saw a little lizard hiding in the dry stone wall. It must have been a hot day as I had a glass of water. I poured a little of the water in the palm of my hand and lo and behold this little lizard jumped onto my hand and had a drink. How wonderful I thought this was!
Anyway back to the wooding.
There were lots of woods in Chalford to gather bean sticks, kindling wood and pea sticks from.
(We had to be a bit careful as there were lots of Adders in the fields and one day when we were out playing we came across a big nest of them but never told Mum just in case we couldn’t go and play there any more. In fact she only found out a couple of months ago).
We’d set off after breakfast and as we were quite young it felt a bit like an adventure. At the entrance to the first field, which you had to go through to get to the woods, was a five bar gate to keep the cows and horses in. Gran, Mum, my sister and myself would shimmy over the gate with Tinker jumping though the gaps and off we would go.
We had to go through about 3 fields before we got to the wood. More often than not the fields contained young cows and a few horses so we always kept an eye open to see where they were but as it was a public right of way we always assumed it was safe enough. No one had ever got trampled to death but there was always a first time.
Anyway, on one particular occasion we ventured through all the fields and got to the wood where us kids would run around and collect a few sticks for the peas and generally run riot.
Gran and Mum would rummage around for the long straight sticks for the runner beans. It took quite a long time as the sticks had to be trimmed and shortened to make them easier to drag behind us. “Gran, we are hungry” we cried although it was only about an hour since we had our breakfast. “OK, we’ve got enough now” Gran said, so we headed for home dragging our bounty behind us. The sticks would snag and scratch our legs but still we would plod on only to stop at the stream to bathe our wounded limbs.
The first couple of fields were no problem with Tinker running around, jumping in the small stream and having a whale of a time.
We then approached the field with the cows, climbed over the stile and looked for the cows. They were right up the top of the field.
“Come on, it’s ok lets go. The cows are a long way away, it’s quite safe” Gran said and off we set with a spring in our step. That wasn’t as easy as it sounded dragging what seemed like tree trunks behind us.
We were about half way across the field when we heard something which sounded like thunder! We looked up the field and saw that all the cows were now charging down the field towards us! They seemed headed towards us at a 100 mph.
Didn’t we run! We all dropped the various wood we were carrying and ran like bloody hell. “Come on Tinker” I yelled and we all hurtled towards the five bar gate.
Mum and my sister were ahead of us and they cleared the gate with the ease of Olympic High Jumpers. Gran, myself and Tinker followed up the rear. When we nearly reached the gate, Tinker, with the speed of a greyhound, shot through one of the gaps. He was safe, unlike Gran and me who had a few yards to go.
“Come on legs” I shouted to Gran. The cows were now gaining on us. I almost felt their breath on me as they inched ever nearer. Gran grabbed my little hand as we fled towards the gate. With inches to spare we managed to throw ourselves over it and landed in a heap on the other side.
One slight problem – what about our bean sticks? Gran did not intend to leave them half way across the field after all the trouble we had gone to get them.
What did we do – Gran, on her own, had to set off again across the field with the killer cows and collect all the wood with the rest of us safe and sound behind the 5 bar gate keeping an eye on the cows in case they charged at her!
We eventually got home complete with the entire contents of the wood, or so it seemed. We all vouched never to do it again but of course we did on many occasions.
Thank goodness for Garden Centres!
We had a large garden of about and acre which consisted of steep terraces and a large vegetable garden at the back of the house which backed onto the road leading up to Chalford Hill.
We also kept chickens for a few years until a fox killed them all. We had one particular chicken who would only lay eggs in the arm chair and when Gran banned her from the house she got egg bound and died.
As children we “helped out” with the gardening and would go “Wooding” on lots of occasions with Mum and Gran, not to forget Tinker the dog.
Going off topic slightly, I can remember one day when I was about 6 years old, I was helping Gran in the veg plot and saw a little lizard hiding in the dry stone wall. It must have been a hot day as I had a glass of water. I poured a little of the water in the palm of my hand and lo and behold this little lizard jumped onto my hand and had a drink. How wonderful I thought this was!
Anyway back to the wooding.
There were lots of woods in Chalford to gather bean sticks, kindling wood and pea sticks from.
(We had to be a bit careful as there were lots of Adders in the fields and one day when we were out playing we came across a big nest of them but never told Mum just in case we couldn’t go and play there any more. In fact she only found out a couple of months ago).
We’d set off after breakfast and as we were quite young it felt a bit like an adventure. At the entrance to the first field, which you had to go through to get to the woods, was a five bar gate to keep the cows and horses in. Gran, Mum, my sister and myself would shimmy over the gate with Tinker jumping though the gaps and off we would go.
We had to go through about 3 fields before we got to the wood. More often than not the fields contained young cows and a few horses so we always kept an eye open to see where they were but as it was a public right of way we always assumed it was safe enough. No one had ever got trampled to death but there was always a first time.
Anyway, on one particular occasion we ventured through all the fields and got to the wood where us kids would run around and collect a few sticks for the peas and generally run riot.
Gran and Mum would rummage around for the long straight sticks for the runner beans. It took quite a long time as the sticks had to be trimmed and shortened to make them easier to drag behind us. “Gran, we are hungry” we cried although it was only about an hour since we had our breakfast. “OK, we’ve got enough now” Gran said, so we headed for home dragging our bounty behind us. The sticks would snag and scratch our legs but still we would plod on only to stop at the stream to bathe our wounded limbs.
The first couple of fields were no problem with Tinker running around, jumping in the small stream and having a whale of a time.
We then approached the field with the cows, climbed over the stile and looked for the cows. They were right up the top of the field.
“Come on, it’s ok lets go. The cows are a long way away, it’s quite safe” Gran said and off we set with a spring in our step. That wasn’t as easy as it sounded dragging what seemed like tree trunks behind us.
We were about half way across the field when we heard something which sounded like thunder! We looked up the field and saw that all the cows were now charging down the field towards us! They seemed headed towards us at a 100 mph.
Didn’t we run! We all dropped the various wood we were carrying and ran like bloody hell. “Come on Tinker” I yelled and we all hurtled towards the five bar gate.
Mum and my sister were ahead of us and they cleared the gate with the ease of Olympic High Jumpers. Gran, myself and Tinker followed up the rear. When we nearly reached the gate, Tinker, with the speed of a greyhound, shot through one of the gaps. He was safe, unlike Gran and me who had a few yards to go.
“Come on legs” I shouted to Gran. The cows were now gaining on us. I almost felt their breath on me as they inched ever nearer. Gran grabbed my little hand as we fled towards the gate. With inches to spare we managed to throw ourselves over it and landed in a heap on the other side.
One slight problem – what about our bean sticks? Gran did not intend to leave them half way across the field after all the trouble we had gone to get them.
What did we do – Gran, on her own, had to set off again across the field with the killer cows and collect all the wood with the rest of us safe and sound behind the 5 bar gate keeping an eye on the cows in case they charged at her!
We eventually got home complete with the entire contents of the wood, or so it seemed. We all vouched never to do it again but of course we did on many occasions.
Thank goodness for Garden Centres!
