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This story was submitted to the People's War site by Roasalind (Rose) Parrish ( volunteer) of the CSV Action Desk at ´óÏó´«Ã½ Hereford and Worcester on behalf of Beryl High 'nee Oliver(author) and has been added to the site with his/her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

My name is Beryl High, née Oliver, I was born 4th August, 1931, and lived with my parents and sister Betty and Sheila my neice (daughter of my sister Agnes) at ‘Owl Hill Cottage’ in Dunhampton, near Ombersley. My sister Agnes had joined up and was away from home. I went to an elementary school, ‘Ombersley Endowed School’ during WW2. In 1942 I was nine years old, my mother had was ill, (she had a goitre and was awaiting an operation to alleviate the thyroid disorder) so it was decided that I should stay with my Aunty Beat and her brother Uncle Jim (Sanders) in Ombersley, for four nights a week.

They had a shop called ‘The Gallies’ which stood at the end of a row of properties on the North side of the village facing the main Kidderminster road. Uncle Jim was the village cobbler and took in all kinds of boots and shoes to repair. They also sold newspapers, sweets, shoe polish and a few other things at their shop. Their neighbours were Joe Edwards, his wife and two children, and Mr.and Mrs. Hartland who lived at and ran ‘The Cross Keys’ public house, their three children named Joyce, Ted and Cath lived there too.

After tea on school days I was given jobs to do. I delivered newspapers and regularly took Aunty Beat’s Littlewoods Club money to Cissy Bainbridge at the Post Office. I also had to paint carefully around the soles and heels of repaired shoes for Uncle Jim. I didn’t earn any money for my efforts, it just went towards my keep. Uncle Jim went to Hartlebury every Thursday, he had a shed there near ‘The Talbot’ public house where he took in shoe repairs.

On Friday nights I caught the Midland Red bus in Ombersley at 4.15p.m. and got off at Dunhampton, then I walked up the lane to our home ‘Owl Cottage’.

Our Dad loved his garden, we always had wonderful vegetables and fruit. Everyone used to say how good our garden looked, always neat and tidy — no weeds! We had a small orchard with plum, damson and apple trees. ‘Frank Sharp`s’ from Evesham came to collect our fruit when it had been picked; they collected fruit from other folk with fruit trees in our area, all those who had a reasonable quantity for sale. We were never short of eating and cooking apples; before Mum was ill she made jam and other preserves.
We always had chickens, turkeys, geese and ducks, I used to collect and wash the eggs. We always enjoyed fresh eggs the egg rationing didn’t bother us. Dad paid great attention to fattening up geese, cockerels and turkeys to sell at Christmas time. He bought some special yellow powder to add to the feed of the birds he had reared for the Christmas trade. He told us that the yellow powder quietened down the cockerels, they became less active and didn’t worry the hens so much, so they put on weight Dad went to the corn merchants Clarke & Crane’s at Stourport-on-Severn, to buy his ‘fattening’ powder; he also bought ‘sharps’ and ‘sow and weaner’ mixtures there for the pigs.

When the time came to kill the Christmas poultry, Dad killed the birds by picking them up, tying their feet together, then hanging them, head down, from a hook - he caught hold of the head, opened the beak and stuck his little sharp knife blade under the tongue, death was instant. The birds were hung then from a beam in the cold back kitchen until Mum began the plucking. She sat out there plucking the birds, we had to be careful opening the door because the feathers would blow all over the place!

Mum’s next job after all the feathers had been cleared away, was cleaning out all the poultry innards, taking care to clean and save the giblets to go with each bird. She trussed and tied them with practiced hands, it was a lot of work to be completed in a short time.

Dad was a great pig man, he always had two pigs in the pigsty, fattening them up ready for the house in December. He always made sure that the pigs weighed around fourteen to fifteen score, then he arranged for Sid Maiden to come and do the slaughtering. As soon as they were killed they were hung by their back legs to a big branch in our apple tree. A bucket was put underneath to catch the blood, this was saved for making the pigs’ puddings. The belly was slit end to end and an old tin bath was laid beneath to catch the all the innards. The offal; chitterlings, veil, lights, liver, kidneys and heart were all carefully sorted out, washed and put aside ready for use. We didn’t have refrigerators so this was always an occasion when friends and neighbours came along to help.

The quantities of fat which came out of the carcasses with the offal, was rendered down with herb rosemary added to set as lard. The rendered lard was tipped from the great pan into a washstand basin, from our ubiquitous florally decorated bowl, jug and chamber pot set. It was kept in a cool larder and cut into chunks for use in cooking.

Aunty Florry Baylis used to clean out the chitterlings, and boil them in salted water. She made the pigs puddings; mixing together fat, groats, leeks and seasoning and stuffing it into the cleaned boiled intestine ‘skins’.

Our Mum made ‘bony pies’ — these contained all the bits and scraps of meat and bone left after the whole pig had been cut up. She seasoned the meat, adding some chopped onion and put it all in pie dishes with flaky pastry on top, this was brushed over with beaten egg and cooked in the oven, the taste was wonderful!

Faggots were another favourite, Mrs. Violet Sanders made them and she also made the best pork pies I have ever tasted. Her raised pastry was so good.

Dad had to apply for a licence to rear and kill two pigs a year. The main part of the pig was cut up into joints for curing and roasting. The joints of fresh meat were shared with other people who killed their pigs at a different time of year. The pies, faggots, chitterlings, puddings and lard was also shared out, that way everyone benefited; our Dad and Mum helped at their pig slaughtering and shared their meat. We all kept some belly meat, loin and a ham for curing, that lasted us for a long time once the curing had been done using saltpetre. The cured meat was wrapped in muslin and hung from a bean in our back kitchen.

I do remember how good our chitterlings tasted, boiled and eaten with vinegar and dry crusty bread. On a Saturday our Headmaster, Tommy Styles was invited to come to dinner, he arrived at midday and was always ready for a class of Dad’s home-made cider, followed by the meal of chitterings which he enjoyed very much.

Preparations for Christmas involved putting up the holly, decorating the Christmas tree and making paper chains with strips of coloured paper to hang around the hall and living rooms. We put our Christmas cards on the mantelpiece and stood them up wherever there was a space. We always went to Sunday school on Christmas morning and stayed at the church for the Christmas service.
At Christmas time, we had a feast of roast chicken, a big joint of roast pork with crunchy crackling, stuffing, apple sauce, roast potatoes, and our own grown vegetables. To follow there was Christmas pudding, with silver three-penny pieces in it, served with brandy sauce and custard. We pulled crackers, put on the paper hats and read out the jokes.

My sister and I had Christmas stockings, our few presents were an apple, an orange, a new penny, and sometimes a small book.

At 3.0 o’clock Betty and I had to be quiet while Mum and Dad listened to the King’s Speech (King George Vl). After that

At teatime, the table was laid with the best china, sometimes relatives joined us for tea and stayed for the evening. We had one of mother’s lovely Christmas cakes, rich fruit with marzipan and icing. There was usually a trifle, again, Mum’s special recipe with whipped cream on top and decorated with glacé cherries and angelica. There would be a plate of mince pies and a big pot of tea. Mum and Dad hd a drink of sherry.

In the evening we played cards, pontoon or whist. I played the paino and sometimes relatives came in at tea time. On the whole Christmas was quiet, but we enjoyed ourselves in our own way.

This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Rose Parish of the CSV Action Desk at ´óÏó´«Ã½ Hereford and Worcester on behalf of Beryl High and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

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