大象传媒

THE G.Is IN BIRCHIN COMMON

Cyril Griffiths has spent all his life living on Birchin Common and anyone lucky enough to bump into him on his extended evening walks around the patch, is always entertained and informed after a quite lengthy chat with a man who is full of warmth wit and wisdom.
Birchin Common used to be part of the Croft Castle estate in Herefordshire, but it was bequeathed to the National Trust in the early part of the last century. Although the numbers of grazers has fallen significantly in recent years, the common is still hard pushed to balance its functions as working grazing land, and with that of a local beauty spot. Apart from being an area of exceptional natural beauty it is also a unique community which has spawned a collection of equally unique characters.
Over a cup of tea, looking out over the Common, I asked Cyril to describe to me some of those characters. Relating initially how life changed for the locals, after the arrival of the Land Girls and the American GIs, during the 2nd World War

Cyril鈥檚 Story

Well the Land Girls were based in Birchin Hall, and the Americans at Berrington Hall. One of the places they used to frequent regularly was The Bell at Yarpool which was a big attraction. It had racks of big flitches of bacon hanging in the bar, and it was all smoked dried, and people used to smoke pipes in there, but Bert Priest managed to sell some of it off to one and another and in the end it changed. The pub wasn鈥檛 that big at the time and of course the racks were there and there wasn鈥檛 that many using the Bell till the war came, and of course it boosted it. My uncle that live in Leys Lanes used to have a lot of bicycles, and as the Americans came in thy would then hand their bikes back to him or leave them there and he would be able to collect them and then he would resell them to the new batch of Americans that were coming into the camp, and of course he made quite a bit on it. He used to frequent the pub as well so he was well known down there, and he used to play quoits a lot and one of the other pubs he used to go to was The Boot at Alton, and of course he was good as quoits, and these Americans being what they are, they thought they would have a go and take him on, and nine times out of ten my uncle had got a good player with him as well, and they mostly beat the Yanks.
When the Americans got to the Bell at Yarpool they used to come in and of course take over the pub more or less. Money was no object to them and they very likely thought it might be their last drinks, before they went out to France. They were all dressed very tidy and if there were any local dances they would be there, and of course the women used to go after them because cigarettes and money were no object to them and our boys were only getting about 拢2 per week, and they were getting 拢10 or more so there was no comparison money wise.

The Land Girls had come from the cities and their life style was a bit different to the local girls and some of them mixed well, others fell by the wayside a bit. The Yanks liked the jitterbugging, and of course the girls when they left the Bell were almost carried from there, because they hadn鈥檛 been used to drinking so heavily and the yanks took advantage of it.
Poor old Tom Baylis, he used to go down to the bottom of the farm and the times he told me there used to be a favourite spot down there he said, down the lane under the hedge hidden away from the main road, and there they were doing the things men and women do!!

This story was submitted to the Hereford and Worcester People鈥檚 War site by June Woodhouse (volunteer) of the CSV Action Desk at 大象传媒 Hereford and Worcester on behalf of Cyril Griffiths and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

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