大象传媒

39 - The Stratford upon Avon Society and Shakespeare Birthplace Trust

Transcription of an interview that took place on 31st May, 2005.

Present:-
Neville Usher
Mrs. Mary Baker

Neville Usher: Today is the 31st of May, 2005 and we are at 34 Henley Street, and I am with Mary Baker.
Mary very kindly came into the library, to our 鈥淲artime Wednesday鈥� and gave us a copy of 鈥淭he Landgirl鈥�, in which she had contributed an article, and which is now going on the 大象传媒 website. But we said it would be a good thing if we could have a little chat about your life apart from that.
Where were you born?

Mary Baker: I was born in Birmingham, in Kings Heath, and I was educated in Birmingham and then when the war broke out I went to a very remote farm on the Quantock Hills in Somerset, which after Birmingham was absolute heaven, except that after a little while I realized I was little better than a servant. I was kept away from school if they were harvesting or sheep shearing to help in the house, and every morning it was my job to collect kindling to light the fire the next morning, and it was often green and it wouldn鈥檛 light, and I would use paraffin to 鈥� I was very good with paraffin!

Neville Usher: It singed your eyebrows!

Mary Baker: Yes. And boil the kettle, and then take the family tea in bed before I went to school. And they made their own cider, and another job was go and pick up all the windfall apples before I went to school, in the orchard, in the autumn. And 鈥�, but my main job was looking after 鈥済ranny鈥�, who was the farmer鈥檚 wife鈥檚 mother, she was 94, was quite old in 1939, and she was quite a character. And, sadly, she was there on sufferance; her son in law hated having his mother in law living with him and wouldn鈥檛 come into the house until she had gone to bed, so it was my job to get the old lady to go to bed as soon as possible. And I would say to her, are you ready for bed gran? And I had been given the signal to get the old lady upstairs, and she鈥檇 say it ain鈥檛 dark yet! And I would say well it鈥檚 moonlight! Then I would light her with a candle upstairs, and she would say not so fast, 鈥榗os I used to be in a hurry to get her up there, and then I would leave her with the candle, go back in 20 minutes to collect it when she was in bed, and of course she wore lots of clothes, and I went up one evening to collect the candle and she was moaning, and I thought 鈥�, I stopped outside the door and there was this groaning, and I was frightened to go in, and I listened and I heard her stay, oh The Lord Have Mercy on Me, Oh The Lord Have Mercy on Me, I can鈥檛 undo my stays and he knows I can鈥檛! So I had to go in and undo the knot, she had got them knotted and she couldn鈥檛 see, poor old soul.

Neville Usher: Which school did you go to then?

Mary Baker: I went to the village school, but not in the village because it was so isolated, there are not enough children, we used to go by bus.

Neville Usher: To where?

Mary Baker To Kingston St. Mary which was down in the valley, and I liked going to school, because I had been at a grammar school in Birmingham, but I didn鈥檛 go to be evacuated with them and so I went to the village school which was very easy, but I liked the company.

Neville Usher: Why were you not evacuated with the 鈥�?

Mary Baker: Well I happened to be on holiday in Somerset, my mother came from Somerset and they 鈥�, the farmer鈥檚 wife offered to keep me as an evacuee; we were there when the war broke out. And I became an official evacuee in that they got 11/- a week for me or whatever it was at the time.
But again, the old lady she was in the garden one day, when planes used to go over Somerset, over the Bristol Channel to bomb daylight raids on Wales, South Wales, and she looked up as these planes went over, and said 鈥淭he Lord never ordained that they there things should go up there a kicking up a mischief!鈥� Oh, she was a 鈥�
The old boy, her son in law, he would be in his sixties, he wouldn鈥檛 come in until the old lady was in bed, which meant he sat in the cellar drinking cider, the home-made cider which was quite strong, so his wife wanted mother in bed so that he wouldn鈥檛 get over-drunk. And then when it was bed-time I would be sent down to the cellar to get a jug of cider, and he would have a chunk of bread and cheese and a raw onion with his cider before he went to bed, and he would bring out his pen knife that had been used to paunch rabbits, to clean the sheep鈥檚 feet of rot, he would just wipe it on his breeches and then sit with his bread and cheese and onion on it, with this knife.

Neville Usher: And he never died from anything?

Mary Baker: No, no they lived to a good old age.

Neville Usher: And how long were you there?

Mary Baker: I was there nearly two years, and became more and more of a servant really, and I wrote. I didn鈥檛 see my parents in that time but I wrote and they wrote to me but the letters were censored. But I did put a little note 鈥�, pushed a little note into one letter saying I would like to come home! And I worried then that they might 鈥�, my mother might write and say what do you mean? But she didn鈥檛, she just sent 拢2 and that was my fare, and I was just turned out with my case, and I had to walk down to the village and catch a bus into Taunton and a train home, and I was very child-like really because I had led this sheltered life on the farm.

Neville Usher: So how old were you then?

Mary Baker: I would be fourteen, fourteen and three quarters practically and I found my way home. And then, no telephones you see to say I am at the station, can you collect me? And after a day or two mother said you must get a job, and they found me a job with Bakelite Ltd. in Tyseley. I hated it! After Somerset and those lovely open fields and woods and 鈥�, I just hated it. I worked from half past eight till half past five in the buying office as a junior. All the windows were boarded up, because they had been broken by bombs, and Saturday morning half past eight till one,
they were long hours for a 14 year old, and I just couldn鈥檛 wait to be old enough to join the Land Army to get back into the country.

Neville Usher: Bakelite was a big employer at that time wasn鈥檛 it.

Mary Baker: It was, yes. I was the office junior, I wasn鈥檛 a very good junior, I had to do all the filing and I hated filing so it used to go in the drawer of my desk, and they couldn鈥檛 find anything in the files and they would have to turn out my drawer to find the letters that were supposed to have been filed.
As the young men left to go in the forces, it was my job to write to them and bring them up with the news, but I did anything rather than work, it was just awful, but they were kind to me.

Neville Usher: And what age did you join the Land Army?

Mary Baker: Seventeen, as soon as I was old enough. I wasn鈥檛 very suited to it really because I wasn鈥檛 very physically strong, but they soon found me the right job which was delivering the milk.

Neville Usher: Where did you start off?

Mary Baker: I started at Bishops Itchington, and I went to Rowington, and I went to Charlecote; I was there when I left to get married. Yes, 鈥榗os the Land Army went on after the war for a couple of years 鈥榗os the men hadn鈥檛 all been repatriated. But again the farm at Charlecote was stepping back in time in that they used horses for everything.

Neville Usher: But I suppose in the war, with no petrol, it was 鈥�

Mary Baker: Well they had their own diesel for tractors, the farmers on the whole, and as landgirls, we wanted to live in on the farm, because the food was better, and when you were working out doors, food was very important, you got eggs and they killed their own pigs, you lived better on the farm.

Neville Usher: I should think you did better down in Somerset than in Birmingham?

Mary Baker: Well in a way, and yet when we were 鈥�, we went to Somerset on holiday we were paying guests and we had good food, but when I became an evacuee they used to make butter and clotted cream the farmer鈥檚 wife, but that was sold and we had the margarine, and we lived on rabbits really.
It was my job, sometimes, the farmer鈥檚 son would set a gin trap which are now illegal, and he would set it in a rabbit run and he would sprinkle grass over it to catch a rabbit, but he would send me out in the evening to see if there were any rabbits in the trap, and he told me vaguely where they were, and I went to one trap and I couldn鈥檛 find it, I was moving the grass and it snapped and caught my hand, and I sat for a while with this trap digging into me, horrible thing, feeling quite faint, and in the end I managed to put my foot on it and open it, and that taught me a lesson.
But we also 鈥�, the only vegetables we had in the winter was a swede, and I was sent across the field to dig a swede from the arable field where they grew a row of
swedes or turnips, no it was no fruit or green vegetables, really it was quite poor, they were poor farmers really.

Neville Usher: But you did much better in the Land Army?

Mary Baker: In the Land Army, yes.

Neville Usher: What about Charlecote, whereabouts was the farm?

Mary Baker: I have forgotten the name of the farm, the farmers were called the Barbers. Strict Methodists, we had to go to chapel. But kind.

Neville Usher: Was there a Methodist Chapel in Charlecote?

Mary Baker: No, we used to go to Wellesbourne to chapel. And when we got home, we were asked to talk about the 鈥�, over lunch we would have to explain what we鈥檇 learnt at Chapel, two landgirls. Some of the sermons were by lay preachers who talked, I thought, a load of rubbish and I was foolish enough to say so, which didn鈥檛 go down very well. But we were two landgirls, we shared a room, we worked together, we played together, and we were very happy.

Neville Usher: Did you come into Stratford for entertainment?

Mary Baker: We did. We came in 鈥� Most of our 鈥�, we worked very hard, and we didn鈥檛 go out much in the week, but on Saturday evenings we would go to a village hop in Wellesbourne, but the farmer used to come and meet us out. We would hope that we might meet some nice young man but outside the village hall was farmer Giles waiting to take us home, so that rather 鈥�
So we cycled into Stratford occasionally, and we went to what is now Marks & Spencers, The Red Horse, 鈥榗os that was full of service men but again we were rather innocent and they were a bit too worldly for us you know, but Stratford was lovely in those days, unspoilt.

Neville Usher: Cyril has talked to Pete Silver a lot, and some of Pete鈥檚 (I think in a way it was 鈥淧ete鈥檚 Finest Hour鈥� the War), because there were the landgirls and the Free French and the Poles, and Stratford he thought was very lively then.

Mary Baker: It was. But we were a little overawed by it. There were American servicemen too in Stratford, and they 鈥�, we thought because they spoke English that we鈥檇 have a lot in common, but they were foreigners really. We had heard stories of how they would give you nylons, but we didn鈥檛 quite realize that you had to pay for them!
I suppose we had happy times, yes. I say we worked hard, we would be up at half past six for milking, and then we鈥檇 work all day, and then milking again after tea, we didn鈥檛 finish much before seven and one week we鈥檇 work 7 days, the following week we had the weekend off which meant Saturday lunch time till Sunday night and we鈥檇 come into Stratford and go home on the bus.

Neville Usher: Back to Birmingham?

Mary Baker: Back to Birmingham, yes.

Neville Usher: And was there any bombing where your parents were in Birmingham?

Mary Baker: Well there was some. We used to go ..l, we had an Anderson shelter but that filled with water as many of them did, didn鈥檛 they? But we used to go to a public shelter, I can鈥檛 remember exactly where. If the bombing 鈥�, if we thought it was going to be bad we would 鈥�, mother had a case with the insurance policies and all her jewellery and that in, which we would grab and make for the 鈥�

Neville Usher: And the bus service to Birmingham in the war was quite good?

Mary Baker: The bus service was quite good, yes, yes. While I was at Bakelite I used to go to Wheelers Lane School for evening classes, I used to do accountancy; it was an evening out really that didn鈥檛 cost much. And ballroom dancing, but not enough men in those days in Birmingham, so two girls would dance together, bust to bust!

Neville Usher: Yes, as Joyce Grenfell said! And when did you finish at Charlecote?

Mary Baker: That would be 1947.

Neville Usher: So quite a long time after the end of the war?

Mary Baker: Yes, yes.

Neville Usher And you went back to Birmingham then?

Mary Baker: No I married, and always lived locally ever since.

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