Chapter 4 1850 Third week in April Sunday Another fine start to the day. The boys fed the weaners first thing. All the vegetables are now competing amongst themselves to see who can grow fastest. Broad beans seem to be getting close to their full height. Must stake them afore we get any wind again. Hoping we have now seen the last of the frost. Blossom on just about all the apple trees about. Better ask Old Jim and John. See what they think. Not that we could do much about it anyway if Jack Frost does return. There has been talk in the village for some years about doing some wassailing to protect the apple trees. A few parishes around seem to believe in it and carry on with what their old folk remember doing. Come to think of it, you never hear of them getting the frosts we get lumbered with. Didn’t venture out to the Stars last night. Feeling a bit left out, not knowing much about last week’s goings-on. Me and the wife got our heads together yesterday. We decided we should try and keep a bit of money aside. Not easy, as we rarely have enough to spend. Don’t know how we would cope really. It’s a good job we have the garden and the accruals from helping folk in the village where we can. The lace isn’t paying what it used to. The wife says that prices in the shops seem to be going up every week. We took note of the boy’s enthusiasm for doing proper work last week. We thought we should try to invest in their future. Planning on getting them both some good clodhoppers. Not new of course. The wife is going to ask around the village. Might have enough saved up to have some boots fettled up by one of the cobblers afore hay time. Old Henry told me he saw young Emily Parrott in the wheelwright’s yard this morning. He likes to show off his knowledge of folk in the village. He reckons that young Emily must be finding it difficult, getting used to being a Parrot. Married young Edward almost two years ago, and still living with her mother, Old Widow Brooks. Henry told me that he has yet to unravel the whole Brooks’ story. So far all he has learned is that young Emily was born in some place called Preston Bissett, dark side of Marsh. His wife, Phoebe has told him they are trying for a littl’n. Old Zachary came past. He asked me if I had heard the yafflers this morning. I must have looked a bit puzzled. He said, “yes, yaffingales, Laughing Betsey’s, you know!” I wandered off and had a more interesting chat with the weaners. The youngest has spent much of the day trying to clean the old dark blade he found down at John Freemans. He told us all that he can see some names starting to appear with his cleaning. Had to separate both boys by their ear lugs afore they went to bed. They both still seem intent on taking lumps out of each other with the old blade. Monday Difficult to set pen to paper this evening. Even more difficult to talk with the wife. We had just started to have some good discussions of late. Just the little things, not the big thing. We are still not able to make sense of it. Old Sarah has been a great help of course, just like she was when the twin girls were taken from us ten years back. They never got to visit the font. We are grateful to Sarah for saving the wife’s life back then. Just as many in the village are, helping with the birthing and such. She has “just the ten Parrot’s hatch” as she likes to put it. Will have helped ten time more than that in the parish. I regret now, pulling the boys by their lugs last night. Don’t like to think that this was the last thing the young’n had on his mind when he went to sleep. Stepped over the boys when we got up. We thought he was bluffing us, pretending not to hear us stir. His elder brother took off up the village Didn’t want to talk. I hope he returns soon. Sarah helped the wife with the laying out. Old William was around for the measuring. He said that he was running out of shorter boards but he had a nice bit of elm in the shed. Sources & Inspirations Yafflers, Yaffingales, Laughing Betsys: Green Woodpeckers. Since my coversation with Old Zachary I have been able to recall visiting an old cowshed in the village of Blean near Canterbury, nearly 50 years ago. This was the home of Professor Yaffle, Bagpuss, the Mouseorgan and also the home of Peter Firmin where he and Oliver Postgate created many more characters. Old Sarah "helping with the birthing and the laying out." Based on Cynthia's dicussions with Dot Bayliss, Marion's grandmother, when we first moved to the village. Dot performed this role in the village for quite some time. This was confimed by some wonderful discussions with Betty Newell this week: "Yes, Dot took over from Granny Marlow." In our next conversations I will find out if she likes being called "Laughing Betsy!" She is feeling much better and is enjoying having her breakfasts in the garden. Author's Notes A time to take stock! Chapter 4 and next week’s Chapter 5 are shorter chapters to allow me a little more time for other things. I need to find time to complete further research and work towards building a better understanding of who lived where and the family relationships. Also, the garden is getting a bit neglected. I also want to make sure that we do not miss the opportunity to listen to the tales of Piddington that some of our older neighbours are only too keen to recount. I am now having regular conversations with Betty Newell and have found them wonderful. Her memories of her childhood provide a picture of life that is much more similar to the middle of the 19th Century than it is to life in Piddington today. I am working on her family tree and in no time at all I will be able to identify many of her ancestors in 1850. Conversations are ongoing with young Michael Phillips and are providing me with lots of hints and some wonderful memories. This weekend he plans to bring his sister up to speed. A thank you for all the other “volunteers” who are busy with their missions. I have decided that I will once again ask Francesca to advise everyone of the weekly update. Many have asked me “and when will it be updated?” and “I haven’t seen Chapter 3!”. Even now, four weeks in, villagers are just finding out about it. The challenge of involving the non-digital Pyders remains. David Cook 26th April 2020 |