If you ever wondered what became of the tape recordings of local people made by the Living History Group, the concert in the Parish Church during Wakes Week gave a very satisfactory answer.
Members of the Community Players read out transcripts of the interviews (interpreted by Nick Brelsford) against a background of old photographs displayed on a screen. Punctuating the readings were musical interludes by Tideswell Singers.
There were so many stories it’s hard to know where to start, but at the outset an ode to an “old cornet” was accompanied by Vernon Watson playing different versions of our Processional Tune on his own cornet.
In the agricultural section, one farmer told how he had given up milk production because he’d had enough of milking cows 730 times a year. But, he said, shortly after that, farmers had been paid to quit milk production. Another farmer told how the RSPCA had been after him for not milking his cows regularly. They must have been a bunch of Townies who didn’t understand the meaning of a suckler herd. Way back, there was a drover who lived down Fountain Street who used to collect animals on foot from various farms and walk them over Scratter to Bakewell Market and a farmer from Wheston told how they used to take their milk which was bound for Manchester to Peak Dale Station which strangely was called Peak Forest Station.
A story was then related about a young lad who was a regular devil for climbing trees, buildings – anything. One day he was sent to bring a down cat down which was stuck up a building. The cat peed on his shoulder on the way down! Two chaps were watching the anglers fishing on the River Wye. When the anglers had moved on, they set themselves up with nylon line and bread paste for bait. They caught 48 trout! Going to the back door of a local hostelry, the landlord had a quick look around his taproom to see if everyone could be trusted and then sold the fish on at 2 shillings apiece. Talking about fish, we once had a grocer, who, without refrigeration ordered from town the precise amount of fish that his customers would need and ridded it before it went off – usually!
On the domestic scene, one lady related that, as a girl, living in one of the cottages at the bottom of Wheston Bank that only had one bedroom. On a Sunday night she used to share a bath with the girl next door.
Wartime stories abounded – a conscientious objector whose family managed to keep him in hiding until 1916; of discharged men and soldiers on the tramp between Bakewell and Chapel-en-le-Frith workhouses; and how a grateful nation allowed them a few ounces of bread and cheese here in Tideswell. During the “second lot”, 200 evacuees were once mustered on the front of the George and another person remembered bombs stacked on the roadside around Flagg.
The above is just a small selection of the stories that we heard that night. The Living History Group should be very proud of themselves for preserving such important stories and lets hope that we have a similar concert before too long.
Brian Woodall.