Castor and Ailsworth People
Send information about Castor and Ailsworth people and it can become a part of the site, filling in the real history of the people of our villages.
I was emailed this by Tim Wyatt (Eduardo Cabello 6 36208 Vigo - Spain twyatt@iim.csic.es)
My father was an apprentice with Baker Perkins in Peterborough. He began there in September 1928, and lived in Ailsworth. Below are a few notes he made about those days.
Alan and I were not very happy in our digs. We read an ad in the local paper for digs in a farm a few miles from P'boro' (Ailesworth). We found there was an old farm run by father and son (Colbert). The son, Tom, was about our age. He was the son of a second marriage and his father was elderly. The house was run by Tom. We went to live there, the cooking, cleaning, etc, was done by two girls from the village.
Alan and I shared a large bedroom, and after a few weeks became part of the village life. We repaired a tennis court which had been used as a chicken run for some years. We did a lot of exterior painting, etc. Farming was at a low ebb at that time, so our efforts and dig money helped things along. The villagers got to know us, and we joined in the social life on Saturday evenings in the local pub.
One evening my contribution to the conversation was the fact that I had lived in Eastbourne. Some time later one of the locals, an old man with stud in shirt and no collar, put down his pint and said,
"Did I hear you mention Eastbourne, Sir?"
"Oh yes" I said, young know all.
He took a sup of his pint, "You must have had a lot of friends there, Sir," he said.
My modest ego said "Oh yes, a few I suppose."
"Ah" he said, and after another sup, " I wonder if you ever knew old Ginger Burns?".
" No, I don't think I did," I said.
"Well stuff a bit up your ass and find out," he said.
Of course the whole room, including the wives, had been waiting for this and burst into loud laughter at my expense. (Very good for training the ego!!)
One of the men in the pub was the local shepherd. I was told that as a very young child he spent his days sitting with his legs in the village pond. True or not, he could not walk and did his shepherding from a horse and trap. On the road his two dogs ran underneath between the wheels. After the aforementioned story in the pub, if we passed in the village he would wave his whip and say "Hello, Ginger."
I well remember one of the best days on the farm when we mowed sixteen acres of barley. I think we had to wait until the sun took the dew off the field. Then the three of us, Tom, Alan, and myself, took the tractor and "self binder" out to the field. Tom of course was experienced and we the willing learners - how to cut corners, etc. Anything that went wrong, Tom would fix. Sometimes the "knotter" that tied the string around the bundles of straw would fail. This was something that Tom could fix, but neither Alan nor I could understand. Food and beer was brought to us by the girls and we took it in turns to feed so that the work didn't stop. Toward evening, when the area of standing straw was getting less and less, some of the villagers came out with weapons of various kinds. As we had been going round the field, the rabbits would take refuge toward the centre, but as the centre area got smaller they would make a bolt for it, only to be clobbered by one of the watchers and taken home for supper. Apparently we had done a good days work; but the next day when the sheaves had to be put up in stooks to dry (more like work than driving a tractor), we were back on our drawing boards.
Tom's father went into P'boro' on Saturday mornings on business, in the pubs I suppose. I think he came home on a bus about 4 o'clock. He would call in at the village pub and say "Have you got a cup of tea, Mrs Cox?", and she would go down in the cellar and draw him a pint……
I sent the notes to a man in Texas who lived as a boy in Ailsworth, and he wrote me: I remember the shepherd. We called him Tipler but I don't know whether that was his name or a description of his drinking habits. There was another regular horse and cart man named Death and we put a sign on the back of his cart saying, "keep Death off the roads." I remember Colbert's farm. I used to pump petrol at my father's petrol garage in the village and I remember during the War (WW11), farmer's had unlimited petrol during the petrol rationing except that their petrol was red. If a non-farmer was caught with red petrol it was a serious situation, The police used to check the cars at Peterborough-Milton golf course regularly to see if anyone was getting black market petrol.
I wonder if anyone interested in the local history could add any details and send them to me?
Best wishes
Tim Wyatt
October 2001 - Castor has it's own world champion - John Bladon - He will be in Monaco in December to receive the trophy at the same ceremony as Shuey. The following is computer translated from German and makes interesting reading:
The decision was particularly exciting in the FIA Championship for Thoroughbred Grand Prix Cars. OGP winner Fredy Kumschick (CH, Williams FW07C-Ford) had to be satisfied at the end with the second place. With one point projection/lead won John Bladon in the Surtees TS9B-Ford (1971). The 45jaehrige Surtees fan inserted the formula 1-Wagen restored by Sir John Surtees use this year for the first time. The original formula 1-Wagen 1972 driven from Mike Hailwood, so also with the large price of Germany on the Nuerburgring, where it separated however. "I straight-moved, tell this defeat with my arrival of goal with the Oldtimer Grand Prix" Bladon.
From http://www.avd.de/sport/2001_sn_kw43_3_01.shtml
Well done John!!!
This was emailed by Kenneth Wadd Glover and I hope he will be sending us some more stories from the villages. This piece ties together a lot of other information on the site and I have included links to the sections mentioned - click on the link to see what he is referring to and then click on the Back button to return to his story. Thank you Kenneth.
J. D. BERESFORD 7 March 1873 - 2 February 1947, novelist, playwright and poet, father of Elizabeth Beresford, creator of 'The Wombles', was born and raised in Castor. John Davys Beresford, the son of an English clergyman, was crippled by polio in his youth. He is best remembered for his early science fiction novels, The Hampdenshire Wonder (1911; a.k.a. The Wonder, 1917 USA) and Goslings (1913; a.k.a. A World of Women, 1913 USA), and his later utopian novel What Dreams May Come... (1941). Some of his shorter genre works were collected in Nineteen impressions (1918) and Signs and Wonders (1921).
June Counsel, living in Ailsworth (author of the delightful children's series about a school with its own dragon and "But Martin" an advised text for literacy development) has released her new book "Once Upon Our Time". Visit the Once Upon Our Time Website (http://onceuponourtime.urscene.net) to find out more. This is a collection of modern folk tales intended for grown ups.
Actors: - Gus McNaughton and Jack McNaughton
Kay CallardThe wife of John Clare (the poet of Helpston)
If you know of notable people connected with the villages, let the webmaster know and they can be added to this page.