The Industrial Revolution
It
is hard to realise today, that sixty years ago there were hardly any motor
cars, no petrol stations, no buses or lorries, no wireless or television, no
public telephones, power stations or electric light. In those days the railways
were the pride of our transport system, steam powered locomotives attaining
speeds of sixty or seventy miles an hour, this has been only slightly improved
on by our present day modern system. The horse sixty years ago was the most
important form of transport used for practically everything, anything to do with
horses was big business. Sixty years ago very few roads had tar macadam
surfaces the roads were more or less rough gravel tracks, and the mud in winter
and the dust in summer was something that had to be seen to be believed. I well remember people throwing up their
hands in horror when they surfaced the roads, they said all the horses would fall down and break their legs. As there was no public telephones, when anyone was
ill, someone in the village had to ride either into Bridgnorth, Shifnal or
Madely to fetch a doctor, then wait till he returned from visiting the patient
in a horse and trap, the doctor then had to mix the medicine in his dispensary,
the person who had fetched the doctor then returned home. And remember the
doctor had to be paid, no health service in those days. The lighting in houses
in the village in those days was parrifin oil lamps. What a difference today,
sending rockets to the moon, not even thought of when I was a boy.
I start School
I was lucky, I had only a short distance to go to school, I
started when I was four years of age. The school was an ordinary village
school, comprised of two class-rooms, one large room one small room. The
teaching staff was three, a headmaster and two lady teachers. As far as I can
remember I got on fairly well in the lower classes under the lady teachers. I
do not remember getting into too much trouble; I imagine I was of about average
intelligence, not brilliant by any means.
Holidays
Our holidays were spent according to the seasons, Easter
holidays were usually spent in the woods picking primroses and running errands.
Whitsun holidays were spent in the woods, picking bluebells and collecting
firewood, and helping in the garden, there was always plenty to do in the
garden at Whitsun. The summer holidays were spent almost entirely in the
harvest fields, carrying dinners and teas for the men who were working there,
chasing rabbits as they ran out of the corn as it was cut by the machine drawn
by horses, there were no combine harvesters as we know today. If we managed to
catch a rabbit, as we often did, we were allowed to take it home to be made
into rabbit pie for our dinner next day. Xmas holidays were usually spent
sliding on the frozen ponds and snowballing, the winters were much more severe
when I was a boy, than they are now.
No comments:
Post a Comment