Peoples Stories - Bevendean History Project
Farms, Weather and Wildlife in Bevendean
Violet Bradford:
“…birds singing, cows mooing and the old bull stamping. Farmer West was a lovely old farmer. He lived down by the school. The farmhouse was still there and two little cottages. I was very friendly with a woman who lived in one of the cottages. She moved into the farmhouse when the council took over the cottages. I think there was a church there or Sunday meeting place. Farmer West used to sit on the wall between the school and his house and watch the kids playing”.
Stephen Gorringe:
“We didn’t actually meet with the farmers unless they were chasing us off of their land. The farmhouse was on the corner of Heath Hill Avenue and Auckland Drive, and it had big tall pine trees all around it. At the Taunton Road end was a flint barn that was very old, which was eventually turned into a church and called The Barn Church.
I can remember snow on Norwich Drive going right across to the top of the houses on the lower side. We used to have to dig tunnels to get out. Double glazing didn’t exist in those days or central heating. We had to either breathe on the windows to make the ice melt, or rather dangerously put a candle in the window, to melt the ice”.
David Ide:
“I can remember some bad winters. In sixty three when we had the bad winter, the snow seemed like it was five feet high either side of the road all the way down Heath Hill Avenue. I can remember the milkman only being able to get to the Farm Green and everybody had to walk there to get their milk. The milkman was to become my future father-in-law, Fred”.
Mick Short:
“When we came here in 1963 we had probably the deepest, the coldest and the longest winter I can remember. We had my daughter who was a babe in arms and we had to move out of the house as the water had frozen and dried up, for the district not just this house. The nearest water supply was up at the top end of the Green where they put a standpipe in a plastic bag with a storm lantern that kept it just warm enough to allow water to flow. Most of the water froze in the ground it was so cold. At that time I was working away in Oxfordshire going off on a Monday and coming back on Fridays.
I remember the dawn chorus when we first came, which was immense till you got used to it. Sadly that’s changed, and it’s died away. In fact a cousin of mine came for Christmas and when she came into the house she had to stand and listen to the birds in the tree in the corner of my garden because of the noise and said, ‘I haven’t heard that noise in years’, so I told that’s because it’s where all the bird feeders are”.
Margaret Gorringe:
“I remember the barn that was used as a church, where the mothers used to go on a Wednesday afternoon, for mother’s meetings and we got a biscuit and a glass of orange juice. They knocked the church down, which no one was very happy about, and they built a new church at the end of Norwich Drive, which cost twenty five thousand pounds, which everyone created about. I remember the main farm, the Bevendean Farm, where they had corn, and when they cut it, we used to go and play in it.
The flood was quite devastating for a lot of people, but I knew that was going to happen, because the farmer ploughed the field. I phoned my friend in Heath Hill Avenue and said, ‘They’ve ploughed the field, they’ve ploughed the field…’, so she said, ‘You’ve got to be joking…’ and within two days everything was awash down there”.
Robert Brown:
“I remember that the cows used to be in the field by the scout hut and when the kids came to school they would undo the gate and let the cows stampede through the estate. When you see a herd of stampeding cows on TV all you see left behind is a pile of dust, well, what we had in Bevendean was cows running through the streets and people’s gardens, destroying fences and bushes and everything else and there were cowpats everywhere, and people who had their washing out would find their clotheslines were being dragged up the road with all the clothes on and you had to go round and try to pick them up”.
“…birds singing, cows mooing and the old bull stamping. Farmer West was a lovely old farmer. He lived down by the school. The farmhouse was still there and two little cottages. I was very friendly with a woman who lived in one of the cottages. She moved into the farmhouse when the council took over the cottages. I think there was a church there or Sunday meeting place. Farmer West used to sit on the wall between the school and his house and watch the kids playing”.
Stephen Gorringe:
“We didn’t actually meet with the farmers unless they were chasing us off of their land. The farmhouse was on the corner of Heath Hill Avenue and Auckland Drive, and it had big tall pine trees all around it. At the Taunton Road end was a flint barn that was very old, which was eventually turned into a church and called The Barn Church.
I can remember snow on Norwich Drive going right across to the top of the houses on the lower side. We used to have to dig tunnels to get out. Double glazing didn’t exist in those days or central heating. We had to either breathe on the windows to make the ice melt, or rather dangerously put a candle in the window, to melt the ice”.
David Ide:
“I can remember some bad winters. In sixty three when we had the bad winter, the snow seemed like it was five feet high either side of the road all the way down Heath Hill Avenue. I can remember the milkman only being able to get to the Farm Green and everybody had to walk there to get their milk. The milkman was to become my future father-in-law, Fred”.
Mick Short:
“When we came here in 1963 we had probably the deepest, the coldest and the longest winter I can remember. We had my daughter who was a babe in arms and we had to move out of the house as the water had frozen and dried up, for the district not just this house. The nearest water supply was up at the top end of the Green where they put a standpipe in a plastic bag with a storm lantern that kept it just warm enough to allow water to flow. Most of the water froze in the ground it was so cold. At that time I was working away in Oxfordshire going off on a Monday and coming back on Fridays.
I remember the dawn chorus when we first came, which was immense till you got used to it. Sadly that’s changed, and it’s died away. In fact a cousin of mine came for Christmas and when she came into the house she had to stand and listen to the birds in the tree in the corner of my garden because of the noise and said, ‘I haven’t heard that noise in years’, so I told that’s because it’s where all the bird feeders are”.
Margaret Gorringe:
“I remember the barn that was used as a church, where the mothers used to go on a Wednesday afternoon, for mother’s meetings and we got a biscuit and a glass of orange juice. They knocked the church down, which no one was very happy about, and they built a new church at the end of Norwich Drive, which cost twenty five thousand pounds, which everyone created about. I remember the main farm, the Bevendean Farm, where they had corn, and when they cut it, we used to go and play in it.
The flood was quite devastating for a lot of people, but I knew that was going to happen, because the farmer ploughed the field. I phoned my friend in Heath Hill Avenue and said, ‘They’ve ploughed the field, they’ve ploughed the field…’, so she said, ‘You’ve got to be joking…’ and within two days everything was awash down there”.
Robert Brown:
“I remember that the cows used to be in the field by the scout hut and when the kids came to school they would undo the gate and let the cows stampede through the estate. When you see a herd of stampeding cows on TV all you see left behind is a pile of dust, well, what we had in Bevendean was cows running through the streets and people’s gardens, destroying fences and bushes and everything else and there were cowpats everywhere, and people who had their washing out would find their clotheslines were being dragged up the road with all the clothes on and you had to go round and try to pick them up”.
24 May 2013
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