'We've
got a little milkmaid'
Aston Pigott Farm was,
and still is, a dairy farm. As on most farms, all family members
were expected to help out with jobs around the farm.
'I was the first one from
my family to be born away from home. I was born in a nursing home
in Shrewsbury. My three older brothers were all born at home. The
story goes that when I was born, my father returned from the nursing
home to say "we've got a little milkmaid"'.
And were you ever a
milkmaid?
'Well, I washed
the buckets. I never milked cows. Later on I washed the milking machines,
particularly as I got towards leaving school. I suppose in my teens
I would often on a Saturday, and during school holidays, wash the
milk buckets and the machines. You had particular brushes and things
and they had to be sterilised and that was done in a big tank with
a hose of steam, a sort of metal hose and you would go in and turn
the steam on and it made a tremendous noise'.
'Did you have to do
that? Was it one of your jobs on the farm?'
'I think it was a job that
became mine. I don't know that it was discussed. Once it became my
responsibility to do it on those days, one just did it. I don't remember
saying "I don't want to do it". I don't think that I would
have thought of saying "I don't want to do it". I think
in that way things were easier for me that for my older brothers.
They had more responsibilities than I did in a day to day way. So
they had to do things around the farm - perhaps fetching in the cows
- before they went to school.'
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