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My Life And Times
By Bernard Rogers
I was born in 1925 in the house I am still
living in now.. My parents were James and
Beatrice Rogers. I had one sister, Thelma, who
was two years older than me. Life was, in those
days, very much different from what it is today.
Not better, not worse, just very different.
Things were much more leisurely because of the
pace of things around. Almost no motor traffic,
there was a bus between St Keverne and Helston,
and a train from there for those wishing to go
'up country'. My father went to Plymouth
only once in his whole life, that is only about
two miles outside Cornwall. He kept up to date
with the news by reading the West Briton. If
anything really big happened, someone would bring
the news home from Helston Market from someone
who had heard it at Truro Market etc.
That is how news travelled. Nowadays if
something happens in Peru or Afghanistan, we all
know about it, with film pictures, in
minutes.
Before the war we had no television to watch.
Some of us had radio, but that was not a young
person's entertainment. We had each other and
school and school friends. Almost every one went
to chapel or church on Sunday evenings because it
was a way of meeting people. We would sit through
the service and then all the young people would
walk out towards Coverack turning in a group.
Once there, the fitter ones might walk around the
'triangle' of roads, by which time, the
church youngsters, whose service was half an hour
later, had arrived. A lot of young people who had
walked out in a group, now came back in pairs
with their chosen one. Sunday evening service was
a social thing.
Local events were well attended with people
travelling relatively long distances on foot or
by bicycle to attend. Even when I was very young
my father, after a long hard day's work would
still get changed and take us to Coverack or
Porthallow for a regatta or sports evening.
Because we had no television athletics, there was
always the possibility that OUR runner would beat
all of their's and bring home the cup.
Social evenings, too, were very popular,
especially in Winter. Every organisation had
their Social Evening. In Summer the gala evenings
and Sunday school anniversaries had all finished
the evenings with games involving rings. I
hesitate to say' kissing rings' because I
don't remember a lot of kissing going on. Of
course, I was quite young before the war. When
the war broke out in 1939, life went on in much
the same way, except that the young men went away
to be medically examined for the forces, and in
many cases they went into the various services.
In the Summer of 1940 the German army advanced
through neutral Belgium.
They attacked with such force with their tank
units that they completely overwhelmed our
forces. The French army collapsed and the French
government sued for a settlement of the conflict.
Our troops headed for Dunkirk where,
miraculously, hundreds of thousands were got back
to England. Most of their fighting equipment was
left in France.
Now the Germans set about softening up England
for invasion. First the Royal Navy and Royal Air
Force had to be subdued. The Battle of Britain
started, with London being bombed night and day.
The government decided to get as many
non-essential people out of London as possible.
Many children went to Canada and Australia.
Others were spread across England and Wales. A
few, very lucky ones, came to Cornwall.
Colleen's school were especially favoured
because the girls went to Coverack, the boys to
St Keverne, and the infants to Porthallow.
Colleen, by chance, went to live with Mrs Martin
of Little Polcoverack, who was housekeeper for a
bachelor farmer, Mr Sam Eustice.
Previous to this, in London, Colleen had taken,
and passed, the scholarship to go to a grammar
school. When the new school year started in
September 1940, she started at Helston Grammar
School. I was already a pupil there. That is how
we met. We were far apart in school years and
four years is a big difference at that stage in
life, but we always got on well. As one of the
bigger boys, I sometimes saved a seat for her on
the bus.
About that time West Ham school was evacuated to
Helston and Porthleven. That was a grammar school
and they needed to use our Helston school
buildings. We locals had the school every weekday
morning, including Saturday, from nine to one,
and West Ham had school in the afternoons.
When it became likely that the German invasion
of England would not take place, evacuees started
to drift back to their homes. Colleen went back
to London in November 1941, and at almost exactly
the same time I passed an exam and went into the
RAF as an Aircraft Apprentice. I was posted to
RAF Halton, and then on to RAF Radio School at
Cranwell, Where I trained for two years as a
radio fitter.
At the end of my training I volunteered to join
the 2nd Tactical Air Force which was being formed
to take part in the invasion of Europe. Colleen,
back in London, had finished her schooling and
had started to work in her family's shop. She
still visited Mrs Martin each Summer. I was on
leave from the RAF and one morning decided to go
to Falmouth on the bus. On the bus to Helston I
saw Colleen, who was seeing her sister, Sheila,
onto the train back to London. Instead of getting
the Falmouth bus, I waited for Colleen to say
'Goodbye' to Sheila and we now had to
wait a couple of hours for the bus back home.
We walked together down to the boating lake and
went for a row in the little boat called
'Mizpah'. That was our first real date, I
was eighteen and she was fourteen.
We both went back from our holidays, Colleen to
the shop and I to Cranwell, where I qualified the
following Spring,1944, just in time to join 2880
Sqdn RAFR and get ready to go to Normandy in
June. Colleen and I wrote to each other during
this time. The war moved just as quickly
Eastwards as it had Westwards in 1940, and the
end of the war in Europe found me in North
Holland. In July 1945, I was due for leave and
told Colleen. On June 18th, Colleen's father
died very suddenly on his 48th birthday. This
upset all our plans and devestated her family,
but as soon as things got back to something like
normality, Colleen wrote me two letters. She sent
one to me in Germany and one to Rosenithon saying
when she could get to Cornwall.
I was on leave when the letter arrived in
Rosenithon, and it was the day she was coming. I
said to my mother, "What day is it
today?" and she told me. I said,
"I'm going to Helston this
afternoon". I went in and met her at the bus
stop. We came back together and had a wonderful
holiday getting to really know one another.
Colleen had to return to London before the end
of my leave, but when I passed through London she
met me and we went to her home and I met all her
family, with the exception of her father whom I
have never met.
I went back to Germany for another two years,
but now that the war was over, I came home on
leave more often. In February 1947 I was posted
back to England on a radio teleprinter course in
Norfolk. I had a leave to come first and Colleen
got some time off work, so we went to Cornwall in
very snowy, icy weather. We got engaged, so we
were probably warm enough.
At the end of my course I was posted to Aden. We
wanted to get married, but Colleen's mum
thought she was too young at seventeen, so I had
to go off to Aden in a state of serious
engagement. My time in Aden, Khormaksar, and
Masirah make another story, but it took two whole
years before I was able to write, "Arriving
in Liverpool Oct 14" When the troopship
arrived in Liverpool I managed to get on the RAF
baggage party to go ashore in the morning. I
rushed to a public phone box, phoned Colleen and
said, "When is it?".
"Sunday". she said, our wedding
day.
We got married on 23rd October 1949, best man,
Albert Smallman with his new wife, Audrey, and
several members of my family had never been to
London before. We spent a few days showing them
around, (I hadn't seen much of London myself)
and then on the train down to Cornwall where I
had quite a lot of farm work to do because my
father, (by this time he was sixty four) had been
unwell.
After our honeymoon, I was still in the RAF, and
I was posted to RAF Halton, where I had started,
and only about thirty miles from Colleen's
home. I actually lived in camp, but on my
(t)rusty Royal Enfield I got to know that road
really well. My father's health was
deteriorating, and the Ministry of Agriculture
was saying that he wasn't farming well enough
and might lose the farm.
After a few negotiations the RAF agreed to let
me go on payment of £50. This being
£10 for every year I had left to serve.
Colleen had banked all the marriage allowance
paid to her by the RAF, and this amounted to
£52-10s, just enough. I took the money back
with me, paid it over, satisfied all the red tape
requirements, and I was OUT.
The following week the Korean war broke out and
having been back in England for the required six
months, I would have been on the first boat
out.
The first week I got out of the RAF,
Colleen's mother sold the London shop, and
bought a cottage in Rosenithon by telephone. On
Friday we were on our (t)rusty steed en- route
for Rosenithon.
October 1949. I took over my father's little
farm of about thirty acres with eight cows being
hand milked in a cowshed, one horse called
Blossom, and a few implements.
We paid my parents a rent of £8 per month.
The milk went to the MMB from the farm gate every
morning. The first monthly cheque for milk came
to £21. I owed £12 for cattle food
and paid £8 in rent. Not much left to live
on. Colleen's mother helped us a lot because
we lived with her in her cottage.
It took a long time to get into a profit,
several years in fact. One of the first things we
did was to buy two more cows to increase the
income. Gradually we got on top of the
situation.
At that time we had Keith. My sister, Thelma,
and her husband, Bill, had been living in a
little bungalow in Rosenithon while Bill worked
at Culdrose. Bill now got a job at Camborne Water
Company with a house supplied, so they moved to
Camborne. The bungalow belonged to my mother, so
we moved into that. Along came Ian to add to our
family.
We were still hand milking our eight or maybe
ten cows. My father helped with the milking,with
Colleen and myself. Keith running around the
farmyard, Ian in the pram, and Colleen pregnant
again with Janice.
In 1953 electricity cane to Rosenithon. This
meant light at the touch of a button, no need to
stop work because it was dark, and electric
power. We had been married in London and many of
our wedding presents had been electrical. These
were now unwrapped and became useful at last. I
bought a bucket milking machine from T.F. Hosking
and so was able to do the milking by myself and
my father could retire and become a part time
baby sitter.
In May 1955, Colleen's sister, Betty, died
when John was born. Her mum went back to London
to look after Bill, Peter and John. We moved back
into her cottage and bought it from her. My
father and mother died in due course and we moved
into the farmhouse after having it enlarged.1956
was famous for three reasons, we got mains water
laid on, we got television, and we got Sally.
(Those are not in order of precedence, just
chronological). With Keith just started school,
three children below school age and cows to be
milked twice a day three hundred and sixty five
days a year we were tied to Rosenithon.
There were no family holidays. We went once or
twice a year, between milkings, to spend some
time with friends at Rock, and occasionally we
got some kind friend to do the milking while we
drove to the midlands for a quick visit.
Sometimes Colleen did the milking while I went
away for a couple of days, and once Colleen and
Thelma drove to Dover for a short visit. All our
leisure time was spent on the beach. We both
loved the sea and our children did as well. We
had some memorable parties on Cap'n Leggan
beach, up to twenty friends with a couple of
boats and canoes.
I got friendly with some sub-aqua swimmers and
joined their club. I got all the gear and did
quite a lot of under water exploring. The
undersea scenery around the Manacles and even in
to Manacle Point and Cap'n Leggan is really
outstanding. I never found it necessary to go on
exotic diving holidays. With others, I was
involved in finding several wrecked ships, of
which there are many still under our local
seas.
Our whole family got interested in body surfing.
Un-fortunately we couldn't do that at our
beach, we had to go to Poldhu, Sennen, Portreath
or Rock. Surfing is a very safe, exhilarating
sport which costs nothing and one can do as much
or little as desired.
I started part time fishing with David Nicholls,
an established fisherman. We would go out from
Porthoustock about 5-30 am to pull crab and
lobster pots or haul fishing nets. We got back to
Porthoustock about 7-30 for him to go to his work
as a builder. By this time Colleen would have our
cows in and the milking started.
I took over the milking and C. would go and get
the kids off to school. We never made much money
fishing, but I bought the 'Dolphin', a
converted lifeboat from which we got a lot of
pleasure. I also joined the auxiliary coastguard
and did night watches at Manacle Point lookout.
On one occasion, when they were short of men, I
did eight nights from 2-0 am to 6-0am in
succession. I also, to fill in the time, did
house thatching with an old friend, Johnny
Jones,of Mawgan.
Keith became very keen on fishing and had his
own boat. He was a good fisherman and went
commercial fishing after he opted out of
university. Fishing ultimately cost him his life,
because one day in January 1984 he went out of
Porthoustock in his boat and never returned.
Ian was a keen sportsman, involved with Uncle
Bert in running St Keverne Cricket Club from a
very early age. St Keverne sometimes found it
difficult to raise a full team, and they often
had Ian playing for them when only a small
boy.Ian went on to Helston Grammar School where
he later became Head Boy before teacher training
to come back to teach at his old school.
Janice was into Horses. At one time we had four
here on the farm belonging to her. Even now,
1997, she has a horse to cosset, although
'Cracker' is nominally Christina's
horse.
Sally also had a horse. Sally went to work in
Barclay's Bank to look after the family
finances which she did very well until she
married her keith and then along came Daniel and
then Andrew. Sally then turned herself into a
farming housewife and mother, again successfully.
Sally's Keith now runs the farm.
With Keith and Sally running the farm, Colleen
and I now have almost endless leisure time. We go
on holidays in our camper van several times a
year. A few years ago we started taking some of
our grand children on camping holidays to
Dartmoor. We slept in the van and they were in
tents. At first I was no walker and I would do
the research and advise them where to go. They
were collectors of 'letter box' stamps
which meant tramping across the moors. After a
while I got ' moor'interested and started
walking. Now, there are very few parts of
Dartmoor that Colleen and I haven't visited.
There are just a couple of places, miles out
across the moors which I feel are out of our
range. Dartmoor is a beautiful and fascinating
place. Whenever we go up Pork Hill from
Tavistock, Colleen says she is reminded of the
Bible quotation, " I will lift up my eyes
unto the hills from whence cometh my
salvation".
I always feel a lift of emotion at sight of the
rolling moorland.
Rosenython 1997.
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