CHAPTER 11
A Farm of our Own
In 1958 Leslie started farming on his own. Some years earlier Granny and Grandad had also bought the farm across the road. Leslie's two sisters Minnie and Jean and their husbands had all been working on the farms but when Grandad died they decided to branch out on their own so the farm across the road, which we had called 'Hessicos' had to be sold. The real name was actually Yew Tree Farm but when Grandad had bought it the farm had been rather run down and was thought to look a bit like a place which had featured on T.V. in a programme called 'Quatermass'.
John never wanted to be at school and couldn't wait for the day when he could leave and come home to work with his Dad. This was sorted out by Leslie who went to the school to arrange for John to leave a year early.
When Margaret was nineteen she decided to get married but her father felt she was far too young and suggested she put it off for a while. She agreed to this, but imagine how we all laughed when she announced that it had been postponed for all of two weeks. March 22nd, 1958 was a cold brisk day with a mix of snow and sunshine when our first daughter, Margaret Holman, was married to Colin Wright of Warp Farm, Newsholme.
That year Joan managed to pass her eleven-plus and, like Margaret before her, went off to the Girls High School in Selby.
The following year our last child started school in September 1959.
So many things seemed to be happening in these years. Gerry had been going out with Tom Clarkson, Colin's cousin, for quite a few years, and they decided it was time that they got married. Unlike Margaret and Colin who had been able to move into a cottage belonging to the farm, Tom and Gerry had to find a house to live in. Fortunately Tom's father was a landlord of a house which was to be vacated and so on December 10th 1960 Tom and Gerry were married, like Colin and Margaret before, at the Methodist Chapel in Cliffe.
Weddings create a lot of work and excitement. I was especially nervous that the wedding cakes would turn out right but they were fine and I was quite pleased at my results. Gerry was busy arranging the wedding dresses for herself and the three bridesmaids.
It wasn't long before Margaret announced that we were to be grand-parents. Our first grandson, Neil, was born on June 8th 1961. Leslie was delighted to have a grandson born on his own birthday. Once, whilst ploughing, Leslie had found a gold sovereign minted during the reign of George III, still in perfect condition. He had always promised it to his first grandson.
It was very quiet in the house now what with Margaret and Gerry married, and Andrew at school. From a small Insurance Policy which had recently matured we bought our first six calves, feeding them from a bucket. Leslie had received twelve bullocks from his Father's Estate and sold all the milking cows. To have kept the cows would have meant a huge expense as a new milking parlour would have needed building. Not only could we not afford it but by this time Leslie was fed up off milking cows. After all he had been doing it since the age of twelve.
We had always had the same butcher in the village and then suddenly an outsider moved in. We gave him the name of 'Butcher Ben'. John was down the village one day talking to Butcher Ben who had a daughter working in a boarding school. She had received a letter from a family in France asking if she knew a young girl who would like to do an exchange for six weeks with a French girl living in Toulon. It seemed such a good opportunity for Joan and it didn't take much effort to persuade Leslie to let her go. Natalie came over to England with her mother and father and after touring in Scotland we met them in Selby. We had only a small grey van and they rolled up in a large Citroen which was a beautifully soft air-sprung car. They were lovely people and Natalie was a nice young girl of fifteen. She stayed with us for six weeks trying very hard to learn to speak the English language and she did do very well but of course, like us, had a very strong Yorkshire accent, hardly Queen's English. She seemed to enjoy her holiday and we certainly enjoyed having her to stay. Joan then went back to France and had a lovely six week holiday on the French Riviera. Natalie had a Grand Piano which Joan enjoyed playing. She also visited Princess Grace's Palace in Monte-Carlo. I think she must have enjoyed it as the whole exercise was repeated the following year in 1962.
By this time Gerry was expecting her first baby and on December 8th our second grandson, Vernon, was born.
In 1963, Joan sat her G.C.E. O' Levels and got some good results especially in music. We had hoped that she would make a career in music but she only wanted it as a hobby which upset her Dad. Instead, she left school and went to work in a library in Otley getting lodgings there. It wasn't long before she moved back to work in Sherburn-in-Elmet but we never got her home to live again and we only saw her at weekends. She met John whilst she was living there and later they were to marry.
Life seemed very different now with only the boys at home. John was always trying to persuade his father to buy another farm. Andrew went to Barlby Secondary School and spent a lot of time with his best friend, John Dalby. They were inseparable and collected toys and models of tractors and cars which they kept in one of our empty bedrooms. Sometimes they would pretend to auction off the cars with Leslie, John and myself having to be the buyers. It wasn't long before John felt that Andrew and his friend should move onto the real thing and so he began to train them on the farm tractors.
We had, by this time, managed to change the little grey van. When we had first, proudly brought home the grey van we discovered that the number plate on the front said 7185 BT whilst the back one had said 7186 BT so it had to be taken back to be sorted out. John was very pleased with the new Vauxhall Victor, 5265 WF, and was at the age when he wanted to be out and about with his many girl-friends.
Life at the time seemed to be in a bit of a turmoil as we were having the farmhouse modernised, walls knocked down and sink units put in. Where once had been the old pantry was now a long passage which ran from one end of the house to the other.
John was still anchoring after another farm and when West End Farm at Asselby came up for rent, Leslie put in a tender and was successful. John moved in furnishing the house with some good second-hand furniture. We seemed to be expanding again. Life never seemed to stay still for a minute.
