Owd Fred's Blog : village

Because of my blog

Owd Fred — Tue, 25 Dec 2012 08:30:00 GMT

Because of my blog, which started in August 2008, started me writing things down as they came to mind, all about my life and my family and village, and the folk who helped to rear me (as well as other than my parents,) and mould my life within a small...(read more)

Domino the Spotted Stallion.

Owd Fred — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 06:24:00 GMT

It was fourteen years ago that Domino was born to a small black Shetland mare, a mare that was not big enough to go in the standard Shetland show classes 38/42inches , and too big to go in the miniature Shetland showing classes 30/34 inches, in fact she...(read more)

The Se-----ford Staffordshire Hoard

Owd Fred — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 21:26:00 GMT

( 1772 Silver George 3 rd half penny piece) Its not every day that you have a "find" even though it be modest, a friend of mine was walking the footpaths along our fields a few days ago, and came across a rabbit hole with fresh soil dug out...(read more)

Old Village Mortuary

Owd Fred — Sat, 28 May 2011 15:47:00 GMT

This is an interesting old building in the middle of our village; it is the old village Mortuary . For saying that there would be no more than two hundred people, if they were all rounded up, you could not see what need there was for it. But I was told...(read more)

Every Picture Tells a Story (in this case many stories)

Owd Fred — Sun, 15 May 2011 12:44:00 GMT

Next again is Holly Bush, our local village pub, As well as drink you can get if hungry, a little bit of grub, For a gathering of the locals, this was the hub, News and gossip turned around in the village pub. This picture was taken Feb 2011 of a twenty...(read more)

The Knackers' yard

Owd Fred — Sun, 01 May 2011 07:48:00 GMT

For years there used to be a Knackers' yard in the next village, it being within our parish, where all dead and rotting carcases were taken for disposal or collected by their open topped wooden sided cattle wagon with its hand cranked winch. The aroma...(read more)

Digging Marl

Owd Fred — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 10:54:00 GMT

Looking across the farms and fields around our parish, on the banks they have large marl holes dug back into them. The marl having been dug and spread across other fields to help improve fertility of the land, it would have been left in spade full lumps...(read more)

Story of Hobble End Cottages

Owd Fred — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 09:03:00 GMT

Frosty weather glistens inside, a fridge you could compare, Roof half filled with starling's nests, built up over the years. In one of our farthest fields, situated about a mile east of the village was a pair of cottages known as Hobble End. There...(read more)

I'm Not an Educated Chap

Owd Fred — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 20:47:00 GMT

I am not an educated chap, I have difficulty stringing words together to write down, let alone sepllign them correctly, so I find the spell checker on the computer an absolute must. These blogs of mine on the FWI were the first writing I have done, since...(read more)

Fields Lanes and Country Roads all have Names

Owd Fred — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 20:24:00 GMT

Our Village is a small part of England, as say a motor car is made up of component parts. The largest being the body ,the chassis, the engine , right down to the smallest bolt washer and cotter pin. So Great Britain is made up of England, Scotland and...(read more)

Irreversible Changes in one Small Village

Owd Fred — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 05:08:00 GMT

Undertaker in the village, was at the wheelwrights shop, Lays out and measures them, made a coffin non-stop, As in all small villages it changes over the years, in some way for the better, in others for the worse. The village pumps went some fifty years...(read more)

People and Families Born in this House.

Owd Fred — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 21:09:00 GMT

Going back 150 years, if walls could talk. In twenty two years the family had eighteen children. Its always a mystery how people lived years ago, particularly in the house that you live in. Our house in its present form was built around the first half...(read more)

How other peoples rubbish can be so interesting

Owd Fred — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 15:21:00 GMT

In the loft above this small cowshed was, I was told, at one time the village mortuary, where if any outsiders who died or was killed in the village, would be taken to await burial. Its funny how other peoples rubbish can be so interesting, everyone looks...(read more)

Village Tour

Owd Fred — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 16:42:00 GMT

As well as drink you can get, a little bit of grub, For a gathering of the locals, this was the hub, News and gossip turned around in the village pub. As in all small villages it changes over the years, in some way for the better, in others for the worse...(read more)

The Five Village Green Cottages

Owd Fred — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 20:58:00 GMT

Church Cottage. This is one of a pair of cottages known as "Spight" cottages, supposed to have been built to prevent a view, from the old vicarage to Seighford Hall. The occupants of the Hall did not get on with the vicar. The earliest people...(read more)

Cattle Droving

Owd Fred — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 17:10:00 GMT

At one time cattle were always driven to market; some times miles away in the local town, and nearly every house or cottage had a garden gate that could be shut as the cattle were herded by. Then from the market they were herded again to the slaughter...(read more)

The Cow Stall (1940’s)

Owd Fred — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 07:39:00 GMT

Each stall holds a pair of cows, left and right they learn, Once they know their own side, one word n' they discern, The Cow Stall gave way gradually to the cow cubicle starting around 1960, when the milking parlour changed milking for ever. In the...(read more)

Eric farmed at Cooksland Hall Farm

Owd Fred — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 18:42:00 GMT

Sometimes he drove his car on business, a coffin to deliver, It had a rack across the back, black cloth draped to cover, Eric was a quiet man, one who never got into a fluster, nothing troubled him, and did not let others trouble him. He always "wore"...(read more)

The Village Pump

Owd Fred — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 07:17:00 GMT

In olden days in every village, you could find a well, Middle of all the cottages, close where people dwell, Just about the last gathering round the village pump before mains water was turned on, this was 1945. This pump was by the village shop, the other...(read more)

A Day Out to the Sea Side (1947)

Owd Fred — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 14:08:00 GMT

As kids, one of the ways to get us to go to Sunday school was to put on a trip to a pantomime around Christmas time or a trip to the seaside, usually New Brighton, that's just along the north coast of Wales. This was chosen because it is the nearest...(read more)

Another old Village Charactor old Mrs. Blakmore.1948

Owd Fred — Sun, 31 May 2009 07:03:00 GMT

She was the last to live in her old cottage, thatch had rotted away, Half timbered filled in with brick, they were built that way, Wattle and daub up the chimney breast, above the inglenook, Cast iron range and chimney crane, hang kettle to boil on hook...(read more)

Old Characters of the village (Albert 1940's)

Owd Fred — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 07:38:00 GMT

Albert Hine Descibe the man were looking at, a jerkin he did ware, Tied round the middle with binder twine, to hold more than just a tare, Cordroy trousers tucked in spats, round his hob nail boots, These are charactor of the village nearly all of whom...(read more)

Climate Change, the hot topic (or cold depending what year it was),

Owd Fred — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 21:02:00 GMT

When the ice did break in the middle the tractor dropped about eighteen inches and had a job to get it out , then could not use that route for a few weeks due to the deep steps down off the ice at the sides of the ford. I recall the winter of 1947 when...(read more)

Need long toe nails like claws to grip onto the perch

Owd Fred — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 21:01:00 GMT

Dad always said that, "you're only as good as your feet," But then he was talking bout, horse's cows and bullocks for meat. Anyone who died in the village were said to have "fell off the perch" Yes this is a picture of a picture...(read more)

The village wheelwright and his family

Owd Fred — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 06:26:00 GMT

They had a little grey Fergy tractor, which was used to cart the muck out to the field in winter, and in the summer, they would mow the meadows for hay. This is the village shop on the left, a farm cottage next along and the third one along was the White...(read more)