Will’s World: 75 years of cupboard love, and counting

If Doc Brown from Back to the Future suddenly screeched to a halt in your yard, and offered to take you back in time, where would you go?

The caveat is you can’t try to change anything. And that’s a good thing, because we all know that when Marty McFly did that, he ended up French-kissing his mother in the front seat of a 1949 Packard convertible and, with input prices where they currently are, none of us could afford the resulting years of therapy required afterwards.

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No, you can only be an interested observer to a past event, and I’ve spent too much time thinking about my options.

Going places

I’d like to have been in the public gallery of the House of Commons on 4 June 1940 to hear Winston Churchill’s “we shall never surrender” speech.

Or perhaps being on the Cardiff Arms Park terraces in 1973 to see the great Gareth Edwards score “that try” for the Barbarians against New Zealand, not to mention joining in with the post-match celebrations at the watering holes of the city afterwards.

On reflection, I’d choose something far less grand. I’d go back to Thursday 26 April 1951, and a humble farm sale held at Lower Eyton Farm, near Wrexham.

Earlier this month we had a small family celebration to mark the 75th anniversary of my grandfather signing the tenancy.

It was a lovely occasion, and I particularly enjoyed seeing the incredulous look on my young nephews’ faces when we told them there was no mains water or electricity here when my grandparents first moved in with not much more than a few hopes and dreams to their names.

Rationing was still in place then, with weekly allowances for an adult including just 7oz of butter, 8oz of sugar, 2oz of tea, 1 egg, and a princely 1s 2d (£1.66, allowing for inflation) worth of meat.

I’m sure farmers managed to supplement this, and given the physically demanding nature of the job in those days, I’m sure they had to.

But still, it takes a bit of believing for those of us brought up with the cheap and abundant food supply of the modern age.

Sale of the century

My grandmother was a meticulous diarist, and it’s wonderful to read her entries from this time.

She recorded the many visitors they had to the new farm, trips out to pick up assorted supplies, and the various proceedings they had to go through before settling into their new life here.

But what she didn’t record, probably because she was too busy on the day, was whether or not they bought anything at the previous occupant’s sale.

So that’s what I’d find out. I’d mingle in the crowd, enjoying the smell of pipe tobacco and observing the various farmer fashions of the time.

© Will Evans

The catalogue tells me there was a refreshment caterer in attendance, so I’d grab a powdered egg sandwich and a cup of tea from them before watching the auction.

Did my young grandparents buy anything to get them started? Given the large array of stock and machinery on offer, I’m sure they must have done, but I can only imagine.

What I know for certain, though, is that within the household furniture and effects for sale was listed a double corner cupboard.

I know for a fact that it was sold but no one ever came for it, so it’s still in our living room to this day.

If anyone claims ownership now, they can’t have it. Not least because it’s our drinks cupboard.

Cheers Gran and Granddad – here’s to the next 75 years.