| Collection | Winstanley Oral History Collection |
| Description | Mr and Mrs Arnold (born 1907 and 1910 respectively). Mr Arnold's father was a platelayer on the railway. Mrs Arnold was one of 13 children. Her father was a steam traction proprieter. Mr Arnold was employed as a dental technician, a gardener/chauffeur, and an agricultural labourer. Mrs Arnold worked on famrs. The period covered in the interview is 1920-1976.
Track 1 [1:33:32] [0:00:00] Introduction: interview of Mr and Mrs Arnold [Mr and Mrs A] of Hillside Cottage, Tyler Hill near Canterbury by Mrs Penny [Riley] and Michael Winstanley of the University of Kent at Canterbury on 8th March 1976 for the ‘Tyler Hill Project’. [0:00:24] Description of Mr A’s work; arrival in Tyler Hill 1919 as chauffeur, dental work in Canterbury to 1940. [0:00:43] Mention of Rex Graham, dentist of 48 St George’s Street Canterbury. Comment that no call for dental work during the war. Mention of ‘National Health’ contributions to pay for dental care in 1940. [0:01:16] Mention of Mr Romney of Tyler Hill. [0:01:34] Mr A tractor driver at a farm from 1940. Detailed description of hop drying; skilled work, anthracite as smokeless fuel, introduction of diesel and picking machine in 1958, teething problems with diesel. [0:01:54] Mention of Thomas’s anthracite from Swansea bought from Canterbury Coal Yard. [0:06:03] Discussion of use of horses on farms and early tractors, Fordson Standard, Field Marshall. Tractor bought where Mr A worked in 1940. [0:08:09] Mr A remarks that Stevens bought the farm where he worked in 1946, previous owner was Whiteman. Marsh moved to Oakwell Farm. [0:09:00] Remarks that local farms, where Mr A worked, Mayton Farm and Britton Court Farm all owned by Hales Place. Anecdote about Britton Court Farm tithe paid in faggots. [0:09:49] Mention of Bert Gammon and Kemp paying tithes. [0:10:12] Mrs A born [in Tyler Hill] 1910. [0:10:43] Discussion of ownership of local farms, what belonged to Hales Place, tithes, common land. Mention of Folly Farm, Mayton Farm, Park Farm, Shelford Farm, Mr Imhof’s farm. [0:11:37] Mention of the Jesuit’s farm; Jesuits return briefly after the war but sell up in 1924/25. [0:13:21] Mention of specific houses in Tyler Hill. [0:14:07] Discussion of topology of Tyler Hill. [0:14:14] Mention of Mr Atkins of Tyler Hill. [0:15:27] Mention of Mr Wood developing his house Mount Kenya in Tyler Hill. [0:15:45] Mention of Cheneys Wood. [0:15:59] Discussion of use of common land. [0:16:19] Mention of radfall from Tyler Hill to Herne Common. [0:16:27] Mr A’s forename is Reg. [0:16:19] Radfall defined as a smuggler’s road. [0:17:33] Discussion of differences between pollarding and [lew/lewing] trees. [0:19:52] Detailed description of beating the bounds of borders of Hackington, Tyler Hill and Blean. [0:25:30] Mrs A left school in 1924. [0:25:44] Comment that beating the bounds stopped when Mr Stonehouse left the local council. [0:26:02] Description of Mr and Mrs A’s early life and schooling. Both born in Tyler Hill. Mr A then lived in Clowes Wood and attended Blean School. Mrs A was one of 13, her mother from Littlebourne, moved to Tyler Hill in 1900. [0:27:17] Mention of the Solley’s house in Tyler Hill. Stories about the engine yard and smithy. [0:29:05] Mr A’s father worked as plate layer on Whitstable railway. Anecdote about perks of job. [0:30:15] Anecdotes about Whitstable trains getting stuck on hill, Sunday School train rides to Whitstable beach, tunnels on Whitstable railway. [0:32:47] Mention of Harvey the publican also woodworking. [0:33:28] Blean parish council meetings held at Herne Union, now the hospital on Herne Bay Road. [0:33:45] Anecdote about parsons and woodcutters walking long distance to work. [0:34:27] Mention of Tyler Hill shopkeeper Kathleen and her family running the Baptist church. [0:35:12] Comments on transport to Canterbury; by foot, passenger trains which ceased in 1930, bus. Anecdote about bus difficulties on St Stephen’s Hill. [0:34:41] Canterbury Whitstable railway single line with a key system. [0:42:00] Description of Mr A’s family house at winding pond in Clowes Wood and flora of the railway line. [0:45:40] Description of hop picking and tally system. [0:48:19] Description of introduction of machines in hop picking. Mention that machines made by Brough. [0:52:00] Mention of machines at Whitbreads Farm in East Peckham and Beltring. [0:52:23] Mention of machines at Harbledown, Preston. [0:52:36] Description of effects of hop picking machines on manual labour. [0:52:52] Description of behaviour of London hop pickers. [0:55:51] Story about use of horses in hop picking. [0:57:20] Description of hop fields; height, prongs, stilts. [0:59:10] Mention of Mr Philpott and creation of new hop field near Tyler Hill. [0:59:50] Mention of Tyler Hill fete at army gun-site. [1:00:00] Detailed description of hop cultivation. [1:03:20] Comment on the tenancy for the Arnolds’ cottage. [1:04:20] Mention that the Arnolds have 4 children. [1:04:47] Brief description of hop year; training, cutting. [1:05:43] Mention of council prefabs in Downs Road. [1:07:27] Detailed description of Whiteman’s hop farm in and around Tyler Hill. [1:09:11] Mention of different types of hop. [1:09:35] Mention that Mr Stevens took over from Mr Whiteman on farm in 1946. [1:11:54] Description of labour shortages during 1940; use of searchlight and gun-site crews in evenings. [1:13:12] Description of wages, work, working hours during war. [1:15:20] Discussion of skills in farm work. [1:16:36] Comments on old Kent ploughs. [1:16:43] Mention of Mr Atkins at Wellcourt Farm. [1:18:05] Comments on land girls locally during war; many from East End of London. [1:21:17] Brief description of hay making with scythe. [1:22:15] Mention that agricultural workers wore camouflage clothing during war. [[1:23:10] Mention of blacksmith in Worth Lane, Canterbury. [[1:23:40] Discussion of hop wilt and role of use of shoddy bales from loom factories. [1:24:36] Mention that hop wilt came to Tyler Hill in 1962. [1:25:38] Description of hop growing year. [1:26:54] Description of use of casual labour in hop picking in 1930s-1940s; jobless, convicts, German prisoners of war. [1:27:46] Mention of Forty Acres PoW camp [Canterbury]. [1:28:14] Mention of Beaconsfield Road [Canterbury]; brickfield and World War I PoW camp. [1:28:51] Mention that Kings School evacuated in World War II. [1:30:07] Description of washing hops and disease control during World War II. [1:31:47] Description of local farms; mentions of Mr Whiteman, Mr Stevens, McGee the brewer, Little Hall Farm and a riding school at Tyler Hill. [1:32:54] Mention of family from St Margarets Bay shelled out by channel cross gun.
Track 2 [1:34:23] [0:00:00] Introduction: interview of Mr and Mrs R. Arnold of Hillside Cottage, Tyler Hill near Canterbury by Michael Winstanley and a student of the University of Kent at Canterbury on 15th March 1976. [0:00:38] Description of the hop picking day. [0:01:55] Comments on the air raids of September 1940; injuries on local farms, farm machinery targeted. [0:02:56] Story about bus driver killed in air raid between Broad Oak and Sturry. [0:03:25] Anecdote about a Fokker hedge hopping near Well Court Farm. [0:04:01] Details of Arnolds’ children. [0:04:30] Mention that Londoners came to Kent early to avoid doodlebugs in 1944. [0:04:50] Description of red spider disease in hops. [0:05:35] Adverse comments on Jewish hop worker from London. [0:07:36] Anecdote about Spitfire and Dornier dogfight in 1940 over Boughton pylons and Dornier crash in Rough Common. [0:08:06] Mention of ‘tip carts’ [dung carts which emptied privies]. [0:09:30] Description of Mr A’s second job as village cobbler during the war. [0:10:14] Mention of Bacons the wholesale leather merchant in Sun Street/Orange Street [Canterbury]. [0:11:12] Description of local cricket at Oakwell Farm [Tyler Hill]. Mention of teams from Chartham, Tyler Hill and Sturry; players Philpott and Perce Giles. [0:14:54] Description of Tyler Hill Road gunsite, June blitz of Canterbury, defence of Cathedral, bomb craters. [0:16:50] Anecdotes about local characters, Uncle Daniel the foreman and Old Plonk Pay. [0:18:46] Mr A chauffeur/gardener for Whiteman. [0:19:02] Stories about Sidney Cooper Junior [the son of the painter] and Frank Whiteman; relations with women, sent to Australia. [0:19:08] Aldcroft Grange, nicknamed Cooper’s Folly, built by Sidney Cooper the painter for his son Sidney. [0:24:05] Description of occupants and uses of Aldcroft Grange; Captain Oldham, soldiers, East Kent bus company, youth hostel. [0:29:47] Stories about local gentry; Captain Oldham, the Whitemans and the Trumans of Oakwell Farm, the Tullochs, the Slaters. [0:35:25] Mention of the Slaters living at Tyler Hill House and the Stevens at Tyler Hill Hall. [0:36:20] Description of death and funeral of Slater before First World War. [0:36:27] Mention of World War I gun site in Fleets Lane and soldiers in Tyler Hill House. [0:39:31] Mention of sale of Tyler Hill House to Tulloch, a postmaster in the Indian Civil Service. [0:40:35] Anecdotes about the Pout family and Tibba Pout, a woodcutter. [0:43:16] Mention of Marsh, a hurdle maker and thatcher with 23 children. [0:45:27] Description of washing and bathing regimes. [0:46:20] Description of Mrs A’s family. [0:47:37] Remarks on the excavation of tiles in Tyler Hill. [0:48:48] Mention of tile oven under Darwin College. [0:50:25] Comments on the building of the University of Kent and negative effects on Tyler Hill village. [0:55:45] Detailed description of Mrs A’s family history. [0:58:24] Mention of Yeomans, a steam traction engine contractor in Canterbury. [1:00:13] Mention of the transition from steam engines to fodens [steam waggons]. {1:00:30] Comment that Yeomans, Bretts and Mrs Arnold’s father were equals in business at his death in 1923. [1:02:21] Details of Mrs A’s life in service. [1:02:58] Details of Mr A’s work history. [1:04:15] Details of Mr A’s work as chauffeur for Rex Brown, dentist in Canterbury and Margate. [1:06:03] Details of Mr A’s work as chauffeur/gardener in Tyler Hill. [1:06:48] Description of daylight bombing in Canterbury; Chaucer Barracks, Rose Lane, Mayton Farm. [1:08:18] Detailed description of Mr A’s work for Mrs Whiteman. [1:09:38] Anecdotes of hanging food for the gentry. [1:12:21] Detailed description of game shooting around Tyler Hill; syndicates, participants, lunches, lodges. [1:19:11] Comments on Mr Whiteman; playing bridge, golfing, visiting Monte Carlo; marriage in 1935/36. [1:26:45] Description of Whiteman’s sale to Stevens, Whiteman’s death c1960 and Stevens’ move to Tyler Hill in 1962. [1:28:23] Description of Mr Whiteman’s servants. [1:30:41] Comments on Truman’s servants including mention of Mrs Bennett. [1:32:50] Anecdotes about the Tulloch servants and Mrs Tulloch’s attitudes from living in India. |