| Ref No | WIN/045 |
| Collection | Winstanley Oral History Collection |
| Title | Mr. S. C. Cooper interviewed by Michael Winstanley |
| Name of creator | Winstanley, Michael |
| Date | 04/03/1976 |
| Duration | 1 hr. 14 min. 33 sec. |
| Extent | 1 sound tape reel |
| 1 audio file Waveform Audio |
| Description | Mr. S. C. Cooper, born 1906, interviewed in Tenterden. His father was a civil servant, and was the eldest of four children. His first job was in 1925 entered Westminster Bank for life.
Track 1 [1:14:33] [Session one: 4 March 1976] Mr S. C. Cooper [SC], born 1906. Recalls attending a private school; mentions dirt roads. Comments on travelling round the Isle of Wight from Cowes in a waggonette. Moved to Goudhurst, Kent, aged five; attended local school until age 14. Comments on Kentish rag stones. Mentions hop picking in Goudhurst along to Horsmonden and Paddock Wood. [02:25] Remarks on father joining 4th/5th Buffs in World War One; went to Mesopotamia for nearly six years. Mentions father’s occupation in the civil service before the war. [03:02] Mentions playing with peg tops, whip tops, marbles, and cigarette cards. Anecdote about smoking Woodbine cigarettes. Mentions women smoking during World War Two. Comments on Siegfried Sassoon’s ‘Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man’ and ‘Memoirs of an Infantry Officer’; remarks on Mrs. Alexander being Goudhurst’s J.P. Mentions Mrs Alexander recruiting volunteers at Cranbrook during World War One. Mentions land girls in World War One; SC helped remove thistles from fields. [08:38] Mentions father working in Tunbridge; died aged 42 in 1921 after being wounded in Mesopotamia. Comments on father getting train to Tunbridge for work. [09:34] Describes hop picking and hop pickers arriving by train. Remarks on food shortages; mentions catching rabbits. [11:08] Comments on scarlet fever and diphtheria outbreaks. Story about catching the 1918 flu. Remarks on poverty in the country. Mentions visiting grandmother at Worthing for holidays. Mentions family doctor. Remarks on two doctors in the village; one with 4th/5th Buffs. Anecdote about going to the dentist. [16:41] Comments on education; attended Heath College after leaving local school, then Bethany House until 18. Mentions learning gardening and poetry; comments on different subjects learned in private schools. Mentions boarding at second school. [20:03] Remarks on Conservative Party member visiting village from Ashford. Describes songs from London coming from hop pickers; remarks that Londoners and country people rarely mixed during World War One. Describes hop pickers’ routines; mentions porter and special train from London. Anecdote about encountering a Londoner in The Vine, Goudhurst. Mentions spending hop-picking wage on clothing from Cranbrook. Mentions strikes. Discusses soldiers in Goudhurst; Kitchener’s army training march. Remarks on soldiers lodging with aunts and grandmother at Worthing; mentions hearing guns from 1918 German advance from Goudhurst. [29:14] Remarks on father and SC getting train from Goudhurst to work in Tunbridge. Comments on local agricultural workers, such as hop driers. Remarks on not knowing father well; was RSM of 4th/5th Buffs before he died. Mentions mother’s membership of women’s organisations and the Conservative Party. [33:46] Mentions father being Conservative. Mentions supporting Socialist ideas. [35:51] Remarks on lack of jobs for men after World War One; mentions 1926 strikes. Comments on occupation at Westminster Bank at Tunbridge Wells, then Kent Yeomanry. Mentions earning £70 a year; paid monthly. Mentions getting a £10 rise at Christmas. Comments on computers used in banks before SC’s retirement. Describes work done in bank; used typewriters and ledgers. Mentions banks opening from 10:00-15:00 weekdays and on Saturday mornings. Mentions bank work being considered a good job. Comments on work dress; dark clothes with white collar. [46:28] Remarks on idea of Victorian ‘thrift’; notes boredom with work in industrial societies. [48:54] Mentions visiting Worthing in the summer with family, except father. Comments on going by carriers cart to Tunbridge Wells, then to train station. Mentions getting a Leyland bus into town. Remarks on mother doing the shopping in the village. Mentions buying a Raleigh bicycle from the village. Mentions mother having a bicycle. Comments on staying at Regent’s Park with a cousin when young; mentions seeing first grey squirrel there. Mentions last seeing red squirrels at Salisbury Plain during World War Two. [53:48] Remarks on eating tapioca, milk pudding, suet pudding, and haddock. Mentions fishmongers and herring sellers. Mentions shellfish being sold. [56:06] Mentions Bedgebury school once being one of the great houses, along with the Culpeper ancestral house. Comments on visiting large houses to collect waste paper; also collected conkers for oil. Mentions having a Prince of Wales Feathers badge for collecting conkers. [59:15] Mentions being a member of the scouts; describes instruments donated to the village by John Druce. Comments on flower shows in Goudhurst with village band playing. Mentions absence of societies and clubs in the area. [1:02:23] Mentions families typically using the same pews at church. Remarks on attending a Wesleyan Sunday School. Mentions cycling to Hastings. Comments on Sunday School winter treat and completing questionnaires to learn Bible history. Describes assisting the verger with toning bells and blowing the organ. Remarks on bells ringing for Armistice Day. [1:09:11] Remarks on workhouses in Tenterden, Cranbrook, and Pembury. Story about friend who entered the Pembury workhouse. Mentions general disdain people had for workhouses.
Summary created by Jennifer Pain, volunteer, March 2023. |
| PhysicalDescription | 1 sound tape reel : analogue, 5 inch reel, 9,5 cm/sec, 2 track, mono |
| Waveform Audio |
| Related Organisation | University of Kent |
| Related Place | Goudhurst, Kent |
| Tonbridge, Kent |
| Access filename | WIN-045-001A-A.mp3 |
| Category | Audio recordings |
| Access conditions | Available for consultation at the University of Kent's Special Collections & Archives reading room, Templeman Library, University of Kent, Canterbury, CT2 7NU. Access is available via digital listening copies. The University of Kent acknowledges the intellectual property rights of those named as contributors in this recording and the rights of those not identified. |
| Copyright | University of Kent and individual speakers |
| Material within the archive may remain within copyright under the terms of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Special Collections & Archives staff will assist where possible in helping trace copyright holders, but it is ultimately the responsibility of users to obtain the permission of the copyright holder for reproduction of copyright material for uses other than research or private study. |
| Level | Item |