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Harold Taylor continues his memoirs:-
I have lost my way a little again, and should be talking about lighthouses. I am going to let myself be side tracked again. During the summer we usually helped the farmer with hay making and sheep round ups. I am particularly allergic to hay fever so I did not look upon some of these jaunts with relish, but mucked in just the same.
I also knew from my own activities in the garden that the acids from the grass shrunk the fingers with the result that some times my wedding ring slipped off. I had been lucky three times in the past and found it. On this occasion I was harvesting and I noticed the ring becoming slack so I tied it in my handkerchief.
Later I was engaged in packing the hay into a barn, when I noticed that I had lost the handkerchief. Will said not to bother, because as they drew the hay out to feed the cattle during the winter these things turned up. He also stated that they were usually found about Xmas time, naming several circumstances.
Sure enough Xmas Eve he arrived with my ring and handkerchief. I often wondered if it was just coincidence, or whether once they found the items they kept them for the occasion.
The sheep would be shorn once a year and probably dipped and dosed on two other separate occasion. Here again we would be pressed into operation. We would be sent to the south tip of the island to drive any sheep towards the farmstead, whilst the Observatory staff and visitors would scour the back of the mountain and the meadowland. We would all join forces at the narrow part of the island and drive the sheep into the holding pens.
The mountain was common land and anyone could run sheep on this ground. Theoretically there were three farmers, but only two were resident. Tom (Nant), also had sheep still here as he did, a barren cow. The cow was in a field but the sheep roamed wild and had to be separated out each time with their followers.
Time passed along, Pat had introduced a cat into the household, but neglected to do anything about feeding it. The chicken had become a liability, with dissatisfaction by all and sundry regarding costs and results. With the help of Susan Cowdy I introduced some new stock, but they were not into laying yet. Arthur could not stand LO, and he was not too keen on Pat. LO was always finding fault with Pat, but not to his face, although I would not know this as I was not in a turn when they were together.
They were both itching to get away to their new station upon promotion, when their turn fell due. They were first and second in turn.
The following year I had a second secondment to the Smalls. I do not recall the actual circumstances. When I got there I found the junior A.K. to be Fred Carter, a young Cornish lad, who I think had only recently been appointed to the station. He like I was keen on birds. The other keeper was Jack Peake, a Yorkshire boy of about 20 stone. When Bob had been with me at Bardsey, Jack had come as an S.A.K. I cannot recall his status now.
We had quite a pleasant trouble free month. Both Pat Nice and Davy Jones had resigned in the meantime. The period was May, we had several very interesting bird nights with the migration under way. I will attach a write up which we had from the B.T.O. I recall one particular bird which was a Quail. It had received a knock and acted peculiarly, running round in circles.
Fred made a pet of this and intended taking it home to bring up with his chicken. When we had it down on the rocks it made a habit of jumping into water pools. I wondered whether it was the result of its knock or whether they did it naturally. I gather the bird died about six days after Fred got it home.
I said that the month went satisfactorily. It did but it started off badly, the Captain of the Alert, which again was doing the relief, came back to me on the R/T to check the stock list for water. He then rebuked Charlie Walmsley who was on his way ashore for leaving me with less water on station than he had used during the preceding month. This is the only time during my whole service that I knew of such a rebuke. During the month they came back and again re-stocked us.
The second month was a surprise. I had to stay, Charlie had been transferred, whether someone else had resigned I am not sure, but I was joined by Basil Owen, from Gobowen, who might have been promoted to the station, at any rate it was his first turn off. He also had been with me on Bardsey at some time. The other keeper was Charlie Eccleston a Liverpudlian as S.A.K. I therefore had two more people to show around a station that I was not at home in.
I have omitted to mention that the rocks on which the light is erected dries out at high water as do all the rocks around. These stretch for some miles, and are the reclining area for a large number of seals. Altogether I have counted over 100. Because of a nearby island which is one of the few colonies for Gannets we also have a constant flock of birds diving for fish.
At night at low water our rock had its quota of seals resting at the foot of the tower. They only swam around us in daylight. These animals make the most eerie groans and grunts which penetrate up through the tower. Whether because of this, or not, Charlie would not go down below the kitchen after dark. The Elsan was lower down too. We only usually carried two lights within the tower after dark. One was a Tilley lamp in the kitchen, the other a small thumb lamp which we placed upon a stair just beyond the bedroom door.
This gave us sufficient light to see our way up to the lantern or down to the kitchen. For going lower we usually took a torch. This reminds me of a facility we provided on most towers. Because there was only the one toilet that had to be emptied when the weather permitted, and was usually done weekly, one did not want to fill the closet up with unnecessary liquids.
To take care of this, in the space between the storm shutters and the inner windows we kept a tin, which after use was tipped into the passing wind which carried it away. This brings to me a little story, which happened when I made my first trip to the Smalls. Someone, wishing to have a jape had pierced the tin in the window. This would have resulted in the user having the tin leaking over his feet as he relieved himself. Who it was levelled at or who had done it I never inquired, but when I got out of bed during the night to use it, I happened to notice the light from the lamp shining through the hole.
I said nowt, went to the kitchen and got a fresh tin. After use, I inverted the tin, thinking, what is good for the goose, is good for the gander. The next morning there was a large complaint from one who had tried to piddle into an upturned tin only to splatter themselves. I made no comment. When the relief came I was relieved by Bert Jeffers who was newly promoted to P.K.
By the time I had had my leave and got back to Bardsey, the summer was virtually over, Reg had left the island and there was only a temporary Warden in residence. Lo was on the point of leaving on promotion, and eventually went to the Smalls. My talks with the Meteorological Inspector had paid off and the equipment was installed.
We were to make eight reports per day, which included visibility, clouds heights and groups, maximum and minimum temperature, wind direction and speed, and rainfall. We were paid at the rate of 8d for each group and a report would consist of from 8 to 11 groups. I believe this brought us in something like £8.10s per quarter each, or roughly an extra weeks pay. We were already carrying out one small function which brought us in a few coppers a month.
This was collecting sea water samples for Liverpool University, whether they stayed there I do not know, because some years later when I returned and the same function was carried out these were being sent direct to Min. of Ag and Fish in Suffolk. It required us taking the temperature of the sea every three days and filling a bottle with sea water.
We moved into 1961 and time passed on quite nicely until June or there about, I recall I was home on leave, when the bombshell burst. I was to leave Bardsey and be transferred to Plymouth Breakwater. The move was not so catastrophic as the loss of income. I would lose something like 3/1d per day, about an eighth of my pay. This was because of a silly and archaic system which I will try and describe.
I was already in the financial doldrums having taken this job at two thirds of my previous income, and was obliged to work whilst ashore to try and make up. This extra income enabled me to carry out repairs to the house I had bought because I was not qualified to gain a Council house. I learnt the circumstances of some of these allowances by virtue of taking care of the Union papers when our representative retired and no one had been found to take on the chore.
Keepers received the following allowances depending upon the station they were appointed to:- All rock stations received a victualling allowance of 4/6d. per day.
Certain Rock stations received 2/6d per day. To qualify for this the station had to be more than two miles from land. They had to have electric engines and to have been three handed before 1954.(approx). Certain changes had come into effect then regarding engine station and a pay deal. Many stations had only been two handed in summer, having a third hand during the long winter months. Stations that had engines had three keepers.
So part of this pay deal was that where there were two keepers the staff would be increased to three, where there were already three keepers, they would get an extra 2/6d per day. There were also allowances for engine stations which was 4d per day. Electric generating stations got 6d per day. Station equipped with Radio Telephone got 3d per day, and where there was a Radio Beacon 2d. There was also 2d per hour for sounding the fog signal, and 1d per hour for sounding a fog bell.
At Bardsey, I received all but the Electric station allowance, fog bell, and R/B. At Plymouth I would only receive the victualling and the fog bell
I cannot be certain of the exact amount to individuals, but P.K.s got double for electric stations, whereas for other allowances the difference was less. I attach a schedule for reference.
Continued in part 4.
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