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Don McDouall was evacuated from London during World War II when he was five years old. He was sent to the small country village of East Hanney to live with Grans and Grampy at a house called Tamarisk. He now lives in Australia.
Heathers father owned a pub in East Hanney, next door to where I lived. This little girl was my dearest childhood friend. He also had many pigs and literally hundreds of chickens and ducks. Mr Walters was a very big man. He was baldy headed and had a moustache, much like the one Hitler had.
Mr Walters kept these huge pigs in sty's made of concrete and corrugated iron and all the pigs were fed on a boiled up mess of slops. They made a terrible din at feeding time and even a mightier noise when the castration of the male piglets took place.
The pig's food was boiled up every day outside in a series of large, army type coppers. I use to help if I could. Mainly because you could keep warm while you filled and empted these large vessels of steaming pig food. Roy and I would get a belting from Grans if we went home smelling of pigs.
Behind the pig sty's was a large vegetable patch and behind that garden was an apple and plum orchard with a very large walnut tree in the far corner near to the beehives. In the summertime the pigs would be let loose to forage in this orchard, ploughing it all up with their snouts and getting stung by the irate bees who were gorging themselves on the Orange Pippins.
Behind the orchard was a lane, which was common land at the time. Gypsies use to camp there a lot and no one tried moving them on. These gypsies lived in wooden caravans that were painted and carved. Each had big wooden wheels and a curved roof. Many of them had a chimney pot poking up at the rear. The caravans were pulled by two or more ponies with a pack of dogs following.
Gypsies at the time made a living out of mending household pots and pans or making clothes pegs and washing baskets from the abundant Willow that was around. Much kitchenware of that period was made from enameled iron. Holes were patched and handles repaired. Sharpening knives on a grindstone was achieved by pedaling a weird looking contraption that was much like riding a bike. Scissors were sharpened this way too.
The women and the gypsy kids were kept busy making and selling the baskets and wooden clothes pegs. The men made a living it was said from stealing farmers cattle and selling the same beasts back to the owners! I use to envy the gypsy kids as they were always laughing and seemed very happy.
But by far the most frightening visions to us youngsters were the stories told of the abduction of young children. It was said in hoarse whispers that the gypsies kept the girls and raised them as their own children, but the boys were not so lucky. After the gypsies had fattened them up they ate them! Roy and I use to creep up on gypsies when they were camped just to see what they did.
We were very afraid as the men wore large earrings and had long hair and to us they all looked very fierce. The village women feared them too. It was said that you should never turn a gypsy away unless you bought something off them first. There was many a hair raising tale of the dire happenings to people who had offended a gypsy!
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