Oral history recording for Pocklington and District, audio recording

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Oral history recording for Pocklington and District, audio recording

Originally deposited as an audio cassette Contributors Mr Billy Harrison of Millington and Mr Eric Scaife of Pocklington. Mr Billy Harrison (00:11) Mr Harrison made a one-string violin from a cigar box over 60 years ago. (00:36) He got the instructions for making the violin from a book in the school library and made his own improvements on the design. (01:37) Mr Harrison plays 'Amazing grace' on his one string violin. (02:25) He plays 'Just a Song at Twilight.' (03:30) Part of his violin is made from a broom handle. (04:22) Mr Harrison was living at Nunburnholme and working in the gardens at Warter when he made the violin. (04:27) He worked in Pocklington 43 years ago for Mr English, at Lyndhurst. (05:02) Mr Harrison recalls some of the shops in Pocklington when he was a lad. (06:23) He got married in 1959. The house they lived in was in Union Street, [Pocklington], and belonged to Ernest Witt, a lawyer, who lived next door. (08:09) The rent was 5s 6d a week and his wife had to clean a nearby guardroom used by soldiers. Mr Harrison earned £2 a week as a gardener at the time. (08:58) Mr Harrison recalls [Will Proud], a lad who worked with him. Unfortunately Will was killed in Italy during the Second World War. (09:25) He also mentions Eric Grey, who is also dead. (09:47) Mr Harrison played in a brass band in Pocklington at one time. First he played the three valve trombone. The bandmaster at the time was Jim [Willison]. Then he went onto the tenor horn. After this he played the euphonium and then the E flat tuba. (11:37) They played in Pocklington at Christmas time. (11:47) The [local jeweller] and his son played slide trombones. (12:09) Mr Harrison remembers the Vessel Cuppers coming to Pocklington. They dressed like Morris dancers, but with black faces, and came at Martinmas and at hiring time. (14:09) Mr Harrison has created tunes for 6 hymns. (14:40) He plays a tune he composed on the cello. (16:07) Mr Harrison plays 'Abide with Me' and another, unidentified tune. (21:11) He lists some of the churches and chapels he has played in. (21:48) Mr Harrison and his friend played lead violin. This was when Mr Smith was the vicar, before Canon Christie. (22:26) It is over 40 years since Mr Harrison played in the Pocklington Church Orchestra. He was also in the special choir at the church. (22:34) [Arthur Dean] discovered that Mr Harrison could sing, and asked him to join the Methodists. (23:26) There was a pub at Warter called 'Creeping Kate'. (23:49) Mr Harrison connects this pub to a story his father told him about a farm at Methill Hall where a servant girl was practising witchcraft. She used to go to the plantation at night dressed in a white sheet, to practise chanting. Many folk thought she was a ghost. Mr Harrison's father and his friend, who had been drinking in Warter, 'Found her out.' (25:11) Mr Harrison has been told that there was a lot of witchcraft in Pocklington. (26:15) He tells the story of a shepherd who came to their house. He had the D.Ts, and had hallucinations about rats. (27:32) Mr Harrison tells an amusing story about a farmer called Albert Richardson and a miller. (29:14) Mr Harrison talks of the rumour of an underground passage between Nunburnholme Nunnery and Warter Priory, and of one from Manor Farm at Numburnholme, to Warter Priory. (29:56) He was once playing music at Stillington, [North of York], and a farmer showed them a priest's hole in his farmhouse. (32:50) Mr Harrison tells of how he once visited someone who had an old photograph of Mr Harrison's grandfather with his traction engine. (35:44) He remembers the Maypole in their paddock in Nunburnholme. (37:45) Mr Harrison plays what he describes as a 'Christmas tune' on the cello. (38:22) He plays 'Here We Go Around the Mulberry Bush.' (38:52) Mr Harrison plays some unidentified tunes which they danced around the maypole to. (40:15) He plays a tune called 'Drinking'. (42:41) He plays the hymn 'All People That on Earth Do Dwell'. Mr Eric Scaife of Pocklington (00:41) Mr Scaife says one of his family, Edward Scaife, has compiled a family tree. (02:20) His earliest recollections were from 1914. His father built Ebor House in Chapmangate. His father married in 1905 and moved into the house. Mr Scaife was born in 1907. There was a serviceman's club next to their house in 1914. (04:02) Mr Scaife went to the Pocklington Grammar School in 1918, and left in 1926. He had been the Head of School for 2 years and had joined the Old Boys Committee after he left. At the time of this recording he was the Chair of the Governors. (05:08) Mr Scaife tells us that he gave a talk at Lyndhurst School about the Pocklington Canal. It was built by some rich landowners in 1818 for the transportation of farm goods. (06:00) In 1847 the railway company purchased it, and the last boat came through in 1932. It was left to decay until 1969 when the Canal Amenities Society was formed. (07:27) Mr Scaife describes the annual Martinmas hirings. (09:01) He describes how before his time, there was cock fighting at the Black Bull yard. (09:25) Mr Scaife tells us that in 1657 Pocklington School had only 7 pupils. St John's lodge was a private school at one time. Mr Scaife had two aunts who were pupils there. Dewsbury House on Union Street was also private school. (10:25) Sherbutt House at the corner of Yapham was a private school. (10:55) In 1847, before Mr Scaife's time, the railway was built by George Hudson. It was always hoped that a branch from Pocklington to Driffield would be built, but the landowners would never give permission. (11:42) In recent time the old railway station has been opened as a sports hall. (12:42) Mr Scaife worked for the local authority for 43 years. He was a member of Pocklington Rural District Council from 1934 to 1974 and Chairman for the last 18 years. (13:24) He recalls conducting the negotiations for the purchase of Burnby Hall from Major Stewart. (14:06) Mr Scaife remembers when Major Stewart was a schoolmaster at Pocklington School. (15:22) At one time the RDC had their council chamber in what became Major Stewart's museum. (16:37) The Masonic Hall in Pocklington was built in 1928. The Freemasons began in Pocklington in 1922. (18:04) Mr Scaife was always involved in the Freemasons and was the founder member of two other lodges. He describes his other roles in the Freemasons. (24:23) He remembers a murder at Brass Castle Hill in Pocklington. (25:05) He recalls changes to shops and other business in Pocklington, including the smithy located between Chapmangate and Market Street. (29:16) Mr Scaife remembers when Tom English of the auctioneering family lived at Lyndhurst, before it became a school. (29:28) He discusses the development of the new housing estates around Pocklington. (31:22) Mr Scaife mentions Peter Harrison, the one-legged town crier and Albert Edward [Steele] a local grocer who was considered a 'character'. (32:31) He recalls how Listers had a horse and wagonette, and used to drive around the town scattering coins for the children. (33:31) Mr Scaife recalls horse fairs in Market Street. (34:22) He lived at Warter for 40 years. He can remember when Mr Vesty died and they sold his estate. The Priory was pulled down when it was in the hands of the Guiness Trust. (36:56) Mr Scaife recalls being in the office at Warter Priory when Mr Vesty came in to view it before he bought it. He owned it between 1927 and 1969. (38:09) The house contents and garden ornaments were sold off at the end of the Vesty's ownership of the Priory. (39:11) Mr Scaife says that Nunburnholme was the name taken by Charles Wilson when he was made a baron in the early 1900s. (40:22) Mr Scaife describes how that he organised the transportation of the Wilson family coffins from the garden of the Priory to the church at Warter. (42:17) He remembers when Lord Hotham's estate at Dalton Holme was divided up. Some farms near Warter were previously part of this estate. (43:18) Mr Scaife's life had been devoted to Masonry and public service from 1931 to 1974. (43:54) He says that the population of Pocklington in 1743 was 943. In his lifetime it has doubled to between five and six thousand. (44:25) Mr Scaife comments on the activities of some local housing estate builders. Public access copy available in Audio-Visual room