I used to go to school at Deerhurst.\u00a0 There were three classes \u2013 Mrs Dakin taught the infants, Miss Jordan the middle class and Mr Dakin the seniors.\u00a0 One day when the floods were up Percy Roles decided to measure the depth of water under the school with a poker.\u00a0 He dropped the poker!\u00a0 He had to come up to my Uncle Fred the blacksmith and have a new one made.\u00a0 It cost him 2\/6 and that was a lot of money in those days.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t measure the school\u2019s water any more!<\/p>\n\n\n
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<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nWhen I was 15 I went to Wightfield Manor to work.\u00a0 We had no electricity, no gas.\u00a0 We had a range and that had to be lit every morning before you had any water for anything.\u00a0 All we used were brushes, dustpans, brooms and mops.\u00a0 It was all done on your knees and we had about a dozen oil lamps to do every morning.\u00a0 And I had to have the boss\u2019s study done for half past seven, because he was out and about, watching the men coming into work.\u00a0\u200b<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nHonor (born 1912)\u00a0 –\u00a0 speaking in 2001<\/strong> They made cheese every day except Sunday, using full cream milk from the morning and evening milkings. My aunt had a large round vat and used to stand on a wooden platform to stir the contents of the vat.\u00a0 She stored the cheeses to ripen in large sheds at the back of the farm.Jack Fluck, the former Head Teacher of Deerhurst\u00a0 School, told this story about Mrs Perry : \u00a0\u00a0\u201cAbout 1935 an author S.D.B Mais recorded a trip down the Severn by boat and in his broadcast spoke about the Double Gloucester cheese he had tasted at the Haw Bridge pub.\u00a0 A month later a large car arrived at Lower Apperley where Mr and Mrs P Perry lived and asked to buy a complete Double Gloucester cheese.\u00a0 Mrs Perry was in no hurry until a bewigged gentleman came to the door and asked her to hurry as he had to return to the Assize Court at Gloucester.\u00a0 It was the Lord Chief Justice of England!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n During the war they were taken away by lorry to somewhere in Somerset to be made into especially strong parachute baskets which were dropped into France with supplies in.\u00a0 It was hard work getting the osiers to grow just right for cutting\u00a0 –\u00a0 they had to grow tall and straight.\u00a0 On the river bank near where the footpath from Gabb Lane meets the river there was a house and a long barn adjoining it where they used to treat the withies.\u00a0 There were about 3 cottages on the river bank there \u2013 basket makers lived there.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kathleen (born 1920) –\u00a0 speaking in 2004<\/strong> \u200bIn the summer there was a party on the lawn at the Court.\u00a0 The village brass band would play and there would be dancing.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Parents used to be allowed to go to the Sunday School parties with their children, then in later years they were only permitted to go along afterwards for the dancing.\u00a0 At the Christmas party the mothers would be given a present to take home \u2013 one year there was a very nice hot water bottle; another year a pair of gloves.\u00a0
My uncle and aunt Percy and Olive Perry lived at the Old Farm in Lower Apperley.\u00a0 They ran a cheese-making business, making Double Gloucester cheese on a large scale.\u00a0 Farms from all around supplied milk to them.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Phyllis\u00a0 (born 1911)\u00a0 –\u00a0 speaking in 2001<\/strong>
I went to the village school when it was in Apperley and then the Apperley \u00a0\u00a0school closed to I had to walk to school in Deerhurst.\u00a0
I grew up living in a cottage by the River Severn next to the Coal House pub.\u00a0 My father used to grow beds of osiers along the river.\u00a0 They used to cut them once a year and bundle them up and they were taken away to be made into baskets.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/apperleydeerhust.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/history-page-len-roberts-cutting-withies_1.jpg\")
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I helped to run the Sunday School in Apperley.\u00a0 Apperley Court used to hold a Christmas Party at the village hall for the Sunday School children.\u00a0 There was a Christmas tree with candles on.\u00a0 They would have a \u201csweet scattering\u201d \u2013 they would throw sweets on the floor and the children would rush to pick them up.\u00a0 I never did very well \u2013 I didn\u2019t want to scrape my knuckles!\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/apperleydeerhust.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/history-page-children-s-party-at-wightfield.jpeg\")
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One year the Ludlow-Hewitts from Wightfield Manor gave all the children a lovely party, but they were told that this was Apperley Court\u2019s privilege\u00a0 – I think there was some friction between them.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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