b'making ladders, for instance, we used to get a wholeat Driffield, including my seventeenth birthday. My sister tree delivered, and the bark was stripped with a draw- followed two years later. When I was discharged I was knife, then split down the centre by hand saw, andtold to bath and rub myself with eucalyptus oil, so idiot planed to shape. The spells came in what we calledthat I was I did a good job, and splashed the oil over riven oak, and had to be planed into shape. Cart wheelparts I should not have done, and suffered agony for spokes and fellies were the same. Coffin sets wereseveral hours.nearly all oak, and British at that. This was the veryWhen I was 20 I went to work for a firm at Seamer devil to plane as the grain always seemed crossed.as improver, and returned to Wilton a year later. Later we got American oak which was much easier.Meanwhile my parents had taken a pub at Fangfoss, Eventually it came ready-planed. but I stayed a while in the house alone. This was when Electricity came to the village in the mid 1930s, butI laid out my one and only corpse. My father made the all my father would have was a light in the workshop,coffin. and a light point in each downstairs room of the house.1938 was also the year I met my wife to be. I was By the way, the workshop was a lean-to shed, coveredmarried in April 1940, but before I could be married at with corrugated sheeting, which dripped water onBishop Wilton I had to spend three or four weekends your head after each frost, with the end open to thein the village to satisfy residential restrictions. I stayed elements. Piped water came about the same time butwith Mr and Mrs Burgess at No 13 during that time. we still had the well for drinking, and two huge tanks toMr Fawcett married us, and did it free for our wedding catch rainwater for washing etc. Later a pipe was laidpresent. Lorna Sleightholme played the organ for us. It up the yard to a tap for the pigs. We still used an Elsanwas her first wedding as organist.closet, having evolved from a two-seater earth closet. Just before the war work was hard to get, and Mr Ripley and his son Allan ran a threshingwages very poor. Farm workers got 32 shillings, that is machine. Allan also had a small shop on Pocklingtonequal to 160 pence today. Alf Brigham and Alwyn Ward Road, which he called Wembley Garage. I bought myjoined the Coldstream Guards, and Ron Jordan the Air bike from him for 8-0-6d. complete with dynamo,Force. Don Turner was all set to join them, when he driven by the front wheel for front and rear lightsthehad a serious motor bike accident and lost a leg and very latest model at the time. Allan had a motor bikethe use of one arm. I admired Donhe never gave up; and sidecar, and always turned his cap back to fronthe obtained a three-wheeled bike and when the drome when out riding it. He was a great character andopened at Full Sutton he got a job as a stoker, and always had a bit of local gossip to tell. rode his bike back and forth to work.Charlie Serginson lived at No 17, and like CharlieWhen the war started I was in a reserved Cullum was a cobbler. He had a small workshopoccupation for about a year, then I had a medical and complete with stove etc. I often sat while he was atpassed fit for the Army. However, instead of the Army work. Robert Adamson lived at No 19.I was retrained and sent to Hull Dry Dock on ship There was a very tall building behind No 28 whichrepairs. That was in February 1941, and I remained I believe was an old foundry, but when I knew it itthere till the war finished. I was directed back to was used as small sheds by the people living in thebuilding and stayed in Hull a further five years, and cottages in front, and also by Mr Fletcher and Mrreturned to Bishop Wilton in 1950.Denton as a stable for their horses. I believe David has one or two wall plates which were made there (pictured here).I believe there was a brickyard on Pocklington Lane; this requires some research. I know some houses have locally made bricks in the walls. They are very hard.All this time I was server at Church and also in the Choir, although I was not a very good singer. My duties as server were to light the altar candles and all lamps. There were seven lamps above the altar, but only one was kept lit, except for special festivals. I also often took the collection and rang the bells at 8 oclock communion. Mr Fawcett and I were very often the only people to attend 8 oclock service. The Church got central heating in the early 1930s, followed by electric lighting. The lighting was very poor, and was updated years later.There was a small outbreak of scarlet fever inDavid, Edwards son, holding the wall plates at the 1932/33, and I spent six weeks in the isolation hospitalback of No. 16BULLETIN 8 113'