SIR EDWARD GREENWELL

Surname

Greenwell

Forename

Edward

Date of recording

2008

Year of birth

Place of Birth

Orford

Occupation

Farmer

Fathers occupation

Farmer

Present Address

Gedgrave Orford

Location Interview

Orford

Interviewer

Summary

?

Duration

42 Mins

No of tracks: 3

This recording consists of 3 tracks.

Track 1
Describes his early years living at Butley. Menrions that his father had a wooden dinghy with a sail, he thought it was  a Kestrel, and he and his brother sailed it up and down the estuary.  Describes  a friend, Alan Wallace, having a clinker built dinghy which was very heavy  as it was  made of oak and  how it took several men to launch it.  Describes how in those days the estuary was very empty and there were not many boats, especially from September onwards.  Describes the wildlife in Butley Creak and mentions that it was far better in the winter when the quantity of wildfowl was enormous.  Describes  having a 410 rifle when he was quite young and going shooting for rodents, pigeons and ducks. Describes wildfowling  in the evening.  Describes how he went morning flighting as well, and also there were one or two decoys at Iken and Chillesford.  Describes how vast number of ducks and these were caught with the help of dogs. Described how nets were laid the dogs would run over the nets and the ducks would follow. The ducks were then caught and sent off to market.  Describes another method  of catching rabbits, whereby a  box- like trap was laid in the fence next to field of  a specially planted crop, and how the rabbits would run through the box into the field, the box was one way only and the rabbits were caught in a net on the other side of the hedge, and then again, sent off to market.  Describes how there were plenty of rabbits in the 20's and 30's.  Describes how after the war the Forestry Commission took the land over.  Remembers a man called George Cullingford, whose job it was to collect the rabbits, had a cart with  lots of sticks across the back and these would be full of rabbits.  Describes how they would catch possibly 1,000 rabbits in one year.  Describes how this method was abandoned between the wars.  Describes how his grandfather bought land  in the 1930's for about £3 per acre.  Describes there was a lot of unemployment in the  30's and soup kitchens were quite common in the villages and how the cottages got into very bad repair.  Describes how the Rendlesham and Sudbourne estates changed hands and were broken up and sold off.  Describes how Orford Town Trust owns the  oyster rights to the estuary and he owns the oyster rights for Butley Creak.  Describes a 17th century documents whereby it was accepted that the crown did not own the rights and where you owned the river frontage you owned the rights to the middle of the river.  Describes how his father also had the rights to take so many  tons of gravel from the Ness each year.
Track 2.  
Describes how his grandfather  bought the land in the early 30's.  Describes his grandfather as  knowing about farming but working in the City. He lived in Surrey. He worked hard and when he heard that land in Suffolk was available for virtually nothing he decided to look into it and bought bits both from the Rendlesham estate and Sudbourne estates which had been broken up.  Describes how his grandfather was aware that food was going to be needed after the war because of rationing and was very keen on the idea of putting domestic waste and rubbish back into the land.  Describes how his grandfather cleared away the scrub and gorse, pines and birches. Described how a machine (it sounded like a gyro tiller) could deep plowth e land  to approx. 5 feet down.  Describes the land as being sandy but if you dug down you would find a layer of iron deposit and he describes how this machine would break up the iron residues in the earth and spread it out.  Describes how his grandfather drained the marshes with gravity sluices a lot of which are still in place.   Describes the 1953 flood and how came over the river walls and flooded the marshes and   Butley. Describes how the Government sent in soldiers to help lay down sandbags, and how they helped rebuild the river walls to 11.05'  . Mentions that he has the plans that record this.  Describes how the walls were built and faced  with Essex blocks - solid  concrete blocks, later hollow blocks were used  and how they have deteriorated  and sunk over the years.  Describes how farming is difficult as the water table is only a few feet down.  It is difficult to grow trees except willows or poplars. Describes his farm frontage.  Describes how being near the sea the wind blows salt over the land, especially during gales, and this kills off all the hedges.  Describes the land as being clay and very fertile but wet underneath which causes problems for tractors.   Describes the land is less than half arable and grows, wheat, sugar beet and beans the rest is grass.  Describes it is an Environmentally Sensitive Area.  Describes how they have livestock, i.e. cattle.  Describes the level of the land being  much lower than the river.  Mentions he has map showing  a promontory of saltings which is Chantry Point.  Describes how Butley Creak is silting up.   Describes again the 1953 flood, when he was 3 years old. Remembers everyone had the flu and were in bed.  Remembers waking up and looking out the window onto  the garden at Butley Farm and the water was approximately 30 yards from the house.  Describes how communication in those days was very bad and people were wandering about asking what had happened.  Describes how the river wall were undermined and the water came over the top.  Describes how many sheep were drowned. Remembers his mother describing how the Suffolk Punches swimming up and down and going frantic.   Describes how his parents  had got in the land rover and had got as far as Stonebridge in the flood water and had eventually lost their nerve and stopped, and realising the bridge had been washed away.  Describes how Burrow Hill became and island, and how Alan Wallace, the farm manager at Ferry Farm was completely cut off.  Describes how his father rowed a boat across and lifted the family to safety and how they stayed with them at the farm for quite a few months.  Mentions there were no casualties in the estuary.  Describes how the sea walls built after the 1953 floods were much sturdier and could survive 'topping'.  
The interview then seems to stop as the interviewer and the interviewee talk about Campsea Ashe.
Track 3.  
Describes the  make up of the land and  the intensive irrigation that he has put in place now to enable him to grow vegetables, and how he employs more farmworkers per acre than farms inland which are above the flood plain.  Describes how he gathers water from the marshes and keeps this in reservoirs and then pumps it up slowly through the winter.  Describes various bathing places in Butley Creek and mentions the little platform built out at Hollesley.. 

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