MICHAEL WATSON
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Surname
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Watson
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Forename
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Michael
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Date of recording
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2008
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Year of birth
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1926
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Place of Birth
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London
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Occupation
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Landowner
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Fathers occupation
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Landowner
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Present Address
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Sudbourne
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Location Interview
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Sudbourne
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Interviewer
Summary |
?
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Duration
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36 Mins
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No of tracks: 1
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This recording is on one track with times within the track shown below.
Track 1 0-10 mins. His parents were married in 1925. Described how his grandfather bought the Sudborne Estate in 1918, approximately 9,000 acres roughly being the area from Snape to Chilsford village. Described how his grandfather died in 1922 after a hunting accident. Described how his grandfather lived mainly in Leeds and only came to Sudborne in the Summer and for shooting during the season. Remembers having about 10 gamekeepers. Described how the Forestry Commission bought some of the land in the 1930's. Remembers the workers on the estate used to row down the river to get to their various jobs as there was no other transport. Described the drainage mill for draining the marshes. Describes how the mill built up a head of water known as the Fleet. Describes that the land near the mill is now used for duck shooting and the reeds that grow there are cut down every year by a family of thatchers by the name of Chilvers who live at Pettistree. Remembers the barges coming up the river to Butley. Described how his father played polo while at Cambridge University in the 1920's and when he came back to Butley played at Great Glemham, near Farnham on a pitch that he described as 'rough and ready'. Described how in 1936 his father laid his own polo ground at Sudborne, although it is now a cornfield. Mentions that he has a small beef herd, but his grandfather had kept Suffolk Punches and various other livestock, which he showed. Describes how the polo pitch had to be dug up during the war to grow vegetables but after the war his father relaid it. Described how his father travelled to Baghdad to buy about 30 Arab ponies as there were no ponies here after the war.. When his father died in 1955 at the age of 54 the land was ploughed up and the ponies sold to the army and various people. Describes how the farm was let out after the war. 10– 20 mins. Describes how during the war all the wasteland on the estate had to be ploughed up and used for growing food. Describes how about 100 acres of wasteland was ploughed up. Describes his father as having a very expensive irrigation system for the polo ground. Describes how his father had travelled to Santa Barbara in California, to look at irrigation systems for his polo pitch. Describes how his father bought back to England a set of irrigation equipment, travelling on the Queen Mary, and set up a small manufacturing business making irrigation systems. Describes how in the 1930's, before the war, the heathland was full of rabbits and described the rabbit shooting. His father laid a fence of wire netting round the marshes and this fence had small trap doors at various points along it. During the evening the rabbits would come off the heath and onto the marshes to feed, and they would come through the doors. When they were going to have a rabbit shoot, pins were inserted in the doors so that the rabbits could not get back to the land and stayed on the marshes for about 3 nights. The shoot would then begin and he mentions that about 1,000 rabbits a day were shot and sent off to Smithfield market in London. Describes how he went to school in an old tin shed at Thorpeness Golf Club, travelling there by speedboat up the river and being collected at Slaughden Quay. He was there until he was nine years old and then went away to school. Conversation about a speedboat, riding ponies – not very clear. Mentions joining the army and working in Ipswich. Describes how he used to come home for the school holidays. 20 -30 mins There is now a conversation about tidal surges diufficult to hear as the interviewer cannot be heard this continues until recording resumes at 22.04 Describes the 1953 floods. Remembers someone ringing during the night and warning them to get their ponies off the marshes as there was a very high tide. Describes how he went down to the marshes and describes the night as being very clear with good visibility and the river was very high. Described how they were not badly affected by the flood and there was only one hole made in the river wall. Describes how his wife went to Felixstowe to help with the aftermath of the flood and he went on flood relief along the river. Describes using a boat with an outboard to carry empty bags backwards and forwards to the troops who would fill then with sand or mud to mend the wall. Remembers it being very cold. There is then a conversation about his family, difficult to hear the interviewer. Describes the biggest change in the river is the amount of people who use it. In his day there were very few. Describes how he used to go trawling in the river with the Brinkley family, who had a boat and catching lots of fish. 30 – 36 mins. Described how the oyster beds were leased out to MacFisheries and then later to the Pinneys. Remembers coal coming on barges and being unloaded at Orford. Describes how they did not have mains electricity until 1962, having to make do with an old engine that ran on batteries. Describes how they get their water from a well and have a purification plant, the nearest mains water being ¾ mile away. 32 - end. Swimming in river. Grandchildren’s boats. Sailing. Sons in Army and Navy. Son served on Royal Yacht. |