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THE GLOUCESTERSHIRE COUNTRY LIFE SERIES includes nine sets of recordings made in the 1960s by Peter Duddridge and June Turner of old people recalling their lives on the Cotswold hills in Gloucestershire. Mostly in the various Gloucestershire dialects , they are a fascinating insight into the way of life in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and are full of humour and aspects of social history. The series also includes recordings of Cotswold church bells, steam trains, plainchant, wildlife and the ways of the Forest Of Dean. The series is produced by Gef Lucena for Saydisc Records and the full details and purchasing details can be found on www.saydisc.com
The currect short video is of highlights from the COTSWOLD VOICES album and mainly features George and Dorcas Juggins of Stroud.
These two became a legend in their lifetime, with a fame extending far beyond the Stroud valleys in which they lived: it can truly be said that there can never again be any like them. They lived in a ruinous cottage near Chalford-which was destroyed in the fire in which Dorcas died two months after her husband succumbed to a heart-attack. They had no main’s water, gas or electricity: they cooked by paraffin or on the fire; water came from a nearby brook or from a neighbour; illumination was by oil-lamp. Dorcas could neither read nor write, though George could do both after a fashion. Their cottage looked squalid to the passer-by, but it was home to them, and in their own way they tended it.
In many ways the two were utterly different. George was a dandy with an air about him which could not be destroyed by battered and ill-fitting clothes: a lively extrovert who loved to be the centre of attention; fond of dancing and only too willing to re-enact as a solo the “talking pictures” which he loved to attend-which, be it said, were totally unrecognisable in his version. Dorcas was reserved, dour, pugnacious and fiery when roused, as she easily could be. Both were physically rather small; both utterly unselfconscious about their often bizarre appearance.
Yet it is impossible to imagine either married to anybody else. Though they constantly argued, they were devoted to each other, and Dorcas often remarked to us that George was “the best ‘usbun ever to walk in shoes”. Their marriage lasted more than fifty years, and their deaths were not separated by more than weeks.
Their passing produced a sense of loss throughout their district-tinged, one suspects, with a certain feeling of guilt in those who had made mock of them while they were alive. To us they were friends like others: we found them original and refreshing in a world in which individuality seems steadily to decrease. George was a free talker to anybody who would listen, and Dorcas could open up when she knew and liked you. We are glad that we have so much material recorded with them, both on tape and film: something went out of life when the Juggins’ were no longer there. JUNE AND PETER TURNER
[Also included in this brief video are are reminiscences from:]
BERT BUTLER: ‘Oss muckin’. Bert Butler was born near Sudeley, by Winchcombe. He was one of a large family, and after leaving school he entered service as a gardener at Sudeley Castle, whence he progressed to other estates, not all in Gloucestershire. To his delight, he was able to return to Winchcombe shortly before his retirement, and worked part-time at Postlip Mills. He was a frequent broadcaster and a prolific writer about the countryside of his youth as well as an accomplished singer and musician.
WILLIAM CLARK: Rookstarving
at twelve; the life of a carter. William Clark, at the time of this recording, lived at Harnhill, by Cirencester, and was then nearly ninety and fast going blind. We met him by chance when visiting the lovely church at Harnhill and were instantly captivated by his gentleness, hospitality, modesty and charm.
NOTES BY: JUNE (RECORDING) AND PETER TURNER (PHOTO)
16 окт 2024
