William Newby - Another Close Shave

Contents

Kingsdale Head

My Time at Yarlsber

Tales from Yarlsber

Grandfather and
the Steam Engine

Helping out at Yarlsber

Leyland Farm

Selling Two Horses

Pigs

The Blacksmith

Harvest Time

Delivering Young Pigs

Old Remedies

Jinny the Donkey

Churchwarden
at Lowgill

Message to Craggs

Taking Horses
to the Station

Snigging Wood

Dangers on a Farm

Cowan Bridge

Another Unwilling Horse

Circus Horse

Kicker: Another
Difficult Horse

Ginger

1941: Another
Spoiled Horse

Farm Sale at Yarlsber

High Scathwaite

Higher Salter

Wartime at Higher Salter

The American Army

A Story from the Past

Learning to
Work a Sheepdog

Spy: Another Sheepdog

Trim: a Dog
Worth a Mention

1947: the Snowstorm,
Nell and Maddie

Another Close Shave

One-eye Refuses

Leaving Home

Whitendale

Getting Ready to
Leave Higher Salter

Layhead

Clifton Hall Farms

Edgebank farm

The Salesman

ANOTHER
CLOSE SHAVE

To my wife Edna

for her help and encouragement

acknowledgements

My daughter Annette and grandson Alexander
for moving the project forward.

My daughter Jane for her excellent artwork.

Catherine Cousins at 2QT Publishing and
Caroline Draper for her design and typesetting.

F irst eBook Edition published 2013 by

2QT Limited (Publishing)

Dalton Lane, Burton In Kendal

Cumbria LA6 1NJ

ISBN 978-1-910077-47-4

Copyright William Newby

The right of William Newby to be identified as the author

of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the

Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

All rights reserved. This book is sold subject to the condition that no part of this book is to be reproduced, in any shape or form. Or by way of trade, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition, including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser, without prior permission of the copyright holder.

Design and typesetting by Caroline Draper

Illustrations by Jane Madden

A CIP catalogue record for this book as a paperback is available

from the British Library ISBN 978-1-908098-68-9

Kingsdale Head

I was born in the middle of a snowstorm on my fathers birthday. The farmhouse was at the end of the valley, about seven miles from the nearest village. My mother had grown tired of awaiting the birth. She had organised everything for my arrival and already the midwife had occupied the spare bedroom for three days.

Now, with a pale sun shining intermittently through the clouds, my mother asked Father to harness the horse into the trap as she needed to stock up on her food supplies.

A bad day to be setting off that distance, therell be storms before long, he said.

Undeterred, Mother set off for the village, with perfect trust in herself and Jock the horse. The snow came, as predicted, but she was well-wrapped up and Jock knew the road. On their homeward journey they made good progress, in spite of the combination of driving snow and the onset of dusk.

Suddenly Jock slowed and shied. Bessie called out, Whos there?

A faint voice answered and she stopped the trap and peered down towards the ditch on her right.

Who is it? she called. Are you in trouble?

Is that Bessie from Kingsdale Head? Its Joe. Im trapped in the ditch. Help me or Ill freeze to death.

Bessie looked round for something to use. The rope that was always kept in the trap looked long enough. Clumsily she climbed down and attached it to the step so that it dangled down far enough for Joe to grip it. Then, climbing back onto her seat, she urged Jock slowly forward pulling Joe up the steep bank onto the road. With a struggle, she managed to help him into the trap and so took him home with her.

It was that night of heavy snow that I was born. The snow trapped the midwife there for another week, although Joe was able to get home to his nearby farm the next day.

Before he went, he told them how he came to be trapped in the ditch. I set out yesterday to look fort sheep on my side ot fell. I knew Id be fine so long as I reached home afore dark. Where I went wrong was I left my bagging on a thru stone instead o carrying it cos it were hard enough walking without extra weight. As things worked out Id to go further than I expected and byt time Id come full circle I were faint with hunger. The snow closed in, cutting down the distance that I could see, and I couldnt find that thru stone. To cap it all I missed seeing tditch and slipped and couldnt climb out, what with tsteep side and tstone wall an all. Yell niver know how glad I were to hear Bessies voice. Im right glad that horse sensed me there cos Id begun to think theyd find me dead next morning. Ye saved me life and no mistake. Now Id better be off home cos twifell be worried sick. Ill give hert news about your little lad.

That was the story I was to hear again and again as I was growing up. At the time I was a new baby, born into a harsh environment in a harsh world. The fact is that after such a long wait and a hard birthing my mother turned against me. This happens today but folk are more sympathetic nowadays and yet, even now, no one can expect a child to understand.

As it happens, my mothers hostility led to events which determined my upbringing and influenced my character, but during the rest of her life there was a personality clash between us.

One day Uncle Robert went to Kingsdale Head on his motorbike, to find out how things were, as Mother was pregnant again. On arriving in the yard, he was very concerned to find me outside, in an unkempt state. My father was busy taking sheep which he had dipped back to the fell and then he was going to bring in the second lot. This meant it would be at least an hour before he returned. The hazards of the sheep yards, only a short distance away from where I was crawling, were apparent.

Uncle Robert took me into the house and then went back to Yarlsber to talk with his parents. It was decided that the best thing to do would be for Grandmother to be taken, by horse and trap, to see for herself what needed to be done. Uncle Robert drove the horse and, when they returned to Yarlsber, they took me with them.

About two months later my sister Jane was born and, not long after that, my parents moved away from Kingsdale Head to take over the tenancy of a farm near Wray, called Leylands. On March 19th, 1931, my brother Nicholas was born and Father employed a young woman to help in the house. I stayed at Yarlsber and was brought up by my grandparents and my aunts. I visited my parents from time to time but never lived permanently with them until they moved to Higher Salter, when Father took over the hefted sheep flock, on November 11th, 1943, when I was coming up to sixteen years of age.

For nearly two years after leaving school I lived at High Scathwaite, with Uncle Robert, Aunty Nelly and my two cousins, Dorothy and James, and worked with Uncle Robert on the farm. I was happy there and found leaving difficult. Having to go to live with my parents was one of my worst days but, thinking back, there was so much different work ahead that this helped me to settle.