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'We've got a little milkmaid'
Aston Pigott Farm was, and still is, a dairy farm. As on most farms, all family members were expected to help out with jobs around the farm.
'I was the first one from my family to be born away from home. I was born in a nursing home in Shrewsbury. My three older brothers were all born at home. The story goes that when I was born, my father returned from the nursing home to say "we've got a little milkmaid"'.
And were you ever a milkmaid?
'Well, I washed the buckets. I never milked cows. Later on I washed the milking machines, particularly as I got towards leaving school. I suppose in my teens I would often on a Saturday, and during school holidays, wash the milk buckets and the machines. You had particular brushes and things and they had to be sterilised and that was done in a big tank with a hose of steam, a sort of metal hose and you would go in and turn the steam on and it made a tremendous noise'.
'Did you have to do that? Was it one of your jobs on the farm?'
'I think it was a job that became mine. I don't know that it was discussed. Once it became my responsibility to do it on those days, one just did it. I don't remember saying "I don't want to do it". I don't think that I would have thought of saying "I don't want to do it". I think in that way things were easier for me that for my older brothers. They had more responsibilities than I did in a day to day way. So they had to do things around the farm - perhaps fetching in the cows - before they went to school.'
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