Roger’s articles evoke golden memories

I WOULD like to thank Roger Evans for his articles in the Saturday magazine – I always enjoy reading them.

Most recently, last Saturday’s feature, about the old bailing machines, took me back to a time in the 1960s.

I live in Hereford, but my

Mum’s family is from Knighton in Radnorshire, and we would decamp there at various holiday times throughout the year.

My younger cousin Mike Bright and I would go and help on the farm opposite my grandparents’ house, the farmer’s name was Wilf Gough.

Wilf was a good farmer but not a very tidy one, very often farm machinery was left where it was last used until the following year, when there would be a ferocious bout of fettling in an attempt to get it going properly.

One year I remember us having to assist Wilf with the baler... there was much cleaning with wire brushes, and applications of oil and grease in an attempt to get it running properly without having to take it in to the local agricultural engineers for a professional going-over.

We managed to get it running and tying the bales, but you never knew exactly what was coming out. We had it making bales anything from 18 inches to 4ft in length!

I always enjoyed those days on the farm though, time spent with my cousin and helping Wilf...

We would help him with the early morning milk delivery, droving the sheep down Kinsley Road to Knighton market, bale hauling in the summer was about the best as we rode the top of the bale trailer back into Knighton from Llanfair Waterdine, about six miles up the road from my Gran’s.

The other highlight of these times was that we went everywhere with Wilf, visiting other farms and sometimes to country shows. One of Wilf’s farming friends was known as “Ted the Bwlch” on account of him living at “Bwlch Farm.”

I never knew his proper name, but Ted still farmed using horses, his only meeting with a tractor ended in him crashing it while going for a test drive, shouting “Whoa” at it, and having to jump off as it went into the dingle at the bottom of one of his fields.

Happy days! My cousin Mike still works in Knighton as an agricultural contractor, while I went on to work as an apprentice for British Gas, so those days for me kind of came to an end in 1973.

Keep up the good work Roger. Kind regards...

Robert via email