Memories of Flood, Feasts and Farms.
The is the recollections of Mr Tom Smith, farmer from Fishlake when he was almost 84. He was born in 1867 and farmed at Fosterhouses. Therefore the date of this interview must have been about 1950. The author is unknown. A good example of oral history giving important details about village life.
With thanks to Mr Peter Tidball for sending me this document.
Memories of Floods.Feasts and Farms.
As I cycled along the quiet country lane some 8 miles out of the town, it occurred to me how little the countryside changed while the towns grow apace. Just as I was wondering what changes had taken place in that particular part of the country I happened on the little village of Fishlake. The village gave me the impression of being a place where each day came and went without any fuss or bother. The farmers were cutting the corn, the cows were just meandering back to the pastures after milking. All that came to disturb the silence was the occasional drone of an aeroplane overhead. There is no resident policeman orvdoctor in this village of 400 inhabitants, but I was told that it is a healthy place and rarely are the services of a doctor needed. To find out if this village had changed through the years I called on Mr. Tom Smith. By no means the oldest resident, although be is 84 come September, but to me his snow white hair and look of quiet content suggested that he might be a likely person to answer my questions. His first words made me change my mind about country places never changing or moving with the times. He told me he could remember the times when Fishlake was quite an important centre with several mills, two or three malt kilns and at least two buildings where they swingled flax. The river was busy with boats continually passing carrying farm produce and in the village itself there were 3 blacksmiths, and 3 joiners shops-all, he assured me with plenty of work to keep them occupied. Today all these things are but a memory. These is no blacksmith, no joiners shops and the malt kilns have gone to rack and ruin. ‘The village had just settled down for a nice long test’, he said, and when I thought about the quiet village main street I had just left I thought how right he was. Tom’s father and his grandfather were both natives of Fishlake. His grandfather who hailed from Hatfield, first went to the village in 1832 and settled down there to a life of farming. Mention of his Father made Tom remember the year 1886. ‘We have had some bad floods in may lifetime, in fact Fishlake is quite used to them, but the year ‘86, that was the flood with a capital F’. They were terrible, he told me, and acre upon acre of farmland was under water.
‘I remember it so well, because that was the year I was chairman of the parish council, and I went with a couple of my friends in a rowing boat all round the district. We took a long pole with us and at some places the water was nearly nine feet deep. The cattle had to be moved to a safe area and some people had to abandon their homes for a time. Another point that has stuck in my mind is that at the time my father showed me a mark on a house wall which had been put there 40 years ago to mark the height of the floods in 1846. The floods we had in 1886 were exactly the same height and depth at that point.’ The village feast which is held in September is something else that Tom told me about. He remembers the tune when the village was crowded with stalls, swings and there was a general air of gaiety for 3 days. There were sports during the day and dancing and singing at night. Yet last year Tom cannot remember there being even a spice stall in the village. Being a farmer Tom shows great interest in the advance of modern farming. He well remembers the time when the first reaping machine came to Fishlake.
"The whole village turned out to see it, and a great lumbering old thing it was to be sure he told me. Living with Tom are his daughter, who is a school teacher, and his unmarried son. Tom has worked hard during his eighty four years, taking the rough with the smooth as farmers always have to, but he is now as he says "an old man who is content to live with his children. I left him seated in an old armchair in the Kitchen gazing into the fire, and perhaps thinking of the village feasts the used to attend when to attend when he was a strapping young man, so many years ago.