A long life lived in Chantry - Dick and Dolly Blacker

A little while ago I had the opportunity to sit and have a natter with Dick and Dolly Blacker.  They live in Chantry and Dick has basically lived in the Chantry/Whatley area for his whole life.  Now in his 90s he has seen a lot of stuff!  And he’s seen a lot of changes, or possibly not as many as you’d think.  I was particularly interested in the everyday kind of stuff that is a fundamental part of village life.

Dick Blacker was born in Coleford in the early 1930s at The Anchor Inn – he told me that the Inn was pulled down in the 1970s despite there being a preservation order on the building!  As a child, he lived in other local villages including Upper Vobster and Whatley until moving to the Gate House Lodge of The Chantry (the house that would eventually become home to Anthony and Violet Powell in the 50s) in 1942 during the 2^nd World War.

Dick’s father was a quarryman, and he went where work was available, hence moving between these villages.  Quarrying at Whatley began in 1934 and he worked there until ARC took over ownership.  Much to the displeasure of Dick’s father, they changed many of the working practices including the size of the blasts.  He felt it was unsafe and he was proved right when a blast ended up taking the tops off all the surrounding trees!  He quit Whatley quarry and started work at Asham – this was owned by Bill and Ted (the Evemy brothers).  As well as the quarry they had a haulage company – steam lorries – wood cutting was their first business.  Their haulage base was where Wilmotts is now on the Old Wells Road.

There were 4 of them living in the Gate Lodge.  Dick’s mother was strict but fair – she took good care of the family.  The 4^th member was Dick’s much older half-brother, George.  He had been born during the 1^st World War from which his father never returned – their only memento of him was a “Dead Man’s Penny” (a brass memorial plaque) saying that he was “missing presumed dead”.  She didn’t re-marry for a long time because she worried that he might reappear.

Their landlord was Mr Tiley, he owned the Lodge, The Chantry and lots of the surrounding land.  Mr Tiley didn’t actually live in the big house, he lived at St Anthony's Cottage at the top of Black Lane.  During the war he allowed London refugees to live in the Chantry itself.  Apparently, he was quite an eccentric – a bachelor who kept himself to himself and got about the place on his bicycle.  Granny Payne was employed to look after him in his old age – she moved in and once Mr Tiley had died, she ended up living in the house next door - Maud Cottage - the house is still the Payne family home today.

Dick was schooled in the village school which took kids from the age of 4 – 11.  This building is now The Old School House.  It had one classroom, one teacher and 20 pupils.  Their female teacher would cycle from and to Warminster every day, but if the weather was particularly bad, she had a little Austin 7.  She’d even collect the kids if they were walking along the road from Whatley.

There were about 14 kids in Chantry at that time.  All from working families.  They would mess about and wander happily for miles, known by everyone in the village and beyond and they were always welcomed into houses for a cup of tea.  Dick learnt to swim in the lake (Chantry Pond) and nowhere was out of bounds.  An old boy named Gingky Coles would set up his table at the bottom of Railford Hill just to have a drink and a chat with whoever might be passing.

Dick and his pals found the war years rather an exciting time.  A bomb dropped near Oakfield and another in Whatley – probably the Germans jettisoning after bombing raids in Bath before heading back.  He remembers the US soldiers based at Marston Camp who became a source of all sorts of goodies – tinned peaches (total delicious luxury), chewing gum, a dummy rocket, and some kind of carving knife (all very appealing to young lads!).  One night in 1944, the US soldiers drove up Stoney Lane in tanks to get to the White Horse where they proceeded to get completely sozzled. Dick has no idea how they managed to get back to camp but the following day the entire camp at Marston had vanished – not a trace of them.  This turned out to be just before the D Day landings.  Fields of guns, ammunition, and 100s of barrels of “fog oil” (to create a fog screen over water to shield the invasion) had also gone over night.

Also stuck in Dick’s memory are the 2 land girls who rented a room above the bar at the White Horse – he can’t remember which farm they worked on, but they left an impression!

Once Dick reached 11, he had to go to Oakfield School in Frome, and he was there until the age of 14 (official school leaving age) when he took up a carpentry apprenticeship.  Carpentry was then his profession for the rest of his working life apart from a 2-year stint doing National Service in the RAF, which took him out of Somerset (Gloucester, Coventry, Birmingham, and even Malta, which became the favourite holiday spot for the Blackers).

Dick was 21 when he met Dolly – she was 16.  They met because they were both fans of Jack Steed’s band.  Dolly’s crowd from Peasdown and Dick’s crowd from Chantry/Whatley would follow the band to wherever they were performing – it was all about the dancing.  As Dick said, one thing led to another, and he got together with Dolly.  The crowd would always get buses to the dances, and it would be a taxi back.  Dolly lived next door to the taxi driver – he had an old London black cab.  They remember 15 being the record number that they managed to cram into the back of the taxi – girls sitting on the boys’ laps!  The driver would charge 1 shilling each for the journey back – depending on how many people took the lift, he’d either make some money or not.

Dick and Dolly married in 1957.  Dolly moved in with the Blacker family for a while until they were able to move into a cottage on Black Lane.  There were 2 next to each other – Dick’s half-brother George lived in the other one.

Chantry was much the same size as it is today, but Bullen Mead had yet to be built.  New houses were also to be built near the Old George.  The Methodist Chapel (now The Old Chapel) was still functioning and at that time it drew more of a crowd than Holy Trinity.  The Blackers were saddened when the chapel shut its doors in the 70s – it was where they had attended Sunday school and it was the source of fun outings.  Their youngest child was christened there.

There were more houses down Bull’s Green Lane because it was the main road to Nunney prior to the construction of the link road in the 90s.  All the quarry traffic had to use the lane, but it did mean that the road was maintained and kept clear and wide for traffic.

“Going shopping” wasn’t particularly a thing to the Blackers.  The Co-Op girl would come around to take orders on a Tuesday, and goods were delivered on Fridays.  The greengrocer visited 3 times a week and the milkman and baker visited daily.  The Co-Op was in Mells as you went down Mells Lane (only a mile in those days before the quarry expanded and Mells Lane was lost). “Oily” Morgan would come to the village in his van loaded with paraffin, candles, hardware – tin baths tied to the outside.  It was the Tally man for clothes:

“customers who purchased items of household goods and clothing on credit which they were then able to pay for on weekly instalments. Repayments were made to collectors often known as “Tally Men”.”

There was a Post Office in the village (now The Old Post Office) – Mrs Philips and then Mrs Chapman.  They just sold stamps and postal orders, not the wide range of services they now offer.  Sadly, it shut 30 years ago.

There was a village shop at the Old George – a great little shop that sold all sorts including milk because they owned a few cows.

Frome was a busy town in those days and there was a great bus service – buses ran on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays.  The 10:30 bus back to Chantry was always packed and rowdy after everyone had been to the pubs and the pictures.  When Dick was a young man, there were 20 pubs in town, but there had once been over 100!  No one had TVs so going to the cinema was big thing – Frome Memorial Theatre was once the Grand Cinema, and the Westway was Gaumont.

As for pubs in the village, there was only the White Horse (the George had closed well before even Dick’s time). The White Horse was a working pub for working people and families – drink was cheap and the only food on offer was a packet of crisps and a pickled egg.  Darts and skittles provided entertainment.  Underage Dick and his pals would have to skedaddle if they found out that the bobby was on this way and they were having a naughty pint in the pub.  The bobby was PC Small from Nunney – who travelled around on his bicycle.

Dolly remembered being told off by PC Small once when they were having a shindig (lock-in) in the pub until about 1am.  They weren’t buying any booze after licensing hours because they had been paying the landlady 10 shillings a week to build a fund for their “do”.  PC Small shut it down in the wee hours telling them all to go home.

From their cottage on Black Lane, Dick and Dolly watched Bullen Mead being constructed on land that had been Perry’s Farm.  They moved into number 10 in 1968 – their house is sited on what was the chicken barn.  Because they lived so close to their new home, they spent 3 days moving stuff across the road, using their 2 young sons and a friend to ferry all the boxes.  There was huge excitement about leaving the house with an outdoor privy and going to the new house which had a loo upstairs and ANOTHER downstairs!

Transport was mainly buses and taxis, but Dick was big into his motorbikes – he probably owned about 20 throughout his life and he never learnt to drive a car.  Dolly and the kids would be loaded up on to the bike and into the side car for trips to the seaside – they even managed to cram in a 3^rd boy from across the road on occasions.  Dolly was eventually “persuaded” to learn to drive at the age of 50 by her sons who bought her some driving lessons.

I asked what significant changes have affected Chantry and in their opinion the loss of Mells Lane was huge.  Mells and Chantry were closely linked.  It was only a mile between the villages and then suddenly, a 4-mile round trip.  The medical clinic was in Mells, the village shop, and many friends.  The biggest damage was to Chantry, and at the very least a village hall should have been constructed to give the villagers a hub.  The closure of the White Horse had already been a big loss.

Another big change was the construction of the Bulls Green Link Road in the late 1990s.  It caused mayhem - it was the time of Swampy and the eco-warrior protests.  Dolly told me that there was a telephone box in the middle of the village which became their office and sole source of communication (in those days before we all became attached to our mobile phones).  Many protesters climbed into trees and dug tunnels to prevent machinery being able to work to save the environment.  They had also been involved in a huge protest against the expansion of Whatley quarry, but, as we know, both projects were completed.

Dick and Dolly Blacker have lived their whole lives in these Somerset villages.  Their sons live close by in local villages, and they have 6 great grandchildren.  I thank them so much for this time to chat and reminisce.

Police enter Dead Woman's Bottom

If you are interested in the protest against the building of Bull's Green Link Road, I found this article by SchNEWS from 1998 - I urge you to read it:

 https://www.wussu.com/roads/r98/r9801231.htm

This is a taster:

As SchNEWS went to press, a game of cat and mouse between protesters, bailiffs and the police is taking place at Dead Woman's Bottom near Nunney, Frome.

The five protest camps are being illegally evicted by the Under Sheriff of Somerset and his merry men who moved in early Tuesday morning. The protesters are trying to stop the proposed Bull's Green Link Road being built. Although there are only 30 to 40 people on site they are proving impossible to evict effectively.

The authorities are having real problems evicting because some of the camps are on private land, and local landowners who are opposed to the road are refusing to support the powers that be. One told SchNEWS: "There are vans and vans and vans of riot cops but the Section 69 (a formal warning from a senior cop to leave the land) that they're handing out is basically a get-out-of-jail-free card".

Despite the fact that there were children on site, no prior warning was given of the eviction. One woman was dragged off and her kids were left alone screaming, while a doctor was assaulted by bailiffs on his own land.

As fast as the bolts for the perimeter fence are set in concrete, they are being mysteriously ripped out by invisible pixies... "This protest will last for months. We are conducting a guerrilla warfare from the woods"