Beavis, Cynthia

00:00:03Speaker 1
So it’s the 12th of November 2025 and we’re in Beaminster Museum in Beaminster, Dorset.
00:00:16Speaker 1
I’m Alastair Wheeler, one of the museum volunteers and today I have with me.
00:00:24Speaker 2
Jill Sansom, also a volunteer at Beaminster Museum.
00:00:30Speaker 3
And Cynthia Bevis.
00:00:32Speaker 1
And how do you spell that surname?
00:00:35Speaker 3
B-E-V-I-S-S.
00:00:37Speaker 1
And Cynthia, is that your married name?
00:00:41Speaker 3
Yes.
00:00:41Speaker 1
So what was your maiden name?
00:00:43Speaker 3
House.
00:00:44Speaker 3
H-O-U-S-E.
00:00:46Speaker 1
Oh, right.
00:00:47Speaker 3
Yeah.
00:00:47Speaker 1
So are those names that are local to this part of the world?
00:00:51Speaker 3
I think so, yes, yeah.
00:00:54Speaker 3
There was a lot of houses around.
00:00:56Speaker 1
Really.
00:00:57Speaker 3
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:00:58Speaker 3
Okay.
00:00:59Speaker 3
Yeah, they’ve all gone now, but yeah, there were a lot of houses, yeah.
00:01:03Speaker 1
So you were part of a big family?
00:01:06Speaker 3
No, no, it was just my brother and I, but then dad had brothers, brother and sister, that’s right.
00:01:15Speaker 3
And then there were generations back, further, more houses, yeah.
00:01:22Speaker 1
And that’s living.
00:01:24Speaker 3
Locally, yeah, yeah.
00:01:25Speaker 1
Around Beaminster area.
00:01:27Speaker 3
Yeah, all in Beaminster, yeah.
00:01:30Speaker 1
And what sort of trade, jobs, roles did they have?
00:01:35Speaker 3
Granddad was a thatcher, he was a thatcher.
00:01:38Speaker 1
Oh was he?
00:01:38Speaker 3
Yeah.
00:01:40Speaker 3
And dad was electrician and gardener and my uncle Norman, his brother, worked for the forestry.
00:01:49Speaker 3
So yeah, it was all pretty local really, yeah.
00:01:53Speaker 1
Don’t tend to think of forestry in Dorset, but there are quite extensive woodlands.
00:01:59Speaker 3
Yeah, that’s right, yeah, yeah.
00:02:02Speaker 1
So you grew up around here?
00:02:05Speaker 3
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:02:09Speaker 3
Mum and dad were the, dad was the gardener, mum was the cook at the lodge.
00:02:14Speaker 1
What’s the lodge?
00:02:15Speaker 3
The lodge, well it’s now Beaminster House, it’s going out of Beaminster on the tunnel road there.
00:02:22Speaker 1
That’s a big house.
00:02:23Speaker 3
Yeah, big house.
00:02:24Speaker 2
Big setback, isn’t it?
00:02:26Speaker 3
Yeah, and we lived in the little tied house there.
00:02:30Speaker 1
In the grounds.
00:02:31Speaker 3
In the grounds.
00:02:31Speaker 1
Off Tunnel Road.
00:02:33Speaker 3
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:02:34Speaker 3
Before the Beeches and what have you were built, that’s where we lived out there.
00:02:39Speaker 3
And Major Bridgeman owned the land out there.
00:02:44Speaker 1
How do you spell Bridgeman?
00:02:46Speaker 3
Bridgeman, B-R-I-D-G.
00:02:51Speaker 3
M-A-N-A-N.
00:02:53Speaker 3
That’s it, Bridgeman.
00:02:54Speaker 1
So he owned that.
00:02:56Speaker 3
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:02:58Speaker 3
And land around and what have you.
00:03:00Speaker 3
And yeah, it was, it was a nice, nice area to grow up in really.
00:03:05Speaker 2
So were the Beeches built on the land?
00:03:08Speaker 3
Yeah, yeah.
00:03:09Speaker 3
Of the lodge?
00:03:10Speaker 3
Yeah, yeah.
00:03:11Speaker 3
Where, where the, where the Beeches is and St James’s is,
00:03:17Speaker 3
That’s where the cowsheds were and the piggery used to be.
00:03:20Speaker 3
Right.
00:03:21Speaker 2
So yeah.
00:03:22Speaker 2
So it was quite a big estate.
00:03:23Speaker 3
Oh yeah, yeah, that’s right.
00:03:25Speaker 3
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:03:27Speaker 3
And they had a tennis court up there as well and it was all, all in that area.
00:03:34Speaker 2
And no houses beyond presumably.
00:03:36Speaker 3
No, no, that’s right.
00:03:37Speaker 3
No, no, no, it was, yeah, it was not, and everything was outside, you know, Dad was in the garden and we had,
00:03:47Speaker 3
areas to go in and it was marvellous really, yeah.
00:03:51Speaker 1
So you could come and go and explore.
00:03:54Speaker 3
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:03:56Speaker 3
And there was no intervention from anybody, you know, there was no mobile phones or anything, you know, we had bikes and cycle and yeah.
00:04:05Speaker 1
And what sort of years, was that what sort of…
00:04:10Speaker 3
We left there when I was 14 because Major died, that’s right.
00:04:15Speaker 3
He was in London and he died.
00:04:18Speaker 3
And then Mrs.
00:04:20Speaker 3
Bridgeman moved away.
00:04:21Speaker 1
So when was that, 19?
00:04:23Speaker 3
And that would have, oh my word.
00:04:28Speaker 3
’78, I suspect.
00:04:33Speaker 1
End of the 1970s.
00:04:35Speaker 3
Yeah.
00:04:35Speaker 1
So he died and she moved away.
00:04:37Speaker 3
And she moved away.
00:04:38Speaker 3
And then of course the house and everything was put up for sale.
00:04:43Speaker 3
and we had to move out, and we were put on an emergency council list, and fortunately we moved back into the house that Dad was born in.
00:04:55Speaker 3
And that was Bilston Close.
00:04:56Speaker 3
That was Bilston Close.
00:04:57Speaker 3
Pattle, as it was once upon a time called, yeah.
00:05:00Speaker 3
Yeah, and we moved back there, and yeah, it was…
00:05:05Speaker 1
So how did that feel?
00:05:06Speaker 3
And that, well, of course I’d never been in the house, ’cause Dad had moved out by then,
00:05:13Speaker 3
so yeah, it was okay, but we just had that little bit of garden at the front and a little bit of garden at the back and it, you know, very sort of, you know.
00:05:23Speaker 1
Enclosed.
00:05:24Speaker 3
Enclosed, yeah.
00:05:26Speaker 2
After the freedom of the state.
00:05:27Speaker 3
Yeah, that’s right.
00:05:29Speaker 3
And animals, we couldn’t have any animals and we had lots of rabbits and what have you, in cages and stuff.
00:05:38Speaker 1
Pet rabbits or rags to eat?
00:05:40Speaker 3
No, no, no, no.
00:05:43Speaker 3
Pet rabbits, yeah.
00:05:44Speaker 3
Well, that’s the funny thing because the day that we had the sort of eviction order, I think Dad went into a bit of a panic and they told him the date that we’d have to be out by and so we didn’t know where we would be going.
00:06:02Speaker 3
We would be going in West Dorset somewhere but we didn’t know where and we had all these rabbits.
00:06:08Speaker 3
I went on to school and I’d fed all these rabbits.
00:06:11Speaker 3
got home from school and all the hutches were open and I thought oh my goodness so they must be up in the orchard I suppose you know Dad’s put them up in the orchard no and I went indoors and Mum was dishing up tea and I said oh that’s nice and finished the tea and I said oh that was nice chicken stew and she said no it wasn’t chicken stew
00:06:41Speaker 3
I’d never touched rabbits since.
00:06:44Speaker 3
But yeah, oh my goodness, that was awful, awful.
00:06:48Speaker 3
But I think it was because he didn’t know what we were going to be doing with our clutch of rabbits, you know.
00:06:55Speaker 3
I don’t think it would have happened today.
00:06:58Speaker 3
You know, different times, different times.
00:07:02Speaker 2
So when were your parents born?
00:07:04Speaker 3
Where?
00:07:05Speaker 2
When?
00:07:05Speaker 3
When?
00:07:06Speaker 3
In the 1940s, yeah, that’s right, 1940s, yeah.
00:07:11Speaker 3
Yeah, Mum was Clapton, that’s right, and Dad was Beninston.
00:07:20Speaker 3
Right.
00:07:21Speaker 3
Yeah, so yeah.
00:07:24Speaker 3
So, yeah.
00:07:25Speaker 1
And you went to school in Beninston?
00:07:27Speaker 3
I did, I did.
00:07:29Speaker 1
What were the schools in those days?
00:07:32Speaker 3
We had the Little Infant School that was along their
00:07:40Speaker 3
I was going to say opposite the Royal Oak but the course of Royal Oak’s not there anymore.
00:07:46Speaker 3
Yeah along Hogsall Street there was an infant school and then further back up the road that was a junior school and then up East Street that was also the junior school and then you went to East Street then you went to the comprehensive school yeah comprehensive school.
00:08:05Speaker 1
So when did the comprehensive
00:08:07Speaker 1
actually start.
00:08:08Speaker 3
That was, I think that would have been in ’62, I think so, yeah, about ’62, yeah, yeah.
00:08:19Speaker 1
So how big were the first schools?
00:08:22Speaker 1
They must have been quite small, were they?
00:08:24Speaker 3
Well, no, no, no, because children came for all the villages and what have you.
00:08:29Speaker 1
How did they get here?
00:08:30Speaker 3
Coach, the coaches, yeah, they had
00:08:34Speaker 3
buses would come in and they would drop them off at the square, and then you’d walk to school, which you don’t do now.
00:08:42Speaker 3
Um, yeah, walk up to school.
00:08:44Speaker 3
Um, yeah, and they’d come from, uh, Stoke Abbot, um, um, Maiden Newton, that’s right, Mosterton, and all the way round into the…
00:08:57Speaker 1
Big area.
00:08:58Speaker 3
Oh yeah, yeah, and there would be, there would be about sort of,
00:09:02Speaker 3
38, 40 in a class, yeah.
00:09:06Speaker 3
Mrs Walbridge would be teaching.
00:09:08Speaker 1
So just one teacher for 38, 40.
00:09:10Speaker 3
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:09:12Speaker 3
But there was discipline, you know, you cross the line, you would certainly be told off.
00:09:18Speaker 2
So was, yeah.
00:09:19Speaker 2
Was she any relation to Alex Walbridge?
00:09:24Speaker 3
Oh my goodness, I don’t know.
00:09:26Speaker 3
No.
00:09:27Speaker 3
No, I don’t know.
00:09:29Speaker 2
Because he, he wrote a history of the church, didn’t he?
00:09:32Speaker 2
I think, but whether there was, whether it was sister or, I don’t know.
00:09:38Speaker 2
I don’t know.
00:09:40Speaker 3
She had, um, Catherine Walbridge and there was, um, they, yeah, she had, I think she had five children, Mrs Walbridge, and they were, they, they were all local, um, but I can’t, no, I don’t remember.
00:09:58Speaker 1
So she was quite strict then?
00:10:00Speaker 3
Oh yeah.
00:10:01Speaker 3
Yeah.
00:10:02Speaker 3
Yeah, she was.
00:10:03Speaker 3
But I think all the teachers were then.
00:10:06Speaker 3
Yeah, they were.
00:10:08Speaker 1
And was it just girls in your class?
00:10:09Speaker 3
No, no, no, it was a mixed band of kids really.
00:10:14Speaker 3
Yeah.
00:10:16Speaker 3
Yeah.
00:10:20Speaker 3
Yeah.
00:10:21Speaker 1
How did the discipline affect you?
00:10:25Speaker 3
Well, I was a very quiet, shy little girl, really, and I was left-handed, and so that was a bit of a disability, really.
00:10:34Speaker 3
Well, they saw it as one, you know, and yeah, it was…
00:10:39Speaker 3
You’re rather backwards, Cynthia, aren’t you?
00:10:41Speaker 3
Yeah, yeah.
00:10:43Speaker 1
So left-handedness was classified as a disability, and you were backwards.
00:10:48Speaker 3
Yeah.
00:10:49Speaker 3
Yeah.
00:10:49Speaker 1
Why were you backward?
00:10:50Speaker 3
Yeah, well.
00:10:51Speaker 1
Because you couldn’t.
00:10:52Speaker 3
I couldn’t grasp anything probably, you know, it was all sort of, there wasn’t a lot of help.
00:10:58Speaker 3
And so, yeah, but finally I did, you know, eventually I caught on.
00:11:06Speaker 3
But yeah, it was.
00:11:07Speaker 1
How did the teacher view your being left-handed when you were trying to write?
00:11:12Speaker 3
Oh, you put this hand, your left hand behind your back, yeah.
00:11:17Speaker 3
And that didn’t click, and it didn’t work really, because Mum was left-handed too.
00:11:24Speaker 3
So I didn’t think that was right.
00:11:26Speaker 3
And so I would question it.
00:11:29Speaker 3
But that didn’t go down very well.
00:11:35Speaker 3
But yeah, it was, yeah.
00:11:36Speaker 3
But I’ve got on since then, so it’s all right.
00:11:41Speaker 1
How big was the secondary school, the comprehensive school when you were there?
00:11:46Speaker 3
Oh, that was just a row.
00:11:51Speaker 3
It was much, much bigger than our little classes and what have you.
00:11:55Speaker 3
And yeah, it was awful really.
00:11:58Speaker 3
I didn’t so like going into this big place, not knowing anybody.
00:12:07Speaker 3
And it was funny because we went up, we had to go up to the comprehensive to have a look around.
00:12:15Speaker 3
And this one, this sixth form chap, he was showing us round and his name was Mark.
00:12:22Speaker 3
And I remember him, Mark, very well.
00:12:25Speaker 3
Anyway, he was showing us round.
00:12:28Speaker 3
About 30 or so years later, he’s working in the same place as I’m working.
00:12:34Speaker 3
And I just happened to say to him, Were you, did you go to Belminster School?
00:12:40Speaker 3
And he said, Yes, I did.
00:12:41Speaker 3
And I said,
00:12:43Speaker 3
You were the chap that showed us around.
00:12:45Speaker 3
I said, yes, yes.
00:12:47Speaker 3
And he lived in Beaminster, so that was, you know, and we worked together since and it’s been, yeah, yeah.
00:12:57Speaker 1
So when did you leave school and what did you go on to do?
00:13:02Speaker 3
I was 70.
00:13:03Speaker 3
I stayed on to the sixth form and I wanted to go into nursing.
00:13:11Speaker 3
and I went for an interview at Sherborne Hospital and this very nice matronine woman came out and she said that I’d done very well in the interview and everything but she said you are shy, very shy and she said what I suggest you do is join Amateur Dramatics and
00:13:36Speaker 3
Join the Red Cross, she said, because that will build your confidence and you will have some general knowledge and experience.
00:13:48Speaker 3
So I did that.
00:13:51Speaker 3
And so in the meanwhile, she said, you need to get used to people too.
00:13:56Speaker 3
And so in the meanwhile, I went to work at Crane’s shop in the town and that was a grocery shop.
00:14:06Speaker 3
and worked behind the bacon, I started off shelf filling but then I went behind the bacon counter cutting up the bacon and boning out the bacon and what have you and that was yeah and skinning the hams and yeah and I was there for six years and then I answered a advert in the Bridport News for auxiliaries to go to work in Bridport Hospital and I stayed there for
00:14:33Speaker 3
I think 16 years and it was absolutely marvellous.
00:14:37Speaker 3
I really enjoyed that and I had some great experiences and doing all sorts of wonderful things, helping people and what have you.
00:14:48Speaker 1
So what was the role of the auxiliary?
00:14:50Speaker 3
Auxiliaries in those days.
00:14:52Speaker 3
They back up the train staff, keep the wards clean, help the patients and feeds and all sorts.
00:15:03Speaker 3
And it was, yeah, it was marvellous.
00:15:05Speaker 3
I really enjoyed that.
00:15:07Speaker 3
And then I think it was, yeah, it would have been in 19, no, I’m trying to think now, 88, it was deemed that they would be closing the small hospitals and centralising everything.
00:15:31Speaker 3
And we didn’t want that to happen.
00:15:32Speaker 3
The union got involved and everybody went on marches and all the rest of it.
00:15:37Speaker 3
We went to London with banners and what have you saying, don’t shut the hospitals.
00:15:45Speaker 3
But it didn’t end well.
00:15:48Speaker 3
I mean, they still closed the little hospitals and they centralised everything.
00:15:54Speaker 3
And then I was asked to work for an agency from Dorchester.
00:16:02Speaker 3
and they had contracts in various places and they said you know you’ve got experience and you can work wherever we send you.
00:16:11Speaker 3
So I did and that was marvellous.
00:16:15Speaker 3
So what did that involve?
00:16:17Speaker 3
Well that involved sort of going to different places and working in different roles.
00:16:24Speaker 3
I was still an auxiliary and
00:16:28Speaker 3
but I would be going to mental health units or learning difficulty areas and working there, helping with the patients and people and then, what was it, in 2004, that’s right, they asked me, they rang up and they said that they were short-staffed in Dorchester Prison and I said, Really?
00:16:57Speaker 3
They said, yeah, would you like to go?
00:16:59Speaker 3
And I said, I don’t know.
00:17:01Speaker 3
I don’t know about this.
00:17:03Speaker 3
And it worried me because I’d never, never wanted to go into prison.
00:17:06Speaker 3
I didn’t know anything about prison work or anything.
00:17:09Speaker 3
And they said, to do night duties.
00:17:12Speaker 3
And I said, oh, I don’t know.
00:17:14Speaker 3
Anyway.
00:17:14Speaker 1
To do night duties.
00:17:16Speaker 3
In the health care wing.
00:17:17Speaker 1
In the health care wing.
00:17:18Speaker 3
In the prison, yeah.
00:17:20Speaker 3
So, and this was in Dorchester prison.
00:17:23Speaker 3
And so I said, well, I don’t know.
00:17:26Speaker 3
And Gary said, well, and he was the one working in the office at the agency.
00:17:31Speaker 3
He said, well, you ask Barry, see what Barry says when he comes back.
00:17:35Speaker 3
I say, all right.
00:17:36Speaker 3
So here am I worried.
00:17:38Speaker 3
And Barry came in and he said, I said, they’ve asked me if I’ll go to Dorchester Prison.
00:17:44Speaker 3
And they said, yeah, go.
00:17:46Speaker 3
And I said, well, I don’t know.
00:17:47Speaker 3
And he said, well, Home Office money’s very good.
00:17:52Speaker 3
Never mind about me, but anyway.
00:17:54Speaker 3
So I did, I did, we were signed up for, I think, yeah, six months, first of all, then they extended it to six, seven months, and then it was 18 months.
00:18:09Speaker 3
So I did 18 months in Dorchester prison.
00:18:12Speaker 2
Which is where?
00:18:13Speaker 3
Well, it was in Dorchester, it was down the bottom end of Dorchester.
00:18:23Speaker 3
but now it’s not being used now, all the inmates go to Portland now, or various other jails.
00:18:31Speaker 2
So not top end of town.
00:18:32Speaker 3
No, down the bottom end, yeah.
00:18:35Speaker 1
So what did that mean for you, what you were actually doing, how was that different from being at?
00:18:42Speaker 3
The hospital?
00:18:42Speaker 3
Well, yeah, they were all, fortunately, they were all in their cells, they were all in.
00:18:48Speaker 1
And they were male prisoners.
00:18:49Speaker 3
Oh yeah, they were all male prisoners and
00:18:53Speaker 3
I never asked what they were in for.
00:18:56Speaker 3
That wasn’t my concern.
00:18:57Speaker 3
I didn’t need to know that.
00:19:00Speaker 3
And they were on the healthcare wing because they needed to be watched or they needed just to be kept an eye on really.
00:19:11Speaker 1
Kept an eye on because of physical illness or mental illness or both.
00:19:15Speaker 3
Both, both really.
00:19:16Speaker 3
And they may well have had this tendency to want to commit suicide.
00:19:22Speaker 3
Self-harm.
00:19:23Speaker 3
Yeah, self-harm and all sorts, yeah.
00:19:26Speaker 1
So you had the responsibility for keeping an eye on.
00:19:28Speaker 3
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:19:30Speaker 3
One night there was Eddie that I had fortunately worked with before, so that was marvellous.
00:19:38Speaker 3
And he’d say, Right, I’m going on my breaks in.
00:19:42Speaker 3
You keep an eye on.
00:19:43Speaker 3
And I think it must have been, we had about 10 or 12, I think, so in the cells around.
00:19:52Speaker 3
So it might have been a wee bit more, I can’t remember now.
00:19:56Speaker 3
But he went on, he was charge nurse and I was auxiliary, so I’d go do the checks, check round.
00:20:05Speaker 1
Do it meaning what?
00:20:06Speaker 3
Well you’d open the cell, open the little…
00:20:09Speaker 3
The grill.
00:20:10Speaker 3
The grill and look in, make sure that he’s in his bed and make sure that he’s breathing.
00:20:16Speaker 3
That was the chief thing.
00:20:19Speaker 3
And just make sure that he was there and then come back and write it all down, he’s there in his cell and all was well.
00:20:29Speaker 3
And then I was a wee bit concerned about the chap up in the corner cell, I couldn’t see him very well.
00:20:34Speaker 3
I went back and when I started, sorry I’m backtracking now, but when I started up there, this officer came out and he said, If you should see boots at the window, Cynthia said, That’s a bad sign.
00:20:48Speaker 3
I said, Is it?
00:20:50Speaker 3
Looking all a bit.
00:20:51Speaker 3
And he said, If you see boots at the window, that means he’s trying to find himself.
00:20:56Speaker 3
So I said, all right.
00:20:57Speaker 3
So I locked that away.
00:20:59Speaker 3
And he said, if that should happen, he said, you put the lights on and you put the alarm on and we will come in.
00:21:06Speaker 3
That’s the officers will come in.
00:21:08Speaker 3
And he said, we will see what’s happening.
00:21:11Speaker 3
So this one night I thought, I don’t know.
00:21:15Speaker 3
That one in the corner cell is not…
00:21:17Speaker 3
So I went back and here’s his boots, oh my goodness, I put the light on and I put the alarm on, the boys came in and we resuscitated him.
00:21:29Speaker 3
We got him off to Daughters Hospital and then he was away for a week.
00:21:34Speaker 3
Well, that was the Friday and I was away for a week ’cause you did seven nights on, seven nights on.
00:21:42Speaker 3
So I was away and the following week I was back again and Eddie’d gone on his break.
00:21:50Speaker 3
I’m doing the check round.
00:21:52Speaker 3
There’s boots at the window.
00:21:54Speaker 3
Oh my goodness.
00:21:55Speaker 3
And it’s a bit like deja vu, we’ve been here before.
00:21:58Speaker 3
And so I put the light on, I put the alarm on and the boys come in.
00:22:03Speaker 3
This officer said, Why did you put the alarm on?
00:22:07Speaker 3
And I said, I saw boots at the window.
00:22:09Speaker 3
And I said,
00:22:11Speaker 3
what has it been doing today and I said I don’t know because I worked last night and he said it’s been raining he put his boots in the in the on the hook to dry and I said ah and he’s walking away and I said ah but if I hadn’t done that and you find him in the morning that would be me in trouble wouldn’t it so so um
00:22:34Speaker 3
But he didn’t, no, he didn’t apologise or anything, so that was that really.
00:22:38Speaker 3
But yeah, I did learn an awful lot up there.
00:22:43Speaker 2
So going back to auxiliary, was that equivalent to SEN?
00:22:48Speaker 3
No, no.
00:22:48Speaker 2
Because they had SRNs and SENs.
00:22:51Speaker 3
That’s right.
00:22:52Speaker 2
What sort of training did you have originally?
00:22:54Speaker 3
Well, we had to go to Dorchester to have training, and it was in-depth training.
00:23:01Speaker 3
I mean, it was, it was,
00:23:05Speaker 3
We weren’t SCNs but we were part of the team, part of the team and it’s all completely different now.
00:23:17Speaker 2
It worked better I think in these days.
00:23:19Speaker 3
I won’t get started on that.
00:23:20Speaker 3
No.
00:23:22Speaker 3
Yeah, yeah.
00:23:27Speaker 3
No, I won’t go back, sorry.
00:23:32Speaker 1
What was the pay like, because you were working in the shop, then you went to the hospital, was that better pay?
00:23:41Speaker 3
No, it was better pay, but when I had my interview, I was so worried and everything.
00:23:50Speaker 3
I’d had my interview and Mrs Hurst said, Welcome to the family.
00:23:54Speaker 3
She was the matron, and then
00:23:58Speaker 3
They got one of the other auxiliaries that have been there a little while.
00:24:02Speaker 3
She said, We’ll get Sarah to show you around, so she showed me around and she said, Have you got any questions?
00:24:07Speaker 3
I said, Yeah.
00:24:09Speaker 3
I didn’t like to ask while I was in the interview.
00:24:11Speaker 3
I said, But what’s the money like?
00:24:13Speaker 3
And she told me and it was, yeah, it was on a par really.
00:24:17Speaker 3
And of course…
00:24:18Speaker 3
You’d get paid extra if you did extra hours or extra days or what have you, so you could make your money up.
00:24:23Speaker 3
So it was, yeah, it was pretty good really.
00:24:26Speaker 2
And did you need your own transport?
00:24:27Speaker 3
Yes.
00:24:28Speaker 2
You drove.
00:24:29Speaker 3
And I drove, yeah.
00:24:30Speaker 3
By that time I’d got my little car and yeah, yeah.
00:24:35Speaker 3
My first little car was 150 pounds.
00:24:38Speaker 3
And what was it?
00:24:39Speaker 3
Little mini, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:24:48Speaker 1
Showed you around that first time.
00:24:51Speaker 1
So how big a place was it?
00:24:54Speaker 1
What did it feel like when you showed them around?
00:24:57Speaker 3
We had an eight bedded female ward, a six bedded male ward, that’s right, and two side wards and an emergency ward.
00:25:10Speaker 3
And we had a casualty unit and a theatre.
00:25:14Speaker 3
And down the bottom end, we had the five bedded unit as well.
00:25:22Speaker 3
So it was quite, and we had day rooms, three day rooms, that’s right, yeah.
00:25:26Speaker 2
And this was Bridport.
00:25:27Speaker 3
This Bridport, yeah.
00:25:28Speaker 3
And we had kitchens, so we did all our own cooking and whatever, you know.
00:25:35Speaker 3
So yeah, and all the laundry went up to Port Ready, which was a elderly care unit.
00:25:43Speaker 3
They must put it like that.
00:25:45Speaker 3
Call it what they used to call it.
00:25:47Speaker 3
What did they call it?
00:25:48Speaker 3
The geriatric unit.
00:25:49Speaker 3
Yeah.
00:25:53Speaker 3
Yeah.
00:25:53Speaker 3
So yeah.
00:25:56Speaker 3
Yeah.
00:25:56Speaker 3
All gone now.
00:25:59Speaker 3
Oh dear.
00:26:01Speaker 3
Yeah.
00:26:02Speaker 1
So what has changed about that sort of care these days from the way you do?
00:26:10Speaker 3
Well.
00:26:13Speaker 3
How long we got?
00:26:19Speaker 3
Well, I don’t like to say it, but I don’t think they do care now.
00:26:25Speaker 3
It’s all changed so completely.
00:26:29Speaker 3
And I know that because I’ve now ended up, I’m not working now, but I finished and when I finished in June,
00:26:42Speaker 3
I was working for folks with learning disabilities down in Bridport and we had to have a lot of Nigerian folks in because our people don’t want to do the work.
00:26:56Speaker 3
And I think that is a fall down on education, on wanting to help people.
00:27:03Speaker 3
I think it’s so sad.
00:27:05Speaker 3
We’ve become very, very selfish, I think so, really.
00:27:10Speaker 3
And where do you go?
00:27:13Speaker 3
I mean, yeah, these folks come over from Nigeria and wherever, but they haven’t got our same way of doing things and they don’t want to do it our way.
00:27:25Speaker 3
And it’s all right now.
00:27:28Speaker 3
But what happens in 15, 20, 30 years time when, you know, my generation are needing
00:27:36Speaker 3
people, you know, it’s all very sad, I think, so that we can’t get our folks to do the job.
00:27:42Speaker 3
Sorry, I’m getting political right?
00:27:44Speaker 1
So you were part of the generation that was willing to get involved and to care practically for the patients and their needs.
00:27:53Speaker 3
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:27:54Speaker 3
And there aren’t any now.
00:27:57Speaker 3
Very sad.
00:27:58Speaker 3
Very, very sad.
00:28:00Speaker 3
But, yeah.
00:28:03Speaker 3
I don’t know, I don’t know where we go from here now, really, to get people to do what appeared to be quite a straightforward job, really.
00:28:16Speaker 3
And it wasn’t a job, it was a career.
00:28:19Speaker 3
Yeah, yeah.
00:28:21Speaker 3
It wasn’t just a job.
00:28:23Speaker 3
It was something that you took up and you didn’t mind, you know, Christmas Day, Boxing Day.
00:28:30Speaker 3
you were working, but you weren’t just working, you were there for a purpose, you know?
00:28:35Speaker 1
Because you got to know the people you were working with and caring for.
00:28:39Speaker 3
Yeah, that’s right, yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:28:44Speaker 1
And you viewed them as people, you knew them as people.
00:28:48Speaker 3
Of course you did, of course you did.
00:28:50Speaker 3
They weren’t just a number, it wasn’t just a tick box.
00:28:54Speaker 3
And that’s what it’s become now.
00:28:57Speaker 1
But the caring for the people matters to you.
00:29:00Speaker 3
Yeah, yes, yes, yes.
00:29:03Speaker 3
And I think that’s because, well, that’s probably the way I was brought up, but also the things that I’ve been taught as well, you know, you look after somebody, you know, you look after the people and care for them and what have you, it’s just, no, no, they don’t bother now, no, no, it’s very, very sad.
00:29:26Speaker 1
So that’s a big change.
00:29:28Speaker 3
Oh, tremendous change.
00:29:30Speaker 3
Yeah, but it’s not just here, it’s all over, isn’t it?
00:29:34Speaker 3
You know, you ring up the doctor and you…
00:29:37Speaker 3
well…
00:29:38Speaker 3
yeah.
00:29:39Speaker 3
Anyway…
00:29:41Speaker 2
Or ring up the doctor has got to be done online, haven’t you?
00:29:45Speaker 3
Yeah, that’s right.
00:29:46Speaker 3
Absolutely crazy.
00:29:48Speaker 1
Shaking the subject, how did you meet your husband and when did you get married?
00:29:56Speaker 3
Yeah.
00:29:57Speaker 3
Well, we lived at the lodge.
00:30:01Speaker 3
That’s right.
00:30:02Speaker 3
And Barry’s mum worked at the lodge.
00:30:05Speaker 3
She used to come up as a cleaner.
00:30:07Speaker 3
And he had this accident.
00:30:11Speaker 3
He had a road traffic accident.
00:30:12Speaker 3
He used to work for Newman’s.
00:30:14Speaker 1
What’s Newman’s?
00:30:15Speaker 3
Newman’s was electrical folks.
00:30:18Speaker 2
On the corner of Tunnel Road.
00:30:19Speaker 3
Yeah.
00:30:20Speaker 2
Newman’s Corner.
00:30:21Speaker 3
Yeah, that’s right.
00:30:23Speaker 3
And he did his apprenticeship there and all the rest of it, see.
00:30:26Speaker 3
And anyway, his mum would come up to the lodge and they’d have a cup of tea in the kitchen.
00:30:33Speaker 3
And she’d be talking about this boy that he’s hurt his elbow and he’s smashed his elbow and oh my goodness.
00:30:40Speaker 3
Anyway, I’d have several operations on his poor arm.
00:30:45Speaker 3
Fortunately he was his right arm and he’s left-handed.
00:30:47Speaker 3
So he’s left-handed also.
00:30:50Speaker 3
He’s left-handed as well.
00:30:52Speaker 3
And then his mum had a fall in the garden.
00:30:58Speaker 3
She’d fractured her knee, that’s right.
00:31:01Speaker 3
And so mum and I went to see his mum to see how she was.
00:31:07Speaker 3
And he’s there in the garden walking up through and he didn’t say a word, do it.
00:31:14Speaker 3
Anyway, event later on, that’s right, I’m starting work and he’s starting back to work and…
00:31:24Speaker 1
Back at the electrical place.
00:31:26Speaker 3
No, he’s gone self-employed since his accident, he went self-employed.
00:31:30Speaker 1
Self-employed, doing electrical.
00:31:33Speaker 3
And then, so he’s starting back to work, I’ve started work and then he said,
00:31:42Speaker 3
Would I like to go and meet his friends for this meal?
00:31:46Speaker 3
And I said, Oh, very nice, yeah.
00:31:48Speaker 3
So then I’d find something to wear, goodness me, so I went into Bridport on the bus and, ’cause I wasn’t driving then, bought this nice dress in Braley’s in Bridport.
00:32:03Speaker 3
And my friend Molly, she lent me a stool to wear, my goodness.
00:32:10Speaker 3
and a white handbag to go with this dress.
00:32:13Speaker 3
And so then we went off to other side of Yeovil, I think it was, I can’t remember now, and met his friends, very good, went through this meal.
00:32:24Speaker 3
And then I think it might have been about ten years later on, we got married.
00:32:36Speaker 2
So were you courting all that time, or not?
00:32:38Speaker 3
On and off, I think so, yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:32:41Speaker 3
But yeah, it was, yeah, yeah, and we got married at Bennetster Church.
00:32:47Speaker 2
Who, who was the vicar?
00:32:48Speaker 3
Oh yes, no, it was John Lily, Reverend Lily, that’s right, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, and yeah.
00:33:01Speaker 2
And was it a big wedding?
00:33:04Speaker 3
Yeah, we had 80 relatives and friends and what have you there and we had the reception over at Mosterton because the Time Hall was otherwise booked.
00:33:15Speaker 1
So what did you do for a reception?
00:33:19Speaker 3
Yeah, we went over to Mosterton Village Hall and just had sort of afternoon tea I think so we didn’t have disco or anything like that.
00:33:28Speaker 3
And what year was that?
00:33:32Speaker 3
um 1987 yeah yeah yeah so yeah.
00:33:39Speaker 2
And did you have a honeymoon?
00:33:40Speaker 3
Yeah we went to Holland for our honeymoon um and that was a friend that Barry knew um well he was um doing his electrical work Henny was working up at um Horn Park because she was a stable she was into horses
00:34:01Speaker 3
and he was working up there and she said, Oh, it’s awfully cold up here, which is Dutch.
00:34:07Speaker 3
And he said, Will you come back and see, come in and see Mother?
00:34:12Speaker 3
He said, Because, you know, we’ve got the fire lit and all the rest of it, the winter time.
00:34:17Speaker 3
And yeah, they’ve stayed friends forever more, so yeah, yeah.
00:34:23Speaker 3
So we went over there for a honeymoon, so yeah, and that’s a long time ago.
00:34:30Speaker 2
Did your mother work?
00:34:32Speaker 3
Oh yeah, yeah.
00:34:33Speaker 2
What was her role at the lodge?
00:34:35Speaker 3
She was to cook.
00:34:36Speaker 3
She was to cook, yeah.
00:34:38Speaker 2
I always remember taking the Team Mews.
00:34:41Speaker 2
I could always smell when she was cooking something.
00:34:44Speaker 2
Cooking, yeah.
00:34:48Speaker 3
She was always very good at cooking, yeah.
00:34:49Speaker 2
And how old is she now?
00:34:52Speaker 3
She’s 86 now, I suppose, yeah.
00:35:00Speaker 3
I go to see her and it’s, oh dear.
00:35:04Speaker 3
I go in and she doesn’t really realise who I am, you know.
00:35:09Speaker 3
And I have to come out and pull myself together before I drive home.
00:35:14Speaker 3
Because I think it’s cruel, so cruel.
00:35:18Speaker 2
Unless she got dementia.
00:35:22Speaker 2
My mother was the same, but I had to drive up to the Midlands.
00:35:27Speaker 2
I don’t know how I drove home, because the tears would be streaming down my face.
00:35:33Speaker 3
It’s so, so cruel.
00:35:35Speaker 3
Worse, I think, so than cancer.
00:35:38Speaker 3
Because I’ve worked for Marie Curie and what have you, and, you know, with cancer, you know,
00:35:48Speaker 3
you know, there’ll be…
00:35:50Speaker 3
but with this dementia it just goes, swings and ah, round the bites and it’s just awful really.
00:35:57Speaker 3
But she’s, they say, and I ring up, and it’s always a foreign voice, and I say, I was Audrey, and they say, Ah, Audrey, fine, she’s very fine.
00:36:10Speaker 3
I think, No, no love, if she was fine she wouldn’t be with you.
00:36:15Speaker 3
You know, it’s, it’s very, very sad, but, you know, and I mean, we have to be grateful that she’s where she is, you know.
00:36:23Speaker 3
But it’s sad that she’s, she can’t be local, because they do say that if folks with dementia and what have you, could be kept locally, it helps them.
00:36:39Speaker 3
But yeah, it’s all the little places that used to be, you’re no longer, you know.
00:36:44Speaker 2
So that’s all changed hasn’t it in the last 20 or so years?
00:36:48Speaker 3
Yeah, that’s right, yeah, yeah.
00:36:51Speaker 1
I’m aware that time is going on, was there anything in particular that you were keen to talk about?
00:36:59Speaker 3
No, I think we’ve covered quite a bit, haven’t we really?
00:37:02Speaker 3
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think we’ve covered quite a bit.
00:37:07Speaker 1
How do you feel that Berminster has changed over the time you’ve known it?
00:37:14Speaker 3
I don’t like to say it, but it’s changed beyond it really.
00:37:19Speaker 3
And it seems quite strange.
00:37:22Speaker 3
There’s a lot of folks that have moved out, you know, that was here.
00:37:27Speaker 1
So you’ve seen a change in the population a lot.
00:37:30Speaker 3
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:37:33Speaker 1
What’s your husband’s surname?
00:37:36Speaker 3
Bevers.
00:37:38Speaker 3
B-E-V-I-S-S, yeah.
00:37:40Speaker 1
Is he from a local family?
00:37:42Speaker 3
Yeah, yeah.
00:37:44Speaker 1
Are his family still around or have they moved out?
00:37:47Speaker 3
He’s got a sister that lives at the beaches, that’s right, yeah.
00:37:54Speaker 3
So, yeah, yeah.
00:37:57Speaker 1
So even in your own family you’ve seen changes and people moving away?
00:38:01Speaker 1
Yeah, yeah.
00:38:03Speaker 3
Yeah, that’s right.
00:38:04Speaker 1
So the nature of the community, which was quite sort of settled with people having families around, that’s all largely gone.
00:38:17Speaker 3
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:38:21Speaker 3
Which is, yeah, I suppose that’s the way things go, isn’t it really?
00:38:25Speaker 3
You know, people do move on and what have you.
00:38:27Speaker 2
Are there any of your school friends still here?
00:38:30Speaker 3
Yes, yeah.
00:38:32Speaker 3
My friend Anne, she used to live at Dibberford Farm, which is just the other side of the tunnel.
00:38:39Speaker 3
And I used to cycle from the lodge to Dibberford.
00:38:45Speaker 1
Up the hill through the tunnel.
00:38:48Speaker 3
Yeah.
00:38:49Speaker 3
And we’d spend all day together, you know, taking the goats out.
00:38:54Speaker 1
What age were you then?
00:38:56Speaker 3
Oh, yeah.
00:38:57Speaker 3
Well, we were still at the lodge, so I would have been about eight.
00:39:00Speaker 3
So you cycled.
00:39:01Speaker 1
You cycled up the road.
00:39:02Speaker 2
Right, you, there weren’t the heavy vehicles coming through the internal either.
00:39:07Speaker 3
No, that was so straight.
00:39:08Speaker 1
Spend all day looking after the goats.
00:39:10Speaker 3
Yeah.
00:39:11Speaker 3
And yeah, it was lovely.
00:39:14Speaker 3
And she lives just across the road from us, and I see her now and again, taking the dogs out and what have you, and it’s lovely.
00:39:21Speaker 3
We can reminisce and what have you, you know.
00:39:25Speaker 3
Yeah, it was happy times.
00:39:28Speaker 3
Yeah, really nice.
00:39:30Speaker 3
And of course, my mum would send me home with cheese and stuff, and I would take up things from the garden from dad, you know, and it was, yeah, bartering was much better.
00:39:40Speaker 2
That’s what people did.
00:39:41Speaker 3
Yeah, yeah.
00:39:42Speaker 1
So people make their own cheese even.
00:39:44Speaker 3
Yeah, yeah, that’s right, yeah, yeah.
00:39:48Speaker 3
And we would play hide and seek and what, yeah.
00:39:51Speaker 3
And one day we got into this
00:39:53Speaker 3
There was the feed, the cow cake feed, and Mr.
00:39:58Speaker 3
Childs used to get a delivery every month, I think, so, and they’d put it in, they’d put the hose in and down it would, all this feed would go in.
00:40:06Speaker 3
We’d play hide and seek in there.
00:40:09Speaker 3
And this one day, we didn’t know that the feed lorry was coming.
00:40:15Speaker 3
And I was in there, and Anne was trying to get me out, and I said, I can’t get out.
00:40:23Speaker 3
We knew we didn’t have to be in there, so we knew not to make too much noise getting out.
00:40:28Speaker 3
And it was just lucky that we got out before the feed was put in.
00:40:33Speaker 3
Oh my word.
00:40:35Speaker 3
We’d have been in so much.
00:40:36Speaker 2
Some dry feed.
00:40:38Speaker 3
Yeah, we would have been in so much trouble, oh my goodness.
00:40:41Speaker 3
But we were all right, we got out, we kept quiet, we didn’t say anything.
00:40:49Speaker 3
Oh dear, dear, yeah.
00:40:54Speaker 2
Have we covered the lists that you read out to start with?
00:40:57Speaker 1
I think so, more or less.
00:40:58Speaker 3
More or less.
00:40:59Speaker 1
It’s been absolutely great.
00:41:01Speaker 1
Thank you ever so much, Cynthia.
00:41:03Speaker 3
No, that’s all right.
00:41:03Speaker 1
It’s sharing some of your memories.
00:41:05Speaker 1
It’s a fascinating life.
00:41:08Speaker 1
It’s so lovely that you obviously have been involved in caring for so many people over the years.
00:41:14Speaker 2
And still doing it.
00:41:15Speaker 3
And so many years too.
00:41:17Speaker 3
40 years I was doing that.
00:41:19Speaker 2
So you look after
00:41:21Speaker 2
Bridget yeah and are you delivering medication for?
00:41:26Speaker 3
Brenda Brenda yeah Brenda Travers yeah yeah come get that now yeah and to look after other people as well yeah that’s right yeah but it’s all um all voluntary yeah yeah that’s right yeah yeah yeah yeah 40 years I was doing the you know um working in hospitals and what have you and then
00:41:51Speaker 3
Then one day our financial advisor came and he said, Well, you can retire since.
00:41:57Speaker 3
And I said, Can I?
00:42:00Speaker 3
Well, I’d like that, you know.
00:42:02Speaker 3
But yeah.
00:42:03Speaker 2
And is Barry retired?
00:42:05Speaker 3
Yeah, he does two days a week down at Loaders, gardening.
00:42:12Speaker 3
But how long that’ll go on for, I don’t know, because, you know, health and things, but I think it’s good for him to keep us handy.
00:42:22Speaker 2
That’s what you say.
00:42:23Speaker 2
Yeah, that’s right.
00:42:23Speaker 1
Okay, I’ll pause at the stop.