Looking back I can't understand why I would travel to Manchester to buy a car, there
were plenty of dealerships in and around the Warrington area.
We are still only 14 years after the end of the war and Austin,Morris and Ford were still
the popular choice a bit like the choice of Beef cattle the cars had not made it across the
channel either,I remember when they did start to arrive whether it was Europe or Japan,
the body work was terrible for rusting,no one had told them about the damp climate in
the UK,they soon put it right and competition was back on the table.
When I decided to buy a car it was purely on the grounds of getting me from a-b in all
weathers and seasons,so I bought a Jowett Bradford shooting brake (a van with windows)
It certainly served the purpose well.
By now our contract with the contractors had finished and I was working on a dairy farm in
Arley Cheshire.it was part of the Arley Hall Estate but was run as a separate enterprise.
There was one farm that housed the dairy and young stock and another farm that housed the
beef cattle and arable,mainly potatoes.The potatoes were harvested by a team from Ireland
they were all dug by hand and were payed on a peace work rate basis,which meant they would
work very hard and could earn a high wage provided the weather was good,a lot of the potatoes
grown in Cheshire were harvested in this way at that time.
On the beef farm they employed a full time Irishman called Big Mac,he was quite old and had
worked there for a number of years he lived in a small building,you could just about get a
single bed in there,and not much more they were called shanty houses,he asked me inside
once for a cup of tea, the cup he gave it to me in was stained dark brown like the inside of a
teapot,He was very religious and would ride his bike 6 miles to attend mass every Sunday
morning.,one Sunday he fell off his bike and had to go into hospital,I went to visit him and
the nurses were having a difficult time with him,apparently they had to bath him 3 times to get
him clean,he also liked to smoke.I think the nursing staff were pleased to see him leaving after
a couple of days,I went to collect him in the Jowett,when we arrived back at the farm he
complained about not being able to see out through the window and thought I was driving far
to fast in those conditions,afterwards I realised why he couldn't see very far the passenger side
was all steamed up.In Ireland at that time the horse and cart was the most popular mode of
transport so Mac would not be familiar with windscreens.
He was always asking me for a photgraph I eventually found one and gave it to him as he put
it in his pocket,he said I will tell them at home this was a Policeman I knew in England.
I can only assume that Policemen in England commanded more respect than farm workers.
I can only assume that Policemen in England commanded more respect than farm workers.
I enjoyed the banter we had I asked one once what do we call you he said 'I don't mind
what you call me as long as it's not to early in the morning 'with his strong Irish accent.
There was only one English worker on the farm apart from me,he was from lancashire and we
got on well he liked his cars and had a Triumph TR3 sports car,he was a member of his local
car club and remember going out with him to set out a route for members of his driving club.
His parents ran a small business and I got to meet them along with other members of his family,
on many occasions
The Jowett served me well but just seemed a bit under powered so I decided to replace parts in
the engine to give it more compression I went to the Warehouse and got all the parts I needed
then removed the Engine and it sat on the bench in the workshop at the farm,people would
make comments about this project,some doubtful it would ever work again
I finally put it all back together replacing all new piston rings and put the engine back in the car.
and apart from having to spend a little extra time setting up the timing, we were mobile again.
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