Manx Heritage Foundation Oral History Project Oral History Transcript
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Manx Heritage Foundation: TIME TO REMEMBER: Doris Maddrell MANX HERITAGE FOUNDATION ORAL HISTORY PROJECT ORAL HISTORY TRANSCRIPT ‘TIME TO REMEMBER’ Interviewee: Mrs Doris Maddrell Date of birth: 28th July 1912 Place of birth: Interviewer: John Rimmington Recorded by: John Rimmington Date recorded: 25th June 1999 Topic(s): Living in Cregneash Village Local herbs and flowers Courting and marriage Harry Kelly Pooyl Veeil [sp ???] Honey Pool WWII [Cronk] Meayll and fairy superstitions Ned-Beg-Hon-Ruy The Spar Quarry The Brig Lily and salvaged ring Easter traditions Ling fishing Light-keeper Mr Coombe Reading poetry Bridie Lowey’s shop and the Sound Cafe Hidden memorial stone at Kione ny Gerrag Doris Maddrell - Mrs M John Rimmington - JR 1 Manx Heritage Foundation: TIME TO REMEMBER: Doris Maddrell JR Right, if you could just tell me first of all your age and then when you actually lived in Cregneash. Mrs M Yes, well, you see I was born in July 28th 1912 and that wasn’t yesterday and my sister was born in 1911, but she was just on two years older than me and then of course later on I had a brother and he was five years younger than me so of course he was the jewel in the crown and he’s still alive and he was born in 1917 and he’s out, he’s been out in America since 1952 but both his children, one was born in England and one was born in the Isle of Man. He married a nurse and, but we had a wonderful life in Cregneash. JR Which house did you live in when you were a child? Mrs M Well it was a thatched cottage and it was just up from Harry Kelly’s – today it’s the café there, Creg-y-shee [sp ???]. My great-uncle that I told you about, he built it up and it cost £300 to McArd's to build it in 19 … I think it was 1934. JR When they put the top on? Mrs M Yes, they took the thatch off and built it up and of course before that we hadn’t a bathroom or, it was in, after the war that we got running water. At the back of our house we had a big tank, that was only when the house was built up and then we, later on of course when the sewerage and the water and it was Irishmen that came. JR Right, is that the Second World War? Mrs M Yes, and there were some very nice Irishmen, this was when the war was over and I said one day to one of the fellows sometimes they would come if they got their hands cut or anything to see would I bandage them or something and there was one fellow and he seemed to be the speaker and he came one day and he said to me, ‘I wonder would you be good enough to dress this fellow’s ...’ he named him, ‘his hand?’ and I said, ‘what’s happened?’ Well they were digging and there was a slate and it cut his hand right along and when he opened it oh my hat, so I said to him you know something about, ‘How did you do it?’ but the other fellow answered and I said, ‘what’s the matter with him?’ but he only had the Gaelic. He didn’t know what I said but he smiled and I got a dish and you know Dettol and then I got cotton wool and I bandaged it up and I said, ‘Go down and get it to the doctor and get it stitched,’ because it was open so and of course well like he told 2 Manx Heritage Foundation: TIME TO REMEMBER: Doris Maddrell the other fellow and anyway they were there and I went to him, ‘how do you get away with National Service in this country – you know in the Island and Britain? ‘Oh,’ he said, he went like this, he said, ‘as long as we’re out before two years!’ – did you know that? JR No. Mrs M So they disappeared and then they came back again you see, so as long as they were out of the country in two years and I thought to myself well you might not be able to speak the language but boy have you got it under your hat you know. But that was the years but we were JR So you moved, I know you left Cregneash before, I think you told me, was it 1922. So then did you move back up there before you got married? Mrs M Oh aye, as soon as my great-uncle came home from sea because you see he would come home and perhaps stay weeks and weeks and then he would say, ‘Well I’ll look for another ship,’ – he was foreign sailing you see. He was on the Cork Line a lot and they traded to Antwerp and places like that and, but, and then of course I had to go back home to Port St. Mary. Well I never settled, I never settled in Port St. Mary because all my friends were up there and you know it’s, I suppose I was so used to them, so used to the way of life up there because when you are, you know sort of growing up and realise that, because I had, there was one boy that was the same age as me, Jack Gawne, this girl Mrs Corlett’s brother, he’s still alive but not well and lives in Douglas, and he was like me, he liked nature and we, both Jack and I, were children, was fleet of foot we could run like hares and we knew when the birds would arrive and there was one bird, Jack would say to me, ‘You know the flying billy goat has arrived.’ So of course my great-uncle who was pretty smart and he said to us, ‘If you go up the Chasm Hill you’ll hear the birds coming over from the reeces [sp ???]’ You know that’s the marshy and flat places, you know, between Cregneash and the Sound and of course we never told the others you see. But Jack and I would be like hares up the Chasm Hill and we would perhaps, two or three nights we wouldn’t hear it, but it was after tea when this bird seemed to come about then you’d hear it and it was only a few month ago I was watching a bird programme and I thought, good Lord, is that what’s the name of that bird, it was Nightjar, and I never knew its name, have you ever heard it? 3 Manx Heritage Foundation: TIME TO REMEMBER: Doris Maddrell JR I don’t think so, or not that I know of. Mrs M It makes a sound with its wings and it’s just like a goat, you know, just like a goat crying and of course we naturally, we knew the flowers that grew in the meadows, in the reeces [sp ???], as we called them, you know, the marsh marigolds and lady smock and the wild orchids and JR There’s not many children know these flowers now. Mrs M And the forget-me-nots, they don’t, no, and I … Alex took me out last year it was, oh and that was another thing that we always made sure we looked for was Luss ma chulg [sp ???], it’s a herb, a bright yellow, little flower like the size of a, oh, a forget-me-not flower, bright yellow with very small leaves but it grows quite tall, in the heather and the gorse you find it. JR Has it got five petals? Mrs M It probably has, I’ve hunted for it since and I’ve never found it since and, I mean we used to bring it home and then my mother and the other old people in the village would hang it up to dry and they’d make a sort of a herb tea of the leaves and there was you know we weren’t allowed out on Spanish Head, we weren’t allowed, but that didn’t mean to say we didn’t go and there was another herb and it’s called Camchreest [sp ???] – now I don’t know the name of it, in Manx, it’s a low lying little plant, it’s called, and I said to Harry Kelly once, ‘What’s the meaning of Camchreest [sp ???] ? and he said, ‘the blood of Christ,’ and it was a herb for cleansing the blood. You see these things have gone now you see, ‘cos children they don’t, they don’t. Well, I learned an awful lot from listening, I was a good listener, I was a good talker, but I used to go in every house in Cregneash and it was never said, nobody ever said to me you know, ‘You’re a busy-body,’ sort of thing, nobody ever said but I was always welcome and I always either got a piece of bonnag or a piece of potato cake or something; it’s a wonder I wasn’t fat, but hadn’t time to grow fat you see. JR So when did you get married, that’s when you moved back full time was it? Mrs M Yes, Alec and I got married in December 18th 1939 ... JR Right. 4 Manx Heritage Foundation: TIME TO REMEMBER: Doris Maddrell Mrs M ..