Today The Cotswolds…..
Today the Cotswolds seem like a tranquil and peaceful place and a wonderful place to visit….. but once upon a time.….
“My lord summoned us to the tithe barn. We were happy to go because it meant respite from our toil. The fields in the Summer can be hot. I stopped at the ale house for a quick pint as Jim and I made our way out to the the village. Some of our friends had already gathered. The gossip was that our Lord was going to talk to us about rations and that he and the vicar wanted to give a memorial to those who were fighting at the front……
The ale was much needed, and as a group we headed the mile into the next village. It was the smaller of the two tithe barns that we were to meet in…next to the church.
More of our friends and family were seen making their way to the stone built structure, squatting in the shadow of the two great houses… manor and church. The sun was relentless!
I munched on my cheese and onion sandwich as I walked into the barn. There was a businesslike atmosphere inside. Everyone was wondering why we had been summoned…. not without a little excitement. We would at least be assured of some news.
‘The Family’ arrived and stood up on a pallet at one end of the building. And then the vicar sauntered in, greeting a couple of his ‘flock’ as he did so.
They stood together.
We looked on as the priest told us what was happening at ‘The Front’. None of it was good news. Our lads had stopped the Germans at Ypres, but it had been bloody. Our army was being eaten up!
Dismayed we looked on.
The vicar gave a prayer and then demanded that all men of fighting age should welcome the call to war….. for god, king and country…. He said.
Then came the turn of our lord. His sons looked on as he stood up and told us how generous he was going to be to help the war effort….. he was going to release us from our duties so that we could answer the call to war. He ’told’ us to volunteer…… and if we did so, our jobs would be waiting for us upon our victorious return.
AND then he told us that if we did not…… we would lose our jobs, and our cottages
Some of us started to shout at him….’we have families’.
He turned his back and left…. The vicar shrugged and left with him.
The lords sons turned to their mother, not really understanding what had just taken place. They could feel the anger in the barn, and m’lady came down into the throng to talk with us.
It appeared that she had not known what was to be announced that day and she was very upset by it. Not being able to get her husband to change his mind, she, apparently, wrote to her friend the Prime Minister and he eventually wrote back to our lord, admonishing him for his actions.
He was aggrieved and summoned us once again to the tithe barn…… this time to apologise. For this we were grateful, but things were becoming difficult at the front and some of our menfolk had already ‘volunteered’, so in solidarity with them, many of us did too.
War is terrible, but I am happy to have survived it.
Of the sixty or so estate workers who gathered on that Summery day, there are just six of us left. Fathers, sons, brothers……. All gone. The fields are quiet and the ale house is boarded up….. as is the cartwright , the smithy, the masons yard and the mill. All are gone.
M’lady is in mourning. She lost two sons to the war. Her husband is not spoken to. The vicar has renounced the cloth and here I sit with my back against a low stone wall basking in the sunshine of another Summer….. drinking a flagon of cider and toasting Jim.”
( a true tale….. and it explains much about modern Brits today )