Christmas: Cockerel capers down on the farm

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Ruth Gordon, Derbyshire County Council’s Local Studies Librarian, shares some Christmas memories from Ashover.

CHRISTMAS time,” remembers 90-year-old Olive Scott from Ashover, “well, there were eight of us. So we didn't have as much as other children, an orange and apple. But we didn’t go without really. Don’t suppose it did us any harm.

“I remember once having a little toy piano. That stuck in me memory but, as regards dolls and things like that, no, there weren’t money for that. Me two eldest sisters, they had a wooden doll.

“They did all sorts with it, they had a funeral with it. Poor thing. But they dug it up again! We used to have snakes and ladders. One sister, she were a bit impatient and she used to get really mad when she got on a snake. She used to thump this snake until she knocked everybody’s counter off o’ board. Oh dear me...that were the one that had 10 children!”

Olive’s memories live on, thanks to local resident Margaret Wombwell and Derbyshire Libraries. Early in 2003, Margaret started tape recording a couple of her elderly friends as they spoke of their past.

More and more people came forward to offer their own memories. Now we have around 75 years of social history told by the people who lived it, re-creating the rich variety of Ashover village life in the first half of the 20th century.

Ashover is one of the biggest parishes in Derbyshire: a compact village centre surrounded by many outlying hamlets. A working community with quarries and farming providing the main employment, its position, within a ring of hills, encouraged self sufficiency and created a village of unique character.

For the farming community, Christmas dinners were big business, as one old farmer recalls: “Nearing Christmas, a fellow from Kelstedge would go round the farms buying young cockerels to sell. He would put them on his cart and fasten them with a net.

“This particular farmer, knowing he hadn’t got any cockerels, saw one or two appear in his yard. He said, ‘If you can find any you can have them’. The chap grabbed them, put them on his cart and one or two more appeared. At last, having paid the farmer for several cockerels, the fellow realised that his netting was broken and that, as he put a couple of birds on his cart, one or two others were escaping. The farmer did quite well out of it.

“When it came near Christmas time, you would come up the yard from milking and smell burning chickens’ feet and feathers. In the fire in the kitchen range you’d see the feet and legs, and chicken feathers – and fleas – would be floating around the kitchen.

“About 50 birds would be killed each year. Mother would singe off the soft under feathers by holding the bird over newspaper that she had set fire to on the hearth. They would send one of these birds, they were mostly cockerels, to relatives.

“It would go, wrapped in greaseproof paper, into a cardboard box. The bits and bobs of giblets and some correspondence would be put in with it and the spaces filled with newspapers.

“Brown paper (the inner lining of a feed bag) and string wrapped the box and sealing wax, melted with a candle, would be dribbled on.

“It was then taken to the Post Office in Ashover where the postmistress would look at it rather disparagingly over the top of her glasses before she dealt with it.”

All the original interviews are available in the County Hall library at Matlock but, in order to share these delightful memories more widely, Derbyshire County Council has published a selection describing the village itself, colourful tales of public transport and memories of the Second World War.

Ashover Remembered is available by sending a cheque or postal order for £4, made payable to Derbyshire County Council, to Local Studies Library, DCC, County Hall, Matlock DE4 3AG.

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