Ye mucky old bugger.

 Often on a Saturday morning we we given the task of taking two bags of animal food over to Dick Browns,   his cottage was on the other side of the green.....my father kept pigs and bought the feed in larger quantities and sold some to just 3 or 4  regular customers.

Brownie was of slight build...a little hunched over and his walk was a cross between tottering and trudging, his trousers were always at half mast showing he tops of  his boots.... they were Made of a very heavy material and he had them “ yocked” up almost to his chest, had the waistband been on his waist they would have been the right length , and his old jacket hung slightly forward as he walked and he usually had a dew drop.

Our task was to get the wheelbarrow with two bags of feed through his red painted sprung gate without the  gate swinging to and the latch splitting one of the bags open, on one occasion I remember not only did it split the bag but in our haste to stop it we tipped the wheelbarrow over making matters somewhat worse.

Once the gate was negotiated you went past the little old cottage (now demolished) and replaced with a monstrosity. Down towards the piggery on a cold morning you could smell the “ pig tates “ cooking In a wood fired boiler , the kind used for boiling sheets on washday, it was a lovely earthy smell , incidentally my mum told us that when she was a girl the farm near  them cooked “pig tates” and they’d find a nice one and retrieve it to eat.

Brownie would lift the bags out chuntering  as he did so but then let us have threpence for the delivery on occasions if delivery was successful without splits we get a sixpence.

We would go into Brownies cottage which  was damp and sparse with only a smattering of old furniture and coal fire in the old range. We were allowed  to go into his pantry where there was a huge enamel bowl on the shelf, the bowl was white with a dark blue edge and it was full of change, pennies, h’apnies threpenny bits and tanners ( sixpence pieces ). We were to help ourselves to what he said we were allowed that day. I remember one day my reward was an old pocket watch, it didn’t work but I thought I had the earth ! 

There would always be a ham or two hanging from hooks in the ceiling covered in what looked like a light green mould, one day my brother Chris said “what are they Brownie “ he replied “them boy is hams” Chris said “what do you do with them” “eat em” was Brownies retort Chris said “ errrr you mucky old bugger” I remember Brownie couldn’t stop laughing and took delight in telling dad on his next visit to the bake house .

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