The start of Chapter three from Caradoc.

Chapter Three: The Quarry.

As the months went by the long thaw began to take back the land from the grips of the harsh winter snow and ice, it had a been a winter of real discontent, hard on man and beast but with Spring now firmly grasping the mantle and turning the Brown Clee hills into a choir of birds singing and new born lambs bleating at the sheer joy of life, it felt good to be alive.  The wonderful crisp, sun-drenched mornings of a Shropshire hillside Spring time have to be sampled to get the real meaning of how such a simple existence can be so overwhelmingly spiritual yet calming.

 Sam was busy taking ewes and lambs out of the pens and into the open fields one such morning, Jake was at school, a rarity indeed but Sam insisted he go and do some catching up after so much time was missed during the winter snows. Sam tended the flock and then stood leaning on his stick for a few moments, gazing at the early morning mist that followed the river down through the valley below, it was like two different worlds, the village of Clee St Margaret shrouded to the point it was barely visible yet on the hillside the sun warmed the backs of the animals and lay a comforting blanket of warmth across the barren grasslands, a welcome indeed from the harshness of the past few months, Sam stood and took deep breaths of  the hillside air, looking around him as he did. Far in the distance Sam caught the shape of a solitary figure walking towards him from out of the direct sunlight, he could just about make them out as they drew closer, it was Mr. Haggerty the local mine owner, Sam knew exactly what he wanted.

“Fine Morning Samuel, hope the family are all well after that terrible winter, it’s been a hard one for sure” he retorted as he took his hat off and shook Sam’s hand, “That it has Mr. Haggerty, that it has, I warn you are here for a reason not just idle chit chat though, we wouldn’t see you here to just admire the view” “Well, that’s as maybe Sam but politeness costs nothing and after all it is work I am offering you, it’s not like I am here to rob you or anything.”  “No, very true, maybe I was being a bit harsh, but you are not a man known for favours, so go on then what’s on your mind? Spit it out!”  Sam said in a rather less sarcastic manner. Haggerty told Sam that the mine was expanding from Abdon all across Titterstone Clee the adjacent hillside and he needed good strong men to get the quarry started, he explained that as Sam had good experience with the horses and past quarrying on hillsides that he could use his services again, Sam did not like the quarries, they were very hard on the ponies and the men, it was a brutal industry that claimed the lives of many good fellows and animals every year, Sam listened intently. “Of course there will be twice as many horses this year, we need a damn good driver that can keep those nags heads down and pulling the wagons, we reckon you are the man for that job Sam Reynolds” “Oh aye is that so?” Sam said with a wry smile across his face. “So you reckon a bit of flannel and some compliments will have me running back to the quarry then do you Haggerty?” “Now come on Sam, we have been good to you in the past and in any case we need men such as you with good local knowledge to help get this project off the ground and you doubtless need the money and we are willing to make it worth your while”

Sam looked at Haggerty, “You want me to help line the pockets of those backers of yours more like Haggerty, it has nowt to do with you wanting Sam Reynolds, it’s all about the brass to yon kind, it always is”. “Sam, you know the extra brass will come in handy and after all you use us as much as we use you, it’s to our mutual benefit shall we say?” “How much are we talking?” Sam growled, “Well, shall we say one pound and five shillings a week?” “Ha! Sam exclaimed, you can say it but you won’t be seeing me working sixty hour a week for thee Haggerty, not a chance. “Well shall we say three pounds a week? Would that be enough to get what we want?” Haggerty looked across to see Sam’s reaction and wasn’t disappointed, “Three quid a week? Are you being serious?” Sam said, his voice raised, “Never more Sam old chap, I am here to personally ask you, we need you for this job and no-one else could step into your shoes and work those horses as well as keeping them in top shape” “In that case when do I start?” Sam quipped with a wry smile. Haggerty smiled and reached out and shook Sam’s hand again, “I will get the employment papers drawn up Sam, oh and as a goodwill gesture, here is your first months wages up front, just to show you we mean business, good day Sam Reynolds, I will be in touch!” As Haggerty turned to walk away he tossed a small purse of money at Sam, twisting his walking cane in the air and waving it as he walked, Sam just stood there looking into his hands, feeling the money that Haggerty had just tossed him, Sam had scarce seen so much all in one place. “Well I’ll be buggered” he murmured, “Well I’ll be bloody buggered!” Sam threw his Trilby hat in the air and danced and leapt around in a circle, the ewes and lambs darted in every direction as they tried to escape the mad human in their midst, a few hundred yards down the hill Haggerty looked round to see what the noise was about, he spotted Sam leaping around and dancing for joy and smiled and shook his head as he walked onwards “nowt so queer as hillside folk” he muttered to himself jovially walking onwards as Sam’s cheers and whoops could be heard deep into the valley.

As one Reynolds was having a day to remember it was easily one to forget for poor Jake. He hated school with a passion and sat gazing out of the classroom window as Miss Hart Williams the headmistress gave them an arithmetic lesson. Jake could barely read and write he never had the patience to sit and concentrate for long enough to ever learn and as for arithmetic, well let’s say right now as he sat daydreaming his mind was very much out in the fields. It was at that precise moment that Jake felt a stinging pain in his right ear, he snapped out of his daydream as Miss Hart Williams marched him out of the classroom much to the other children’s amusement, “Not interesting enough for you Jacob Reynolds?” Miss Hart Williams bawled in his face, “Yes Miss, I mean no Miss, I mean it was very interesting Miss, the whole lesson Miss very interesting like” Sam stammered, “Oh really?  Well what was I just talking about?”  “Oh err math’s Miss… yes that was it math’s Miss and it was very interesting Miss”. Jake knew that look he was now getting spelled trouble, he had seen it all too many times before during his brief days at School, “Into my study with you boy!” she bellowed. Jake was led by the ear to the head’s study and bent over the desk whereupon she produced a cane that was whip-like in its stance, Miss Hart Williams stood a few moments looking above her half glasses that were always hanging way down her nose anyway and saved from falling only by a small chain that sat neatly around her neck, she rolled up the sleeve on her white blouse and stood back. A familiar noise followed by a familiar pain saw Jake scream at the top of his voice as the first strike of the narrow wooden instrument cut into his soft flesh, he screamed at every stroke and stayed there until he had been hit fifteen times, one for every minute of the lesson the Head thought he had missed through daydreaming. Jake stood up straight very slowly and turned to walk to the door, “Well boy, what have you to say?” “Sorry Miss I won’t do it again Miss”

As she leant across to an open draw at her desk, she grabbed a piece of paper and shouted to Jake, “Wait!” With that Jake stopped and turned around, he knew the day was about to get a lot worse. “Take this note home to your Father; see if he can help you to concentrate in class a little better”

Jake walked back and grabbed the note from Miss Hart Williams who grinned at the prospect of yet more punishment when he got home and handed his Dad the letter, for sure it was a recipe for another beating, “And get your father to sign it and bring it back to me tomorrow or else there will be another fifteen for you my boy!”  Jake headed back to the classroom and back to his seat, there was muffled laughter as he did so, until the Head walked back in through the door, it then fell very silent. “Does anyone else fancy the odd daydream in my lesson?” she shouted at the class. “No Miss!” was the immediate reply unsurprisingly.

Jake rode home that afternoon on the old Mare, he felt every stumble and every jolt the poor old horse made as his bottom was red raw from the beating, he rode in to the yard and took her saddle off  and gave her corn and water before heading off in to the house. As he walked through the door he could hear Sam and his mother talking with raised voices, he poked his head around the door and listened to what they were saying, “Sam you don’t need that quarry work, it’s too dangerous, what happens if you get hurt? Who will look after the farm? Jake is barely out of short trousers yet, you have to be careful”

“Stop nagging me woman! Have you seen how much money I just put on the table? Since when did owt with farming give us that kind of money?” “It isn’t about the money Sam it’s about you, what if you get hurt how will we cope?” Eileen spoke in a softer tone, “Well I won’t have to get hurt will I woman? Never bloody happy are you?” With that Sam grabbed his Trillbey and stormed past Jake and disappeared in to the farm yard, Jake just stood there for a moment looking at his mother putting the saucepans on the old stove, “Dad’s going to work at the quarry again isn’t he mum?”, “What business is it of yours Jacob Reynolds? You have no rights listening to conversations that don’t concern you, go and help your father with the lambs”

Jake stood there and looked at his mother, “GO! I said!  Did you not hear me boy?” the lad turned on his heel and took off like a scalded cat, he was worried about the prospect of his father heading for the quarry, he knew how dangerous it was and also how many men were injured every year, Jake was worried about his father, so much so he clean forgot about the beating and more importantly the note he carried for his father to sign.

It was Saturday, the weekend meant very little at Pole Farm, the stock needed feeding and checking before breakfast and then the chores had to be done, including sweeping the yard and feeding the chickens and then fetching water in for mother. Later that morning the postman arrived on his bike, he found the pedalling very hard work up the old stone track to the farmhouse, Graham Maund had been the postman in the area for nigh on 30 years, he knew everyone and all their business, if any gossip was to be heard it was usually from his lips. “Morning young Jacob, is your father in?” Maund asked in a squeaky high pitched voice, “Morning Mr. Maund, yes he is just having breakfast in the house I will take you inside” Jake ran inside and called out to his father, Sam answered and told Jake to bring  Maund in to the kitchen. “Morning Samuel, how are you?” “Come on in Graham and get yourself a seat, the Mrs. will get you a cup of tea, I am alright for the time of year, so what’s the gossip in the village?” Sam said wearing a smirk on his face, “Oh I am not one to gossip Sam, you know that” Maund replied, though he and Sam knew different. “But I do have a letter for you from the quarry company, quite a few in the village have had the same letter this morning, they are opening up the quarry across the top of Abdon Burf so rumour has it, it’s very steep up there Sam they will need twice as many horses for that job, I suppose that’s why they have coaxed you back?” “I may go back I may not Graham, we will see” Sam said in a low voice and looked across at Eileen as she poured the boiling water into the teapot, their eyes met for a split second and they both looked to the floor. “Rumour has it Sam they offered you twice what you had last year and you accepted it, though you know how wrong rumours can be?” “Aye well like I said Graham, I may do I may not, we will see”. Eileen gave Maund a cup of tea and two small biscuits, it was traditional in those days on farms that the postman went in and had a cup of tea and a chat, with no mobile phones or any other communication the Postman was a great source of information as to what was happening in the local area and they were born gossips, Maund was no exception to that rule and Sam knew to be guarded against his ability to make two and two equal fourteen in no time. “There is talk that one of those Polish lads has absconded from the barracks at Ditton Priors Sam, apparently the Police are searching high and low for him, he is only seventeen or eighteen apparently but no-one has seen head nor tail of him for over a week, I don’t suppose you have seen anything Sam?” “Afraid not, I didn’t know anyone had gone missing until you just said, I thought now the war was over they were going to shut that camp?” “They are Sam it closes in August but they have conscripts tidying the place up, seems the young lad got homesick and just took off” Maund replied, “Well I doubt we will see him here, he will be headed for a Port not up on to the Brown Clee Hills!” “You may have a point there Sam Reynolds” they both chuckled.

Maund said thank you for the hospitality as always and headed back down the old farm track on his bike, at least the pedalling was a lot easier on the way back to the village. The postman covered a huge area in those days and there were tin shacks dotted all over the county that they would call at and collect the mail or use as a base even, there was never any theft from these shacks and they were seldom locked, a far call from nowadays. Sam had just finished his cup of tea and was putting his trilby on when there was another knock at the farm house door and a call out, it was Sgt. Ray Heighway from Stoke St Milborough the next village across from The Pole Farm, Stoke was a larger village with many houses, a school and a Police house. “Hellooo is anybody home?” the Sergeant called out, “In here Ray come on in, Sam shouted.

Sergeant Heighway was a very tall man, slightly built but very imposing; he knew everyone in the area and was an old fashioned beat officer, the type that knew more about the area than even Maund the Postman did and most of what Ray knew was worth knowing. He shook Sam’s hand, the two men were very good friends, Ray had a lot of time for Sam, “I hope you don’t mind Sam I am just popping in to let you know that a young conscript has gone AWOL from the camp at Ditton Priors, no-one has seen him since he ran off and they think he may still be in the area”. “Oh aye Ray, we have just had old Maund in here and he told us a lad had run off, it was the first we had heard of it, but we will keep an eye out in the outbuildings that’s for sure but I doubt he would make his way all the way up here, would you like the Mrs. to make you a cuppa?” “Well Sam I thought I ought to pop in and let you know as some of these lads from Poland can be quite nasty if cornered and thank you I will have a cuppa if it’s not too much trouble”

“Don’t be daft man come on in; Eileen will get a brew on”. The two men chatted and gossipped for a while about goings on in the area and soon Sgt Heighway was on his way, Sam promised to keep a look out for the runaway. On his way out Sam took the letter from the quarry and put it in his pocket, Eileen was busy stoking the range so never saw him take it. Sam went in to the barn and pulled the letter out and opened it, it was an employment contract for six months from the quarry and he was to report in on Monday morning at six sharp. Sam sat there just holding the letter for a few moments, he just gazed at the sheaths of hay in front of him almost in a daze, as the reality of going back to the quarry sunk in, Sam wasn’t a quarry man he was a man of the fields but he could scarcely keep his head above water until the lambs were ready to sell and they would need feed and medicines, so he had no choice but to accept his lot and head off for the quarry and he knew it. Sam was very quiet the rest of the day, Jake was allowed to go off and play with his best friend Jonty so that Sam could get his head straight, he wasn’t looking forward to the week ahead.