1979: A New Lease of Life for Abbotsbury? | A Diary of Britain | BBC Archive

0:00 I'm a lease holder here.

0:01 I came down 5 years ago and took a lease on this cottage.

0:06 If people are prepared to come in here as they have

0:10 and put somewhere between 10 and 15,000 pounds into a property,

0:15 then they're saving the village, not destroying it.

0:53 There's been a settlement here at Abbotsbury since at least the Iron Age.

0:57 Sheltered by surrounding hills,

0:59 bordered on one side by fertile land and on the other by a sea full of fish.

1:05 In Saxon times, it was a favored retirement place for kings.

1:09 In the late 20th century,

1:11 it's a retirement place for the middle classes of London and the Midlands.

1:16 Well, now it's a really up and coming village.

1:18 You know, there's more people come to live here,

1:20 more new people and there's still lots of the good old people living here.

1:24 But none of us interfere with what they like to do

1:27 because um we didn't come here to change the village.

1:31 We came to join in with their lovely old-fashioned ways.

1:38 The old-fashioned ways were farming and fishing

1:41 with a thriving rope and net making industry.

1:44 Now the main source of income is tourism

1:47 and that doesn't provide much employment for the locals.

1:50 Abbotsbury's almost completely owned by the Strangeways family,

1:54 a small part of a much larger estate and the family

1:57 have always cared a great deal about the village,

1:59 especially for the look of the place.

2:02 A combined effort by owner and planners has

2:05 controlled the way in which the village has modernized.

2:08 It presents a facade of old-world charm.

2:12 But in order to finance this without selling off houses,

2:15 the estate has had to resort to methods

2:17 which alter the character of the community,

2:19 and they look like having a deep and lasting effect on the life of the village.

2:25 The headmaster of the village school is David Bowden.

2:28 We're now in serious difficulty to maintain a viable school,

2:32 simply because the number of children is dwindling.

2:35 And this itself reflects increasing difficulty

2:38 in the village of getting housing.

2:40 So that a young family who wants a house now can't obtain one.

2:47 This basically is because of the landlord's policy.

2:50 If a house becomes vacant,

2:53 it suits their policy more to make this available to somebody with money

2:57 who can take out an expensive lease and pay for the cost of modernization.

3:01 And this automatically excludes the kind of young family

3:05 with children who would in fact keep the school population going.

3:08 The newcomers, of course, are usually older and don't have young families,

3:14 and this is a disadvantage from the village point of view,

3:17 and we all realize this.

3:19 But I can't imagine that the village would be any better without us.

3:26 Well, you're getting the old old colonels and admirals

3:30 and everything coming in and buying the houses and that.

3:33 They're standing them and everything and that.

3:34 It's people with money and that coming

3:37 in and the youngsters is just getting moved on.

3:40 You know, we won't stand a chance getting a house.

3:41 It's as easy as that.

3:43 We're going to have to find somewhere out of the village.

3:46 Wide wide as the ocean, high as the above.

3:54 Deep, deep as the deepest sea is my savior's love.

4:03 I was so unworthy, still a child of his care.

4:11 For he teaches me, guides me, and protects me there.

4:29 A great barrier of pebbles, the Chesil Beach,

4:32 keeps the sea at bay and protects an 8-mi brackish lagoon,

4:36 the Fleet, a rich feeding ground for fish and waterfowl.

4:40 Swans have been protected and exploited

4:42 here since the Benedictine monks first appointed

4:45 a swan keeper in the 14th century and bred cygnets for the table.

4:51 The last person to eat an Abbotsbury swan was the late Lord Ilchester,

4:54 and that was 16 years ago.

4:56 Now, at nesting time, they're an attraction for tourists.

4:59 Dick Dalley is one of the men who cares for them.

5:02 Well, the day's a day we make our annual swan counts.

5:06 We usually count the swans in the spring,

5:09 and this time of year, just after we release them.

5:13 The swans, they winter down the Fleet, maybe 3 or 4 mi down from Abbotsbury.

5:20 There should be around about 5 to 600 birds

5:24 on the Fleet at this time of the year.

5:28 Usually, they stay because simple reason is

5:31 there's acres of food in front of them.

5:39 Mr.

5:40 Keech has lived in Abbotsbury all his life.

5:42 His wife comes from a neighboring village.

5:45 They work a small market garden and run a shop from the doorway

5:49 of their house selling their own produce and acting as news agents.

5:53 Their daughter, Jackie Pittman, married a local gamekeeper.

5:57 She organizes much of the village's social life, the weekly whist drive,

6:01 rehearsals for the village concert in 2 weeks time.

6:09 This round I find helpful in another way because

6:12 it gives me the chance of when I'm organizing

6:14 anything or I've I've got things to tell people

6:16 I tell them the same time that I'm delivering papers.

6:19 After Ted, could you tell Annie please that the whist sit the Elchester

6:23 tomorrow night instead of the WI hall we've gone back up there.

6:27 You going to come now this now we've gone back up.

6:29 What do you think it's a go?

6:30 Yeah, well, you know, we'd like to see you all there.

6:33 We'll get you the Yeah, very good.

6:37 Could I give a message to your dad?

6:39 Could you ask him if he could come

6:40 to the WI hall Wednesday for a rehearsal with Miss Yes,

6:44 I to think about uh 8:15.

6:48 All right.

6:56 All the swans yourself you find each pair is a little bit

7:00 different to the other and you get some which are more fierce.

7:05 For instance, once I was down there and there was family of swans.

7:12 This particular year I went there and attempted to catch

7:15 usually the female first because she won't leave the cygnets.

7:19 I caught this female and they had seven cygnets.

7:23 When I felt a blow on the back of the head I didn't know what hit me.

7:27 Apparently her mate was out on the fleet feeding and heard her distress call

7:32 and came into her assistance and just flew into me and knocked me out.

7:37 He must have caught me behind the ear with his wing.

7:40 As I saw somebody coming along and collecting with every step.

7:44 Cuz he can they have been known to bite arms and legs.

7:48 And you imagine a bird weighing up 25 30 lb

7:52 and they can fly at by the speed of 30 mph.

7:55 Takes some stopping.

7:56 Something's coming this way.

7:58 It was my poor old leg that kept me out of the game.

8:03 I've got two elderly relatives living still in the village.

8:08 They're my great uncle and my great aunt.

8:11 That's Elsie Gill and William Roper.

8:14 Auntie Elsie is 85 and Uncle Will is 92.

8:19 They're marvelous characters because they have such marvelous memories

8:22 and I never get tired of listening to them.

8:24 My father, he was swan keeper at Clough Hill.

8:28 And he used to to rear 35 signets for the table.

8:33 And he used to have the rear these and kill them.

8:37 And dress them.

8:39 And bring them right down at Spray,

8:41 one each side for and take them to the station

8:43 to send for Holland House in London and Melbury.

8:47 Cuz there was a lot more employment in your than wasn't there?

8:49 I mean how many men would work on a farm?

8:52 We had a farm.

8:54 Yes, on on the farm where I worked.

8:57 There were 20 There was 20 two men working.

9:02 Cuz there's nothing to keep the young people here anymore, is there?

9:05 There's no jobs for them.

9:07 And they didn't drive them out.

9:08 And if they get married, you'll see there's there's no houses for them.

9:11 Not like it used to be years ago.

9:14 I like to go back and see Clough Hill again.

9:16 where you've been there for a long time, eh?

9:18 No, I haven't.

9:18 I didn't seem to have heart to go cuz they said it was knocked about, so.

9:22 Would you like to go back and see it, would you?

9:23 I would love to.

9:25 Yes.

9:27 We came here to live about 18 year ago now.

9:31 Moved into the house.

9:33 It's not used now because we moved down into the village.

9:38 The house itself is called Clouds Hill and it belongs to the Stoneways Estate.

9:45 You know, there's people really willing to pay

9:47 a lot of money to come in tonight, but they just don't want anybody to have it.

9:52 Once you do that, see, that'll be the end of the quietness because

9:56 of of the bird sanctuary would disturb too much.

10:00 It's always been a small owner who lived one side and I

10:05 was a farm laborer or shepherd who used to live the other side.

10:09 And the small owner's job was to see keep things quiet on this end of the fleet,

10:13 see that nobody came up over the boundaries

10:15 so that the birds had perfect sanctuary.

10:31 All right, hold it there a minute.

10:33 Now, it's coming quite nicely, but I would like you to go a little bit slower,

10:37 especially when the treble's coming.

10:39 And remember that this is the last practice but one until we go in the hall.

10:43 So, if you can really put the polish on now,

10:46 keep it nice and steady the same as the speed we started.

10:48 Once more, we'll start at the beginning and go straight through.

11:09 Abbotsbury is famous for its tropical gardens.

11:12 The influence of the sea on its sheltered position makes it almost frost-free.

11:16 For one of Dick Dallas' sons, there's the rare chance of work in the village.

11:20 Now, you've seen what I've done.

11:22 Now, you have a go yourself.

11:23 Don't forget to take the current year's growth.

11:26 Cut 3 in strong right down to a leaf joint.

11:29 Oh, when I left school, I just ruined my getting a job cuz no transport,

11:33 you know, getting away with break foot.

11:36 Cuz the buses only run a certain time.

11:38 You know, if you got a job early start about 7:00, you know.

11:42 You got no transport getting there.

11:43 So, that's why I took this job.

11:46 Judging from the cousins and that, you know, there's 20 and 30.

11:50 A lot of them's moved out.

11:52 You know, couldn't get a house in the village.

11:57 The garden itself is uh 17 acres.

12:02 It was started by the same family who still own it.

12:05 The Strangways Estates, the Fox Strangways.

12:08 And it was started in about 1760.

12:11 In those days, of course,

12:12 they sponsored the old plant collectors who went abroad and collected seed.

12:17 And we've got trees from all over the world, in fact.

12:21 We employ five and we're the biggest employers now of the village.

12:25 Never used to be because the estate always farmed their own

12:27 land and they had a had a quite a workforce then,

12:30 but that's all finished now.

12:32 And most of the land is out to tenant farming.

12:35 So, all in all, I think that the garden's playing an important part

12:38 in in the village because of the it

12:41 was a great attraction for the tourist trade.

12:47 We're a village that still has a a village school,

12:49 but the problem is that the numbers of children are dropping uh steadily.

12:54 We used to be having six a year uh intake of children.

12:58 This has now fallen to about two a year.

13:00 So, our numbers have plummeted from something like 45 to 50 when I first

13:04 began here over 10 years ago to uh approaching high 20s and still falling.

13:11 So, uh we're now in serious difficulty to maintain a viable school.

13:16 The age structure of the village is changing uh drastically.

13:19 I believe that now uh almost a third of the village is over 65.

13:24 Uh this tendency will will go on.

13:25 I I see this is worse.

13:27 And uh seems to me this will uh completely

13:30 alter the whole uh social mix of the village.

13:36 If you have a local argument with, you know, somebody you know,

13:41 and you happen to mention a few things that shouldn't

13:43 have You shouldn't have mentioned it at the time.

13:45 With uh being a newcomer here,

13:48 if you do that, you'll end up getting a solicitor's letter.

13:52 But with, say, people you've known for years

13:54 and you have a right royal with them, you just sort of you know,

13:59 uh the few days and the air would clear and you'd be all right again.

14:03 Cuz that didn't happen in the village, didn't it?

14:05 Not so long ago.

14:07 With uh a person that came into the village,

14:10 he just happened to mention something about newcomers.

14:13 And uh he had a solicitor's letter to say that um uh he

14:19 took his name in vain and called him a newcomer or something like that.

14:24 You just got to mind your p's and q's, I suppose.

14:33 There's an enormous problem with transport.

14:35 Uh we're a village which is 10 mi distant from three towns,

14:38 Bridport, Dorchester, and Weymouth.

14:40 And each of those towns we have problems getting to.

14:42 Uh getting to Dorchester, we have no transport at all, no public transport.

14:47 In Bridport, we have no buses in the winter, and we have um a bus in the summer,

14:53 which is so timed that if you go want to go to Bridport shopping and come back,

14:56 you can't do it on the same day.

14:59 Um in Weymouth, we have I think five buses a day go to Weymouth.

15:04 Um normally, if you want to go into Weymouth and shop and come back,

15:07 it's a day's job because of the timing of the buses.

15:11 You want to go into Weymouth for the evening,

15:12 uh you can't cuz the last bus in is uh at 10:00 to 7:00.

15:17 And there's nothing back.

15:19 Mum, want to go, Mum?

15:21 Oh, shut up, Willie.

15:22 Go and get yourself a bucket or something.

15:28 What were you saying, Mrs.

15:29 Slocombe?

15:30 I was Oh my god, Willie, what is he doing?

15:34 God damn Willie, you don't know where he's been.

15:37 Jeremy.

15:38 I thought they let him leave, Mom.

15:39 Silly boy, that's for the doctor when he comes in.

15:42 You just you sit there now.

15:43 So help me, I'll belt you.

15:46 Silly boy.

15:49 It's him.

15:50 Yeah.

15:51 Yeah, that's him.

15:53 Who's first?

15:54 Uh me, I think.

15:55 And don't be all day.

15:57 We ain't got all day to spare, even if you are ill.

15:59 I got that one.

16:00 Who you have, Willie?

16:03 Third place, diamonds and junk.

16:07 Number three.

16:08 Where's number four?

16:14 Pat, you want number two to come out?

16:16 Four to three.

16:17 Number two is inside you.

16:19 Sorry.

16:22 What's got that number?

16:30 We're not ready yet.

16:31 No, it's mine.

16:32 Is that yours?

16:34 She didn't want to take it.

16:35 That's your Go on then.

16:39 Oh dear.

16:51 There's a lot of thatched houses in Abbottsbury.

16:56 I would like to live in a thatched house in Abbottsbury.

16:59 Not necessarily a thatched house really.

17:01 I mean any house would do.

17:02 But the estate do not sell very many of the houses in Abbottsbury.

17:08 So there's not much chance of getting one really.

17:11 But uh that's one of those things.

17:17 We're just waiting and hoping.

17:18 So Before our men of war shall fall like the sickle grain,

18:48 for Drake is going westward led to sweep.

18:54 Now I love my Sarah and she'd live down on her farm,

18:59 and so long as he feeds her so do I and I'll do her no harm.

19:03 Dear Georgie, where does straw dear Georgie, dear Georgie, where does straw?

19:09 But the straw is too dry, dear Liza, dear Liza,

19:14 the one is to dry their lies at two dry.

19:28 Well, the ownership of the fleet belong to the Strangways

19:32 estate or the better the fleet belongs to them.

19:35 Three miles of it is strictly private mainly for birds.

19:40 And I'm related to a little bit of fishing there mainly for catch

19:45 some fish to eat for the big house and for the workmen.

19:51 I also do a little bit of eel fishing.

20:05 It's nice, very quiet.

20:07 You you can come here know that there won't

20:11 be anybody else about and you can just go along, amble along, please yourself.

20:19 It's um something different.

20:22 It's a job to explain.

20:24 It's peaceful the solitude of the place, peaceful where is a closer the birds.

20:30 Occasionally you hear the fish jump in the fleet.

20:34 Well, it's a peaceful it's away from the rat races as I call it.

20:39 People rushing about.

20:42 Once you get down into the village, well,

20:43 then it's all the down you got the noise

20:45 of the cars and trying noise and that moving about.

20:50 But, once you get onto the back waters it's a different altogether.

20:59 For crossing to work in this area, it's a good setup because you you've got

21:02 a good tourist industry and um you don't have

21:07 the fuss and bother of having to sort

21:08 of go through other businesses to sell your work.

21:12 Um there's been quite a bit of talk in the since

21:15 we came here of setting up other craftsmen in the village,

21:20 but so far nothing has happened.

21:21 There's um been a few people who've sort of looked around,

21:24 but um no other workshop facilities have so far been made available.

21:29 If other people did come in, it would be benefit

21:32 to the village and um probably um people would be able

21:38 to take on youngsters in the village and so on and train

21:42 them to do their sort of work and so on.

21:45 And um it would make uh for a good setup to have some other craftsmen around,

21:51 but uh until there is property available,

21:54 uh I can't see this sort of this coming off.

22:42 You can't walk into a farm with a 10-ton cattle

22:45 lorry and and drive off with 13 heifers or something, can

22:48 They must have must have seen some act.

22:50 Whoever's done it pretty good at it.

22:52 Professional as they say.

22:54 Yeah.

23:32 The ducking decoy was first erected about 1655.

23:38 The locals was employed to dig the pond out by hand.

23:42 And four tunnels or pipes as we call them was erected.

23:47 One each corner of the pond so that you

23:50 could come down most winds and catch duck.

23:53 These things was used or supposedly for food before guns ever come into being.

24:00 The idea was that the man in those days,

24:04 he had some dogs which were trained to walk

24:06 in in eight screens because the duck is a very curious bird.

24:12 As we saw this here,

24:14 there was a fox walking along the side of the fleet

24:16 and there was about 200 duck following him within 10 yards.

24:21 So, they must have noticed that years ago.

24:23 So, they thought if they could get a dog resembling a fox in size and color,

24:27 maybe the duck would follow the dog into the tunnel.

24:33 So, they done that and they found it worked quite well.

24:37 But over the years, they've done away with the dogs and we've

24:42 got what we call cobras now which are very small white duck.

24:47 They come into the pond, we feed them there and they go off onto

24:51 the fleet when you get the winter birds coming in.

24:54 They mix up with them and gradually they bring them back into the pond.

24:58 Then we put more food into the tunnels near the small end.

25:03 The birds should They come on the pond and gradually they

25:06 will feed on not knowing they're going up into a tunnel.

25:56 Oh, I know you feel better.

26:11 Today we don't catch quite so many because there's more wildfowlers about

26:17 and the birds don't seem to come on to the fleet like they used to.

26:22 So, we still get a few as the birds coming on the fleet.

26:27 It's the smallest during the winter.

26:39 The main idea of this was for food.

26:42 Before ringing started, instead of putting rings on their legs,

26:46 they had the next ring for the table.

26:51 But as the years went by, other countries were ringing birds.

26:56 So, we stopped catching for food and they

27:00 wanted to find out more about the duck,

27:01 where do they go to breed during the summer months.

27:04 So, they started having the rings put on them.

27:07 And by that, we've had rings back now or over 300 from over 19 countries.

27:16 As far as ways Central Russia, Germany, Poland, Finland, places like that.

27:23 Things have come back.

27:25 And it's much more interesting than that than just catching them for food.

27:30 All right.

27:31 Off you go.

27:50 Do you reckon they ought to bring back hanging?

27:51 they ought to die.

27:52 Yeah, you reckon they did too?

27:54 Only for special cases.

27:55 You can't You can't do You can't bring it back like it was years ago.

27:59 You You've got to be a very special case and I

28:01 think probably you ought to use it as a deterrent.

28:03 It would Everyone else would would then look at at it as a very serious crime,

28:08 but it's becoming becoming a routine with some people.

28:12 Okay, good.

28:12 Now they're even the rustlers of your cattle.

28:14 You probably shouldn't even try to defend your cattle.

28:17 more for that.

28:17 What for rustling the cattle?

28:18 No, that's true.

28:20 The happiest time in all my life was under the parlor stairs.

28:24 And a nice eye accorded went under the parlor stairs.

28:28 A barrel of beer in the corner stood besides the mighty bundles of wood.

28:33 And I vowed I married a cook I would under the parlor stairs.

28:38 When you reckon you lost all these cattle?

28:40 You know how much they're worth?

28:41 Well, 5 years ago, I lost I lost 10 cows.

28:45 I locked locked everything up afterwards.

28:48 And um I about a 3 week later,

28:51 the whole chains, the gates, the doors were all broken down.

28:54 They were all gone.

28:59 Ah, it's all very well for you fellows to joke.

29:02 This is the second, third time I've lost animals.

29:05 And you locked up, Peter?

29:07 Safe.

29:07 Safe?

29:08 Safe.

29:09 Oh.

29:08 Mrs.

29:09 Look out yours.

29:11 Oh, no.

29:11 We're married till we meet under the parlor stairs.

29:16 Be watchful, say come along, my sweet.

29:19 Under the parlor stairs.

29:21 We'll have a cozy cup of tea.

29:23 And we'll sit again upon your knee.

29:26 And think of the times when you courted me.

29:29 Under the parlor stairs.

29:31 UNDER THE PARLOR STAIRS.

29:38 I BELIEVE THAT, MICKEY.

29:40 THAT WAS IT.

29:41 IT'S ALL RIGHT, TOO.

29:59 On Sunday, the Daley family join their close relatives for the fishing.

30:05 It takes judgment and combined effort to launch a beach boat successfully.

30:14 They watch the pattern of the breaking waves.

30:17 To avoid a capsize and stay dry, they need to choose their moment carefully.

30:53 In our industry there's been as many as five or six boats in there.

30:56 Gone right down to just us now.

31:02 Like both Peter's other things to do now.

31:04 These people don't go to fishing so much.

31:10 I started when the war was on.

31:12 And they've just uh Well, it's different.

31:15 I mean, it's not not every day the same sort of, you know.

31:18 I like just going to a shop or an office and doing the same thing all the time.

31:35 Like my sister said, it's different.

31:37 Everyday is different.

31:39 So, you you're not sort of getting in a rut.

31:41 These 9:00 to 5:00 sort of thing.

31:57 Years ago mackerel was your main diet, wasn't it?

32:00 Especially in down along the south coast.

32:03 Um now they go for other things, don't they?

32:06 Place or the salmon in.

32:10 You know, people go out for a meal, only working class people would buy us

32:13 salmon and they're and their dinner, weren't they?

32:16 Years ago they wouldn't Well, mackerel was one of the main fish, weren't they?

32:22 I think we're backing the wrong side.

32:25 Yes, I would say that also, too.

32:28 But certainly David Aaron should have allowed

32:31 Ian Smith to come in here for discussions.

32:35 Indeed.

32:35 The Queen of England You agree you think so, too, John?

32:37 Yes, of course he should.

32:38 Yeah.

32:38 Of course he should.

32:39 He's got the right to stop him.

32:40 Indeed not.

32:41 After all, he was flying Spitfires for us during the war.

32:45 Which is more than many of them can say.

32:48 The Queen Mother like Ian Smith when she's such a splendid little lady.

32:51 But I think she's Why shouldn't she like him?

32:54 Well, because he's not likable, is he?

32:56 I don't agree with you at all.

32:57 Who's not likable?

32:58 Young Smith.

32:59 Oh, I don't know.

33:00 Very very likable, I think.

33:01 He's my sort of man.

33:03 Well, I said the wrong thing.

33:19 As Archie said, uh the sellers is no good.

33:22 One time used to have a lot of walkers, but now there's no walkers about.

33:26 People come in the summer's evening and couple of free

33:30 walkers be ready to take some fish on and sell

33:32 around the local villages and that, but uh like

33:36 the government stepped in, they'd have so many things, hot water, cold water,

33:40 and that it was uh and licenses to sell the fish

33:44 and it wasn't uh commercially um good for them at all.

33:49 They know it was a waste of time.

33:52 So, gradually they died out.

33:53 Well, now it's just a buyer taking the fish and they the shops

33:57 and there's uh the London market is when you have fish here,

34:02 they send the fish other places.

34:05 By the time you get to the market,

34:06 it's more or less full up with other lorries in with fish.

34:12 But we don't want the village.

34:13 We're all retired people, you see?

34:16 We want some of our youngsters to come on.

34:18 You see, I blame the schools.

34:20 They take our boys and girls into Weymouth

34:22 and Dorchester school and in about 10 years more,

34:24 they don't know nothing about their own village.

34:26 We used to.

34:27 You ask them the name of that wood up

34:29 there or where the stream rises, they don't know.

34:31 No, but they had interest in it, but now they got no interest in it.

34:35 What do you put your heart and soul into?

34:36 The younger generation, of course,

34:38 have got to leave the village in order to obtain employment.

34:42 men used to it.

34:43 Older men used to do it then.

34:44 Well, of course, in years gone by, there was very much more

34:48 There was more employment there was more

34:49 in the village and adjacent to the village and there were more employment.

34:53 Now, with modernization of farming, there are unless unless more or less labor

35:01 required.

35:01 The only alternative, of course,

35:03 is to uh introduce industry and develop the village.

35:09 Which I'm afraid would not be in keeping with

35:15 you fellas to come down from Birmingham and places like

35:17 that with all this happens and buying up the cottages,

35:21 they don't get in our village, fella, a chance.

35:59 When I left school, there was nothing much to do,

36:02 so I just came straight down here.

36:04 And uh you know, I've been here ever since.

36:09 Sometimes you can earn quite a lot, and then you get a lean time and you

36:12 won't earn nothing for, say, 3 4 weeks or more.

36:16 And that's, I suppose, the bad part about it.

36:19 Apart from that, it's not too bad.

36:22 It's uh you know, it's quite exciting at times.

36:26 You know, when you have a lot of fish, you know, it's really exciting then.

36:29 You're running around everywhere trying to get things to go right like.

36:34 Sometimes it's uh you makes you curse like, you know?

36:38 Like uh you know, if you don't have nothing for a say 3 weeks,

36:43 you start to get a bit on edge like, you know?

36:46 Four bloody months.

37:00 But I'll tell you something else.

37:03 When you get some of these newcomers come down here, I watch it.

37:07 They want to take the charge, the women's union,

37:11 the mothers' union, the schools, the church.

37:18 No.

37:17 See, although the admiral does a good job,

37:20 I know that, but that's what happened.

37:22 But never mind.

37:23 But somebody's getting along.

37:25 Somebody's got to.

37:26 Somebody's got to.

37:27 Somebody's got to.

37:27 Someone's got to keep things going.

37:29 Mrs.

37:29 here.

37:29 GWEN AGAINST TIME.

37:39 OH, IF I HAD SOMETHING.

37:42 Isn't it terrible?

37:44 We never had it like this all the 41 years my dad was here.

37:49 I have to ask money, see?

37:51 It's just the trouble, Will.

37:53 They don't want to ask they don't want to put out the money to pay for it.

37:56 That's the trouble.

37:59 We got to blame the state.

38:00 Yes, but I mean the state could do that, couldn't they?

38:03 Of course, the state could do a lot of things, but they don't do it.

38:06 No, well, no, I know, Will, but it's there.

38:10 Instead of leaving this house to be like I can't say it.

38:15 It's my home and I can't say anymore.

38:20 Shackleton, Shackleton, Shackleton.

38:22 I should be dreaming about this when I get old.

38:25 Shocker.

38:27 Happy memories of years ago.

38:30 Yes, happy memories.

38:34 Shocker.