Letters to the Editor - May 2008

I was surprised on reading your report on white deer to find that they are considered to be very rare (April) because there have been numerous reports of sightings and photos in our local press covering the Forest of Dean. Last year it was established that there were four white deer in the Forest. I used to see one near my house in Drybrook, which although could not be described as tame, did not mind being watched as long as it could maintain a safe distance from the watcher.

I remember one evening at dusk seeing what I thought was a sheep grazing on the track on which I was walking. As I drew closer, I realised that is was a white stag and stopped walking and watched it from about ten metres away. The stag appeared to be as interested in me as I was in it and I watched it for about three minutes and then started walking towards it causing it to stroll into the wood. As I passed where it had entered the wood I saw it watching me from about three metres away, presumably feeling secure because of the scrubby brambles between us. This is not like the normal deer one sees in the Forest – usually one catches a rear view from about thirty metres distance as they disappear from view.

Recently one of the white deer was killed in a road accident which caused quite a bit of interest and later indignation because someone cut off the head and left the rest of the carcass at the roadside. I personally could not see much wrong with the action as at least the head will be preserved. If it had been me I would have used the whole carcass as a free organic meal.

Which brings me to the white pigeons and Canada geese. There have been several complaints in the Forest about the nuisance caused by the pigeons and the geese and there then follows an outcry of anguish when there is a proposal to cull them. This puzzles me as I would see them as healthy eating
and at least they have had a good life unlike battery hens, which ‘normal’ people eat.

And the goshawks? Presumably, if it was not generally known outside the Forest about our white deer, people will be unaware that one can see the normally secret and rare goshawks displaying prior to breeding from a public viewpoint at the old New Fancy waste tip. Depending on the weather, this happens in February and early March, so make a note for next year.

John Timbrell, by email

I have a pullover which my mother gave to my father before they were married in 1936. It has been worn regularly and looks as good as new. It is hand-knitted Fairisle and a beautiful pattern.

Margaret Harper, Wolverhampton

I can better John Mainhood’s old jersey record although you may feel that the playing field is not level. I bought a Norwegian made jersey in 1969 and I am still wearing it when the weather dictates. Much of this success is thanks to my wife’s darning skills.

Capt. W R Canning, Wellington

This waistcoat (pictured) was knitted by my dear mother-in-law some 52 years ago. It is made of Lee Target wool and has seen good service, especially on cold nights under my police uniform, pounding the streets of Yeovil and later Frome in that lovely county of Somerset. Can this be BEAT-en? It is reversable and I guess unique. After fifty years of wedded bliss I guess I’m getting that way too.

Ronald M Locke, Haslemere

Some years before the death of my mother, in 1969, I purchased some emerald green double knitting wool (from a Yorkshire company, of course) and made myself a long-sleeved, collared sweater. After wearing it a few times I realised that long sleeves and I were not compatible so I unpicked the garment, washed and rewound the wool then knitted a v-necked, short-sleeved jumper which I have worn on several occasions this winter – and it still washed beautifully. Note to editor: I am a thrifty Yorkshirewoman, NEVER a tight one!

Edith Charleston, Swillington

My mum knitted me a cardigan over sixty years ago and is still in my wardrobe, and I have a coat as well, which she gave to me when I was twenty-one years old – and I am now seventy-one.

L Mays, Lowestoft

I married my (now sadly deceased) wife on 1 August 1957 while on leave from the Colonial Service in Northern Nigeria. In the few short weeks before sailing back she bought some of the best quality Scottish double-knitting wool she could find. To the astonishment of other passengers on the boat out to Lagos she started to knit a gorgeous, thick, heavy sweater which she finished soon after we arrived at our destination (Maiduguri) in the very far north east of Nigeria.

And very useful it was, too, in the following dry season when the Harmattan was blowing its bitterly cold, bone dry wind as I walked down to the office to open at 7am.

I have worn it a great deal in cold weather ever since. It is still respectable, a little worn at the cuffs and darned at the left elbow (neatly done by my wife using some extra wool she had prudently bought originally) and I still wear it in public.

R W Pembleton, Tenterden

My wife and I moved into a sixteenth-century terraced almshouse on North Cray Road, Bexley, in 1963. ‘Smokey’ (Dec) was a regular visitor to all of our back doors for tea, in his tin. He frequently ‘resided’ in a one-room concrete air-raid shelter at the end of the terrace (sadly, all of it demolished for the dual-carriageway).

There were lots of interesting and friendly conversations by our houses and across his smoke filled room. During a very cold winter (possibly 1965), Smokey sought shelter in a neighbour’s outside toilet but was ejected by the neighbour when his children were frightened as they came across him in the darkness. He suffered badly as a result but ended up in a warm Sidcup hospital where they cleaned him up, for a short period of time.

This lino-cut of Smokey was carved by my good friend and artist, the late Geoffrey Hammond, while he was studying at Goldsmith’s College. It always brings back very happy memories for me and my friends.

Ron Edgington

At the age of 83 and a very long standing reader I wish to pass on the pleasure of some past Countryman ‘greenback ‘magazines to any readers. 1993 thru to 1999-2000 1-3, 2001 to July 2004 plus The Countryman Special 50th Birthday Issue Spring 1977 (articles by John Cripps on JW Robertson Scott). Cost of postage and a contribution to charity. I can be contacted by email: johnandvalerie@ennerdale11.fsnet.co.uk or tel 01926 424077.

John Selby

Having read Humphrey Phelps’ contribution to the badger killing debate, I say some farmers and the NFU cannot tell good publicity from bad. If they go for badger extermination a lot of people will turn against them. Farmers need the support of the public to continue in business as we are the provider of subsidy, customer at the farmshop, farmers’ market and buy British at supermarkets.

B. Woolsey, Mablethorpe

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