When did you first come to Calverton?
I first came to Calverton when I joined the National Coal Board in 1970. Our previous setup to that house, living with my parents in West Bridgford. But I finished my job at Rolls-Royce and started working for the National Coal Board. It was quite a way to travel from West Bridgford. So I was given a house in Calverton in the colliery estate. I lived quite a time in the village down the bottom estate. After that I actually bought a house on Castle Close. I ended up at George's Lane where I am at present. All the time I was at Calverton colliery. As my education progressed. I went on to better things within British coal.
While I was in Calverton, I got to know quite a few people. One of my acquaintances, his name was Michael Cupid. He's deceased now, but he was one of my best friends at the time. It was evident with talking to Michael that he was knowledgeable about a number of parishes within Nottinghamshire that had Morris teams and clog dancing teams. Michael was quite taken up with Morris dancing and he actually managed to get hold of a Morris dancing book written by Cecil Sharp that listed the tunes from around Great Britain for Morris dancing and also not only the tunes but the steps as well. We got us heads together and thought well we might give this again. But we got nothing. We all got enthusiasm and nothing else.
I was persuaded to liberate British coal with a number of miners leather belts. He purchased a number of belts and spent quite a few weeks in his cottage making bell pads and decorating bell pads with leather belts, cutting them up and things like that. Then we wanted baldricks and Michael Cupid sorted the baldricks and silly hats with all the decorations on the hats.
We got all we needed then to start Morris dancing. We were missing two musicians and about five other dancers. We persuaded other people in the village to join us and we met most Thursdays in the village hall which were then at Burnor pool at the top of bottom of a Burnor pool and we danced on a Thursday practicing from the Cecil Sharp book. We were absolutely terrible. We obviously thought we were far better than we were. But the good thing about it is after the practice on these Thursdays it was everybody back to Epperstone at the cross keys for a drink. That's where we sang a song and the musicians used to play the tunes. But unfortunately in those days we had to be turned out by off past ten in the evening. Then obviously there were no drink driving so you could make your way home. As you saw fit.
But we got a group and we got an act together. Our first public outing was at the Calverton Village Get Together on the field. We actually danced for the first time there with half a dozen dancers and we were absolutely terrible. We thought we were good and everybody had a good laugh and some of us fell over. We carried on like this on a Thursday and eventually we ended up going to quite a few other village fates over weekend. In Nottingham in the various villages and obviously we got better and better. But also we started meeting some of the other dancing groups within the parishes. We were talking to them and dancing with them we improved quite considerably until we were actually on par with them dancers. That's when we really took off and basically we went around the UK for a year or two. Norfolk, Lake District, places like that dancing on their days, their dance days, their recognised dance days. We totally enjoyed that and it was always followed by a visit to a local hostelry. So we all had a good time and it was a good laugh and we were all young. That was the thing about it, we were all young laughing. I was about 25 when I did it. When I started it anyway. So one of the main highlights of the Morris dancing was a thing called the gate to Southwell.
That stretches back to it's listed in medieval times when the parish elders of all the parishes in Nottingham had to give so many pence to the minster, which is Southwell minster for the upkeep of the minster. In 1100 something like the 1100s there was actually a document saying that this parish pence was taken to the minster by a group of Morris dancers. So what we decided to do then, the majority of Morris dancing groups in Nottingham would meet in slab square in Nottingham as I recalled in that days. From there we would take ten turns dancing in a given route to Southwell minster and there we would hand over the Calverton's parish pence to the minster to the officials at the minster and all the other parish teams would do likewise to us. Then of course it was off to get rehydrated somewhere in Southwell.
We still carried on practicing and improving for years really until some of our elder members become ceased. Another one that's gone there, Mammy, Pete's weather. Paul Pryor, Paul Pryor, Pete Smith, but then our attention turned to the plough play. Talk about the plough play.
Yeah, so where were the origins of the plough play?
The origins of the plough play was, I think again it was Michael Cupid because his parents were deep into the village history, weren't they? But to do a play you need a play and we didn't have a play. So not myself but a couple of others that were interested in the plough play were looking for documents. They were looking for some kind of knowledge about what the play was in Calverton, we couldn't find it. But we found a little bit of a little bit of the play that Calverton used to do. And we found a little bit of a play that Blidworth used to do. And so we were able to put together and get something like what it should have been. But the history of the plough play goes farther back than it us doing it. It goes right back to medieval times from when the plough boys couldn't earn any money in the winter period because there was no work for them. And so what they used to do to survive was get together and drag a plough around the lords and the manners of their squires in their parish and threaten to mow up their land and lawns if they didn't give money and nourishment to them to survive the winter. And to earn this they did a little play, at each stop they did a little play and then they were given money and nourishment to continue to the next stop. And that was what we decided to do but instead of going to the manor they wasn't a lord of the manor anymore.
We decided to go to the local hostel, it was an array of money for the NSPCC. So we got the plough play together, we got a number of people interested in getting dressed up as you wouldn't believe what they were dressed like a photograph of us today. But we went around after New Year for two days, two nights, we went around probably eight, nine public houses and evening on two evenings doing the play that we'd put together and collecting money for the charity. We did that for years and we raised quite a few thousand pounds for the NSPCC.
Can you tell us a little bit more about the characters and what the story, what the actual play signifies?
Well the play actually signifies the end of one year and the spring and the seeds, the agriculture breaking and flushing and the following spring, it was like a pagan thing and there was Beelzebub, there was a doctor, there was various farm workers, Sanquibene and Opadjo, there was Lady Michael Cupicd's party again, I forget the lady's name. But there was quite a few characters, about twelve of us and each character when he entered the public house you see, he comes high and Opadgo in his role and it was quite exciting at times and it got people laughing and we all had a good time with it. So yes we raised quite a bit of money and I did that up until about eight years ago. I was one of the founder members and I dropped out but it's still carried on by the Morris men, it's still carried on by the Morris men and the Plough Play team, a member drops out of somebody else goes in and carries on our tradition.
Did you want to mention any memories of Calverton? Because you've obviously seen a few memories of Calverton. Changes to anything?
Yes, well when I was in the bottom estate I used to walk to work and I walked up a dirt field pass to the colliery. And I had to do to see the side, flowering meadows to the right, as I walked up and that was Park Road. And now it's tarmac and housing estate along the same as Carrington Lane and what's the road that goes to Carrington Lane? Yes, there are all of them anyway. All the housing estates have changed, they've all been built. So the Calverton has changed tremendously in the last few years. It makes me wonder when it's going to end because the character of the village is changing quite dramatically and the people.
Is that for the better or the better?
I used to be able to go into the village and talk to people because I knew them. We used to chat. We used to go out of this and out of this Morris dancing group, come down. It was the village people, it was the villagers that lived here. Now the people that come here aren't bothered about anything like that. They're new into the village. So they've got no sense of history with the village at all because they're new. They don't work in the village, they work out, there's no colliery anymore, so they work elsewhere. They're not interested in village life. They come home and go to bed and go back and work again. No history to them.
But the people that have lived there as long as I have, there's lot of names of people that lived in the village donkeys years used to recognize the names and we used to know the village people just through the names. Used to know who they were and then recognize them. Nowadays I couldn't tell you one name, I don't get anybody because a lot of my friends that live in the village aren't with us anymore.
So you said about working at the pit, do you want to talk about your work there or how that developed?
Well, I said before I went, I was working at Rolls-Royce and I left it went to the Colliery because of the distance involved from what goes from West Bridgford to Rolls-Royce. But then it was apparent that the distance involved from going from West Bridgford to Calverton. So I came to live in the Calverton and I got a job through a chap named Butler. He used to be the Unions Engineer at Calverton Colliery. And he asked me what I did and I told him where I worked previously. And he signed me up that very first day and he said to me, he said about the travelling and all that. And within 24 hours I was given a house on the bottom of the estate to live in. And I was set up from then on and basically my career started with the chap Butler. So I worked in the electrical workshop for probably a year or so.
This was 1970. And I worked with Barry Cousins would you believe, the father of Cousins the ice skater? Oh. The Olympic ice skater. I worked with him for a bit. And then after I was in the workshop, so that's repairing electrical equipment. I was asked if I wanted to run the preparation plan which were across the road where the tip is now. And I was an electrician on preparation plan for quite some time. And then I got a bit bored with the tool and I went to see the chap Butler wasn't there. I went to see the new electrical engineer then who then I said, look, I want to go on the engineering training scheme, which would be the degree thing. I want to start the engineering training scheme. And I interviewed for that. The headquarters thing was at Bestwood. Bestwood headquarters for British Coal. And I got signed on for the engineering training scheme. I had a tough three years education before I got it. But I did that. And eventually I worked away through British Coal electrical department till my retirement in year 2000.
So can you remember any of the people that were there that sort of stick out to you? Because there used to be a welfare, didn't they?
Well, I haven't got very good memories of the welfare. I'll tell you an instinct. I think it's not a very nice one. But as I started then promoted through British Coal, I got to a couple of losty positions in British Coal. My very first visit to Calverton Welfare, I announced myself at the door. They didn't know me from Adam. And I told him what my job was in British Coal. And they immediately, because the place was full, they immediately got a table and two chairs for me and the wife and sat us right at front of the stage. And I felt very embarrassed because I'd only been there a few minutes when coins started being thrown from the back to my table. So I thought they don't like this. So I mean the wife got up and left and that was the first and last time I ever wished to go to that welfare. I won't touch it again.
It's not there anymore. So anything else you want to talk about with regards to your memories of Calverton?
I was working on my life. So I used to come into Calverton and look after the home. I used to be busy in the garden. Busy the upkeep of the house. But lived on Georgia's land for majority of my life. I've been living in 43-44 years. And I got there again. I got to know all the residents of George's lane. But as time has gone on, people have changed and the various premises and houses around about. And now I can honestly say again. I know very, very few people living on the lane. No mind in COVID. I don't know. I speak to my next door neighbours and a couple of people across the road. And that's about, I don't know, who lives down the lane and have been passing their house every day for 45 years. And I don't know.