PW_4_2021

Article

The fields where Brian played

Life Below Stairs Brian Allinson , Avon & Somerset Branch

The Bedford OB Coach, in which Brian went on trips

At the ripe old age of 76, I look back on a life a little differently to many others. My earliest real memories are of the early 1950s, and a life ‘below stairs’ in Charlton Musgrove House. This was a large country house owned by Major and Mrs Davie, near Wincanton in Somerset, where my mother was the cook and housekeeper. I remember the house had a sweeping drive up to the front door, which of course was not to be used by me. Our family access very few people owned cars, and there was almost no school transport available. that it was time to move to Yeovil and start a new life. I left secondary School aged 16, and entered the motor trade working for a Jaguar distributor, passing my driving test two weeks after my 17th birthday, in a Jaguar Mk1.

It might also be difficult to imagine today, but in those days, I had never seen a television! Then, one day we heard that Mr Prince, the farm Stockman, had bought a television, and we all went to his cottage to see it. There was only one channel, and the picture was only black and white. Most of the time it only showed a test card, as the actual programmes were only transmitted for a few hours each day. There were just one or two children’s programmes shown each week, Watch with Mother and Muffin the Mule were popular, but I didn’t like them much. What would really surprise people today was the small size of those early TV screens, many were as small as eight inches, but most were about ten inches. The real excitement came in 1953 when we heard that the Queen was going to be crowned. For the first time ever, the Coronation was going to be shown on television. On the day of the Coronation, everyone from all the houses and farms around, gathered at Mr Prince’s house and we all watched it together. There were a great many of us all crushed into his living room. I really didn’t understand much of the ceremony, but I liked watching all the soldiers and horses. My Primary School in Wincanton was quite basic. I remember that our teacher Mrs Edwards, or “Miss” was very kind, but at the same time was very strict. Every day we were expected to drink a third of a pint of milk, which was supplied in small glass milk bottles. We learned to write using pencils, but after a while moved on to very basic pens, just a wooden stem with a metal nib at one end, which we dipped into ink in order to write. By early 1958 my life below stairs was coming to an end. Mum was getting older. and she decided

was through a side door, giving access to the scullery, kitchen and our living room. As cook housekeeper, mother was the only full-time employee / servant in the household, but others such as cleaners and waitresses came to help with formal occasions and big dinners. I do remember one special occasion for my mother, which happened in the mid 1950s, when she was issued with a Kenwood Chef food mixer. She was very proud of it, and I believe it was one of the very first to be purchased outside of London. There was one other important member of the staff and that was ‘Nanny’. She was a young lady, in her early 20s, employed by the Major to look after the education and welfare of Simon, Lavender and I. The Davies, although classed as ‘gentry’, were very modern in outlook for the time, and certainly did not look down on mother and I as lowly servants. The question of my education had initially presented a bit of a problem. At the time of my mother’s appointment as cook housekeeper, I was just five years old, and not really capable of walking the three miles along lonely rural lanes, to the nearest school in Wincanton. The problem was resolved when the Davies decided that my education should also be undertaken by Nanny. However, at the age of six, I went off to the primary school in Wincanton. There were two other children from local farms, so the three of us walked every day whatever the weather, on our own, three miles along the narrow country lanes to school. Today that may seem very severe when judged against modern standards, but it is important to remember that in the early 1950s,

Then my police career began, when I joined Somerset and Bath Constabulary in October 1968. I thoroughly enjoyed a very varied career in the service. My experiences included a specialist weapons course with the Royal Marines, VIP and Royalty protection duties, and extended policing attachments in Japan and South Australia. My final years in the service saw me increasingly involved in the development of Police Air operations, and finally led to a second career after retiring from the Police, as a specialist Police Air consultant for Eurocopter (Airbus). You can read more about my police service, and my childhood below stairs, in my book: A Long and Winding Beat , ISBN no 978-1-5272-8

Charlton Musgrove house, Brian’s rooms were in the roof where the chimneys are

Charlton Musgrove house, taken in 2019, only the cars have changed

POLICE WORLD Vol 66 No.4, 2021

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