Bill Taylor

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Summary

Based on the interview recorded on 13 April 2007. It reflects the interviewee’s life and memories at that time.

Born in 1942 at Old Mill House on Woolhope Road, Bill Taylor recalls a childhood steeped in country life and woodland work. The eldest of a second “batch” of siblings, he spent school holidays alongside his father George, a warrener who controlled woodland pests. Bill learned the trade firsthand, assisting with trapping rabbits and poking squirrels from dreys—skills no longer legal, but once a vital part of managing the woods and feeding a large family.

His father, despite a leg caliper, walked miles daily and supplemented income by mending shoes. The children helped by collecting leather in Hereford and delivering repaired shoes by foot or bike. Their mother managed a household of ten with astonishing stamina, carrying water, gathering firewood, and producing ironed shirts from a mangle-wrung wash.

After Fownhope School—where Bill preferred gardening to arithmetic—he joined Mill Farm at 15, milking cows and later showing cattle. He moved on to timber work in Fownhope Park and eventually became estate supervisor at Westhide, where he still works part-time.

Bill reminisces about poaching deer to feed the family, village characters like “Tipperary” Bill White, and playing quoits and darts in local pubs. He chairs the Trumpet Ploughing Society and values the discipline of hard, honest work. In his words: “We were brought up with very little, but had a really good and happy life. I’d do it again.”