David Watts

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Summary

Based on the interview conducted on 20 June 2013

David Watts was born in 1950 at Rudge End Cottage on Common Hill, the youngest of nine children. The small farm cottage, belonging to Rudge End Farm, had no electricity or running water. Water was carried from the pump, lighting came from paraffin lamps and candles, and heating from an open fire. Rent was just a few shillings a week, and the family supplemented their income by helping on the farm and growing vegetables. They kept bantams, geese and sometimes pigs, and gathered wood from the surrounding woods.

David’s father worked shifts at the tileworks at Withington, cycling to and from work, later upgrading to a motorbike. His mother worked seasonally, picking apples and potatoes, and even carried trays of blackberries by bus into Hereford to sell.

Common Hill in the 1950s was a close-knit community. David remembers roaming freely with friends including Mike Lucas, Terry and Linda Sanderson, Jimmy Cross and others. They played in the quarry, built sledging runs on Godley Moor, searched for birds’ nests and helped local farmers move sheep. Winters meant homemade sledges and enamel bowls racing down frozen fields.

He attended Fownhope School before moving on to Bishop’s in Hereford. Youth clubs at Fownhope, Woolhope and Hampton Bishop filled his teenage years, and it was at Bishop’s that he met Judy, whom he later married in 1972 .

Leaving school at fifteen, David worked at Hyde Farm, learning to drive tractors and helping with harvest and baling. Farm life was hard but full of camaraderie and mischief.

The family left Rudge End Cottage in 1963 – it was subsequently demolished – and moved to Court Orchard, though David continued to spend hours back on Common Hill. Looking back, he recalls a childhood of hard work, freedom and strong community ties — “a wonderful life up there.”