John Wesley (Wes)

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Summary

Based on the interview conducted in August 2005. It reflects the interviewee’s life and memories at that time.

Born in Brockhampton in 1932, Wes left school at just 14 in 1946 and, thanks to a tip from his brother, landed his first job at the Manor Farm under Eben Evans, earning 25 shillings a week — bumped to 30 for good behaviour. From gruelling days cutting thistles to driving cattle and sheep across common land near the village, his account brings the rhythms of post-war farm life around Fownhope vividly to the surface: working horses before tractors arrived, carrying buckets of water from the village well, and the arrival of electricity that transformed evenings at home. He even recalls looking after a heifer for the local butcher one weekend before it was slaughtered — a favour rewarded with a piece of steak, and the start of a standing arrangement that saw him supplied with steak twice a week from then on.

Wes’s memory of Fownhope’s people is remarkable — shopkeepers, publicans, the village policeman, colourful characters like Wilf Grundy and a caravan-dwelling singer whose name has slipped into legend. He recalls the shops and businesses that once lined the village, the shift from horse-drawn deliveries to motorbikes, lively dances with live accordion bands, and travelling cinema shows in the village hall, where younger viewers were turfed out before the later features.

Sport, too, was central to his story. A goalkeeper turned forward, Wes played football and cricket, later helping found and serve as secretary of the local club. His account of recovering from a motorbike accident — complete with a fellow patient’s cheeky hospital humour — shows a spirit that clearly never dimmed.

What shines through this interview isn’t just the facts of farming, shops, and village life, but Wes’s warmth, humour, and gratitude for a hardworking but happy life, spent almost entirely in service to the Fownhope community. It’s a joyful reminder of how much community, grit, and good cheer shaped this village’s past.