PRIVIES, PIGSTYES & COPPERS

We welcomed back the ‘queen of the Lincolnshire Marshes’ as our speaker for October. Within minutes June Barton had us laughing at her search for old privies, some of which she was surprised to find within a mile or so of her home. Most ‘lavvies ‘are attached to very old or derelict buildings & is it only because of June’s keen eyes that some of them have been found.& videod. The three holers, the two holers, the Elsan, the buckets & the sod & soil variety , all were of immense interest her especially the way they were built & not forgetting the newspaper squares strung up (or the luxury of the tissue from orange coverings at Christmas ) & hung on the wall. June explained sometimes the privies belonged to people living in a cottage & she said she had to be very careful in her negotiations to be allowed to take photos! June has a love of pigs & pig-styes & as a child preferred to play with pigs rather than children! She admired the way the styes had been sturdily built with their sloping rooves. At slaughter time she would be sent off to Grandma but allowed home when all the ham, joints, sausages & bacon had been prepared & salted & says she still prefers a good bit of home cured fat bacon to the stuff you get in the shops. To prepare the hams at Christmas the coppers would be filled with water, a fire lit beneath & the joints cooked. Then on a Monday the copper would be filled for hot water for wash day. Often these coppers were found in an out- house which would also be used for bathing & the lavvie would be next door or at the bottom of the garden. June spoke of seeing magnificent coppers still in existence but not now used for their original purpose. She spoke of cisterns & wells, the difference being that cisterns were underground but collected rain water from the roof of the house & wells collected water from an underground source, which a lot of people were not aware of. June’s enthusiasm for all things natural appears unstoppable. She mourns the loss of anything old especially when the bulldozers arrive, & her life is the Lincolnshire Marshes. She spoke briefly on the wild life currently seen on the Marsh near her home & the coasters waiting for the tide to be right for their passage across the Wash. She explained that when she got home after this meeting she would probably get on her trusty bike & go & see what was out there before going to bed. She answered many questions & members were encouraged to tell their own stories of ‘the.privie’. Our November meeting is the Social Evening with displays depicting WW2, uniforms. tales & photos from the past & a quiz. Refreshments will be served. [Barbara Holmes]