Interviews with Miss Preston, Mr Cringle, Mr Clague and Miss Lewin
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Date(s): 1950-1970
Creator(s): Manx Museum
Scope & Content: Track 1: A midwife describes being 'taken' by fairies in a field near Kermelly Mines on a night call. She recalls how on another occasion she went in response to a call from a house in Patrick, when she got there she found she had not been called but that she was urgently needed at a nearby home where a twin baby would have died but for her unexpected arrival and intervention.
Woman resumes in the middle of a story about a doctor asking her to go and look after a patient on night duty at Ash Cottage; while she was there the policeman called to let her know he was around if she needed him; on the second night an ornament of a little lady jumped onto her knee to her followed by a little man who she put on the mantelpiece; the second night the alarm clock went off and she had to sing to her patient to calm him; the following night she removed everything from the mantelpiece and the glass in the mantelpiece cracked and the patient died; she was later told by the bus driver that a man called Thorpe had hung himself in the room and didn’t like anyone being there and that the policeman had known about that, but she believed it was just the heat making things fall off the mantelpiece.
She describes a time in Brighton when she was called to a house and being told by a maid when she got there that the house was haunted and her bedclothes and torch were taken from her mysteriously in the night by what the patient described as a poltergeist; and how she spent 6 weeks there and nothing else happened.
Track 2: Woman talks about water coming into a house and beams being found that had come from the wreck of the St George. Then a woman recites a story or poem (possibly by T.E. Brown) possibly in Anglo-Manx dialect.
Man recites a piece about Charlie who died at sea.
Man talks about working hours in agriculture and mills; men working and women stacking the straw which was used by thatchers; straw presses; threshing and the working hours; wages and a free house before the First World War; poor diet. He talks about his early working life from the age of 15 when he was paid in food; farmers in Dalby going to the fishing in the summer; accommodation; labourers who died of pneumonia; working as a ploughman; harvest times; spring ploughs; technique for ploughing butts.
Administration / Biographical History: This recording was made for the Manx Folk Life Survey.
Language: English
Extent: 1 hr. 3 min. 44 sec
Item name: emitape tape
Collection: Sound Archive
Level: ITEM
ID number: SA 0095
Access conditions: All reasonable attempt has been made by Manx National Heritage to trace and request permission (where needed) from the copyright holder(s) in this sound recording. If however you think you are a rights holder then please contact Manx National Heritage.
Subject tags : #UOSH, #UOSHManxFolkLifeSurvey