Interview with Norman Callister about living and working at Cregneash and The Sound Farm
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Date(s): 1989
Scope & Content: Norman Callister (b.1921) talks to Walter Clarke about living and working at Cregneash and The Sound Farm. Norman recalls his working life on the farm and the community of Cregneash; schooldays and leaving at 12 to work at Kennaugh’s Place; ploughing with horses and horse breeding. Mrs Callister asks Norman to 'put that pipe out'.
Norman talks about James Karran, John Kinley, Bridie Lowey; how farmers also fished; four cows at Church Farm; how Kennaugh altered the fields and cleared the ditches; his horse ploughing 45 acres during the 1940s; Norman Glassy clearing the land; the present need of a good tenant farmer. He recalls how children played on the Green; Mrs Callister remembers the children collecting gulls’ eggs and working on the farm after school; young people going away to sea; John Kinley of Colby; James and Tommy Karran of Port Erin; Callister the coxswain of the lifeboat; James Karran; thatching; Willie Moore; Bregazzi; Eleanor Karran; grandfather spinning and dyeing wool; Cregeen; Mrs Callister remembers going with her grandmother to buy wool. Norman regrets Cregneash characters disappearing.
Walter Clarke remembers his father going to sea with a skipper from The Howe who Mr Callister names as Big Jib or Keig. Norman regrets the loss of herring fishing and he talks about the Russian fish market; Christmas celebrations; farm labourers hired on 12 November at the Adelphi yard fair in Douglas; Ballacreggin and Ballakillea; changing farming methods; blacksmiths commissioned by the army during the First World War; stiff carts; Walter Gill and Arthur Karran; Fred Cowley and Walter Gill; Speaker of Keys J.D. Qualtrough; Watterson and Karran quarrying lintels at Spanish Head and lintels used for Castle Rushen floor; James Karran's reaper.
Norman then talks about the schooner 'Lily Garden'; schooners in Port St Mary such as the 'Progress' and the 'Reaper'; Willy Joe Qualtrough and others lengthening boats; how the 'Jessie Sinclair' owned by the Qualtroughs and the Clugstons turned over on the slipway and caught fire on a voyage; recent Lockerbie bombing; thatch catching fire; visitors on foot to Cregneash. Norman remembers the first motorcars in Cregneash and he talks about working on Calf of Man in the 1930s; Freddie Faragher, Harry Quirk, Sam Haig; Commander Arthur Williams and a helicopter rescue on the Calf for his wife who was in labour; tenants on the Calf; prospect of automation of lighthouse; Ernest Dawson and his wife Hilda; Zilla Sayle and the death of Stanley Cubbon of Castletown; Crellin of St John's.
Walter discusses his 37 years at the Manx Museum, Marshall and William Cubbon, and Basil Megaw. Mrs Callister talks about Ella Marshall and her schooldays at Four Roads school. Walter talks about the building extension at the Manx Museum. Norman talks about work at the Sound; how the island has changed and incomers; the finance industry; the property market; Eddie Cooil's illness. Walter mentions Abigail Faragher and the Museum's plans for her house; a new estate at Ballamooar; and they end by discussing people from Jersey moving to the Isle of Man.
Administration / Biographical History: Norman Callister (b.1921). Mrs Callister. Walter Clarke, Manx speaker, translator and Manx Museum technician (1928-2007).
Language: English
Extent: 1 hr. 9 min. 26 sec.
Item name: magnetic tape
Collection: Sound Archive
Level: ITEM
ID number: SA 0134
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