{"id":4071,"date":"2019-02-19T11:29:09","date_gmt":"2019-02-19T11:29:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodvale.com\/?p=4071"},"modified":"2019-02-19T11:29:09","modified_gmt":"2019-02-19T11:29:09","slug":"tomorrows-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/tomorrows-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Tomorrow’s World"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last November BBC4\u00a0 showed a 90-minute programme reminiscing about Tomorrow\u2019s World<\/em>, a programme which ran from 1965 to 2003, describing possible future developments in science and technology. I remember it well and was a great fan. Presenters included Raymond Baxter, an ex-Spitfire pilot, always smartly dressed and Judith Hann, elegant with dark hair, cool and academic and the erudite James Burke. Then gradually came the younger more \u201cwith it\u201d set, Howard Stableford, Maggie Philbin, Peter Macann and Michael Rodd. I hope I have not forgotten anyone.<\/p>\n

Items Tomorrow\u2019s World<\/em> introduced to us included the home computer, digital watches, personal stereos and even artificial grass. Also hover-trains, mobile phones, cars without a driver, tidal power, pocket calculators and so on. Many of these are now commonplace, although some have not yet arrived, such as paper clothing. It was a very entertaining programme to me, as I was a technology fan.<\/p>\n

I enjoyed the recent programme, but one sudden shock was Judith Hann with white or grey hair, rather than her earlier dark hair. But I have aged too! All the expectation now is that we shall all be driving electric cars, perhaps not driving but being driven by a robot. Even so, I had the pleasure of briefly riding a prototype electric motorcycle about the time Tomorrow\u2019s World<\/em> was beginning. I was amazed at its acceleration, but unfortunately, the market and certainly the battery was not ready for it. Back before Tomorrow\u2019s World<\/em> arrived we had the \u201cSputnik\u201d and I remember checking the newspaper for the times of its orbits and comparing notes with colleagues. I also remember discussing it with the lady who became my mother-in-law and saying we would send men to the Moon in our lifetime, which was met with an incredulous look. She was probably thinking \u201cHow has my daughter become involved with this idiot\u201d, but years later admitted that the prediction was accurate.<\/p>\n

Looking back, even in my own lifetime of \u201cYesterday\u2019s World\u201d, I am surprised at the changes. I started trying to collect car number plate details as cars passed along our Wiltshire village road. Cars were so infrequent that I gave up. Aircraft were also few and far between and as children in the playground we would all look up when a plane flew over. Later in the 1940s, we were looking up all the time, at Spitfires and Hurricanes and then gliders with white stripes on fuselage and wings. But looking back, cars were probably eclipsed by horses and carts. They were laden with hay, straw and manure at different times and it was not uncommon to see a cart in a field with a man distributing manure from it, shades of a song by \u201cThe Yetties\u201d singing \u201cfling it here, fling it there\u201d. I believe our milkman originally had a horse and trap to deliver the milk. During a visit to my aunt in Edinburgh, we were surprised to be awakened by a horse \u201cclip-clopping\u201d along the city street. When we questioned my aunt she replied very seriously that it would have been St Cuthbert\u2019s horse, which did not answer our query\u2014was it a ghost of St Cuthbert? On further questions, the answer proved to be that it was only the daily milk delivery from St Cuthbert\u2019s Co-operative store. Delivery by horsepower is now so rare that the Wiltshire brewery Wadworth\u2019s of Devizes use shire horses as a marketing ploy to draw a dray around the town, delivering beer to hostelries.<\/p>\n

The other common sight on our village road was a herd of cows being driven to and from the communal milking parlour by the farmer on his bicycle. Twice a year the nearest town held a fair selling sheep or cattle, together with a modern amusement fairground. I do not remember whether it was also a hiring fair as described by Thomas Hardy in his The Mayor of Casterbridge<\/em>.<\/p>\n

When I was small my village had no mains water supply, no sewage, no gas and no electricity. No doubt this was true of many Dorset villages also. I can remember when electricity was first brought into our house and I watched the electrician running cables upstairs. At first, we only had electric lights, no power sockets, but it was a great improvement over the \u201cAladdin\u2019s Lamp\u201d powered by paraffin, or candles. I think \u201cThe Wireless\u201d preceded mains electricity at home, as it was battery powered, with a lead acid \u201caccumulator\u201d for the filaments of the valves. Once mains power arrived a \u201cbattery eliminator\u201d appeared. Before the electricity had arrived, the church organ was blown by a man \u201cpumping\u201d the bellows in a small room next to the organ. If he drowsed off and had not realised the sermon had finished, the next hymn would commence with an awful disappearing chord, which usually awoke the man from his sleep.<\/p>\n

Our drinking water came from a shared well with a windlass and bucket, which I much preferred to tap water when I later tried that. We saved rainwater from the garden shed roof for bath use. At one end of the village, a small stream passed by a cottage and it was alleged that its occupier threw all his dirty water and other items into the stream which then flowed past the other end of the village where perhaps they used it for drinking. Before mains water arrived most households had a small outhouse in the garden which contained a seat enclosing a bucket for one\u2019s relief. At intervals, the householder would empty the bucket into a hole dug in the garden. If houses were in pairs quite often the facility would be shared with side by side holes in the seat. To ensure privacy it was usual to cough politely outside the outhouse to find if it was already in use. These rudimentary toilets were sometimes referred to as \u201cEarth Closets\u201d. However \u201cEarth Closet\u201d was more strictly used for the invention of the Rev Henry Moule of Fordington, Dorchester with his \u201cdry earth system\u201d of sanitation at the time of the cholera epidemic of about 1850. Moule\u2019s invention was a container for dry earth which by operating a lever would deposit some earth over the contents of the bucket. In present day some people have introduced a \u201ccomposting toilet\u201d which uses earth, wood sawdust, etc., to update Moule\u2019s model.<\/p>\n

Some larger houses might have had their own electricity supply from a generator driven by an internal combustion engine, fuelled by paraffin and probably the generator charged batteries for lighting. A local man would be employed to start and switch off the generator at the appropriate time. There might also have been a large water tank in the roof space filled with water by a pump from a well. The same man often operated the pump. The water would not only be used for drinking and bathing but could also flush the toilet into a cesspit in the back garden. This would require emptying at intervals.<\/p>\n

Another change over the years is in education. In my day the village had an infant\u2019s school and a \u201ctop\u201d school, both clearly labelled C of E and children left when they were 14 years old. The nearby town had a Secondary, later a Grammar School, which took children from all around a wide area. At about 11 years of age, we all sat the Secondary Entrance Examination, which preceded the \u201cEleven Plus\u201d. The Secondary School charged a fee but awarded a number of \u201cfree seats\u201d, based on the pupil\u2019s exam paper and I believe low parental income. Two \u201cfree seats\u201d were awarded to our village school in my year and my best friend and I were pleased to receive them. Before the results appeared many of our fellow pupils said: \u201cwe do not want to go, we would rather leave and start work\u201d.<\/p>\n

At that time many of jobs in the village were \u201con the land\u201d and my grandfather originally worked on a farm, later becoming a jobbing gardener. He insisted that all his sons should take up apprenticeships. His father, my great grandfather, had farmed in a very small way, on seven acres, with the help of his eldest son.<\/p>\n

So that was my \u201cYesterday\u2019s World\u201d and I think \u201cToday\u2019s World\u201d is generally better. \u201cTomorrow\u2019s World\u201d remains to be seen, but I am an optimist!<\/p>\n

Bridport History Society will meet as usual in the United Church Main Hall, East Street, Bridport on Tuesday 12th February at 2.30pm. All welcome, visitors entrance \u00a33.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Cecil Amor, Hon President, Bridport History Society.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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