Eric Hood.

COWLAM:
Eric Hood

When we were young we were told Eric's birthday was on the 4th March but in later years mother said he was born on the 5th March.
He was born on a little small holding in St Helens Lane, Reighton. We had a small paddock and kept on average 4 or 5 cows and some hens. The cows used to graze on a field up the lane called the allotments. Eric was the youngest child of Francis Chapman Hood and Bella Grace Hood nee Chapman (they were second cousins).
The family were spread out, Francis Richard (Dick) born 1906, William (Billy) born 1908, Harry born 1909, Doris born 1915, Kathleen born 1918 and Eric in 1920.

On April 6th 1920 just a month after Eric was born we moved home and went to live at North Mount Farm, Bridlington. This was another small holding but with 60 acres of land, with a big farm house and a good range of farm buildings, situated about 1 ½ miles north of Bridlington. We had 4 horses, and a light-legged horse called Peggy who we used to pull our milk float. We used to take the milk we got from about 6 or up to 8 cows into Brid to sell to a farmer called Mr Jackson who lived in Pinfold Lane. Mr Jackson then hawked the milk around the town.
The 3 older boys helped on the farm. Billy and Harry had to go to school at Burlington Council School then because Doris was nearly 5 when we flitted she had to go to school on her birthday, May 19th.
Mother had a young girl of 14 to help her called Lilly Judd from Speeton.

Eric was always small and not a big eater, he was always under weight and always very pale. We 3 younger ones, Doris, Kathleen and Eric, always played together, the 3 older boys worked and went out together. We were like two families, when mum and dad went out together the 3 older boys would stay in and look after us. When we were old enough we all went to Burlington school. The first day Eric went he had to be in the baby class because he wasn't quite 5 years old (he was only there for 2 or 3 weeks). He went into class and stayed until playtime, when I came out to play he was going out of the school gate, I had to run after him, he got so far up Pinfold lane before I caught him. He said "I've been to school I'm going home now". I had a job to get him to come back, however he was no more bother after that.
We were all well treated at Burlington school and all enjoyed going there.

When we lived at North Mount Farm we had plenty of room both in the farmhouse and in the farmyard, also in some of the buildings, mainly the granary which we were allowed to play in on wet days.
When we were playing we usually had the next doors children with us, and the girl from the farm 2 fields away. Doris was usually in charge, with Dad and the older boys about the farm working. One day when we were all intent on playing a game we didn't notice Eric had strayed away from us, (he would be between 2 and 3 years old) all of a sudden we heard a scream, when we looked he had turned the handle of the cow cake crusher and then gone to the other side of the machine and put his finger in the turning cog wheels. His finger end was hanging off (up to the first knuckle) panic set in, we had to run and get mother, and none of the lads or dad were about. Our mother wrapped his finger up and carried him to the Grange Farm (2 fields away) and Mr Gilson, the farmer from there, took them into Brid to the doctor. The doctor was not able to sew the end of his finger on it was too crushed. So for the rest of his life Eric had a short finger.

In 1928 when Eric was 8, Kath nearly 10 and Doris nearly 13 we moved to a bigger farm 20 miles away called Church Farm, Cowlam. It was 2½ miles from Sledmere and 6 ½ miles from Driffield, we now had to ride our bicycles to school at Sledmere.
The farm was 218 acres, so we had lots more horses, cows and sheep. Our older brothers Dick, Billy and Harry all worked on the farm, we also had 4 other men. We had to prepare meals for all the men and the f amily, the men slept in the farmhouse.

Doris was kept at home a lot to help mother, which didn't make us very popular at Sledmere School. They were very clannish and didn't welcome strangers, so we were not as happy at that school as we were at Burlington Council School. We all got through our school years with ups and downs.

Eric was still small for his age and when he left school he didn't settle in too well with work on the farm. When he was 17 he made friends with one of the men on the farm who worked with the horses and began to help him and go out to Driffield and about with him. On August bank holiday Monday of that year there was a Garden Party and Sports at Sledmere in the afternoon, to which 3 or 4 of the women off Cowlam, me included, went. In the evening Eric, his pal and 2 more men on the farm set off to go to the whist drive and dance in the evening which was to follow the Garden Party. When we went home we met them just coming, they were going down the short steep hill into the village, riding 2 abreast, when Eric called out to a school pal who was walking up the hill, turning his head away from the road. As he did this one of the men pulled right in front of him and knocked him flying off his bike.
He was badly injured. One of the villagers took him in and bandaged his head, one of the men rode back to Cowlam (2½ miles) to get dad and mum, who brought the car, they took him to the doctor in Wetwang and then had to take him to Malton Hospital. He was very ill and in hospital for several weeks having burst a blood vessel in his head. He was fitted with a silver tube to join the veins up. He was supposed to go back sometime and have a plate put over it but he never did.

Eric was not able to work for well over a year but when he did he went back amongst the horses and wasn't long before he was looking after 4 horses and showing great pride in them and his work, he had also grown into a fine young man, no longer a weedy reckling, the accident had done him a good turn in that way, and also the long rest.

During the war when a young man reached 20 they had to go for a medical to see if they were fit to go into the forces, when Eric was called to go they took one look at his head and told him to go back to the farm, he was exempt from war service.

In 1943 our Dad decided to sell up and retire, Dick was on a farm at Flamborough, Billy was on a farm called Little Pasture at Langtoft and Doris and her husband Jim on Belle Vue Farm Lutton. Harry took on the farm at Cowlam and Dad, Mum, Eric, Kath and John her son went to live in Bridlington at 24 St James Road. We hadn't been there for many months when Eric had another accident he got an electric shock in the bath, badly burning his leg. It took him well over 6 months to get well.

After about 18 months we then moved into a house on St Johns Avenue. Eric got a job as a taxi driver, and for the 18 months we lived there began to get to know people and the ins and outs of Brid.

In 1946 we moved to a farm at Bempton, Dad Mum and Eric living in half the farm house (Bempton House Farm) and Kathleen, John and Alf her husband who had been demobbed from the army lived in the other half. Eric took over the farm with the help of dad. He milked 8 to 10 cows, selling milk and cultivating the 80 acres of land. Eric got on well with a group of young men in the village, joining the darts team and socialising, having a young free life that he'd missed in his youth.

In 1953 Eric married Joan Lambert, mother and dad bought a cottage further up the lane (West Garth) and Eric and Joan had there half of the farmhouse, Kathleen and Alf still lived in the other half.
Eric and Joan had 4 children while they lived at Bempton, Terry, Carol, Graham and Jackie. They worked the farm until about 1967 or 8. I'm not sure which, when they packed up farming they sold the animals and the farm off in sections and went to live at St Albans Road in Bridlington.

Eric did odd jobs for a while trying his hand at different jobs, two more children were born Debra and Stephen. Afterwards (I don't remember the year) they moved to St Johns Avenue, Eric got a regular job at Adcock and Shipley and stayed there until he retired, he also had an allotment and when he retired he used to help people with their gardens and kept himself busy, they next moved to Borough Road where he lived until he died on 14th December 1998.

Kathleen Corner July 2001