View from inside one of the newer, better quality sheds.
My Dad loved a good shed.
When I say that, you probably picture an average garden shed, maybe 6 foot by 8 foot or a little bigger… well, let me stop you there. My dad was both a farmer and a joiner, so when he built a shed, it was often bigger than the average house, certainly big enough to house half a dozen cows for the winter or to store enough bales of hay to keep said cows fed while the grass wasn’t growing. Such incredible buildings regularly sprang from the earth as if by magic when I was growing up… and I took them in my stride.
Besides, a proliferation of outhouses became especially necessary when I was 19 and our family moved into the barn.
The old barn, with mistel / cowshed attached. That was demolished when the barn was converted. Pictured is my nephew Gary, stood on the muck midden, and some random builder nicking the asbestos sheets from / mending the roof.
Wait, let me clarify that. My dad was in his early 60s back at this point, and had walked away from the car auction business. He’d started working as a joiner again, for my brother (the house builder of the family), but Dad didn’t have much of a pension and was worried about financial stability for his retirement years… so he decided to sell the big old rambling farmhouse I’d grown up in and downsize us all into the barn next door. He handled this conversion pretty much by himself (calling in my brother and a few other tradespeople for occasional assists) and within a year, the old hay loft I’d played hide and seek in as a child was now my teenage bedroom. It was a lot smaller than the house of my youth, but my brother and sister had long since flown the nest and my parents figured I’d soon follow (although that didn’t happen quite as soon as they’d expected). Anyway, with the barn out of action, other cattle sheds and hay storage buildings soon appeared to replace it… and again, I took it all for granted. Looking back now it seems miraculous, particularly given how much of this work my dad did on his own… with only the occasional assist from Mr. Bagley.
The house that replaced the barn.
A memory came back to me earlier this week of a journey Dad took us on one misty Saturday… to buy a shed. For this expedition, he borrowed a truck from my brother, and drove me and my mum halfway across the country… I can’t remember exactly where, but it took a good few hours to get there. When we arrived, we met a man who was selling a huge wooden outbuilding that would soon become my dad’s joinery workshop (home to a table saw that would one day almost sever his thumb). This building must have been at least thirty feet long, by about ten feet wide. We set about dismantling it, piece by piece, then loaded it onto the back of the truck and drove it home. I’m guessing this would be some time in the mid-80s, so I’ve no idea how my dad found out about this shed for sale, in the pre-internet days… perhaps there was a classified ad in the back of the Farmers Guardian newspaper I picked up from the local Newsagents along with my weekly stash of comics. Likewise, I’ve no idea how much he paid for this enormous wooden edifice. All I remember is, he needed our help to get it on and off the truck. Beyond that – taking the shed down and reconstructing it on a long concrete foundation he poured and flattened a good three feet above the ground (with steps leading up to it, to keep it from flooding)… he did all that himself.
Some more random, ramshackle sheds I grew up around. Not pictured: the fancy joinery workshop shed
we travelled so far to buy. That replaced the hen-hut shed on the right of this picture.
But this was just my dad, and it was what he did. I just presumed everyone else’s fathers did exactly the same thing.
Rol Sr sounds like a top man.
ReplyDeleteMy own Dad was a civil engineer and built roads, bridges, docks etc, usually with a large number of Irishmen. I have always thought that travelling the world making things that people actually need and having a bit of craic while doing so sounded like the best job in the world, but sadly I inherited none of his skills.
Yes, but you did get that job with MI5, and the world is a safer place because of it.
DeleteIt's damned useful having a builder as a relative. (I was going to add "and a partner who is useful with her hands" but that could be interpreted in a different way to the one I intend here). Our little farmhouse needed much work doing to it, and about the only part I could play was passing various tools (usually the wrong one), but I could mix the cement and shovel it into a wheelbarrow with few mishaps
ReplyDeleteAs someone who comes from a whole family of builders, plumbers and tradesfolk, it can be useful... if you can ever get them to do anything for you.
DeleteMarvellous post, Rol, what an interesting environment in which to grow up, although just normal life for you but so lovely for those of us who didn't experience it to imagine. As Ernie says, your Dad sounds like a top man. Brilliant memories (and good to see your choice of Fire's Father's Name Is Dad which is a fave song from long ago).
ReplyDeleteI love the last photo in particular which puts me in mind of a ramshackle scene from an old Western or something, just needs a couple of Mexican cowboys to come riding through...
I'm a shed fan too, having one that I use as my studio so it's all mine. And I sometimes just go out there to sit, daydream, listen to music or whatever if I just want/need to be completely alone. You can't beat it.
It was very much like the Wild West, C.
DeleteEnjoy your shed!
Your dad certainly was a highly capable chap and as you say, you just took it for granted when you were young.
ReplyDeleteSynchronicity strikes again, when my dad was in his 50s he aquired a small plot on which to build his own house. Like your dad he did most of the work himself with the odd tradesman helping out with electrics and plumbing. My dad would never have spent time blogging, preferring to be busy outdoors - suddenly feels like he made the right decision but each to their own and all that.