Sapperton in the 1920s
My grand-dad served throughout the Great War from 1914 to 1918. He was made redundant in 1919, in London, so he and his family moved back towards my grandmother’s home of Stroud. They lived in a Nissen hut by Minchinhampton Aerodrome (today’s Aston Down). Dad used to wander down to watch the trains. His sister, my Auntie Kath, had a different lens on the landscape.
For My Brother
When we were young
And full of fun and all our days were carefree,
Do you remember that September
We climbed the old pear tree.
The finest crop grows at the top,
The bramble jam we ate,
Our mother made and carefully laid,
On shelves with name and date.
We took a stick and went to pick
The biggest blackest berries,
Pulling down to the ground,
Clusters hung like cherries.
Remember the gate where we used to wait
For the early morning light,
To show in the field the wonderful yield
Of mushrooms, gleaming white.
The nuts we found so full and round
And filberts, too, so rare,
That lovely autumn on Sapperton Common,
What joy we used to share.
Wild harvest brings a host of things,
Mushrooms, nuts and fruit,
But best of all, with every Fall,
Comes memory, absolute.