The Rugby Advertiser carried out on of a series of Armchair interviews shortly after the First World War. One of these featured a member of the Dumbleton family, who have had a presence in the area for over 200 years. Thomas Dumbleton (1839-1924), was born in Church Lawford, working locally for many years, although residing in Long Lawford after he was married. Thomas was aged 82 when interviewed in 1921, and in an article entitled “Fifty-Six Years of Married Life” was asked about how things had changed during the past 80 years.
It falls to the lot of few married couples to live to together six years after the celebration of their golden wedding, but this has been the happy experience of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Dumbleton, of Long Lawford. It was, therefore, with especial pleasure that I received the commission to call upon this old couple for a short chat, and I was most cordially welcomed by them when I called upon them in their snug little cottage near the Green and announced the reason for my visit.
When I arrived, I was informed that Mr. Dumbleton, who is eighty-two years of age and comparatively hale and hearty, was working in his garden. “It’s a job to get him to stay indoors, sir, if it’s fine.” I was informed.
A KEEN GARDENER.
“Ah, yes, I like to do a bit of gardening when I get a chance. I have always been fond of gardening, and have brought up my children to it, and this year I have cultivated 600 square yards. It is a very healthy occupation and has helped to keep me fit. I was born at Church Lawford, but came to Long Lawford when I was quite young, and I have spent the whole of my married life here. We were married fifty-six years ago, and during the whole of that time we have only occupied two cottages. My wife, who is eighty years of age is not a native of these parts. She was born at Coleshill, near Birmingham.” She does not enjoy very good health, and during the first part of my visit she was enjoying a pleasant siesta upstairs.
AN EARLY START IN LIFE.
One of the most noteworthy changes in modern times– a change for which we probably have to thank the great Victorian novelist as much as anyone – is the different attitude shown to children compared with the attitude of forty, fifty, sixty years ago. Now it is realised that the boy is really the “father of the man” in more ways than one. In the past children were regarded rather as potential wage-earners and financial assets, than as future citizens who should be prepared for the grim struggle of the world by a bright, genial, childhood, and consequently they were often placed out to work at a time when they should have still been inmates of the nursery.
Mr. Dumbleton is a case in point.
“I started to work when I was only eight years of age,” said Mr. Dumblęton. “I went to work for Mrs. Barnwell at Mount Pleasant farm, and, strangely enough, I finished up on the same farm for Mr. Cullen, when I was 78 years of age.”
“No,” he answered, in response to a half-put query as to whether he had worked on this farm all his life, “I worked at other farms between whiles, and for some years I worked on the railway as a platelayer. It is funny, but I believe I finished up in the same field I started in.”
“When I began work there was no machinery about, and we had to do all the labour by hand – reaping, mowing, and everything. I have worked, myself, till nine or ten o’clock at night in the harvest field.”
“TIMES HAVE ALTERED.”
At this point Mrs. Dumbleton, a pleasant old lady, joined us, and catching her husband’s last remark, interposed: “But they won’t do it now, though. Times have altered, and they won’t do it now.”
“All the old farmers of the days when I was a lad have gone, now,” added Mr. Dumbleton, “with the exception of Mr. John Brierly, of King’s Newnham. I left school when I was eight years old, and went to service when I was 13. I had a pound a year and my keep, and a shilling a week for tending the cows on the roadside. I also had to milk three or four cows night and morning.
“Living, of course, sir, was a good deal cheaper thenadays, or we should never have got on at all. When I was a boy you used to be able to buy 24 eggs for a shilling.
“It would be a job to get four for a shilling very often nowadays,” interrupted Mrs. Dumbleton. “The farmers, too, would always give you a can of milk for the fetching,” she added.
CRIMEAN MEMORIES,
“I have never known things so dear,” continued Mr. Dumbleton. “During the Crimean War bread was very dear, but other things were cheap in proportion. I used to go to Rugby, soon after the war, to buy meat, and could get three pounds of mutton for a shilling.”
The district around Long Lawford and the Lawford Road portion of Rugby has altered a great deal during the past 50 years, and Mr. Dumbleton recalled the fact that in his youth he frequently walked from Church Lawford to the Old Dun Cow (now Workers’ Union Club) and only passed two houses-the farmhouse now occupied by Mr. Cox, and a farm which stood on the site of the New Bilton Cement Works. The Sheaf and Sickle did not exist in those days, and as the Leamington line had not been constructed the road to Rugby was more on the level than it is now. A large area, now occupied by the main School buildings near the Star corner was in those days given over to shops, and a Mr. Butcher at that time kept a draper’s shop at the corner at the top of Sheep Street.
A Pig Market was held in Sheep Street, and a monthly fair was held in the streets of the town. Sales used to be held very early in the day then, and “many a time when I was a boy,” said Mr. Dumbleton, “I have brought cattle and sheep into Rugby before light. The cattle then used to stand along the top of Barby Road.” They were good old days, taking them all through, and I don’t altogether believe that things have altered so very much for the better, although, of course, there have been many improvements, and in many ways existence is more comfortable.
“SLEEPERS” IN CHURCH.
As stated above, Mr. Dumbleton worked for many years on the L. & N.W. Railway as a platelayer. “It was very different then from now,” he informed me. “The site of Willans Works and the Newbold Road houses was then open fields. The work on the railways was very different, too. They used to have iron rails instead of the modern steel rails, and stone blocks were placed between them instead of sleepers. Some of these stone blocks, I believe, were used in the building of Holy Trinity Church.”