October 16, 2020
My grandad, John Bright of Bossington Farm, now known as Bright’s Farm
My Grandad, John Bright (distantly related to his famous namesake, the reforming MP) used to rent the land in front of us.
He drove precariously on the hill below the Broughton Beeches, with me, a teenager as his terrified passenger. We went to visit his herd of Steers on the hill, and he had made a pet of several of them, I especially remember his favourite, Tommy.
A few years later I was on the combine at Harvest time, in the flatter fields beyond Wallop Brook – when it caught fire, and I had to drive it away from the precious yellow crop, at my own peril!
Grandad went “Dimblebee-ing” on fine evenings, tapping on the windows of courting couples. When they opened the car window he had long conversations with them about where they came from, their jobs, families and background – I loved my eccentric Grandad, who in many ways farmed as Victorian…
At Christmas he always sang a melancholy song “The Mistletoe Bough” in a scary voice, lit by firelight
https://mainlynorfolk.info/bellowhead/songs/themistletoebough.html
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