Memories of cold comforts down on the farm

WITH reference to the “Corner of Yorkshire” article on Scar House (Yorkshire Post Magazine, May 26) my family moved from number one Black Bottom Cottage, Calverley, when my father had bought Mosscarr Farm near Pateley Bridge, a small holding of 30 acres.

I was nearly four years old. The date of moving was November 12, 1945.

We moved into a bungalow which had been taken down from Scar and re-erected at Mosscarr. The structure was of heavy duty weather boarding and the interior was lined out with eight feet by four feet asbestos sheets and then wallpapered.

The flush toilet had been reconnected to a septic tank which didn’t have enough fall and often blocked up. The water supply was from a spring up the hillside.

Other than the toilet, everything seemed okay. Then came the winter of 1947. The water pipe was too near the surface, so it froze solid.

All the pipes inside also and the inside of the windows had crazy frost patterns. There is a photograph of my father shovelling four feet of snow from the roof because the roof supports had not been put in the right position.

How those families had lived at Scar just beggars belief. The wooden bungalow has since been demolished and replaced with a stone built one.

My wife and I often walk round the area. It certainly brings back memories of those cold days and nights.