6. Master and Servants Words and Music by Kevin Adams
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From 1967, as socially mixed communities began to develop all around the New City of Milton Keynes, the residents of Calverton Manor Farm near Stony Stratford remained in a curiously archaic ‘bubble’ of class and status:
‘Richard Fontaine’s grandfather was Bob Fountaine – ‘Master Robert’. He had a big white beard. And then there was George – ‘Master George’…’[1] The Fountaine family had purchased Calverton Manor Farm* in 1922. ‘Master Robert’ Fontaine ran the farm until his death in 1950 when his son ‘Master George’ took over. In 1984, George’s son Richard assumed both the running of the farm and Manor House residence until 2007. Richard Fountaine recalled: ‘My grandparents had two full-time maids living in the big house - one was in the kitchen and another was serving at table. One was Ella West, a resident maid who was still working in the house until 15 years ago (1992). Her husband Harold West worked for the family too. He was a shepherd and looked after Hill Farm at Beachampton. He’d spend all winter laying hedgerows and the hedges - the traditional way of farming that every five to ten years you’d lay your hedges in rotation and you did it manually. That’s why men were needed on the farm. Harold and Ella West did 50 years apiece, so they did a century working for the family.’* Kevin’s song throughout underscores the power of such customary continuity: And if he may be rich and though we may be poor This is the way it goes, of that you may be sure… And we’ll work hard for him - we know no other way. Harold and Ella West’s son Eric grew up in this inbred tradition, unchanged for generations: ‘My uncle lived on the bank, me Gran lived round the road, then there was us, and another one up the village further, all Wests… My aunt lived in a thatched cottage, the first one you get to. I was born in the thatched cottages* at Manor Farm in 1940 - my father worked for Richard’s grandfather as a stockman… Eric West Discrimination on a personal level, however, was more pointed for the Webb family: ‘George Fountaine* was brought up with me Dad. Dad didn’t go to school like he did, but they were like two brothers.’ Bet Jones (née Webb) ‘You still had to call him ‘Master George’... Dad called him ‘Master George’.’ Dick Webb ‘We was looked at as the lowest of the low, even at school. It was ‘Oh, they’re on the farm’ - you had sarcastic remarks.’ Bet Jones (née Webb)* Kevin’s song is one of 13 original compositions inspired by Calverton Manor Farm[2]. As it reiterates, the beauty of the place could compensate a little for the inequality of the era: A greener plot of land was never seen on earth Our Master owns it all, it was his right by birth, Was his right by birth. [1] From the interviews about life on Calverton Manor Farm with Dick Webb and Bet Jones in 2007; their memories, along with those of Richard Fontaine and Eric West, comprise the basis of songs for Living Archive MK’s radio ballad The Horse and the Tractor [2] Hear the songs on: Masters and Servants | The Living Archive Band (bandcamp.com) |
Bob Webb and Harold West
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