8. Rover Words and Music by Kevin Adams
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Rover was the name of a much-loved dog at the Calverton Manor Farm cottage where a family of nine lived as working tenants for the farm during the middle of the 20th century. Dick Webb and his sister Bet Jones were interviewed for memories of life and work there. Their stories of Rover feature in two Living Archive MK productions: a book[1] and a radio ballad[2]. This song about him is a prime example of Kevin Adams’ skill in adapting people’s verbatim words to fit the rhythm and rhyme of a lyric.
Dick recalled Rover’s beginnings: ‘Rover came from the ‘Dog’s Mouth’ - Farmer Amos at Cosgrove. He was a good man training dogs – marvellous. It was a mongrel collie… mongrels were always better dogs. Kevin’s rhyming lyric is ingenious with the use of this information: The ‘Dog’s Mouth’ in Cosgrove was locally famous / The fellow that lived there was old Farmer Amos, And breeding of farm dogs was his stock in trade / If you want a dog, go to Amos. Dick also described their care for Rover – as Kevin reiterates in the song: ‘The only medicine Rover had was a bit of twist tobacco. If he got worms Dad would hold his mouth open and we’d drop this twist tobacco in. Dad would hold his nose until it had gone. A farm dog’s a worker, he doesn’t need petting / Worm him with baccy, don’t get the vet in. Dick was especially grateful for Rover’s speciality, echoed in Kevin’s words: ‘If it wasn’t for rabbits in the war I don’t think we’d have been here, because we lived on them!...What Rover’s job was on the Sunday was to go across the fields and get us two rabbits for our dinner… He’d smell a hole and pinpoint through the ground where the rabbit was… he’d start sniffing and scratching – we’d dig down, straight on top of the rabbit!’ During the war there was little to eat, / Everything rationed, especially meat. Rover would contribute in his own way / Two rabbits for our Sunday dinner Caught them all on your own, boy / Now chew on the bones, / You’ve a nose for a coney, old Rover! Bet remembered how Rover would babysit the seven children for their parents - which Kevin related: ‘He was lovely. He was always with us. If Dad went to meet Mum down the Market Square, Dad always used to say, ‘Come on boy, take care, look after them’ and he used to lay round by us by the fire until Mum and Dad come back in the house, and he wouldn’t move from us.’ Rover was trusty and loyal and clever / When dad told him ‘stay!’ he would sit there for ever, Guarding the baby that lay in the pram / No-one would tangle with Rover. ‘I won’t be long boy, so just you take care / Watch over the children and just stay right there.’ Rover would lie with us down by the fire / Nothing could harm us with Rover. As Dick recalled with sadness, Rover’s death shocked the whole family - ‘all upset for a week after.’ ‘It’s a shame. He went out rabbiting one day and must have chased a rabbit through some barbed wire. He ripped his eye right out and they had to shoot him.’ So Kevin added just a little poetic licence to end the song on a more positive note: We cried when he died, Rover left us too soon… / But now we remember at every full moon Some see a crab, and some see an old man / But we see the face of our Rover. [1] Calverton Manor Farm, a century of memories by Marion Hill, available from www.livingarchive,org.uk [2] This hour-long radio programme can be heard on The Horse and the Tractor- a Radio Ballad | The Living Archive Band (bandcamp.com). The song can be heard in full on Calverton: Songs from 'The Horse & the Tractor' | The Living Archive Band (bandcamp.com) and on Rover | The Living Archive Band (bandcamp.com) or Rover | Kevin Adams (bandcamp.com) |
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