8. When Dick Met Alma Music by Rod Hall; Words by Rod Hall, Kevin Adams and Godfrey Yeomans
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Dick Webb recorded his memories of living and working at Calverton Manor Farm for Living Archive MK’s 2014 radio ballad The Horse and the Tractor[1]. His experiences ranged from the 1930s – he was born in a farmworker’s cottage in 1931 - until he retired in 1997. One reminiscence was about how he and his future wife Alma came to meet…
Dick: ‘My wife Alma come from Manchester. Her Dad was on the railway and his neighbour, Ike Davis, was working in the railway yard that closed down. He was offered the choice to go to Derby, Swindon in Wiltshire, or Wolverton. So, he decided to come to Wolverton. There was quite a few come down. But he was the only one to live out in the village. All the others went to Wolverton, but he had to walk from Calverton every day, backwards and forwards to work. Eventually Alma came down to visit them… Now we was thrashing corn in the farmyard at Calverton, and that particular day we’d got the big straw rick right up close to the road just by the church there, and I was right on the top and she walked by the bottom. That was the first time I saw her.’ Alma: ‘I was only here on my holiday for a week, me and my sister and friend. That was the first time. We met up in the Shoulder of Mutton pub.’ Dick: ‘When she went by another time, I said, Do you want a lift on me bike? I was going to give her a ride on the crossbar. And that’s how we met…’ Alma: ‘This was in 1957 - I mean, we had to do a long-distance courting!’ Dick: ‘Me and my brother Bob had a double wedding at Calverton – brothers married sisters. Mr Payne the vicar married us. First double wedding he’d ever done. And then he christened all the children before he died… Both Alma and meself think a lot of things are fate. It’s going to happen and that’s it. If Ike Davis hadn’t have come to live in Calverton, they wouldn’t have come down. It’s funny how things work out. Normally I don’t work on the straw rick, I do other jobs, like on the threshing machine but this particular day I was on the top of the rick, so that was fate again. Different things that have happened over the years, we think it’s fate.’ Alma: ‘What’s meant to be…’ [1] The original radio ballad with interviews, interspersed with extracts from the songs they inspired, can be accessed from DVDs and CDs | Online Shop | Living Archive The full version of all the Calverton songs, can be heard on: Calverton: Songs from 'The Horse & the Tractor' | The Living Archive Band (bandcamp.com) A digital performance is provided from this 2015 album with Brad Bradstock in lead and its link is available on: When Dick Met Alma | The Living Archive Band (bandcamp.com) |
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