Fred was born in 1909 in the first cottage in Chawley Lane on the left, by the yew tree. His father, a carter, was born in the same cottage. He now lives in Stanford-in-the-Vale.
Schooldays
He has vivid memories of the cane being given to him at school. He had his ears
boxed for climbing on the school wall and the second time hewas caught playing
on the same wall on a Sunday, Mr Cole (Pontius Pilate as he was nicknamed) gave
him the cane next day at school. The boys caught mice out of Tyrell's rick of
corn which stood next to the school and let them loose in the classroom. The
girls gave the game away with giggles and shrieks. One put her hand up,
"Please Miss, Fred Costar has let a mouse loose", and of course it was
the cane again. It was church on Sunday morning and Sunday School in the
afternoon and a walk in the evening with his parents, two brothers and two
sisters. He also remembers the family pig. The stick evidently did Fred good for
eventually he reformed and won the Bishop's prize, which was a Prayer Book.
Chawley Works
Fred was employed at the Brick Kilns and remembers the 1920 strike. Willoughby
lost a leg in the saw mill and was given a cottage in compensation. There were
no deeds to be found when the cottage was sold. At a Union meeting held in the
old Pound, people threw money in a hat to help them,while on strike. A
bricklayer would be paid £1 a thousand bricks laid, and the brickwork of
Chawley Villas was built in ten days. Monty Sherwood earned £30, which included
setting the grates. Fred described the work at Chawley and said there were two
gangs working on machine bricks and one going on sandstock bricks. There was a
shed with moulds for making ridge tiles, garden edging in terra cotta and land
drains. Arthur Simms was the skilled man who worked with the sandstock bricks
and moulds.
Four horses and a timber bogie were kept for fetching timber from the Earl of Abingdon's estate. This timber was used to make gates, wheel- barrows and clog soles were made with a band saw. There was a steam saw also, and the sawn timber would be sold. An auction was held every so often to sell any surplus.
Charley Neale, the foreman (probably a descendant of the original family who made bricks and tiles in 1846) thought the works couldn't carry on without him. One year, when he was ill for six weeks, he said on his return, "You are right; 1 think you get on very well without me.'
On Gee's farm, the fields Kiln Ground and Top Clays have names associated with earlier brickmaking. Kilns were commonly erected on large building sites, eg a Manor house or Bishop's palace or for village cottages.
Coronation of George Vth
The celebration was held in the Park. There was a Fete and all the children were
presented with their Coronation mug by Monty Sherwood.
Mummers
About the time when Fred was sixteen Cumnor villagers made up a troupe of
mummers. As there was little money for costumes they made their own with paper.
Shreds of paper were pinned all over their overcoats. They blacked their faces
and wore paper hats. There was Sid Cox as King William, Fred Costar as the
Doctor, Charlie Betteridge as the Foreman, Fred Saunders and then Fred Didcock
was Beelzebub, who wore a donkey's head and carried a bladder. The Doctor would
extract from the mouth of one of the party a horse's tooth. The mummers went
from one house to another the weeks before Christmas. They travelled as far as
Boars Hill to John Masefield's home, and to Dean Court and Swinford. Shanks pony
was the order of the day. One night a servant girl opened the door to them. She
was so shocked at what she saw - a man with a black face and paper streamers and
one with a donkey's head - that she passed clean out. By the time they reached
home about midnight they had consumed four or five suppers and several pints of
beer. They were tired but merry and it was all worth while. Cumnor itself was
always visited the last week before Christmas. A collection was taken at the end
of the play.
Cricket Club
A memory of cricket club days was that the cricket ball invariably fell in the
long oblong pond that was at the bottom of Cumnor cricket field and the boys
liked to earn sixpence getting it out. One Saturday the boy was a long time
getting the ball out as he could not find it. He would have to wade into the
rushes and water and get really wet. One of the team lost patience and grumbled
"Look at that boy - piddling about like a twud (toad) in a fit."
Charlie Betteridge had a remarkable throw when it came to a cricket ball. He had
been known to throw the ball over Chawley Brick Works up 150 ft, the height of
one of the chimneys, and down inside it.
(Fred Costar was interviewed by Mrs Iris Wastie, October 1980)