Sidney Walter Wastie, the second son of Arthur and Sarah Wastie,
was born at Manor Farm, Cumnor, formerly called Mount Pleasant Farm and now
called New Farm, in 1909. He had three brothers and two sisters.
Sidney was a pupil at Cumnor School before going to the Central School, which
building is now the offices of the bus company in Gloucester Green, Oxford. He
remembers the open-top buses with a sheet of canvas put up in bad weather and no
windscreens.
During the First World War Mr Arthur Wastie trained the Special Police as he was
Group Leader. He taught them rifle target practice. He was an exceptional
marksman and could hit a silver 3d piece in the air or mark his initials on a
target board with shots. Locally, the Special Police were nicknamed the Royal
Standbacks. He remembers that, though a schoolboy, he and Reg Costar played
football with the German prisoners of war at Upper Whitley Farm. The school
pupils were lined up at the end of the war to wave goodbye to these prisoners as
they marched out of the village.
Like all boys, Sid wanted a bicycle, which in those days was purchased for £5.
He wanted it to ride to school and his father said that if he shot rabbits,
which were a pest on the farm, he would buy him a bi-cycle. Sid shot 19/6d worth
of rabbits and got his bicycle.
The schoolchildren nicknamed Mr Cole 'Pilate' as he exacted judgement on them
and it was often the stick. Sid enjoyed creative work, especially working in
wood. School conjured up memories of French knitting on cotton reels with 4
tacks, paper chains and holly making at Christmastime. On leaving the Central
School, Oxford, Sid commenced an apprenticeship in cabinet making but cut his
finger very badly and gave up. He then worked at home on the farm and reared
chickens for egg production and kept the large farmhouse garden in order.
Mrs Sarah Wastie had taken an interest in chicken and duck rearing all her life
and there were a number of incubators at Leys Farm. Broody hens with chicks
would be sold, eggs, and also many hundreds of rabbits which were shot on the
farm for 1s 0d each. These made an excellent casserole or were fried with bacon
if young enough. They might also be stuffed with thyme and parsley stuffing and
then roasted.
Joe Clack was a great walker and as one stood in the centre of the village on a
still evening it was so quiet that he could be heard coming from as far away as
the crossroads. He always carried home a piece of firewood, picked up on the
way, in the hedgerow or woods, to put on his fire. Archie Bullock was another
local character. One day he built an aeroplane and decided he was going to fly.
History does not relate what happened, but the villagers were much amused.
Another day he was put on a motorbike which he had no idea how to stop. He just
kept going round and round the triangle of roads, Cumnor to Besselsleigh and
back and round again until the machine ran out of petrol and stopped, to his
great relief.
Recorded by Iris Wastie August 1980.