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Last
modified:
August 29, 2006
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In 1937 the links between Tottergill and the Right Honourable Joscelyn
L’Estrange, Earl 0f Carlisle, Lord of the Manor of Castle Carrock finally’
ended, with all rents, fines, reliefs, heriots and fees duly discharged. The
Trust of members of the Watson family and their relatives, the Murdochs, still
owned the farm, but the following year Dick and Laura moved on to Town Foot Farm
in Castle Carrock village. New tenants arrived at Tottergill - Herbert and
Eleanor Foster with their four daughters and a son.
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The traditional cycle of the farming year continued, but the coming of war meant
that farming picked up a bit after the lean years of the thirties. The grain was
now threshed with a tractor driven thresher and when the Galloway cattle had
been milked by hand, the milk was put in three churns and taken to Garth Foot
for collection by a wagon from the Border Dairy in Carlisle. German prisoners
worked on the farm. Eleanor kept hens and when the pigs were killed the sides of
bacon went down into the cool cellar below the house. There were sti11 white
pigeons in the tower and barn owls in the buildings.
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Rose
Forster remembers a happy and carefree childhood, playing in the now’ disused
watermill, collecting primroses and bluebells in the woods, walking to school in
the village and helping on the farm with their four Clydesdale horses.
The
family kept sheep on the fells as far as the river Gelt, on land rented from the
Church Commissioners. In the 1930’s when they lost this land it was time for
them too, to move on and the Trust sold the farm to the Millburn’s who worked
here for forty years.
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The
oak tree grew on through all the changes. Now venerable and mature it has
developed large burrs around its trunk. While its branches were pollarded. its
root system continued to develop and is now’ bigger in proportion to the
crown. This has helped to prolong the tree’s life, With a girth of 24 feet 9
inches, (7.6m), its exact age can only be guessed at.
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It
has played a full part in the story of Tottergill. It has provided kindling wood
and maybe charcoal, sheltered children from the rain, given homes to countless
thousands 0f insects, birds and animals, watched over courting couples. hosted
village barbeques in its shade and witnessed the daily struggle to earn a living
on the farm. Perhaps its strangest role of all was as a perch for Willie Watson
(brother of Dick), who used to sit amongst its branches and play his fiddle.
Tottergill Farm, Castle Carrock, Carlisle,
Cumbria, CA4 9DP, ENGLAND
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