Saturday, October 20

Old Cob Wall by C.Fox Smith

I popped in to see John Tizehurst the other day (he plays the accordion in my photofilm Memories of a house). I wanted to show him the pictures of him lighting the Jubilee Beacon from back in June. He's not been so well lately and I thought they might cheer him up. We had a lovely chat about this and that and as I was leaving he gave me a copy of this poem. Spoken in the old Devon way it sounds really lovely.


Old cob wall
    Have fell at last:
Us knowed he might
    A good while past.

Great-grandad he
   Built thicky wall
With maiden earth
   And oaten strawl

He built en in
   The good old way.
And there he've stood
   Until today

But wind and rain
   And frost and snow
Have all combined
   To lay en low.

Us propped en up
   With stones and 'ood
Us done our best,
  But tweren't no good.

He gived a bit
  And then a lot,
And at the finish
  Down he squat.

And now, since barns
  Has got to be,
Us'll build another
'Stead of he.

But not the same
  He was afore,
'Cos no one builds
  Cob walls no more.

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