The village of Yalding (Kent) was brought to our attention recently when we received an email from Liz Watkin. She is a relative by marriage to Sid Mercer, a Yalding stalwart who Blunden knew well at the start of the twentieth century.
Blunden wrote of his childhood village in ‘English Villages’:
“You soon notice that the village is able to look after itself in many ways. The tradesmen’s establishments are proof of that. The butcher, the grocer, the cobbler, the barber, the saddler, the ironmonger,….the chemist’s and the cake-shop, and if you want a dress maker or a tailor we have them.” (p.14 English Villages published by Collins 1942)
This slim volume was produced during World War Two and reprinted in 1997. Blunden’s descriptions of early 20th century villages are accompanied by a collection of delightful illustrations. Order a copy.
His journey into the inmost spirit of rural England reveals a world we would hardly recognise today. While several of the old buildings still stand, the lived lives embedded in this self-sustaining, solid and dignified community described by Blunden feel far removed from the lives we live today. The social order was one of hierarchy and the common round was dictated by pattern, ritual, habit and acceptance.
In his village Blunden found:
“Some characters…in whom a marvellous richness of spirit of the place is concentrated. They are Shakespearean.” (p.21)
He pictures them for us as:
“…..worthies who could flourish in a novel by Thomas Hardy” (p.24)
Blunden surely had in mind worthies such as Liz Watkin’s great aunt Eliza and her husband Sid Mercer (pictured above with a friend) who for many years drove the baker’s van – powered by horse and cart.
Georgina and Charles Blunden (Edmund’s parents) and their children were closely connected to the heart of Yalding and its people. In ‘English Villages’ and also in ‘Country Childhood’ the chapter he contributed to ‘Edwardian England’ (published 1964 edited by Simon Nowell-Smith) Edmund described the relationship his family had to Sid.
He was a man who:
“knows every corner not only of the village but of the district; he knows the lands, the farms, the woods, the weather, the haunts of beast and bird.” (p.24 English Villages).
We can understand Sid’s personality through these words:
“Himself utterly frugal, he has the gift of making plenty attend him; and you may be sure that wherever anything calls for immediate and unexpected action he will be first on the scene and first with a workable answer.
Eliza his wife has ‘as much good humour as he, and a similar quality of fine judgment in all that passes. She has the same delight in doing things well, and can do many exceedingly well (not excepting the making of home-grown wines)…..She and he, long ago, quietly accepted their lifework, and made their place. “ (p.24 English Villages)
The vital role of tradition in this village and in the shaping of men and women like Sid and Eliza is not to be underestimated. “They can tell a hawk from a hernshaw (heron)…. they have it in their hands to grow things, and build things and drive things.” (p.25 English Villages)
Blunden’s lived experience of the value of such skills and their huge benefit to society is referred to in his words:
“…but we must see whether man can ever set his scientific novelties in a balance with the possibilities of simplicity.” (p32 English Villages)
The question implicit in this statement made in 1942 is one that is still relevant in 2024 – the key word being ‘balance’. It was people like Sid and Eliza who informed Blunden of these ‘possibilities’ highlighting the importance of values which we would be foolish to ignore today. We are most grateful to Liz Watkin for her contribution to ensuring that the tales of yester year remain as fact even in our 21st century world.