- Kath Johnson, farmer’s daughter
Kath Johnson (Emma Drabble)
Kath Johnson paints a graphic picture of life on the Levels: “It was more of a community then, wasn’t it? Everybody you saw, you knew.”
Her family led a make-do-and-mend existence interspersed with unexpected delights like listening to the roar of lions at night. “Mrs Maybury had Whitson Zoo. She was a lovely lady. If we had an animal die on the farm she gave it to these lions.”
When she passed the entrance exam to Chepstow Grammar Kath travelled to school in a neighbour’s stock truck. “Mr Jones put benches in the back of the van, because he also hauled calves to market in it”.
A family crisis put paid to her ambitions. “I wanted to be a policewoman, but Dad had a heart attack so I left school at 16 and I’ve been on the farm ever since.” She harbours no regrets, remembering family evenings playing cards by the light of the Tilly lamp, Monday’s wash day and Sunday’s bath nights, “me first, then my brothers, then uncle, Dad and finally Mum.”
The land was mostly managed by hand, raking the reens, grafting garden roses onto hedgerow briars with raffia and clay, and catching eels with bean pole fishing rods. “How can I put it? We had nothing, but we were happy.”
Life on the Levels Interview:
Kath reflects on growing up on a farm in Goldcliff, childhood lessons around the reens and how they work, lost animals from Whitson Zoo, school time at Goldcliff and the village bobby, childhood games, farming, wildlife and otter hunting.