everybody has a story to tell about their life

Father Murphy’s dynamo

Janet Chadband and Dennis Knight, 2013

Dennis: Jan got confirmed didn’t you? You got confirmed up here didn’t you (St Peter’s), I did my confirmation classes at St Endellion with Jan Cowling.

Janet: All posh

Dennis: Well Miss Waite went to St Endellion. I was a server up there old Father Murphy and we would go up there and Jan (Cowling) he would go home to Trelights, pedal off on his bike, and I would have pedal up from The Mill, well pushed it up and pedal down, come home downhill. Of course in the winter, dark you see, the vicarage never had any lectric, well it did and so we would have to go out with old Father Murphy, ‘cos time we left school, gone up there it was half past four quarter to five, we were supposed to be there five o’clock it would be dark see. Old Father Murphy would come out with a torch go right down the garden down the bottom and into this shed, he’d shine the torch into there and there would be this great big Listerine engine, what they would call a startomatic, go in there and he’d push the lever forward then he’d turn the bleddy handle and then Jan Cowling and I would have to pull the lever back and then the engine started and everywhere would be flooded with light.

Janet: let there be light.

Dennis: Then we would have to go all the way back into the Vicarage and have our confirmation class.

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