When Len and Mary first met they were 26 and 20 years old respectively Len had lost his young years and ambitions to the war, like so many others at that time. As a young man he was “tall, dark and handsome” and a very snappy dresser. Mary was “5ft 2 with eyes of blue” with a sunny disposition and sense of fun. They were born in the 1920's, just after the First Word War, lived through the depression in the 30‘s and the deprivation of the Second World War. This made them tough, resourceful, self sufficient and capable of dealing with most things as they came along. Len was an intelligent man with an analytical, enquiring mind. He loved to know how things worked and would use that information and develop it for his own needs. He was skilled with his hands and loved to make things. It didn’t matter if it was a mechanical engineering project, woodworking, or building a sledge for us children, it had to be done 'properly'. As a young man he played a cornet in the Clun Band. It was a treasured instrument as, so the story goes, his father had sold a cow in order to buy it. He always loved music. He thought Begin the Beguine was the best tune to come out of the war, loved Acker Bilk, Jim Reeves, Glenn Miller and brass bands and would enjoy singing away to himself as he worked. He and Mary loved to dance. When they were courting they were allowed to stay out after ten o’clock if they were at a dance so naturally enough they would try to go dancing as often as possible! When the children started to arrive they had to look for somewhere for their family to grow up. Houses were difficult to come by after the war but in 1950 they moved to a 37 acre farm, The Cwbalt, Hyssington and committed themselves to a farming way of life. They also played a major part in the village’s social life. Len set up and was Chairman of the Entertainment Committee and soon Whist Drives, Socials, Dances, Sports Days,Village Carnivals, trips to the seaside and pantomime were a regular thing. Even remote small villages could have a wonderful social life in those days. He would draw out the posters advertising the events and Mary would run up a new outfit or make the children costumes for the Fancy Dress competition or cakes for the prizes. I can remember him throwing the french chalk onto the wooden boards in the hall so that they could slip and slide easily when they were dancing waltzes, quicksteps, fox trots and two steps to a live band. This was usually made up of a couple of accordions but sometimes there were piano, drums, trumpet and saxophone. Of course there was no alcohol, just tea and cakes. Mary excelled at the races on Village Sports Day. A groan would go up if she entered a race because she always won. She always ran bare foot and she had a fair turn of speed it has to be said. On the day of the Coronation Sports she took home three commemorative glass plates. Life for a farmer’s wife, especially then, could be very hard but Mary was never afraid of hard work. She had to help out on the farm as well as run a home and look after 4 young children. That’s hard enough today but during the 1950s the work was relentless. To say that the Cwbalt had no amenities is a bit of an understatement. It was set on the side of a hill over a mile away from the village and the only access was a muddy lane or up several fields.They had a little Austin 7 that had a dickey clutch and one headlight. Sometimes if the lane was too muddy they had to abandon it and walk home. The house had one cold water tap that Len had piped in from a natural spring above the house and two light bulbs that ran off a generator in the barn. There was no inside toilet, just an earth closet in the orchard, no bathroom and no hot water. I’ll try to describe Mary’s way of life there. There were no labour saving devices in those days. She cooked on an open range or a paraffin fuelled stove, She did all the washing by hand and ironed it on a folded blanket on the kitchen table with a flat iron heated on the open fire, She made all of the children’s clothes, even their coats and knitted their jumpers and socks, hats, gloves and scarves and even their bathing costumes! She made her own jams, chutneys and pickles, planted her vegetable garden and always had beautiful flower beds and a little lawn that she used to cut with a pair of scissors because she didn’t have any clippers. She kept her chickens and helped Len with the milking, the harvesting and anything else that needed doing. She went to Bishop’s Castle on the bus once a week and had to drag all the shopping up three fields and over several stiles before she got home. Life for Len at Cwbalt was hard too but he was young and enthusiastic and set to with gusto. He started with two cows and built the herd up to about thirteen and sold the milk to Minsterley Creameries. He worked the farm with two horses, Blackie and Blossom until he could afford his first tractor a little Fordson. His father would cycle from his own small holding at Brockton,Lydbury North about 8miles away and help him to hoe the fields by hand or bring the harvest in before cycling back to do his own feeding and milking. He built a new cow house, dairy and dutch barn and installed a milking machine and basic electric lighting which was powered by an engine in the barn. They were hard times but the best of times especially for us children who were as free as the wind oblivious to the struggle our parents were having.