There were no tarmac surfaced roads when I went to school. Loads of large stones were hauled from Clee hill stone quarries by traction engines, and dumped in large heaps on the grass verge by the roadside. Later on a stone breaker came along, and spent several days breaking the large stones into about 3 inch lumps, with his long hammer. He always wore a pair of goggles at his work to save his eyes from the sharp pieces of stone which used to fly from under his hammer. When the road repair gang came along, the stones would be wheelbarrowed and tipped up on the road, and then spread to form a layer over the surface; a layer of earth was then spread over the stones and water was sprayed over all from a water cart. The water cart was a large metal cylindrical tank mounted on a wheeled framework and drawn by a horse, with a long tube at the rear, with holes from which the water sprayed. Then the big heavy steam roller came along, and pressed the lot firmly down to make a reasonably good surface. The roller crew used to leave the roller inside a field near the roadside, here they also had a living van in which they slept and had their meals. In those days there were road men, who maintained a length of roadway, trimming and siding the road verge, and also cleaning out the roadside gutters and sweeping up any dirt or litter on the road surface.

The village green was not enclosed by a concrete kerb or fence, but was open to the road. Carts and waggons due for repairs were often drawn onto the green opposite the wheelwright's shop. On the green stood a very old lime tree, known as the arbour tree; it had large spreading branches and the trunk was hollow. It was a very easy tree to climb and sometimes, if we had a length of cord, we fastened the two ends to a massive branch and then had a good swing. Sometimes we used to sit under the tree and collect motor car numbers — writing in a notebook the letters and numbers. You would be lucky to get a dozen in a day!

The old tree stood nearer the wheelwrights than the present tree; I have a pre-war aerial photograph of the village which shows both trees, the present one very young with a fence round it. The old tree was felled as unsafe sometime between 1939 and 1947; no one seemed to remember exactly. The present tree on the green was planted in the mid-30s.

From 'Reminiscences of Life in Brampton Bryan' by Robert Geoffrey Walter Messer 1903-1988 (© Leintwardine History Society)