Agricultural labour in Guernsey during the German Occupation

Mr Ray Caradeuc interviewed by Margaret Le Cras

Transcribers note : Transcription difficult at times because interviewer was nearer the microphone and her interjections sometimes upstage Mr Le Caradeuc, who is rather faint. Where the interviewer’s comments are relevant they have been transcribed in full.

Ray Caradeuc. So, I moved on from there, and then went to er… We were called in, by the States, because we were working for the States, when we finished with your brother.
I………. My uncle. And you would have been weeding, you said, like beetroot.
Ray Caradeuc. Beetroots and carrots and parsnips and whatever. And my brother, and my dad.
I………. So all the Caradeucs would have been weeding?
Ray Caradeuc. Yes.
I………. Yes. Tough.
Ray Caradeuc. [ ]
I………. You knew Cliff, yes, that’s right.
Ray Caradeuc. He was living there before us, probably,
I………. Oh yes, I should think,
Ray Caradeuc The cottage we lived in was Doctor Foote’s. He asked us if we’d buy it, my dad said yes we’d buy it, he named the price of it, my father bought it, and after that I finished with farming, oh no I didn’t, we worked for the States, and the States said “Well, it’s thrashing time, go to St Peters, to Tostevin, go thrashing” and we went from there to the Douit.
I………. Because the thrashing machine would have gone from one farm to another, wouldn’t it.
Ray Caradeuc. That belonged to De Garis. Jack
I………. From Seaview. Yes
Ray Caradeuc. And then Tomatoes up at the Jardins. We were a couple of months on that,
I………. Yes , you must have been. So after that, what did you do?
Ray Caradeuc. Well, my brother knew a chap that was going round piece working, so we went, the three of us, piece working. We’d dig a perch in the morning,
I………. oh, crumbs.
Ray Caradeuc. Of ground, I mean, a Perch is twenty-five feet square, we used to do that, and we used to work for Martin Bichard, filling up boxes, for his tomatoes, [he used todo a lot, young plants, we used to work for him,] penny a box.
I………. Penny a box, Oh Lala. But there would have been a lot of Germans around your way, round the Groutez, eh?
Ray Caradeuc. Yes, well I’m coming to that. And then when we’d finished with the pieceworking, which was, it was hard work, on the food we had.

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