LIFE AT BUTLERS - 12

Editorial postscript

By Bob Stephen

12. EDITORIAL POSTSCRIPT

We had some email correspondence with Martin Edgar prior to the publication of this magnum opus article.

The email correspondence is reproduced here in full as it contains some relevant observations on the text such as clarification of some characters and text that was put in by Martin for family consumption.

Please note that the earliest email is at the bottom.

On 27/08/18 13:01, Martin Edgar wrote:

Thanks, Bob,

Have a nice time in France - and don't apologise for any time taken to finalise things. It took me at least five years to get round to putting the thing in the public domain! So don't hold your breath for the Ruth Cadge stuff either...

Cheers, Martin

On 27/08/2018 11:57, RDCA Bob wrote:

Thank you Martin,

We note the typo - brought about by us not proofreading our text on the website carefully enough (this we had created using an OCR facility on the internet to scan your paper copy, thus saving us the trouble of a lot of typing). Also, thank you for the clarifications and additional information.

We would appreciate Ruth Cadge's notes or your "bound up" version of them. If you do send us one or the other please leave the pages unbound as we will have to break them up to scan them and then to convert them to computer text for the site.

I think when we come to publish the article I'll split it up into chapters, each corresponding to the section headings of your original. There will be links between them so readers can move around easily. This way the material is easier on the eye and anyone leaving comments will have them associated with the relevant part of the text rather than all comments being put at the bottom of what is truly a magnum opus.

We are shortly leaving France and coming back to the UK slowly, expecting to get back to UK around about 12th September. I hope you don't mind us delaying publication until then. What I'll do is leave the existing article in place, with the same link you already have, and make minor alterations to it, such as the above typo, and then do the splitting up for publication shortly after I return.

Regards, Bob Stephen

On 26/08/18 16:35, Martin Edgar wrote:

You both have done a super job. A minor typo is that the neighbour at Paglesham was "Perry" - not "Peny". You can see a likeness of Mr Perry in the Southend Standard cartoon of the folks who ran Rochford market.

Furniture, and Rupert and Liz. The various remarks about items of furniture are in there because the piece was originally written in response to a half dropped remark of my nephew that he wanted his kids to know where their roots came from. So I wrote it up and circulated it round the family. It seemed appropriate also to tell them where the various bits and pieces we gave away on downsizing actually originated from. Personally, I think they distract from the general thread of the story, and I would edit them all out; but up to you!

In answer to your question, Rupert is my nephew, son of youngest brother Miles. Liz is the widow of my elder brother Robert. Do you need any more? I don't think either fit in the story, as Rupert was born after the story ends, and Liz married Robert in Rhodesia, where Robert went in his early 20s to make the rest of his life - an altogether different story.

The Cadges. The original Cadge - he of the bow legs - was William, and you have the pic of him and Mrs Cadge sitting in the drawing room of Butlers, having just been up to the Essex Show to receive his medal from the Queen Mum for 50 years agricultural service. He and Mrs had four sons (at least) - Walter (who became Foreman), Charlie (who became Head Tractor Driver) and a further two who died in the War.

Incidentally, my sister has just given me a copy of notes - about 20 pages, so more perhaps a rough memoir - by Ruth Cadge, who was Charlie's wife, which is the view from the other end of the telescope. Am minded to add a short forward, and bind it up as "Butlers - The View from the Cottages". Do you want a copy?

I have had a thought about the way things have changed. In a way it can be summed up by the fact that in the 40s and 50s the farm was run by Father and a staff of 13 in total, most of whom lived on site in the farm cottages with their families, kids and all. And it was a fairly self contained society as you have observed, being relatively cut off (two miles to the nearest town is quite a lot if you have to walk it). When Bill retired in the 90s, he ran the place with himself and one, with no animals and contract ploughing, contract seeding and contract harvesting. The people mostly seen around Butlers are now essentially commuters in, who run the various ventures taking place in the farm buildings. The flight from the country has taken place.

Best wishes, Martin

On 25/08/2018 18:51, RDCA Bob wrote:

Hello Martin,

After a bit of work your draft article is finally here:

http://www.rochforddistricthistory.org.uk/page.aspx?id=452

This is not yet published to the general public and sits in an inaccessible part of the RDCA site (now published and visible via above link or link in site Sutton category).

Some observations:

We have entered all your text. Please note that we have taken small liberties with it in a few places but in general it is exactly as you sent to us. We liked it a lot.

The photos have been cut up and distributed throughout the text. There are 17 in total. Note that for technical reasons we have had to change the shape of the photos to be landscape rather than portrait, so this means that legs etc are taken off and some of your composites have had to be chopped up. We have placed the photos where they seem relevant but we may have misplaced some: feel free to suggest repositioning or multiple placement of any of the 17 images as this is simple to do.

A couple of questions:

Rupert and Liz who have items of furniture - how do they fit into the story?

Is it William or Walter Cadge or are they separate persons? If separate, we need to offer an explanation in the text to avoid people thinking there is a misprint.

Regards, Bob Stephen (and Sue Horncastle who has helped with the text and layouts)