"My dad had been wounded in the war and er, he didn't live very much longer after that so my mum brought three boys up, pretty hard times in those days and this is one of the reasons why we were out and about erm, poaching for something to eat, which was the seagulls eggs, the rabbits and erm, sometimes they used to be shot, but we used to snare them normally and there was a place in Brixham where we used to be able to sell the rabbit skins, you'd probably know that.
On the day that I did fall over the cliffs I was with two other young lads, they were a bit older than me and we were supposed to take it in turns to go down and get the eggs. But as I was the smallest and the youngest I had to do more of it, of course that's when it all happened. Just on this last occasion when it was my turn to go, it was a bit further than we'd normally risk ourselves, but erm, and that's what happened I slipped and er, tumbled down over the cliffs there.
One of the lads got frightened and ran home, ran off, but one of the stayed with me, came down and we managed to climb back over the top and we went into what was then a little holiday camp, in the reception of the holiday camp and we got erm, the ambulance and took me to Brixham hospital. Er, in a bit of a mess obviously 'cause of all the broken eggs all over me, it's lucky that I wasn't seriously hurt."
Story by Laurie Dart,
Audio + edit by Anna Keleher,
Transcription by Alexandra Brown
This story features in "Ballad of Berry Head" a film short showing daily during the summer months from 21st July in The Visitor Centre, Berry Head National Nature Reserve, Brixham.
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