chrishallfolk

Chrishall Folk: The Two Freds

It was early in the war they came. The news went round the village that two strange men were living rough in a barn on the Glebe Farm - and they were both named Fred. For years no-one knew their surname, but there was no mistaking them. Fred the elder had only one arm, he had lost the other in the First World War. Fred, the younger had the regulation pair, ergo, they were known, respectively, as One-arm and Two-arm Fred. One-arm was the dominant character. Two-arm hovered in his shadow as if attached by an invisible wire. Both wore flat caps. One-arm sported a red neckerchief knotted at his throat, whilst Two-arm’s shirt neckband was secured by a brass stud. Wherever One-arm was , there was Two-arm, just a few feet to the rear. They maintained the same positions as they cycled at a stately three miles an hour through the village on their ancient bicycles.

They were tireless workers, and after a hard day’s labour in the fields, tended a prolific allotment situated in those days at Crawley End, and supplied all their vegetable needs - and left many generous gifts over for neighbours and friends.

Employed by Messrs. Drage and Kent, they were for many years housed in a steam-plough van which stood in ‘Moors’ (there were no houses there then) - and they became part of, and accepted as ‘real Chrishall’ - no mean feat in a village that for many generations had been very insular.

One-arm was an extrovert, and loved to talk. Two-arm was silent, or at the best monosyllabic. One of One-arm’s favourite tales was about when he went to the same school as Gracie Fields in Rochdale - but where Two-arm originated, or how the two met up was never divulged.

For years the two were inseparable, then in 1957 One-arm became ill. It was the end of the line for a remarkable character. He died and was buried on May 9th. Without his driving force, Two-arm had no will to live, and within a day or two he also died, and was buried on May 15th.

Lying side by side in Chrishall Churchyard are ‘Frederick Holmes, aged 75’ and ‘Frederick Glasscock, aged 54’.

Like Saul and Jonathan in the Bible ‘they were lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in death they were not divided’.

Extracts taken from Irene Cranwell’s book