Devonshire Feb 16

The Old Vet’nary
by Ken Watson
End of an era
a friendly, family practice
When I was nearing the time of
my demob from the army, I was
summoned to appear before the
Colonel to discuss my future career.
When I said I hoped to become a
vet, he observed that he did not
think there was such prospect
there since there were now very
few horses. He could not have been
more wrong, but in vet college the
horse was still, by tradition, the
prime subject. Luckily, I was to see
the last days of the heavy horse.
Just along the road from the
Camden Town College, 200 heavy
hoses were stabled under the
arches at King’s Cross Station, Shires,
Clydesdales, Percheron and Suffolk
Punch. In Stygian gloom they rested
thankfully overnight, four to every
arch, lit by oil lamps: and in the halflight
their shoes shot sparks as they
trudged in from a hard day’s graft
delivering goods to the railway’s
customers. Then one morning they
were gone, to be replaced by smelly,
noisy, dangerous lorries.
Everything was on the change in
farming. Until then it was a way
of life, but after the war, business
stepped in. There were some big
farms, but the majority were small.
It was possible to live off 30-50 acres,
with a few cows, pigs and some
sheep. Some lived shambolic lives
and dressed accordingly, but others
wore immaculate tweed suits which
they then covered with a brown drill
coat - it was basically all the same.
The flat cap of the poor farmer
might be contorted into a twisted
shape and redolent of many house
pressed against the yielding flanks
of generations of cows, but it was
still the same as worn by the richer
farmer. The brown coat, where
had it gone? Worn by all, from the
warehouseman to the managing
director touring his factory. Yet
remember that everyone wore a
suit and tie, no matter how tattered
and greasy. Many wore celluloid
collars fixed by stud front and back.
I always wore a white shirt, with
separate Van Heusen collar. As I
spent much of my day with one
or other arm up to the shoulder
in a cow’s rear end, my wife cut
my shirt sleeves off flush with
the shoulder. Even then my shirt
was often stained. Latex gloves
weren't available then, so my fellow
assistant in Sidmouth, as he was
allergic to bovine fluid tests, had to
buy his own rubber gloves. I never
found it necessary to even loosen
my tie, let alone remove it. Put my
'Wilson'
...Providing the highest standards
of professional veterinary care
OPENING TIMES
Monday - Friday: 8.30am - 6.30pm
Saturday: 8.30am - 12.30pm
Consultations by Appointment
EMERGENCY SERVICE
For out of hours veterinary attention
or advice please ring 01752 700600
PLYMOUTH
01752 700600
Burnett Road, Manadon,
Plymouth PL6 5BH
by Richard Woodward
IVYBRIDGE
01752 690999
Cornwood Road, Woodlands,
Ivybridge PL21 9JJ
Part Time Clinic at Yealmpton
jacket back on and I was fit to enter
the lounge of a lord. The jacket! In
it’s many pockets I could carry all
the instruments I needed for the
average consultation plus money,
pen, notebook etc. Take modern
man with his sweater and tight jeans
and his wallet projecting enticingly
from his back pocket. He takes half
the consultation time to gather his
tools together.
Don't get the impression all was
genteel and sedate. As a student, I
did visits with a young vet who later
rose to the top of the profession. He
wore a pin stripe suit and worked
so fast that I had to run to keep up
with his frenzied pace. He would
leave a house, jump into his car and
be off, and I had to leap into the
moving car or be left behind. No
sea belts. A few years later I would
learn the art of jumping into the
car and driving off before even
closing the door, using the car’s
momentum to close it. You could do
this because there were few other
cars on the road, and also hurtle
around country lanes, but if you did
meet someone, the brakes of those
days meant you rarely stopped in
the same direction you intended. I
always thought that Honiton High
Street resembled a Wild West
cowboy town with it’s wide vista
and emptiness. There were even
horse carts, and I sometimes saw
a horse hitched up outside a shop.
Such antics were needed because of
the heavy workload we carried, on a
five and a half day week, plus nights.
This was a result of the absurdly
low fees we charged, but also the
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