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ADA TUCKER
Born:
West Ilkerton,
Devon, 1923
Lived:
Lynton,
Parracombe
Recording made: 2002
Length of recording:
2 hrs 22 mins
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Ada Tucker says farming is the only life she knows. As a child she used to milk the cows before she went to school and help her father outside. She didn't find life at West Ilkerton lonely, being content to play with the cats and dogs; sometimes David Ridd, her cousin, came over from Challacombe.
She started going to dances at 18. She says her father liked some of her boyfriends, as long as she didn't want to marry them, but that it didn't worry her. She helped look after him when he was ill, and carried on farming after he died. Eventually she and her mother moved to Parracombe and started making home made wine.
She says one of the most memorable moments of her life was riding to Hawkridge carrying her dance frock, and then home again over the moorland, letting the pony find its way in the fog.