Ronald
Lockley first went to live on Skokholm in November 1927: the following July he
married Doris Shellard, a near neighbour to his previous home just east of
Cardiff. Their daughter Ann was born in May 1930 at Martin’s Haven, in what was
then known as Lower Island Lodge, now much changed as an information centre and
appropriately called Lockley Lodge.
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Ann made her
first crossing to the island a few days later. Numerous family photographs
provide a vivid testimonial to her childhood years, while her father’s copious
diaries tell of the highs and lows of island life. There were certainly many
lows, like poor lambing seasons and low prices for fish: on one occasion they
even carried their catch to Cardiff but fared no better.
Above all
there was the wildlife of Skokholm, especially the birds to be studied, and the
establishment of the first Bird Observatory in Great Britain in 1933. From
about that time Ann has memories of life on Skokholm and its natural history.
For instance, she cannot remember a time when her father was not studying the
Manx Shearwaters, especially the little colony on The Knoll, the rock ridge
sheltering the buildings from southerly winds.
Memories too
of the increasing number of visitors. Among them Julian Huxley, who she thought
of as being long like a caterpillar so knew him as Mr Caterpillar. Of W. S.
Bristowe, a spider authority, whose birthday it was during his visit, Doris
making him a spider birthday cake. Others included John Buxton who was to marry
one of her father’s sisters; H. Morrey Salmon who helped build the first
Heligoland trap and whose sons were welcome playmates for Ann; and John
Fursdon, later to become warden of the island in 1946.
There were
at times hazardous boat journeys, pushing off from Martin’s Haven in a strong
northerly, or passing through the tide races in Jack Sound or round St Anne’s
Head. Ann says, “I can relive every moment of it still” when describing a near
disaster as they planned to cross to Martin’s Haven. Her father’s diary simply
recorded “we had healthy exercise and excitement, we changed our soaking
clothes and had dinner.”
Visitors to
Skokholm were usually transported from Dale by the Sturley family. Edgar the
skipper hardly moved from his place at the tiller; John, amidships; Jim, the
youngest, in the bow. Ann loved sitting next to Jim because he wore a dried
starfish in his headband.
In the late
summer of 1940 island life drew to an end because of the war. After 13 years
the Lockley family departed. Everything from that season’s preserved gulls eggs
to water tanks, furniture and livestock, including sheep and ponies, was
transported to the mainland and the start of more pioneering, at Cwmgloyne, and
later at Dinas Head north Pembrokeshire.
Indeed, and
despite the title, about a third of the book is devoted to these mainland
years, an intriguing part of the Lockley story which is often overlooked. As to
Ann herself, she helped with the re-opening of Skokholm in 1946, of Skomer just
for that season, and later spent some time on Caldey. After qualifying with a
Diploma in Dairying she went to New Zealand under their immigration scheme in
1953, married and has lived there ever since, but quite naturally still misses
the Pembrokeshire coast.
This is a
fascinating book about the Lockley family and not just their life on Skokholm.
When you have read it, search for a copy of her father’s Early Morning Island
with more about Ann and Skokholm: though, as she says herself, she “cannot
decide whether it was a children’s book or a children’s book for grown-ups!”
There is even a photograph of Jim Sturley complete with starfish!
This a review of the book written by Ann Lockley and published by Gwasg Carreg Gwalch. Review by David
Saunders first appeared in the summer edition of Natur Cymru.
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