Two Blue Diamonds

I remember accompanying my farmer Dad to Youngs of Misterton in 1970s when I was about 10. It was a deep, dark den of treasures. I was shown gloriously Heath Robinson like copper wire & wood tunnel traps for mice, rats, coypu, capybara etc. They increased in size and strength needed to set the springs. We had a mouse infestation, up our farm’s wattle & daub walls. We bought three triple hole traps and were instructed to bait with porridge oats, not cheese or bread. We caught 57 mice that autumn, often 3 at a time. Best traps ever. You would hear the hobnail boots of the mice over head, the clunk as they pushed noses past the trigger to the oats and the crack of the spine as the sprung loaded copper loop flicked up and broke their backs. My job was to empty the stiff little corpses next morning & reload. They had elephant traps, hippo scarers, nets to keep giraffe from eating your best trees. I remember the leopard traps too. While we were there the postie came to collect parcels for almost every country in Africa. They gave me some foreign stamps for my collection off their mail. I didn’t like the smell of the ferrets but loved the smell of cordite, when Dad got his shotgun cartridges refilled. It led to a career in the WRNS as a missile analyst for over 20 years and I still love the smell of fireworks, explosives etc. Could do with their traps now! Crumbleholms in South Petherton was another Aladdin’s Cave of ironmongery, but not as exciting as Youngs.