(Picture: Jean-Paul and David Barton with Gunder and Frank in training)
1) Gunder the Malingerer: We had trained the oxen Gunder and Frank (names suggested by Sally) and were rather pleased with the results; until the day we first attached them to the ‘Mark 1 Toolbar’
During the next ten minutes things went according to plan, and we were making good progress weeding a crop of beans. Gunder however, thought this was far too arduous and started coughing, gently at first, and then with increasing regularity and volume, until finally he crashed to the ground in a tangle of chains and harness. We were horrified as he lay there, his sides heaving and his breathing increasingly laboured…he was clearly about to ‘shuffle off this mortal coil’.
In a panic we called the vet, who arrived not long afterwards to check the dying Gunder and deliver his verdict. He listened with his stethoscope, took his pulse, pressed and poked and then getting to his feet he produced a wide strap from his bag which he ran round Gunder’s midriff and passed through a brass buckle. “Stand back chaps while I give this a tug” and so saying he yanked violently on the strap; Gunder, with all the alacrity of a spring chicken leapt to his feet and stood there looking very sheepish! “Nothing wrong with him” pronounced the vet “He’s just a malingerer”.
After that, when he found the work boring or too hard for his liking, he would turn round to look at us in mid-stride and utter a loud cough. By now we had the measure of him and Dave would give him a whack with a thin stick, which reminded him that he’d been rumbled.
2) Flirtatious Escapees. One time we lost Gunter and Frank and assumed they had been loaded onto a truck in the middle of the night, and been whisked away to make burgers…However, several weeks later as Dave and I were making our way rather dejectedly to the farm when we heard the distinctive sound of the one-balled-ox Gunder bellowing his appreciation from the field on the other side of the lane! We crossed the road to find the pair happily carousing with a herd of very lovely Friesian cows. They were extremely reluctant to leave and resume hard labour on the farm but with a little ‘encouragement’ they returned.
3) Charge of the Heavy Brigade: On another occasion Gunder, who was always the ring-leader, broke through the fence and followed, somewhat unwillingly, by Frank, galloped onto the main Watton road and charged the next double-decker bus that came into view. The driver screeched to a halt; a standoff ensued, with the passengers and driver glaring at them out of the windows. We duly removed the offending beasts, and the bus continued on its journey into Norwich.
Jean-Paul Jeanrenaud
Switzerland March 2023
The extra-curricular antics of Gunder and Frank were legendary, even in the sleepy Norwich suburb of Cringleford, where David Gibbon‘s family lived. On more than one occasion I had a good tennis doubles match with my father brought to a premature halt by the arrival of my mother Elin reporting another escape of the adventurous bovine pair – could David just go and collect them from the farm’s neighbour, please?
I worked on the Dev farm 2 in 82/83 .I remember David, Don and a Dutchman, possibly called Jan ? I worked with Frank and Gunder who often ploughed up the path when they wouldn’t stop and made a beeline for the fodder beet heap!