I wish I were a Bumble Bee.....

At Pentlow Mill, the Mansard roof covers the old flour bins, faced on the inside with wide oak boards, and whitewashed. As the whitewash has peeled off, it has uncovered inscriptions, doodles and inscriptions dating back to around 1740. In the Lucam, these writings were to do with work, whereas, further back in the dark recesses, they included initials, poems, ballads,riddles and scurrilous remarks

One day, it will be seen as worthwhile to record these messages in their entirety: One imagines some PhD student with a torch an notepad, sneezing in the dust, noting down these long-forgotten ephemera

Some of the inscriptions seem to be the words of ballads and songs

Song
Keep your eye on the Chile

I love to see the standing cow
Before the farmer moves it 
I love to see the racing horse
Cause when he goes he goes it

I wish I were a bumble bee
Reclining in the Clover
Id be happy all the day
I'd sugar myself all over 

I wish I had a quart of rum
And sugar of three pound
A great big jug to put it in
And a spoon to stir it round

(Chorus largely obscured)

Some childrens' rhymes

My Uncle Thomas had a cat
And it was a glutton
It wouldn’t catch the rats and mice
But stole the beef and mutton

Bees Wax and Turpentine
That’s the stuff for plaster
The more you try and shake it off
It only sticks the faster

and a fragment that looks like something in the course of composition

Kate meet me at the gate
Ill be there at half past eight
I don’t mind how long I have to wait
If we have a kiss and cuddle at the gate

and what does one make of this?

Lady my dear my heart is not for you, Gentlemen, oh my dear, I don’t want that, I don’t aim too high

And some riddles

Flour of England, fruit of Spain
Mixed together in a shower of rain
If you tell me this riddle ill give you a plum pudding

Why wouldn’t females do for postal messages?
(Answer) Because they don’t deliver till 9 months after the (male) gets in

Some are simple matters of leaving a personal record

Thomas Brown cam to Pentlow Mill to work on February the 22nd 1884 and left September 21st 1886

Robert Brown

Sam Boxy

G Golding came to this mill 
1900
1901
1902
1903

Thomas Brown
Cavendish
Suffolk
July 1887

N.G Graham August 7th 1914

H.W 1879

RCR

J.P

Morris Pentlow Mill August 1871

Other inscriptions are more personal

My Grandma is to be buried today, the 22nd of February 1888 T Brown

A. Barnett had to begin July 21st 2 bob a week to a bastard mill on the 26th Friday 1889