Listen to the track:
This song is based on an account recorded by Peter Lugar in his Wembury Memories series. It recalls a showman’s caravan that stood for decades in the back garden of No. 1 Knighton Hill, part of a small dwelling known as Fairview. The song tells of Fred Dummett, a steamroller driver, his wife Violet, her first husband Percy Atwill, and a settled life lived there until the 1970s.
Verse 1
At the top of Knighton Hill where the lane runs thin
Behind number one, past the hedge and the wind
A painted old caravan, wheels sunk in the ground
Stayed longer than most things ever stayed round
Tin roof singing softly when the rain came down
Smoke from a stove when the night drew round
Called it Fairview, though the view was spare
Just a slice of garden, a life lived there
Chorus
It wasn’t passing through
It wasn’t here then gone
That caravan stayed put
When the years moved on
While houses changed hands
And the village grew
The wheels never turned
At Fairview
Verse 2
Fred drove iron roads with steam and fire
Left a roller resting by the hedge and wire
Oil on his hands, clay on his boots
Work in the day, quiet nights to suit
Violet walked up to the big house gate
On and off work, never late
No children’s noise, no toys in the lane
Just cups on the shelf and the sound of rain
Chorus
It wasn’t passing through
It wasn’t here then gone
That caravan stayed put
When the years moved on
While names were written
And crossed out too
The wheels never turned
At Fairview
Verse 3
She’d loved before, that story closed
Percy gone while still too young to grow old
Later Fred, steady as stone
Two lives joined, mostly alone
Behind them the house where the Axworthys stayed
Three sisters’ paths all gently strayed
Schoolroom chalk and garden ground
Different lives in the same small round
Verse 4
A teacher once came to the infants’ room
Spoke of a baby born too soon
“No bigger than my thumb,” she said
While coats hung low and pencils spread
Years went by, the caravan stayed
Until the seventies quietly faded away
No photograph nailed to a wall
Just memory holding it all
Final Chorus
It wasn’t passing through
It wasn’t here then gone
That caravan stayed put
When the years moved on
No fairground lights
No travelling crew
Just a settled life
At Fairview
Outro
Now the lane is empty, the ground runs flat
But the hill remembers where it sat
A life on wheels that chose not to roam
And made that corner its home