My mother has written a piece about her early life and her memories of the war.
A FAMILY HISTORY
I was the youngest of a family of seven. The next one in age to me was my brother Bill – he was 8 years older, then came Hetty 9 years older, then a break of about 3 years then Florrie, one year later Freddie, another gap of three years then Charlie and Amy. Amy was 18 years older than myself.
The family had been through some pretty bad times, but by the time I was old enough to understand most of the family were working and I was spoilt rotten. From what I have been told of the family history, father came from a comfortable middle class family and his father had a good position as a Goldbeater. They had a special school for the sons of Goldbeaters and my father of course was sent there, but he must have thought it was not what he wanted and ran away to Canada. His mother got him back by tricking him, having a cable sent to say she was dangerously ill, when he arrived home and she opened the door to him they had a big row. She offered to set him up in business to get him to stay, but he refused, but eventually agreed to train as an engineer, hoping to go back to Canada soon as his training finished.
In the meantime he met my mother who worked as a maid in a hotel. His parents once again were not pleased with his choice as they considered she was not good enough for him, this all happened about 90 years ago and snobbery was very much in evidence then. Despite his parents’ opposition they did marry and they would have nothing to do with him afterwards. I can remember Amy and Florrie telling me that his sister sent food and clothing when they were young and my father sent it all back, he was a very proud and stubborn man.
As the children started coming along times were very hard for them, and my brothers could be very trying at times, they used to get up to all sorts of trouble. There was a very poor family living across the road with a boy the same age as my brothers and his mother neglected him. My mother being a very kind hearted person used to feed and clothe him. She was a very good needlewoman and did most of the clothes for the family. The boy George Reed was in our house more than his own, so that was four boys all bent on mischief
I can remember them electrocuting the cats saucer of milk by connecting a wire up and putting it in the milk and doing the same thing with the door knob on the bathroom and then calling one of my sisters up to get a shock. No harm was done to anyone except to the boys when my mother found out. I think Charlie was the brains behind most of their pranks, because when he got older he made our first cats whisker radio set. You had to listen on earphones and it ran on accumulators that had to be taken to the local garage to be charged up. As he got older he was always in great demand to repair the neighbours’ radios, he was always interested in science and had he been young in these times of high tech. would probably have done very well.
They tormented the life out of my sisters and another prank I remember was them tying Florrie into a basket work chair, turning it upside down and leaving her because she had told mother about something they had done. They would also make fireworks and stinkbombs and these were only the things they did indoors, I dread to think what they got up to outside.
Our family used to quarrel quite a bit I suppose it was to be expected with a house full of adults. Amy was always difficult and I can remember her sitting on Florrie’s magazine while she had her breakfast and refusing to get up until she had finished. Some said that she was that way because as a young girl she had been very overweight and had bright ginger hair, she also had scarlet fever and lost all her hair. She was very jealous of Florrie because she had a steady boyfriend and Hetty because she was good looking and had plenty of admirers.
But we did have some good times too with lots of family parties, Charlie played the piano and I can remember everyone trooping down the street in a line doing something like the Hokey Cokey. We would also play games of dares and they would have to do something like going outside and singing loudly. Can you imagine what would happen if you did that now (I of course was considered too young to do any of these things) but it was all harmless fun and without T.V you made your own amusement.
Poor Bill used to get a lot of teasing from the other boys and was a bundle of nerves. He was a very gentle person and so fair game. We used to have gas brackets then, it was before we had electricity, and the other boys would put a sheet over one and make a face on it and wait for poor Bill to go up to bed. He was so terrified once he dashed down the stairs knocking over an Aunt we had staying and they both landed in a heap – needless to say my mother was not amused.
Fred and Charlie were both keen on boxing and used to lay on the floor and get me to jump on their stomachs to strengthen their muscles. On one occasion I remember one of them got carried away and knocked the other ones head through the window.
I am sure the reason I eat so slowly now is because Fred used to make me chew every mouthful of food 30 times – he said it was good for the digestive system. I think I probably have a lot to thank him for because I rarely get indigestion.
Amy used to be terrified of fire and I remember she caught a celluloid (that was before plastic came along) hair comb alight from a candle in the bedroom and threw a whole bowl full of water over it in sheer panic – there was water everywhere. Small fires were quite common in the house as we had to take candles to bed, electricity was around then but only for the few who could afford it, we did get it put in a few years later, I am referring to about 1932.
When I was five I was taken very ill with whooping cough and pneumonia and I think my first memories were of being delirious and thinking I could see a favourite doll peeping round the curtain at me. I have been told it was only my mother’s devoted nursing that pulled me through. I was very puny and had obviously given my mother such a scare that she decided I would not be safe to go to the local school and that she would pay for me to go to a private school. In those days anyone could start a school, they didn’t need a licence and were never inspected.
My mother chose one along by the river only about ten minutes walk from the house, it was run by an impoverished titled lady in a large hut in her garden. She thought girls only needed to speak properly and learn table manners and deportment. We did actually have to walk with books on our heads to keep a straight back and lessons came second to all this. I think we only spent about 2 hours a day on the three R’s. We also had to wear a uniform, a thing unheard of in our neighbourhood, where quite a few families couldn’t afford shoes for their children. I used to get teased by the children from the local school where most of my friends went. On one occasion Lady Haig saw me playing in the street in my uniform and my poor mother was given a ticking off. But she was determined I would have a better chance than she did, sadly she couldn’t have been more wrong. Although I know she did it with the best of intentions it took me years to try and catch up on all the learning I had lost, in fact some things I don’t think I ever did. I was not a very nice child being so spoilt and as none of the family dare lay a finger on me I used to play one off against the other.
I was only ten when the family was torn apart by mother’s sudden death. She was cooking supper one Saturday night, it was a sort of ritual Saturday supper and she collapsed. They put her to bed and called the doctor but he said there was little he could do as she had had a massive brain haemorrhage, maybe if it had happened in these days they could have saved her, – she was only 48. I always felt it was the strain of bringing up a large and difficult family that helped it to happen. My world just fell apart as she had spoilt me so and the rest of the family just didn’t know quite what to do with me. My father was in quite a state, because although he didn’t show his emotions much I am quite sure he thought the world of her.
Florrie was married by then so I went to stay with her and Ernie. But after several weeks I think she found me too much to cope with, so I came back home. My father gave me the choice to either go back to the private school or the local one. I very much wanted to go to the local school as all my friends were there. What I didn’t realise was that It was going to be so hard, I was way behind everyone else and spent two years in the same class to catch up. But it was a very good little school and I did end up top of the class the next year. I was so proud of the prize, a copy of Little Women bound in leather.
The family tried to do their best for me but I know they found it a nuisance to have to take turns to look after me as they all had boy or girl friends, all except Amy of course – she always said she hated men. Freddie was married by then and it was a big shock to everyone when Amy met and married George. All the family used to make fun of him because he was very easy going and took things from Amy that most husbands wouldn’t have, but he was very good to me and used to arrange birthday and Christmas parties for me even dressing up as Santa. He loved children and I know would have loved a big family, but Amy was already in her late 30’s when they got married and I know didn’t want children. I think that’s why I always tried to help her in every way, because when he went in the army, the last thing he said to me was to look after her for him and that was no easy task.
I was 16½ when war was declared and I found it all very exciting, like most teenagers I was always looking for something different. About 30 minutes after the announcement was made the sirens went and everyone went dashing to the nearest shelter, it was of course a false alarm and life went on much as usual for quite a while. After that, a lot of fighting was going on on the continent but we didn’t hear the whole truth, as to try and keep up morale we were given mostly the good news and as there was of course no TV we just had the radio to go by.
I was working in the office of a local wallpaper shop typing invoices filing etc. – not very exciting. We still had some social life, a local club for dancing, but nearly all the cinemas and theatres closed for a time. The war here started with the Battle of Britain. We had an Anderson shelter in Pyrmont Road and because the sirens went off every time the planes were fighting, my dad and I spent most nights down there. They were very small, just about took three people with a squash, also very damp, cold and smelly. I have one vivid memory of that time; my dad and I coming out of the shelter very early in the morning and watching a dog fight with several planes. After that came the bombing of London and that really made you realise what war was. It was just night after night, the stomach churned when you heard them coming, we all got to know the difference in sound to our own planes. Their main aim was of course London but being in the suburbs we did get a lot of the fall-out. A big problem was the shrapnel from the AA guns.
At this time I was going out with a boy I had known from about 15. We used to belong to a cycling club then. His parents were quite well off and had a very big house in Chiswick and because my dad was now doing night work (he used to maintain the boilers at the local laundry) and because my boyfriend’s mum was a very nice person, she thought I would be better staying with them. They didn’t want to sleep in the shelter, so they picked the safest room in the house and we all slept in the one room Les, myself, his mum and dad and his brother and wife. Looking back now it doesn’t seem possible but we all got on well and when you heard the planes and thud of bombs at least there was someone to talk to. Again, I have a vivid memory of standing in their garden after the all clear and seeing the fires burning on the skyline in London.
About this time I felt I wanted to do something, but I couldn’t get in the Forces, as I was still too young. So I became an ARP warden and complete with tin hat and gas mask I would go out on patrol to check if people were showing a light from their blackout curtains. I had quite a lot of very rude comments; some very rude when I knocked on a door and said they were showing a light! I remember one night I set out and there was a raid on and the shrapnel was falling like rain, some of the pieces were 2or 3 inches long and I lost my nerve and ran back into the house – I felt enough was enough that night!
At last when I was 17 ½ I was accepted into the WRAF and had to report to a camp in Bridgnorth. It was a very large camp with nearly all, new women recruits. We were put in a Nissen hut about 15 to a hut, freezing cold and only a pot-bellied stove in the middle. That first night was quite something, you could hear sniffling and crying going on nearly all night, most of the girls had never been away from home. I was apprehensive but I had been dead keen to get into the Forces, mainly because (and this is not the violins!) I didn’t feel I really belonged anywhere. I had been living with my sister Amy and she only had a double bed so I don’t think she was sorry when I left.
Anyway the next morning we were woken up by the door of the hut being opened violently and somebody shouting that we should all be up and dressed ready for parade. One girl timidly asked about breakfast and was told we had missed it, the same girl said “We didn’t get called” – I can’t remember what the reply was, but it wasn’t very complimentary! We got dressed and were sent on to the parade ground in tights, thin coats and skirts. We stood shivering while we were counted and then given orders to go and collect our uniforms, all except some of the girls who had been crying in the night – they had an interview with an officer and were then sent home.
The uniform was quite a shock, grey bloomers, thick grey stockings, flat black shoes which had to be polished until you could see your face in them. But all in all, when you had it on, it didn’t look too bad. From then on it was drilling and general training. By this time it was coming up to Christmas and we were first of all filled with a load of injections, then they decided to hold a dance on the camp. As it was nearly all women, they invited airmen from another camp, but we were all feeling so lousy from the injections it didn’t take off very well!
The next step was to choose what we wanted to do. I had always wanted to be a telephone operator, so a whole group of us were sent to Sheffield to train. I remember we had to walk down the main street to the telephone exchange where we were to be trained, and all the local kids used to follow us shouting – Left, Right!
Training completed we were sent back to Bridgnorth where they hadn’t got any placements and didn’t quite know what to do with us. We had some very bizarre jobs including using a pick axe to get bullets out of the rifle range and washing labels off bottles I could never make that one out!
My posting came through eventually to go to Filey in Yorkshire. I struck it lucky as I was put in private billets with an elderly lady who treated me like a daughter. We worked during the day in a big hotel on the sea front overlooking the bay, and used to see the convoys going across, not realising then of course that so many of them would never come back. The hotel was empty of course mainly because it had a huge crack in the wall from previous bombing, and when the sirens went all staff except the telephone staff had to leave the building because it wasn’t safe. But we did get to enjoy the beach. Although it was cordoned off with barbed wire, some of the men made a hole large enough to get through and we played ball games etc. for recreation.
At this time Hull was being heavily bombed, and my biggest problem was trying to stop my dear old lady from going outside to watch what was going on, she didn’t seem to have any fear but I was afraid she would be hurt by the falling shrapnel.
My next posting was to a place I just cannot remember the name of or even where it was. It must have been on the coast as we were part of a flying boat squadron, but unfortunately I was sent to the barrage balloon section. Our job was to give the instructions to the crews to put the balloons up to several thousand feet when a raid was on the way, the idea being to stop the Germans from getting through. It didn’t work of course as they managed to find a way round it, we used to think they were more trouble than they were worth, as one would get stuck and then had to be hauled down manually after the raid as they were a hazard to our own aircraft. They also used to break loose quite often and that really caused problems as they trailed very low cables over the towns so it was panic stations to catch it. I did actually go inside one once (when it was on the ground) they were massive. I wasn’t on that camp for very long.
The next posting was to Manchester, where I met Dave whom I was to marry. He was a regular airman and had spent several years in the Middle East trying to keep the peace between the Arabs and Jews, a familiar story I think. They patrolled a strip between the two in armoured cars and as neither side liked the British they were shot at from both sides. He said on some occasions on patrol they would meet up with a Bedouin tribe and would be invited into their tents for refreshment. He said the nights were the worst as nothing much happened and it did get boring, so to pass the time, he got talking to a German (the war hadn’t started then) who gave him a large dictionary and he taught himself to speak the language quite well. He also said it was quite something to hear a lone piper playing at night as it echoed around the desert.
When the war broke out all troops were recalled, and he was sent to Manchester, he was a driving instructor on the camp and we seemed to be attracted to each other almost at once. We used to talk for hours, and when I was on evening duty on the switchboard he would come and keep me company. When we were off duty we used to go to a local pub and usually sit over one drink all evening and just talk. Our pay wasn’t very good so it was just that or a trip to the local cinema. We had only known each other about six weeks when he asked me to marry him – as no one knew what would happen tomorrow that sort of thing happened a lot. Anyway it felt right so we started making arrangements, but they didn’t like couples on the same camp so it was me for posting again.
I went to Fishponds in Bristol for a very short time but can’t remember much about that, except that I missed Dave. Then to Somerset, we were billeted in what we thought was an old castle but found out after the war that it was not very old at all as we went back to have a look at it. I wasn’t there very long either but our plans for getting married were under way, not an easy task as being in the forces neither of us were entitled to clothing coupons or food rations. Dave managed to get some on the black market and the family were very good (especially my brother Bill’s wife, Kath). I didn’t want to get married in uniform, so I did manage to get an outfit with the coupons collected. Food was a big problem because the war was really biting by that time and rations very small, the family did their best but I am sure I am right in thinking that we had rabbit and someone managed to make a small cake. We only had five days leave and spent it in London at a boarding house in Barons Court. We went to see Gone With The Wind that had just been released also Fantasia – the time went very quickly and it was then back to Barracks. I was in Somerset for a short time and then to my final posting. I know I had moved around a lot but this was not unusual as everyone was sent where they were most needed.
My final posting was to Plymouth and I couldn’t believe what I was seeing when I arrived, the whole town was completely flattened, there was no town centre just a whole lot of rubble. Woolworths had set up shop under a tarpaulin with trestle tables I think that’s why I was so amazed when I went back after the war and saw the modern shopping centre that had been built. We were billeted in an old fort and this one really was old, and as usual all communications were put underground. We were told that where the switchboards were there had once been pigs. It wasn’t a huge camp but was a fair size and one of the duties of a telephone operator on night duty was to wake the cooks in the morning for breakfast. I must have dozed off later one morning and they didn’t get called on time – my name was mud all day! But one thing about being on night duty was that you got out of all the chores, drilling, marching etc. and were allowed to sleep instead. We used to go into the town and up on to the Hoe. It was great up there when the weather was good. The buses we went in all had wooden seats as they had all been burnt out in the raids. We didn’t get too many raids at that time as I think the Germans were otherwise occupied, but when there was one we used to pop into the ops room and watch the girls plotting the planes coming in on a large table with maps, it was very interesting.
At about that time the place started filling up with Americans, we didn’t know it of course but it was in preparation for D Day. They really were the dregs of America and it was said that they had even let some of them out of prison for it. They were to be the first lot to go over with our boys. What went on at times was pretty disgusting, they would get the mothers drunk and then go off with the girls – the girls have to take the blame as well, but the trouble was the Yanks had money to burn and our chaps didn’t stand a chance because the Yanks were also able to produce nylons (unheard to most of us) and things like tinned peaches. I was very toffee nosed and wouldn’t have anything to do with them as did most of my friends.
It was soon after this that I discovered I was pregnant, it took them a while to sort out my discharge but eventually I left the Air Force just before the D Day landings. I went back to stay with my sister Amy and we still had to spend the nights in her Anderson shelter as the Buzz bombs had started then. They were a real nightmare, you heard them coming by the different sound of the engine, and you held your breath waiting for it to cut out and hoped it would go farther on, as when the engine stopped the bomb dropped.
Apart from having to sleep in the shelter, life had to go on. Amy was working at a local factory but then I had a dramatic experience that changed things. I went shopping in Hounslow and then caught a bus but as we were going down the High Street we heard a buzz bomb. To this day I cannot understand the reaction of the driver and conductor, they just made everyone get off the bus right by a row of shops with plate glass windows and then drove off! We all stood still waiting for the engine of the BZ to stop and it went just far enough to miss us and just shake all the glass but not break it. By the time I got home I was a nervous wreck.
Amy contacted Dave and he managed to find an excuse to come home. At that time he was stationed at a remote station in the very north of Scotland and his job was to deliver Oxygen cylinders to parts of the South, so he used to manage to pop in sometimes. On a lighter note this used to terrify some of the neighbours as they thought the cylinders were bombs! Anyway when he saw how shaken up I was he decided I should go and stay with his sister Daisy in Scotland. She agreed and soon after I took a train to Dunfermline.
When I arrived at the station Daisy was there but so were lots of Army police. She beckoned me to come throughout the barrier quick while they weren’t looking and it was then that I found out it was a restricted zone and I should have had a pass. After that every time we went out on a bus and a policeman got on I had to get off.
Life with Daisy was interesting to say the least. I soon found out she was pregnant too and not at all pleased about it, she blamed it all on George and I felt so sorry for him because he was such a sweetie. He was a really big chap and she was under 5ft but she ruled him with a rod of iron. She had this small sweet shop that she had bought with money borrowed from an Uncle Johnston who was well off, but he wanted his money back I think, although she didn’t tell me anything about it. She was no housewife and would often say the main meal isn’t ready yet so have your sweet while you wait. It was also the first time I had had potatoes with the skins still on, but she did her best and it did give me a break to get away from the bombing and sleeping in the shelter. But when I had water problems and the doctor that came to see me was very drunk I felt it time to go home.
Amy didn’t want me and I found out why when I got back – she had been sleeping at George and Ethel Reid’s, they had an indoor shelter, it was a large iron table and you slept end to end. They didn’t of course say she couldn’t still sleep there, as I know she had feared, instead they said I should join them. It’s quite funny looking back that they and two children (or was it three I can’t remember) slept one end and Amy and I the other like sardines in a tin. You had to make sure to keep your feet clean but we did have a few laughs and of course eventually the war started to go better and it was reasonably safe to go back and sleep in bed again.
I did have one more scare; Dave went down with pneumonia up in Scotland. He was quite bad for a while but they kept him in hospital in Scotland and just after he was discharged his papers came through to send him overseas again. But the doctor (who knew I was expecting) told him unless he really wanted to go he could declare him unfit, a great relief, as there was still a lot of fighting going on.
They gave me the date of birth half way through December so when I had pain about two weeks before that both Amy and I thought it was something I had eaten. When we both realised it wasn’t she went out in the middle of the night and called the ambulance and Ron was born the next day. Dave couldn’t get leave for nearly a week as you were kept in for two weeks in those days, while in the hospital we were still getting the sirens going and they would push all the bed into the corridors.
We did have one more war incident. Amy and I were with Dad in his place and there was a huge sound of an explosion. Everyone said it was a gas problem but we found out later that it was one of the first rockets Hitler sent over and it landed in the road just outside of Chiswick House and destroyed nearly a whole road of houses. If it had continued a bit farther it would have been in the grounds of Chiswick House and I doubt if anyone would have been killed.
While at Amy’s I had visited my Dad quite a bit as he was now retired and it was decided that after the baby was born I would move in with him as he had more room and I could have a bedroom to myself, and the toilet was indoors – at Amy’s it was outside. We had no kitchen as such just an old brown sink in an alcove opposite the toilet. There was only a small back yard and you shared a front door with the downstairs people. George and Ethel Reid had lived there once when I was in my teens and had offered to let me go and live with them when they moved but my Dad wouldn’t hear of it. George was always so grateful for the way my mum had looked out for him; I think he wanted to repay it. Anyway by that time Granny Nute had moved in, the family all disliked her – she had been after my Dad for years and when the flat downstairs became vacant she moved in quick. She made my life hell (I don’t think that is too strong a word). If I let Ron cry in the yard she would come up and threaten me with the health inspectors, she was also very deaf and slammed doors and also had the radio on so loud it shook the floor.
When Dave was discharged from the forces, he went out looking for work and I wasn’t very pleased that he took one of the first jobs offered on the buses, but I suppose with the memories of unemployment in Scotland when he was younger he wanted security.
It really was too cramped in the flat and when my friend who lived a few doors away, moved to a big house in Grove Park (her mum had a bit tucked away), she offered us two rooms in it. We still didn’t have a bathroom but a kitchen of sorts and access to the garden. As food was still very short Dave wrote to his Dad and asked him for some hens as he had the smallholding in Scotland. The hens duly arrived and Dave built a henhouse and run and we waited for the first eggs. But we were in a very snooty neighbourhood and we didn’t realise how spiteful people could be, we had no complaints but all of a sudden the chickens started dying. Dave sent one away to find out what the trouble was, although we already suspected what it was, and found out they had been poisoned. So that was the end of that.
During this time Hetty who had Tina and Florrie who had Sandy, both had their own houses so we used to all go to Florrie’s one week and Hetty’s the next as all the children were near enough the same age. Ron was about 18 months old and we decided we should try for another baby. Hetty said she would have Ron when I went in to have it (reluctantly as he was a handful as most boys are compared with the two girls) but of course things went wrong. I had a very old and not very competent doctor and not only had a miscarriage but was also very ill. The family all came to the hospital and thought this was it, but at that time a clever chap had discovered penicillin so I gradually recovered, although I was only 6 stones when I left. I was still keen to have another baby but was told I must wait at least 6 months before trying again. I found out when I came home that when I was very ill Amy had given Dave the news by saying when he came home from work, “ I suppose you are satisfied now Maisie is dying”. Poor Dave, what a family he had married into! When later I asked Hetty if she would have Ron again if we decided to try again, she said she couldn’t cope with him, but of course you know me and no one could put me off.
It was while we were at Grove Park that we had news about Dave’s Dad’s death. We were told it was a road accident. It was George Reid who came round to tell us, he had his own business so was one of the few who had a telephone – Dave’s family knew he stayed with them before our wedding. Anyway we didn’t have the money for the fare for Dave to go up for the funeral but George insisted on lending it. When Dave came back he said all the family had been shocked to find the old chap had been steadily selling off all the things he could on the smallholding and all that was left was one pig and I gather they had great fun trying to get it on a lorry for the chap who bought it. All Dave said was good luck to him and he was disgusted for all the scrabbling after the house contents.
Another change then, my friend’s mother decided to sell the house so she could buy a better one for her daughter. The new owners couldn’t get us out but made it quite plain that was what they wanted, and then one day they offered us £100 to move out. We had to go and see my Dad quite a bit and he suggested that we move back in with him. I hated the thought of going back but as I was pregnant by then we decided it was the best way. We had the big front room as a bed-sit so managed to get a bit farther from Granny Nute’s wireless! But it wasn’t long before I started having trouble with the baby but this time I had a very good doctor, he gave Dave a prescription to get but this was before the NHS and when he took it to the chemist it cost more than he had. The chap was very good and gave him part of it to tide me over but by the time he got back I had lost the baby. The doctor then suggested I went to see a specialist at Queen Charlottes Hospital. They of course soon found the trouble and to cut a long story short I had an implant of the hormone I was short of and of course it worked.
I had trouble with Amy again at this point one of the only big rows I had with her, she said I should be satisfied with one child and if I kept this up I would end up with a deformed child – she certainly had a way with words! Dave a bit later on asked her if he could pay her wages, so that she could have time off to look after me when Sheila was born, but of course she wouldn’t, so we arranged a home help. You didn’t have to pay in those days as the NHS had just started. When things started they sent a fully equipped ambulance to me including a doctor and he stayed chatting to Dave in the kitchen until all was well. It was a French nurse who delivered the baby and as it was 14th July, Bastille Day, she was thrilled to bits.
We were now very cramped and Bill and Kath had a house in Chiswick behind the shops and her Dad had died about a year before so they suggested that my Dad went to live with them. He wasn’t keen but did finally agree. Kath was very good to him and they tried to keep him happy but it was obvious he missed his mates at the City Barge and of course he used to sit with them by the river. He used to visit quite a bit and we didn’t realise how close he was getting with Granny Nute. You can imagine the reaction when he told the family he intended to marry her. I was sure it was only to get back to Pyrmont Road. It was never going to work, they were like chalk and cheese, she wanted to shout when she was annoyed and of course his answer to that was total silence which she couldn’t understand. But things were a lot quieter as she had no one to shout at, he liked to sit by the fire and read (he was a great reader) and she would keep chasing him out of the house so she could clean. To be fair she looked after him well, everything was always clean and he was well fed.
I used to go over to Gunnersbury Park a lot (no M4 then) and walk along the river. Dave was at Mortlake garage then and we would walk to Chiswick Bridge to meet him. I had also met up with my friend Vi again and we used to go around together a lot. About that time we started getting Estate Agents bringing people to see the house. It belonged to a property development company and they had decided to sell; they couldn’t get any of us out as we had a secure tenancy, but we had some strange people around and were feeling very uneasy. Then one of the agents suggested we buy it ourselves, no deposit and the whole place decorated for £300. I know it sounds peanuts now but it was a lot of money for us. As they said they would arrange a mortgage, after a lot of talking we thought we should go ahead, my Dad thought it a very bad idea, he said we would be buying a load of trouble but we felt more secure.
When I found out I was expecting Jane we had another decision to make. I started having problems and the doctor who was great, a West Indian lady and knowing our living accommodation was poor said she could give me tablets to keep the baby or let nature take its course, we of course didn’t hesitate, and all went well.
Jane was only a baby when my Dad had a bad stroke; he was laying in the house unconscious for about a week. We would take turns to sit with him and Charley was great and spent a lot of time with him but he didn’t regain consciousness. We all went to the funeral but Granny Nute took it all over as she was his wife and he was buried with her first husband.
Now began a time I try not to think of too much, the old girl had nine children, all alive but only one was unmarried and that was Sidney so he came to live with her. He was a nice enough chap but lazy and hated getting up for work, and of course his mother now had someone to shout at every morning to get him out of bed, she also had a son in law next door and used to shout over the fence early morning to get him up as well. After a while he moved and Les and Margaret East moved in. It had been Les’s family home when we were all young and he had been very keen on Hetty at that time and vied for her with Jack. Anyway we were very friendly with them.
My nerves were in tatters at that time because now we had bought the place, Granny Nute would wait until Dave went to work and then start ranting about the things wrong with her place and we should put them right, even things like ants in her scullery. Dave would soothe her down when he came home, but she would play it down then so it looked as if I was exaggerating. Dave could see I couldn’t take much more and one day saw an advert in the paper for some houses being built in Crawley. He hadn’t got the fare so cycled down to see them, and he was so taken he decided we would all go and look. So great excitement and off we went on the train to Crawley. Only the show house had been built then and it was like heaven to me, I had to almost hold Dave’s hand on the paper to make him sign for a plot as he was still doubtful if we could afford it, especially as we didn’t even have the £8 deposit – a week’s wages then. Anyway when we got back and talked it over with Les and Margaret they offered to lend us the deposit, and we put Pyrmont Road on the market and eventually had a great coloured couple who wanted it. She was a nurse and he had a good job, but the old lady went ballistic and called Dave all sorts for selling to coloureds as she said. But they were really great and when we had a problem because the previous owners had never given written permission for the place to be let in to two flats and we couldn’t trace them at first, they said they were prepared to wait for it to be sorted out, which of course it was. I don’t think I have ever been so near to a nervous breakdown as I was then.
When we moved into the house in Crawley it was absolute heaven. For the first time I had my own front door, a proper kitchen and bathroom plus a fridge. The garden was also a good size for the children to play in.
There was only one snag, when Dave had been told he could get a transfer with his job on the buses we didn’t realise it would be in Reigate, a long way from Crawley and we had no transport. There were very few buses running in Crawley at that time, as it was a New Town, so he had to bike it. It wasn’t too bad in the summer but when the winter came and he came home with frost on his eyebrows I decided I should get a job and try and get us an old car.