Eileen was still at Widdington School but she left when she was 11 and went to South Road School, Saffron Walden until she was 13. Fortunately, Dad was able to keep his job.Ībout this time, 1935, I started school. She developed angina which was unusual in a woman of her age and had to give it up. She found it all too much with cooking a midday meal as well. The domestic work was hard as she had to push large floor polishers. I remember hurrying up the road with her, dragging a toy on wheels. He went to work for Mrs Medley at The Red House (now Widdington House) as chauffeur/gardener about 1935 and Mum had to work in the house doing domestic work for a few hours. Dad was advised to give up the Garage work and get a job in the fresh air. Nothing as simple as a battery in those days. My father also hadĪ motor bike and I can remember him emptying out the carbide from the lamps which provided the lights. ![]() We went to visit him but I wasn’t allowed into the ward so was left in the corridor downstairs to wait and I remember a nurse talking to me. The fumes upset his stomach and he went into hospital at Saffron Walden with colitis. My father worked in a garage owned by Mr Nordon at Newport when I was very small and used to spray cars with cellulose. i remembered this smell when my brother was put on the bottle eleven years later. She made up the formula which was supposed to be very good but it contained emulsion which had a fishy taste. I think she fed me for a while and then I was put on the bottle by Doctor’s orders. Mum said I was a good baby and slept a lot but took ages to take my bottle. I don’t remember very much about my early years until I went to school when I was four. Many years later, the pram was sold to a gypsy. When I could stand up, these pads were taken out as I rocked the pram so much and was just able to peer over the sides. The colour was fawn and it had three pads in the bottom with storage space underneath. I had a nice pram which had a deep body which was fashionable at the time and very substantial. My sister Eileen was six and a quarter years old and wrote Mum a little letter which said “Dear Mummy upstairs, thank you for Daphne Joan”. ![]() Fresh air was also flavour of the month then and when the nurse had finished her work with my mother each morning, she used to fling the window wide open and let the cold in. After a birth, in those days, mothers used to rest in bed for about two weeks which sounds very sensible. There was a coal fire in the bedroom and I had a bed made in a clothes basket. According to Mum, when he came into the bedroom he gave her some chloroform which made her unconscious and when she came round I was born and he was delivering the afterbirth. The district nurse attended my mother and it must have been a difficult birth because she had to call Dr Brown for his help. The weather was cold and snow laid on the ground. ![]() ![]() I lived in this house until 1955 when I got married. I was born January 2nd 1931 in the back bedroom of the house called The Cottage beside the green. I then thought it would be a good idea to describe members of my family, who sadly are no longer with us, and write as much about them as I can remember. My life in Widdington has to be divided into three, namely before the war, during the war and after the war. People and events become a blur as memories fade as we all grow older and there is so much to tell which will in future be of great interest to the family and those who are yet to be born. For some years now I have felt that it is important that I write everything I can remember about my family and Widdington, the village where I grew up.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |