Memoirs of a Victorian Girl

We lived in a village called Mumbles near Swansea, South Wales. There were so few lived there then, a matter of hundreds, that we could speak to all. There was a lighthouse, coastguards, Bell that warned ships off the rocks for it was and is a dangerous coast but a lovely headland. You could walk round the cliffs to the various bays, now motors and buses take you.

To go to the next town, Swansea, we had a horse-drawn train, afterwards we had a train. It looked like six trams joined together and drawn by a steam engine. If you sat on top sometimes you’d get smuts from the engine smoke. Now they have an electric train. They have a pier and thousands go down in the summer for the day and many for their holidays.

We lived very near the sea just two minutes away and spent most of our out of school hours on the beach.

We had a happy home but when we were all very young my dear mother died and left six (Edith, Eliza, William, Annie, Flora, and Charles), the eldest being a cripple (Edith- burnt hands on a fire we think) and the youngest a baby (Charles) one month old. Many told us what a happy woman our mother was. We lived next door to Aunt Mary (Howells) and Grandma (Mary) and we were very dear to each other. I can remember on my Mother’s memorial card was ‘Patient in Suffering, Happy in Death’.

We had a dear father (Thomas J) who was strict but loveable. His ‘yes’ was ‘yes’ and his ‘no’ meant ‘no’. From my father I learnt to do without things I did not need. He would say there’s nothing cheap if you didn’t need it and always put things where you know where to find them, have a place for everything, for what’s the good of having things if you don’t know where they are. He was very clean, very proud and taught us to be courteous to each other and to all we came into contact with. It costs you nothing but thought for others to be courteous. Our Sundays were just lovely.

Where was the baby? Next door with Grandma. Had any children a dearer Grandma? I could not describe her, I only know we loved her and she loved us and her life was full of the beauty of Jesus, oh we were blessed indeed. All who knew her loved her and they were many.My Auntie, mother’s sister gave up a life of ease and of marriage to bring up the baby and help with us all. I don’t know what the little ones would have done without her, she surely will hear the great well done. She was very strict with us but full of fun as an egg is full of meat. She could sing, she could mimic and was the right one to be with young folk. We all thank God for Aunt Mary and her life of loving sacrifice.

When my Grandma was buried, rich and poor, some in top hats, some in fisherman’s jerseys, caps in hands, all stood each side of the road from our house right down to the church-yard where she was buried and the women followed on after us. No carriages, no hearse, all there to show their love and respect to a kindly woman, from her we have a great heritage.

After Grandma’s death there were big changes. I had to leave school (?) at 12. My brother, William stayed until he was 16. I was nurse to my little brother, Charles and helped with Flora, a sister aged 8 and from then until 18 I was a little mother. They were rather hard years; we missed our happy mother and Grandma. Aunties were good but Father would not let us go to live with them, he wanted us home.

One Auntie who lived about 5 minutes from us and had no children was a dear and long after I was married and Father had died that Auntie and Uncle made life very lovely for me. Each Auntie took an interest in each one and we had a lot to be thankful for. I learnt from Auntie to do little kindnesses and say nothing of them. They could not have made me more welcome, if I had been their very own. It would take a book to tell of their love to me.

The only Christmas I spent at their home we had a goose done on a spit before the fire and there it was turned and basted and beautifully cooked by 1pm sharp. No gas or electricity, just a fire and all the water pumped from a well under the scullery. I never knew a meal to be late; you could not offend Auntie more than being late for dinner.

Uncle was a joiner and builder and you could always see him with little children holding his hand going back to school. He wore turned-down collars but one day when staying with us (in Blackburn) Auntie said “Try a collar of Sam’s on, they look so smart.” Well if you had seen the performance of Auntie trying to help him put it on you would have had a good laugh. “Why maid he said, “I feel like a donkey looking over a white washed wall.” Fair play he kept it on until we had been to Darwen but it was the first and last time for he believed in comfort not style.

We were very proud indeed of our Sunday school superintendent Mr Evans. He was a bank manager and married late in life – so we in our Sunday school had years of his loving interest. We loved the hymns he chose, he prayed so that we as little ones could understand. The senior superintendent always had older hymns and long prayers which we didn’t like, for we didn’t understand them. We loved Mr Evans because he went out of his way to keep us interested. We had a Magic Lantern and one night in the Band of Hope there was a ship shown and he asked me to sing “Let the lower lights be burning”. I was so nervous that no noise came from my voice, but the little ship went sailing on and the boys and girls sang the chorus heartily. He got us all doing something.

Another time with other little girls we sang “The Japanese Fan” all dressed up. We had a splendid pianist and teacher but what troubled me was that all the little girls’ embroidered kimonos showed but mine was way too high up and I was disappointed.

Our picnics were not by train but on donkeys. All grown ups, Mother, Auntie and Grandma in the waggonette drawn by two horses. Kettle and wood and food in plenty. Homemade ginger beer and everything. Bats and ball, buckets and spades. We played in the sea and on the rocks whilst the older just sat and talked or rested. The donkeys would come and the waggonette in the evening and home after happy hours near the country and sea.

We had Regattas in the Main Bay and a lovely sight the yachts were with big sails unfurled, such excitement, which would win?They had a greasy pole attached to a large skipper boat; on the end was a pig in a bag. Whoever walked to the end of the pole got a pig. We had elephants, camels, shows with Tom Thumb and his wife on the Fair for Easter time, all 1d a time. For such an out of the way village we had a tremendous lot of fun.

We had a Castle and could see it from our house easily. I must tell you that Mumbles was noted for its oysters and one of the main stations is called Oystermouth. There were a great many men with their skiffs employed to get oysters. My Father bought them wholesale and sent them to the towns and cities as far as London.

We had some good men in our Chapel, one, a Mr Leaker, teacher in the day school at Swansea of the Rev Hugh Price Hughes and one day walking out to the lighthouse the young fellow stopped and there on Mumbles sands gave his young heart to God. Mr Leaker was instrumental in founding the Methodists Times. Mr Leaker was of a retiring nature, it was strange that he should be used to win the impetuous leader of the religion world called Hugh Price Hughes I think.

When I was 18 an opportunity came for me to have a change and from being a little mother I was offered a very good post in Darwen, through a friend of my aunties who knew the nurse (Sarah Davies) at The Grange in Darwen. Now I had only travelled 5-10 miles, it was a “to do” I can assure you.

My dear crippled sister thought I was really coming to a smoky black country. Father talked to me and made me promise to come home if I was not happy. Just try it for a month, he did not like me venturing so far but they all knew it was a rare opportunity.

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