THE STALLEY FAMILY AND 

MEMORIES OF WIDDINGTON

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. 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. My life in Widdington has to be divided into three, namely before the war, during the war and after the war. 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.

BEFORE THE WAR 1931-1939

I was born January 2nd 1931 in the back bedroom of the house called The Cottage beside the green. I lived in this house until 1955 when I got married. The weather was cold and snow laid on the ground. The district nurse attended my mother and it must have been a difficult birth because she had to call Dr Brown for his help. 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. I weighed 6 lbs and was a healthy baby. There was a coal fire in the bedroom and I had a bed made in a clothes basket. After a birth, in those days, mothers used to rest in bed for about two weeks which sounds very sensible. 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. When she had gone, Mum used to shut it. 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”. I had a nice pram which had a deep body which was fashionable at the time and very substantial.. The colour was fawn and it had three pads in the bottom with storage space underneath. 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. Many years later, the pram was sold to a gypsy.

I don’t remember very much about my early years until I went to school when I was four. Mum said I was a good baby and slept a lot but took ages to take my bottle. I think she fed me for a while and then I was put on the bottle by Doctor’s orders. She made up the formula which was supposed to be very good but it contained emulsion which had a fishy taste. i remembered this smell when my brother was put on the bottle eleven years later.

My father worked in a garage owned by Mr Nordon at Newport when I was very small and used to spray cars with cellulose. The fumes upset his stomach and he went into hospital  at Saffron Walden with colitis. 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. My father also had
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a motor bike and I can remember him emptying out the carbide from the lamps which provided the lights. Nothing as simple as a battery in those days. Dad was advised to give up the Garage work and get a job in the fresh air. 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. I remember hurrying up the road with her, dragging a toy on wheels. The domestic work was hard as she had to push large floor polishers. She found it all too much with cooking a midday meal as well. She developed angina which was unusual in a woman of her age and had to give it up. Fortunately, Dad was able to keep his job.
About this time, 1935, I started school. 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. The only means of getting there was cycling which was about 5 or 6 miles each way. Children would not like to do that today in all weathers. I loved school and have written several articles about this for Widdington Magazine which they have included in the Widdington Chronicles published for The Millennium. (You will need to read this as it covers most of my memories regarding school.) The school was small but we had a good education and were able to read, write and do arithmetic to a high standard. When Eileen left Widdington school, my cousin, Joyce Chipperfield used to take me. She was four and a half years older than me and was in the Juniors when I was in the Infants. The Juniors used to come out of school a bit later than the Infants as Miss King, the head teacher, used to read them a story. I used to go with them to listen to the story, which I loved, and come home with Joyce. One day, my mother went out for the day and I said I felt sick at school. I was taken up to Mrs Chipperfield, Joyce’s mother, who looked after me and gave me a bowl to be sick in but I didn’t really feel sick but had to keep up the pretence. I expect I was all right when Mum came home. Another time, when Mum went out, it was arranged for me to stay with Mrs Frank Stanley who lived opposite until Eileen came home from South Road school. Mrs Stanley took in washing and was busy ironing. i sat on her sofa and looked at all the pictures and photos which covered the walls in her room. (She had one room and a small back scullery). I asked if I could go over to my house and get some toys from our wash house and she said I could. I must have been gone a long time as she came and found me crying in the shed as I hated it if Mum went out. I was all right when Eileen came home as I felt safe again. Before the war, after the Motor Bike period, Dad had his own car as cars were one of his interests. He bought one which was so awful that Mum said she wouldn’t go out in it so it sat in the garage until he got rid of it. We probably played in it. The one I remember most was a Peugeot which he pronounced Poo-Joe. It was brown and the seats were covered in material. On the back there was an orange light as well as the usual red lights and Dad said it was because it was a foreign car. The first holiday I remember is going to Clacton with Granny and Grandad and Aunt Ruth. I was about four so it was 1935. Perhaps Grandad was 65 and had just retired. They hired a car and I remember the windows had circles in the glass. I think the windows may have been made of cellulose and the hot sun used to do this. We stayed in a bungalow or boarding house
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owned by Mrs Bowles and I shared a room with Aunt Ruth. One day she hired a push chair and took me to Jaywick Sands. There was some trouble with one of the wheels. I didn’t eat very much when I was a child and they tried to tempt me with nice food but I only wanted grapes and cheese. I wouldn’t wear my bathing costume on the beach but can remember wearing it in the bedroom and jumping about on the bed. Granny and Grandad probably just went for a walk and sat in a deck chair on the sea front or the beach. Clacton was a very popular resort in the 1930s.
The next year, 1936, I went on holiday with Mum and Dad and Eileen again to Clacton. This time we stayed in a bungalow owned by Mrs Watton. She had a son called Georgie who had a screwed up mouth. We used to make a face like this and call it the Georgie Watton face. There were other families staying at the same time and I heard Georgie had to sleep in the bath. Mr and Mrs Watton must have slept in the shed outside. Eileen and I shared a bed and one night I irritated her so much she got out and went under the bed. I think we were in the same room as Mum and Dad. I had had whooping cough earlier in the summer and the cough hung about for ages. It was thought that the smell of coal gas would help this so we walked down to the beach via the gas works. Not a pretty sight. I loved the beach, making sand castles, looking for shells and paddling in the sea. When the tide came in most of the beach disappeared. Sometimes I went under the pier and it felt much colder as there was no sun. There were amusements on the pier and also a show in the theatre at the end of the pier. Further down the promenade was The Jetty which also had amusements. One afternoon we went to an Air Show but cannot remember anything other than the fact that we went. It was either 1937 or 1938 that Dad said we wouldn’t go away to stay but we would visit a different place each day. I remember going to Walton and Frinton, Southend, Brighton and of course Clacton. Sometimes we had a picnic in Epping Forest. The car used would have been the Peugeot and as this was out of action in the war due to petrol rationing, I think he sold it to Morrie Holgate who lived at Wyses Farm, Holly Road. We had other outings and sometimes visited relatives. We went to Great Leighs, Nr Chelmsford as Granny’s sister, Dora Ketley lived there. She had a son called Stanley who was married and lived in a bungalow near by. They had a little boy with dark curly hair who was probably not much younger than me. Sometimes we went to Euston, London to see Dot Utting who had been fostered with Grandmother Ketteridge. Dot was Ruby Potter’s sister. Dot had two daughters, Julia and Barbara, one older and one younger than me. Sadly Julia died when a child of either pneumonia or diphtheria. I can’t remember and there is no one to ask. Dot lived in a flat and we children played in a courtyard below. I didn’t like it because you couldn’t go in and out of the flat without knocking as the door had a yale lock. The other children asked where I came from. I said “Widdington” and they said they knew where that was but I knew they didn’t. Children in North London wouldn’t have heard of Widdington. Sometimes we went to London Zoo at Regents Park and one time I had to wear Julia’s blazer as I had been sick in the car.
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Another time during the journey, Mum noticed I was sitting in the car like a hamster with bulging cheeks. On investigation she found it was the chewed haddock I had for breakfast and couldn’t swallow. At meal times we weren’t allowed to leave anything on our plates and I always found this a worry as I didn’t eat much. I had cleared my plate but couldn’t get rid of it!! Sometimes if I could get outside I used to spit it out behind the garage. I suppose years before that, children didn’t get enough to eat and that is why we weren’t allowed to waste anything.
Another outing I vaguely remember is going to Cambridge on the train with Mum and Eileen to do Christmas shopping and I think we missed the train coming back. For Mum to go on the train to Cambridge was unusual. Shopping was usually done in Saffron Walden or Bishop’s Stortford but not all that often as everything was delivered to our door. Groceries were sent up from the Coop at Newport. She had two order books and when one order came she gave them the other book for the next week. We had bread and meat delivered from Newport. The Somerlite came round in a large van selling paraffin and all kinds of hardware. We collected the milk in a can from the milk shop at Pond Mead. Later, milk was brought to the door in a churn and measured out by a ladle and put in our jug. Fresh fish came round on a Friday and a fish and chip van on a Saturday. Once they went down Spring Hill so fast, they crashed at the bottom and the men got burnt with the hot fat spilling out. I am not sure if the whole thing caught alight. Mr Brown used to call round with his case selling clothes and Granny had a Mr Carruthers who also sold clothes. Whatever she needed, she ordered and he brought it next time. Mum also bought clothes from Williams and Oxendales catalogues. We had the Post Office and General Stores in the village, the pub sold lemonade and crisps and Mrs Taylor next door sold a few things but this virtually packed up when the war came and rationing started. She was getting older and eccentric and I remember when Mr Taylor died. She banged on the wall for Mum to get help as he was having a Haemorrhage. Mrs Taylor sold sweets and she had a high stool inside the shop for customers to sit on. One day Eileen and I went to her shop and she gave me a large pear drop. On the way back, I swallowed it and was choking. Mum felt something was wrong and came running out and slapped me on the back and it flew out. Children should never be given large boiled sweets. Getting back to the shopping, the village was very well served, unlike today, and the only things you needed to buy in Saffron Walden were things from the chemist and larger items like furniture. Of course we never bought vegetables as we grew our own. We had fruit when in season and if people had a surplus of their produce, they used to share it. We did buy oranges and bananas, but these were not available during the war.
I remember going to see Aunt Martha and Uncle Tom at Thaxted because they were celebrating their Diamond Wedding. It was before the war but I do not remember the year. Aunt Martha was Grandad’s sister, married surname Saych, and I think they lived in Newbiggin Street. According to the census of 1871, Grandad was 2 and Martha 11. We walked up a long path to their front door and they showed us a telegram which they had received from the King. Granny used to visit this family via train. You had to walk to the top of Cornels Lane and further across the field to Sibley Station to catch the train to Thaxted. This line was closed in the 1960s
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by Dr Beecham. Willie Saych used to visit Granny and Grandad and I do not know whether he was Martha’s son or brother-in-law. When Aunt Ruth was still a child at school, Granny was ill and Aunt Ruth had to go and stay with Aunt Martha at Thaxted. She attended the school there along with her cousins. One day, instead of going to school, she ran across the fields as the crow flies, all the way to Widdington. She saw a man working in the fields who was Sunny (or Sony) Westward and he told her which way to go. She was too frightened to go home as Grandad would have been furious so she went up to Cousin’s, Annie Chipperfield who was a lovely lady. I think it was all sorted out amicably. It was in 1938 that Ethel Ives married Tom Johnson in Widdington Church. Ethel had been fostered by Little Auntie but was quite a bit younger than Mum. I don’t remember going to the church but went to the reception afterwards which was held in Little Auntie’s front room at Spring Hill. When Ethel left school she had to go away to a place to be trained in domestic work and she hated it. I do not know where she then went to work but that is where she met Tom who was a gardener and they got married when she was about 20 or 21. After marriage, they lived at Leverstock Green, Nr Hemel Hempstead. There was about one wedding a year in Widdington and I always went to watch. I stood on the wall beside the path going up to the church door on the side where the bride would be, with my sweaty hand holding the rose petals to throw at the bride.
We always seemed to do a lot of walking years ago. As a family we would walk “right round” on a Sunday evening. This was down the road past Spring Hill and Shiptons Farm to the main road, then turn left to go along the main road towards Quendon. When we reached the road which goes under the railway bridge to join Holly Road, we would come back that way, past the chalk pit and down the village. About three and a half to four miles. We walked along the path behind the church which eventually leads us to Debden Park. There was a lovely wood behind the Red House and another walk down the lawns past George Pilkington’s farm at The Jock to North Hall. Leopards Bane grew in the ditch and harebells and wild snap dragons grew in the meadows. We were so lucky with the great variety of wild flowers, the fresh air and the beautiful countryside. Eileen and I were always out walking, sometimes with Joyce Chipperfield, and it was safe for children to be out in the woods and fields. The only thing to frighten us was a bull in the field or unpredictable cows and dogs.
Eileen and I used to go to Sunday School in The Hut which was run by Miss Pitcher who lived in a bungalow on the corner of Holly Road. I liked this as we did colouring, sung choruses and had stamps to stick in a book which I still have. I have a green bible which was given to me on Bible Sunday June 19th 1938 by Miss Pitcher. Eileen also had a bible. In order to win a silk bookmark to match our bibles, we had to answer a list of questions but I don’t remember what they were. Miss Pitcher used to hold tea parties at her bungalow and we had races in the garden afterwards. We had tea to drink at one time and they put hot milk into it instead of cold because they liked it hot. I hated it because there were bits of skin floating on top of the tea.
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Sometimes we had a picnic in a meadow somewhere up Cornels Lane behind the big houses. There were sandwiches and large enamel jugs of lemonade. There was a Christmas party in The Hut and we each had a present. Mine was a wooden Mickey Mouse which walked when you pulled it along. Roy Simrnonds pulled a banger from a Christmas cracker on my neck which stung and made me cry.
I also remember going to a Lantern Slide Show in Church with Eileen and was amazed at the beautiful pictures lit up on a screen. Another time, in Church, we were taken to the Font and shown the different patterns round the side. In 1771 the Church Tower collapsed and the Font was probably damaged and I think they made replicas of the original panels when it was rebuilt. Sir Claude Hollis’ History of Widdington will explain this better than I can. Sometimes in the summer we would go to Church, as a family, on a Sunday evening and then go for a walk afterwards. I knew the Church Services, Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer from quite an early age and had my own Prayer Book dated April 9th 1939 in Mum’s writing. Eileen was in the Church choir and she was confirmed when she was about 14 in Takeley Church. Visits were made to a dressmaker in Saffron Walden who made her a dress in white crepe de chine for the occasion which I also wore for my confirmation in 1945 when the war had just ended. Mr James Walter Court was our Rector and was greatly loved and respected by the village. He was born in 1861 and his father James C L Court was also Rector at Widdington. Mr Court retired in 1947 so was 86 and died in Saffron Walden 25th February 1950. He married Frances Ellen Ducane who was buried at Widdington 27th January 1939. I don’t remember Mrs Court as I was told she was blind and didn’t go out. However, she had made the white muslin veils which the girls wore in the Church Choir. Mr & Mrs Court did not have any children. Mr Court is buried in Widdington Churchyard on the piece of ground in front of the clocktower near a fir tree. He has a wooden cross to mark his grave and some time ago this was repaired by Jack Chipperfield. I have recently visited his grave, which also contains Mrs Court and June Francis has planted some Daffodil bulbs in front of the wooden cross.
According to Church records, Reverend James Walter Court became Rector of Widdington in 1886 at the age of 25. My father told me that he was met at Newport station with a pony and trap and that the young men .of the village pulled the trap themselves into the village as they were so excited. Of course my father was not born then so that is a story which he had been told. When I was a small child before the war, Mr Court, although getting old, was still active and apart from Church affairs took part in village matters. There was the village brass band, the annual fete, the men’s club and I remember him attending a Bridge Party at our house. Dad played Bridge, Mum did the catering and Eileen and I were sent up to bed. He also taught Latin at Newport Grammar School at one time. Also, Widdington Primary School, being a C of E School would have benefited by his teaching. I have been looking through the old Widdington Magazines and have found an account submitted by Ernie Wilson (Little Auntie’s stepson) in the Autumn of 1987 which he found in the Herts & Essex Observer, October 24th 1936 recording the occasion of the celebrations when Rev J W Court had been Rector of Widdington for 50 years. It was called “A Beloved Clergyman”. I must have attended this occasion but as I was only 5, I cannot recall it but am including it in my memoirs in his honour.

A BELOVED CLERGYMAN
Parishioners of Widdington assembled in large numbers on Tuesday October 20 1936 to pay tribute to their esteemed rector who recently completed 50 years as rector of the Parish. An enjoyable social function in the attractively decorated Hut was provided by the churchwardens, Mr William Chipperfield and Mr John Dillon-Robinson. On a long table in the centre of the room were the refreshments and an iced cake surmounted with a silver horseshoe and 50 candles. Mr & Mrs Jim Cooper made and decorated the cake and Miss M Cooper put the candles on.
Refreshments having been served, the Bishop of Chelmsford presented Mr Court with a cheque and a pipe as small tokens of their appreciation and great affection. The Bishop recalled that Mr Court had served 2 years as curate at Willingale Doe before coming to Widdington. Sometimes people feel that when a vicar or rector has been in a parish even 20 years it was time for a change, but your rector has been 50 years amongst you, but I am perfectly certain that if he went to another parish everybody would have the most profound regret: this is a small parish where he cannot keep himself out of the public eye, whereas, in a large parish he could to some degree, keep out of the limelight. But he has lived for 50 years in this small parish and passed the test in a wonderful way.
Mr Court returned thanks for the gifts and referring to the pipe he wondered if it was a bit of sarcasm, that his 50 years had all ended in smoke! But smoke goes up and up and teaches us something about God. Looking back 50 years ago when Jim Hoy brought him up from Newport full of wonderful expectations, religion does not seem outwardly such an important thing now as it was then, but it is only what it seemed like and he hoped he had been of some use and that it was not ending in smoke. Sir Claud Hollis expressed thanks to the Bishop and recalled spending part of his holidays at the Rectory, particularly when Mr Court fished him out of Debden lake. Another time Mr Court rendered first aid in the churchyard when they had attacked a wasp’s nest with a tennis racquet. He was delighted Mrs Court was able to be present in spite of failing health.
In reply the Bishop said he was pleased to come to Widdington and do honour to one who deserved honour. When he went round the village with Mr Court he was satisfied that his relations with people were exactly what they should be, and even on his first visit he was greatly impressed with the Rector and his work.
Mr T T Carmichael of Widdington Hall, speaking as an old Presbyterian, endorsed what the Bishop had said in praise of Mr Court. He had lived beside him for about half the time the Rector had been in Widdington, always on the best of terms and no man could have been a more kindly and helpful neighbour. Mr Edgar Chipperfield, an original member of the Band,
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presented Mr Court with a tobacco pouch from the Widdington Band which Mr Court had founded 27 years previously. Another presentation, another pipe, was made by Mr Jim Hoy. This was of cherrywood grown in his wood and made by himself.
A service in the Parish church followed, which like the Hut, is lit with electricity due to Mr Court’s initiative. A large congregation gathered for an impressive service conducted by the Rector. Members of the Widdington Band in uniform seated in front of the screen played voluntaries and accompanied the singing of the hymns.
In his address the Bishop spoke of this wonderful occasion in the history of the parish, because such an event would probably never happen again. The work of a parish priest called for qualities and gifts of all kinds and a wonderful and beautiful thing when they saw the work of a parish priest so faithfully fulfilled. Some people gave an excuse for neglecting the call of religion and absenting themselves from church - they didn’t like the rector doing this or that or the way he did something or other or the rector’s wife had offended them in some way - he did not admit the validity of such arguments. They should come to church to worship God and not to please the rector. Here the ministry of the word and the sacraments had been faithfully fulfilled for 50 years, but what had been achieved? In many cases he had won them for God and when the day came to render an account of his ministry he would bring in his train many souls he had won for the kingdom of God. In conclusion the Bishop expressed the earnest hope that Mr Court would be spared a long time to live and work and lead the worship in that place. Previously, I mentioned the fete. This was held on August Bank Holiday Monday which then was at the beginning of August. I used to get so excited, I hardly knew what to do with myself and couldn’t wait to go. In the morning, chairs would be taken down the road from the Hut, in preparation. On the Sunday evening before the fete, Evensong would be held on the Rectory lawn with the brass band playing the hymns. One year, on fete day, Mum made me go upstairs to have a rest before I went. I expect this was to get me out of the way. I did everything but rest and kept getting out of my cot to see the Church Clock from Mum’s bedroom window. The fete was held in the Rectory garden which had lovely lawns, flower beds, rambler roses and a large copper beech tree. There were the usual stalls - hoopla, spoons, bowling for pig, rough on rats etc. and Vegetable and Flower Show. Dad used to enter things and Mum entered a cake one year and her plate got broken accidentally which upset her. One year there was a fancy dress show and Dad went dressed as a baby sucking a bottle in my pram with Sid Turner dressed as a Nursemaid, pushing it. He made posters to stick on the side of the pram saying “Hoy’s Bread is Best” and suchlike. When it got dark, the evening was rounded off with fireworks. Our lives were led at a slower pace 60 plus years ago so fete day was really exciting and a day never to be forgotten. Not much different really to fetes today but so wonderful to me at that time.
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Another event before the war, was the Coronation of King George V1 and Queen  Elizabeth in 1937 so I was six. All children were given a mug and a plate and I still have the plate. We did a concert in the Hut with children dressed in costumes representing different countries of the Empire. Eileen and I were dressed in Union Jacks as far as I can remember. We had to sing patriotic songs with Mrs Briner teaching us. Elinead Dillon-Robinson was Britannia and her father made her shield which was covered in gold leaf. There were sports held in a field round Holly Road opposite Wyses Farm. It must have been raining because I remember a big boy had been running in bare feet and they were covered in mud. Eileen and I were very interested in the new King and Queen, also Princess Elizabeth who was a bit younger than Eileen and Princess Margaret Rose who was a few months older than me. I remember a little bit about the year before in 1936 when Edward VIII abdicated because he wished to marry Wallace Simpson. There was a lot of gossip going on and I knew something wasn’t right.
I will now come to illnesses in the 1930s. These were the days before antibiotics and immunisation. We were vaccinated agairist smallpox and have large scars to prove it. Most childhood illnesses were dealt with by good nursing and nature taking its course. Dr Brown used to visit us and medicine was in a large bottle - either brown which was probably cough mixture or white which was probably an antacid mixture. I had measles when I was one but don’t remember this. Curtains used to be kept drawn to protect the eyes. I had whooping cough when I was 5 and was quite ill for some weeks. We used to cough until we were sick and it really pulled us down. I think friars balsam was burnt in the bedroom to help with the breathing. I had German Measles one Easter, probably 1939 but wasn’t very ill. I remember having earache which was very painful and warm oil was put in the ear. We had colds which were dealt with by chests being rubbed with camphorated oil or Vic and large pieces of rag were used to blow our noses. Eileen had Rheumatic Fever as a child and was very ill. I was too young to remember much about this but in the mists of time I can remember she was ill. I have read that Rheumatic Fever damages the heart muscle and valves so perhaps that is why she died so unexpectedly at the age of 68. Something which shocked us all.
At school we had a third of a pint of milk everyday which was a good thing because previously, children who were not fed properly suffered from rickets due to lack of calcium. Mum was before her time regarding vitamins as were given halibut oil in drops on a teaspoon of sugar, also cod liver oil and malt. Every Saturday night we had a Steadman’s powder and later Syrup of Figs as it was thought a good “clear out” was beneficial. We always woke up on Sunday morning with stomach ache and had to fly up the garden. Children who caught Scarlet. Fever or Diphtheria had to go to isolation hospital. Diphtheria was a killer, also pneumonia, meningitis and infantile paralysis (later called polio). If children did recover, they were often left with disabilities. Mastoid was another serious illness and children had scars behind their ears following an operation. Tonsils and Adenoids were removed far too readily and ether was an anaesthetic quite often used. Teeth were extracted by using gas or cocaine and fillings were done with the old foot pedal drills with no pain killers so quite often teeth were removed rather than filled. Grownups with stomach trouble often had all their teeth taken out even if they were
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all right because it was thought they were causing the trouble. The person probably had gum  trouble or pyorrhoea and as I said, there were no antibiotics to combat this.
Mum was also way ahead of her time regarding hygiene. She thoroughly disliked aluminium saucepans and would only use enamel. Even today, some people are not happy using them but fortunately a lot of our saucepans are made of stainless steel. Here are some of Mum’s instructions I have never forgotten concerning hygiene. Do not use other people’s combs or hats and do not lay your head on the headrests in trains or buses. (You could catch fleas). Do not blow a hooter which another child has blown or drink out of a cup or bottle which someone else has drunk. She loved disinfectant which at that time was Lysol or Jeyes Fluid. Her house was spotless and we were always kept clean in spite of no mod cons.
When I was born, drinking water was fetched from a tap across the green but later on in the 1930s it was piped to inside the house where the sink was. We always had rain water in a large tank outside which was piped to inside and that is why there was a sink. We washed in the rain water and our hair always looked gleaming. We had a bath once a week which was quite a performance. There was a copper in the wash house outside, referred to as The Shed, which had a fire underneath. This had to be lit and water was carried via buckets. If the wind was in the wrong direction, then the fire was temperamental and blew the smoke back into the wash house. We had a long zinc bungalow bath in the wash house which was tipped up on end to empty outside the door and it swished away across the yard to the drain. If it was cold, we had a smaller bath in front of the kitchen fire which was all right when we were small but embarrassing when we got bigger if Tom, Dick and Harry wanted to come in and out. Young people today don’t know how lucky they are to have bathrooms and a bit of privacy. We had no hot water laid on so all water had to be heated on the fire. When I was small, we had a kitchen range which had flues to be cleaned and the outside to be cleaned with blacklead. Later, this was replaced by a fire which came from Mrs Medleys. Each side of the fire was a rest place where saucepans or kettles could simmer. In front was a fender with a seat at each end and this was the warmest place to sit when very cold.
Mum had a Perfection Oil Stove in the wash house and did a lot of cooking on this especially when the fire wasn’t lit in the kitchen. It was drip fed by paraffin to two burners and an oven stood on the top and she could bake marvellous cakes in this which included Eileen’s wedding cake in 1945. Electricity came to the village about 1935. Before this, we had paraffin lamps and candles. When the electricity was laid on, we had a light in each room and the shades were white and of a material which could be washed. If I walked up two of the stairs, I could reach the switch in the kitchen. There was a cooker point in the kitchen and a plug in the front room and Mum and Dad’s bedroom. I can’t remember if there was a light on the landing but I know there was no two-way switch as you had to go upstairs in the dark or leave the door open at the bottom. When I was small, I slept in a cot in the back bedroom and Eileen had the little bedroom. Mum and Dad were in the front bedroom. The front room downstairs was kept
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clean and shining and only used on special occasions such as Christmas, Parties or Sunday tea. The furniture consisted of a 3-piece suite, sideboard, gateleg table, dining chairs and the piano. The floor had a carpet square surrounded by the wooden floor which was stained dark brown.
Compared with today, sanitary arrangements were primitive, but we didn’t know anything different and it certainly wasn’t detrimental to us in anyway apart from the weather. The lavatory was up the garden - a wooden two-seater affair with a cesspit underneath. You could lift the seat up and spiders flew everywhere. One hole in the seat was larger than the other and Eileen and I used to sit side by side sometimes. If you wanted to think or get out of the way, the lavatory was a wonderful place to go. Sometimes the wind blew the door open and you sat there in full view of anyone in next door’s garden. The weather came into these arrangements as it was not much fun going there on a dark night when it was snowing or pouring with rain. Toilet paper was a luxury and not always available. The News Chronicle was cut into squares, threaded on string and hung on the wall by a nail. Some people had pictures, a calendar or religious texts hanging on the walls. I can’t remember if we had any but I can remember Mum regularly scrubbed it out with Jeyes Fluid and once we had an Izal toilet roll which contained one or two pictures when you unwound it. I found this very exciting. You may well ask “what happened to the cesspit?” Dad had a vegetable garden in the back and grew runner beans. About every two years he dug a big trench and the cesspit was emptied into this via large ladles. What a rotten job. If we needed to pass water when we went to bed, during the night or when we got up, everyone had a po (chamber pot) under the bed. These were emptied every morning into a large bucket and rinsed out with disinfectant. It was one of the jobs done after making the beds and I did not find it unusual as it happened in every house. The bucket was emptied down the drain and then washed down. We had drains in the village which dealt with all surface water but not sewage.
The roads were made up with tar and shingle and I liked to watch when they were re done. Paths were made of earth and I cannot remember when the kerb stones came in the High  Street. There was hardly any traffic so it was quite safe to walk the lanes at the side of the road  or on the grass verges.
Getting back to health. After Dad went to work as a chauffeur/gardener at Mrs Medley’s, his health was much better as he worked in the fresh air. He always had bad varicose veins in his legs and suffered from the odd bout of lumbago. He was still a young man when I was little and only 33 when the war started. Mum developed angina when I was about four or five and Dr Brown said she was a young woman with an old person’s complaint. I remember she had to go to the surgery to have her blood pressure taken and if she exerted herself she had a bad pain in her heart. I had whooping cough about this time and sometimes Eileen got out of bed to see to me in the night. She did eventually get much better and years later had another two children. However, always, if she went for a walk and hurried up a hill, the pain would come and she would have to rest for a while. Later on in life, she had a lot of heart trouble and actually died of a
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heart attack aged 72. She was the same age as Dad, only one week between them, so she was only 33 when the war started. I don’t remember her having any other illness part from colds and she was always working. She did have all her teeth taken out because of pyorrhoea and then had a set of false teeth. She said there was nothing wrong with her teeth and fortunately today, that sort of thing doesn’t happen. Aunt Ruth also had all her teeth taken out and they were only about 30 years old. There were no antibiotics to treat infection.
I thought it might be interesting to write about the kind of food we ate before rationing when the war started. Breakfast cereals consisted of Cornflakes, Shredded Wheat, Puffed Wheat, Sunny Jim Wheat Flakes called Force and of course Porridge. The Sunny Jim dolls are now collector’s items. We had boiled eggs possibly on a Sunday and fried bread with egg and bacon. Eggs were bought from someone in the village as we didn’t have our own chickens until during or after the war. Dad started off with six bantams and a cock bantam and I remember him building the hen house and he made it very nicely. We had our main meal at lunch time called “dinner” and this consisted of roast meat on Sunday, cold meat on Monday which was washing day. We had sausages, bacon and onion pudding, rabbit stew, mutton stew and fish. Mum was a very good cook but I wasn’t interested in food as a small child and could only eat small amounts. Sometimes Mum made a meat pie or pudding. Dad used to come home for his dinner at 1 o’clock after cycling down the road from Mrs Medleys. After eating, he would lay down on the sofa and go to sleep then quickly drink a cup of tea and cycle back to work at 2 o’clock. We always had a sweet called “pudding” which was rice, semolina, tapioca, (which I hated) a steamed pudding with custard or a suet pudding with jam or Golden Syrup on it. There were jam tarts, rhubarb or plums and custard or other fruit in season and apple pie on Sunday. Tea was bread and butter (or marg) with jam, fish paste, marmite, cheese spread called Velveta and home grown salad items especially on Sundays. Mum also made all sorts of cakes such as sponges, fruit buns and cakes, ginger bread, caraway seed cake and only bought swiss rolls or french jam and cream sponge from Hoys. We drank tea, cocoa and water. Coffee was a luxury but sometimes we had Camp Coffee which is still around. We had a cup of cocoa when we went to bed and sometimes Ovaltine. We drank milk at school and at home because it was good for you. Grown ups had supper which was usually bread and cheese or cold meat with pickle. Lemonade was something special drunk in the summer at a picnic on a hot summer’s day. There was also a fizzy drink called Tizer which I liked. Sometimes we bought orange or lemon tablets which were put in a cup of water, fizzed up and made a nice drink. On a Saturday Eileen and I used to go to the shop in the village to buy some sweets. For a penny or half penny we could choose from a variety of boiled sweets which were rowed up in large jars. They probably came from Lee’s Sweet Factory at Thaxted. The sweets were weighed out and put in a newspaper cone made by Amy Holgate. If they got sticky, the news print stuck to the sweets, very unhygienic, but we didn’t seem to suffer by it. There were liquorice shoe laces, dolly mixtures, gob stoppers, aniseed balls, Fry’s bars of chocolate with a picture of 5 boys’ heads on the packet, Cadbury’s chocolate and many others to choose from. As well as making cakes, Mum used to make jam, jelly, lemon curd and pickles. She was always busy doing
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something in the home.
In the 1930s and 1940s, housewives spent most of Mondays doing the washing. They prided themselves on having the whitest wash and the earliest with a line of washing. My mother had to fill the copper in the shed with water from the tap in the kitchen. The temperamental fire had to be lit, the clothes put in the water and some were boiled. Mum always favoured Persil if you could get it, otherwise it was Rinso or Oxydol. Detergents weren’t around until about 1949 or 1950 and Tide was the first followed by Daz and Omo. Before soap powders were available, green or yellow washing soap was used, also soda and lux soap flakes were used for delicate items. There were various tin baths in use, some with rinsing water which contained a blue bag to make the whites look whiter. Sometimes sheets and large tablecloths were sent to the laundry and prices were reasonable. My mother had an Acme Ringer which had rubber rollers very similar to the ringer I had when first married. Some people had large mangles with wooden rollers which crushed the buttons on garments. My Granny did a lot of soaking of clothes in pails and she must have heated her water in kettles and saucepans on the kitchen range as I don’t remember a copper going in my early years. She had a pump outside the back door which was shared with Mrs Duller next door so she had plenty of soft water. Drinking water had to be fetched from the stand pipe in The Square, in a pail, and it was quite a few years after us before piped water was taken to the house and she had a sink. Previously, she washed up in a bowl on the kitchen table and china and cutlery drained on a tray. Outside her back door was a wooden table which was used to soak crockery items. She was a rare one for soaking things and I associate her with Lux flakes.
The ironing was done on the kitchen table using two flat irons. One in use and the other heating up on the kitchen range. I have wondered what my mother did in the summer when the kitchen range was out and I think she must have used the primus stove. This stood in the sink and the base was filled with paraffin. Above this was a little trough where methylated spirits was poured and lit to warm the burner up. At a precise moment, air was pumped in and the burner should catch a jet of vaporised paraffin and burn like a gas jet. If it was feeling temperamental, then the whole thing flared up and you had to let the air out quickly. We also used a little metal pricker to keep the oil jet clear. The whole thing now sounds lethal but they were use a lot years ago. After we had electricity, Mum had an electric iron It was red and had a thumb rest next to the handle. There was no thermostat, so had to be switched on and off when it got too hot. It was used for many years.
I will now write about Christmas and the toys we had. Christmas only covered Christmas Day and Boxing Day and of course Christmas Eve when we hung up our stockings at the end of our bed in excited anticipation. It was a bit confusing because the toys were supposed to come from Father Christmas but some of them, I knew, came from relatives. However, I was too excited to dwell on the matter. One year I wanted a big black doll which was the fashion at the time. Aunt Ruth couldn’t get me a big doll but bought two smaller ones called Topsy and Farina
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which I still have and they are my treasures. On Christmas morning. I went into Mum and Dad’s bed with my stocking and Topsy and Farina were in a doll’s cot beside their bed. I was over the moon. I played all the time with these dolls, made them clothes and wheeled them about the village in my doll’s pram. One year, Eileen had a bicycle but I must have been quite small as I don’t remember much about it. The kind of presents we were given were paints, tins of toffee, books, a scrap book, puzzles, china doll’s furniture, plasticine and there was always and orange and an apple in the toe of the stocking. We loved all our presents and although we did not have the amount of toys which children have today, we were quite satisfied. Mum cooked a nice Christmas dinner. We had goose or cockerel with all the trimmings and sometimes relatives came. A fire was lit in the front room and we had tea in there. I expect a few decorations were put up and also holly. I can’t remember if we had a Christmas tree every year. One year we went to tea with Auntie Doris at Pond Mead and Aunt Ruth pretended to be Father Christmas knocking on the door and Rosemary was frightened. Another time we went up to Granny’s and Grandad’s bed was in the front room. Auntie Doris and family were staying the night and I remember the bed clothes airing in front of the fire. Granny gave me a big colouring and puzzle book.
Somewhere along the line I had some soft toys and dolls. One soft doll had round eyes and the pupils moved about. Mum said she looked like May West. Dolls were made of china, or their heads were, and had cloth bodies. If you dropped them, they smashed and many tears were shed. Other dolls were made of cellulose which was dangerous as they could flare up if we got too near the fire. Ruby came to stay with Mum and Dad and she brought me a lovely big doll dressed in baby clothes. Her head was china, so I had to be careful. Mum and Dad bought me a doll’s pram and I wheeled this all round the village, sometimes with our dog, Toby, in it instead of my dolls. I was always sewing and knitting and used to obtain my materials from whatever source I could. Eileen made a nice blue doll’s dress and I / cut the bottom off and also cut a piece out of the curtain round the sink. This had to be patched up and I expect I got a hiding. I had various people in the village I could ask if they had any stuff. I have since learned that this is what material is called. I used to make all my doll’s clothes and could follow knitting patterns at quite a young age. We used to do knitting at school, so I learned all the fancy stitches. I was grown up before I mastered crochet patterns and could only make a chain or a set of holes to thread something round a neck. We could buy embroidery silks from Woolworths fairly cheaply and I used to use a strand of this if I hadn’t any cotton.
When I was about seven or eight, Eileen and Joyce made me a wonderful Doll’s House out of a wireless set with its insides taken out. It had upstairs and downstairs and was decorated with wallpaper taken from an old sample book which had belonged to Joyce’s father, Edgar Chipperfield, who was a builder. It had an electric light which was run on a small rectangular battery, a little mushroom shaped bulb and a switch on the side. I think Pa Salmon’s son, Harry, helped a bit with this. I had some doll’s furniture which included the pink and white china set, so I was well away
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Dad, as Mrs Medley’s chauffeur, took them up to Scotland for a holiday. He brought me a Scotch Doll back which I loved as she was dressed in traditional costume. Sometime later, our dog Toby got hold of her and savaged her and her eyes were laying on the shed steps. I was heartbroken. Another time, Dad brought me a basket containing chocolate Easter Eggs. As my birthday was so near Christmas, I never had a party and I don’t really remember much about them. Cousin used to have a Christmas Party for the village children in her front room and I remember going to that. There was a Christmas Tree and each child could choose a present which Uncle Joe took off the tree. We played games like spinning the bread board and pinning the tail on the donkey. Eileen was also friendly with Betty Campbell who lived at Priors Hall at the back of our house across the meadow. I think sometimes we went there to parties. On Sunday mornings, Dad had to go to work at The Red House to see to the boilers, chop wood, clean shoes and any other jobs which needed doing. He also went Christmas morning and came back with a basket of goodies from Mrs Medley. She always gave Eileen and I a book which pleased us. I think Mum also had a present but my mind on this matter is a bit hazy. I do know that she gave her a mincer when she had her teeth out. You put the food in the contraption and clapped two handles together and food oozed out of holes. Mrs Medley had an Irish cook before the war called Keneally. In those days servants and workers were referred to by their surname. Sometimes Miss Anne or Miss Margaret (Medley) would come round our house and say “Is Stalley in?” when they wanted something and he was off duty!! Anyway, Keneally could make wonderful meringues and brandy snaps and if Mrs Medley had a Cocktail Party, sometimes we had some of the leftovers.
Eileen and I were interested in film stars and as she six and a quarter years older than me, she was more knowledgeable. Shirley Temple, the child star, was all the rage and I thought she was wonderful with her head of curls and her singing and tap dancing. My mother told me that Shirley’s mother used to tell her what she had to do the next day when she put her to bed and she did it. There were Shirley Temple books and dresses with full skirts which flared out when you swung round. I told someone at school that I had one but I only had this in my imagination. Charlie Chaplin was another star in his prime and I remember seeing a film where there was a lot of machinery and someone got caught up in it and went round and round on rollers. I was worried sick. I have since found out that this film was called Modern Times. Cartoons were made showing Mickey and Minnie Mouse and Donald Duck as the main characters. Walt Disney made Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs about 1938 and we all loved this film. Mum and Dad were worried in case I was frightened of the Witch. She was horrendous but I said I wasn’t frightened. I remember the family going to see a film “60 Glorious Years” which was about Queen Victoria and Mrs Medley had recommended it. I cried because I wanted to go but I had to spend the evening with Granny and Grandad and they were always nice to me. When Snow White was in fashion, we had all the paraphenalia on the market such as lead toys, jigsaw puzzles, books and I have a tablecloth which belonged to Granny Bridgeman. Everyone loved Gracie Fields and her songs such as “Sing as we go and let the World 
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go by” and she also made films. There was George Formby and his Ukulele singing “I’m leaning on a Lamp-post”, Laurel and Hardy, Abbott and Costello and once Mum and Dad went to a dance in the Hut and danced to the tune of “A Little Dash of Dublin” and Dad trod on her toes. That of course has nothing to do with film stars!! Elsie Carlyle was a singer and Eileen and I used to collect cigarette cards which had a series of film stars such as May West and Greta Garbo. I mustn’t forget Henry Hall and his orchestra who entertained us with their music via the wireless for many years. I went to the cinema only a few times before the war but thought it was wonderful. We also had a wireless run by an accumulator and battery and later an electric wireless which stood in the front room on a little table, like The Ark of the Covenant. The wireless was only switched on when Mum said so or when Dad listened to the news and the football results. Children’s Hour was about but I cannot remember if we listened to it.
When we were children we were never couch potatoes but went out to play at every opportunity, weather permitting. Games came in and out of fashion and consisted of spinning tops, skipping, hopscotch, Tensies which was played bouncing a ball and working up from one to ten, leap frog, hide and seek and many others. We walked the fields and woods looking for wild flowers, which we were allowed to pick, also nuts, blackberries, mushrooms, rabbits food, bits of wood for the fire and anything else edible or useful. I mentioned rabbits food as Eileen and I had a rabbit each and once a pet white mouse. We also had a cat called Minnie who lived to be eleven. She had kittens as household cats weren’t generally spayed and she lived on scraps and fish heads. Tinned pet food wasn’t about. Sometimes we had friends to play in the garden or shed but hardly ever in the house and never upstairs. We had to ask Mum if we wanted to go upstairs for anything and if we went out of the back door to go to the lavatory she would say “Where are you going?” Through force of habit we always made an announcement.
I always wanted to have a bicycle as everyone rode a bicycle in the village through necessity. I learned to ride secretly in the shed, getting my balance on Eileen’s old bike and took this out onto the road when Mum and Dad were at First Aid Classes in the Hut when the war started. When they came out, I was riding down the road and I dare not think what Mum’s reaction was. I also wanted some roller skates and a pair of shorts but never had any. I used to walk round the garden wearing Dad’s ice skates and wricking my ankles.
Dad made Eileen and I a little garden each. It was surrounded by a wooden border with a division up the middle. When he asked me what I wanted to grow, I said Red Hot Pokers and Love Lies Bleeding and he said they weren’t suitable. Remembering the size of the garden, I can see his point and I think we settled for Pansies and London Pride. I always took a great interest in everything which Dad grew as this was part of our life. When Eileen was 13 and the year would be 1937 or 1938, she left South Road School and went to the Herts and Essex High School, Bishop’s Stortford. When 11 years old, girls sat for a scholarship to attend the school. Eileen passed but there was not room for everyone
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so she had another chance when she was 13 and was accepted. In those days, as well as the scholarship girls, parents could pay privately for their daughters to attend and there were infants classes of I, Ila and Ilb. The eleven year olds were in classes of IIla and Ilia. After the war, privately paid pupils were phased out together with the infants classes and girls could stay until they were 18 to do Higher School Certificate and possibly go to University. I remember the uniform she had which was a fawn skirt and pullover trimmed with yellow as she was in Hart House. There were cream blouses, fawn herringbone coat, fawn felt hat and a djibha (I don’t know how you spell it) which was a tunic for wearing when doing games or gym. The summer dresses were blue check and there was a fawn blazer and a panama hat. Some of this uniform was altered to fit me when I attended in 1942 when I was 11. I was a much smaller child than Eileen and looked younger than my years whereas she looked older. I like to hear what she did at school and all about the various teachers. She told me that in Biology they had a heart hooker and used to put it down their throat, hook their heart out and inspect it!! She also taught me to do joined up writing and as the Herts and Essex had a style of their own, I did not have to change mine when I started school there. Some children wrote with loops and in a slanting direction whereas we wrote upright with no loops. Eileen used to go to the school on the train from Newport together with Betty Campbell, Jennifer Fausett and Elinead and Brianna Dillon Robinson. Brianna was a character and used to sit in the luggage rack above the seats. When I went to school, I went on the bus and cycled to the Kiora Cafe which was on the main road near the turning going to Widdington. I don’t know when the change from train to bus began.
In writing my memories about Primary School, I previously mentioned that I had written several articles for Widdington Magazine which covers this subject and you would need to read them in The Widdington Chronicles. As these have been shortened and edited, I have decided to include them in this book as I wrote them.
MEMORIES OF WIDDINGTON SCHOOL 1935 - 1942
I attended Widdington School from 1935 - 1942 and will try to remember some of the high-lights during those years. I started school when I was four - I should have been five but as I was keen to go, Miss King let me begin early. Widdington School was a red brick building consisting of one large room with a small cloakroom attached to the left-hand side of the front of the building. Entrance to the schoolroom was obtained via the cloakroom. At the top of the wall facing the Church was a stone plaque which read “Come Ye Children and Hearken Unto Me: I Will Teach You the Fear of the Lord”. This is taken from Psalm 34 verse 11 and the plaque is now embedded in the churchyard wall. The large room was divided by a huge cupboard making it into two smaller rooms, one for the infants and one for the juniors. It was heated by a solid fuel tortoise stove. Sometimes we fetched a jug of hot water from the rectory when they were doing the washing and had the copper going. We needed this to wash the milk mugs in an enamel bowl. Outside were two “toilets” for boys and girls. These were the old wooden seat and bucket
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variety which I avoided if at all possible especially in high summer!! The playground was in front of the building and there was a small piece at the back, where the boys weren’t allowed to go and the coke heap was also kept there.
The Headmistress was Miss King who came up from Newport every day by taxi and when she retired, the school closed. Miss King taught the juniors and covered a wide range of subjects. When I started, the infants teacher was Miss Pansy Frost who lived at The William the Conqueror Public House. When she left, Miss Winnie Barnet from Rook End came. There were probably about 20 children attending school but this greatly increased when the war started and evacuees joined us. I have a school photo dated 1937 and there are 14 children on this but I know of at least 5 who are missing.
At break time in the morning, we had one third of a pint of milk which, I think, was free or it may have cost a half penny. (I can’t remember.) We could also buy Cod Liver Oil and Malt at a reduced rate and a block of Gibbs Toothpaste for a halfpenny. We were encouraged to clean our teeth every day and had cards to mark if we did. We received a badge marked Ivory Castle League and a red, white and blue ribbon was added. As cards were completed we received a star which was stuck in the ribbon. I still have the badge plus my own teeth!! We also had an Ivory Castle Newspaper which was given to all children who could read. I was too young to read but said I could because I wanted a newspaper.
Christmas was an exciting time and we made our own paper chains using the coloured strips of paper which are glued at each end and one is linked to another. These were hung over the beams using a long handled mop. When I was small we had a huge Christmas Tree which was beautifully decorated and the white fluffy stuff which looked like snow took my fancy. I stole some and hid it up my knicker leg and when I got home, my mother, who didn’t miss a thing, asked me what the bulge was and made me take it back. It was harder to return it unobserved than it was to take it but it taught me a lesson.
One day, when I was returning to school after dinner, I was greeted in the playground with the cry that Hilda Smith had fallen on something and cut her head open. I didn’t want to go in the classroom and see inside Hilda’s head but when the bell went of course I had to go. Hilda sat there as large as life with a bandage round her head. I was greatly relieved that she was all right and it goes to show the lengths to which children’s imagination runs. It was the same when a relief teacher, Miss Tamplin, came one day in a car from Newport and someone had run in front of the car and she said ‘My heart went into my mouth” and I thought it had. It made me feel quite ill.
Amongst my fondest memories are the lovely nature walks we had. Miss King taught us to appreciate the countryside and everything which grew and existed in it. That is something which will always be with me.
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Sometimes we walked to the wood which is half-way between the Church and Debden Park. We walked along the cart track past the farm, turned left and eventually crossed a field by a small path to the wood. We collected as many different wild flowers as we could find and then had to learn their names. Wild flowers were in abundance everywhere and the excitement of finding a white bluebell, a bee orchid or a butterfly orchid is never forgotten. Another route was “up the lane” (Cornels Lane) to Hoy’s wood which is between the water tower and the road to Swaynes Hall but on the other side of the road. There was a path from this wood to the wood behind the Red House (Widdington House) but sometimes the path could be a bit overgrown. We also walked down “Holly Road” (Hollow Road) and I remember a boy falling in the ditch opposite Wyses Farm and the ditch was full of black sludge. I think he had to go straight home and have a bath. One Autumn we had to see how many different leaves we could collect. There were the usual Horse-Chestnut, Sycamore and Maple but as my father worked at the Red House, he found me Fig, Medlar and Quince leaves.
Miss King was a tall lady with dark hair who always wore a patterned smock to protect her clothes, and we were fortunate in having such a good teacher. We started the day by doing our charts which consisted mainly of deciding what day it was and the weather, e.g. It is Tuesday and raining. We would then draw a picture of someone with an umbrella. This was followed by Scripture which we had every day because it was a C. of E. School. We learned the Catechism by heart and also about six Psalms; numbers 8, 23, 121 and 150 come to mind. We were taught all the Bible stories and drew pictures of these and made models in plasticine or paper. We also had a repertoire of a few hymns which included “There is a green hill” and “Blessed are the pure in heart”. I can’t remember who played the piano but as this was taken away during the war, we had to manage as best we could. Our religious knowledge was tested by a Diocesan Inspector called Mr Stares. I have a Certificate, dated 6th July 1939, to say I had passed “a specially satisfactory Examination in Religious Knowledge”. This is the only one I have so maybe he didn’t come during the war. (Or maybe I failed!!)
The juniors or the “Big Side” as we were called, consisted of Standards 1 to 5. We did reading, writing and arithmetic, nature, history and geography. I remember we followed the route taken by King George VI and Queen Elizabeth when they visited Canada in 1939. We had a large map of the world on the wall and marked such places as Toronto and Quebec. We reached a high standard in arithmetic and could do fractions and decimals by the age of ten. We could work out four and a half yards of elastic at one and a half pence a yard without a calculator!! We learned to count by having spent matchsticks in bundles of 10 to form HTU (hundreds, tens and units). We also learned to knit and, as it was war time, knitted for the soldiers. We started by making a scarf on large needles with khaki wool and progressed to socks and mittens. We learned to sew and do embroidery and I remember making a white handkerchief which had to be pinned, tacked and then hemmed. In my sweaty hands, it finished up grey. We did PT in the school playground and had little oval straw mats to sit on or do various exercises. Games like rounders were played in the meadow next to the school.
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One thing which I really loved was when we did a concert which was held in The Hut and our Mums came to watch. There was large box in the school which held all sorts of dressing up clothes and we also made some costumes out of crepe paper. One year we dressed up as animals and I was a duck. My mother made a lovely costume out of yellow material and it had webbed feet which I thought was wonderful. Another time, we did the Pied Piper and learned the whole poem off by heart. With all the rats and children - there was a part for everyone.
In the summer of 1938 we went on a coach trip to Clacton that was hired from either Griffins of Debden or Moores of Saffron Walden (I can’t remember.) Miss King, the Infants’ teacher, Mr Court (the rector) and some mothers came to look after us. We played on the beach in the morning and had a picnic lunch. I had my bathing costume on under my dress but wouldn’t take my dress off. I expect I was a bit shy of exposing myself or maybe it was cold!! In the afternoon we went to a variety show on the pier and the chorus girls sang “The Umbrella Man” and twirled their umbrellas. I thought it was wonderful. I can also remember going on the Ghost Train with Mr Court. We went to a restaurant on the sea front for tea and we could either have shrimps or pineapple which were in glass dishes. I chose shrimps and don’t ask how I remember all this. I bought my mother and father a present which was an enormous stick of rock which cost about 6d. I expect they were delighted. I don’t remember the journey home - perhaps I went to sleep.
Another exciting event was the Christmas party on the last day of the Autumn term. I have already written about the paper chains we made beforehand. In the afternoon, we played games and had sandwiches, cakes and lemonade. Each child had a present and I don’t know who paid for all this but suspect it was Miss King. We didn’t go to many parties as children so an event like this was very much appreciated. It was in the summer of 1940 when soldiers were often on manoeuvres, that a group of them, together with their lorries etc. camped near the green for a day or two and the water tap, which was on a green island in the middle of the road leading to the church. was in great demand for their ablutions. Miss King let us put on an entertainment for them and we enacted the story of Cinderella and decorated the hedge at the bottom of the playground with coloured streamers. The soldiers appeared to appreciate our efforts. Miss King was a wonderful story teller and at the end of each afternoon, she always read to us. Sometimes it was one of her books and sometimes a book belonging to one of her pupils. I shall never forget the Dr Dolittle stories. The Push¬Me-Pull-You (the animal with a head at both ends) sparked off my imagination together with the floating island which was pushed along by porpoises. Another story was Emile and the Detectives which I think was set in Germany and sounded different to me. My sister Ruth, who is 13 years younger than me, confirms my appreciation of Miss King’s story telling, as she feels just the same. From a medical point of view, we were looked after quite well. From time to time the School Nurse came and we were
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weighed and measured and she inspected our hair. I liked the Nurse but was a bit nervous of the Doctor, who examined our chests. As a child I was very thin and small for my age and wondered what he was going to do to me to fatten me up. He suggested I had egg and milk but as my mother looked after me very well anyway and was a good cook, it didn’t seem to make much difference. I did fill out a bit when I was 19 and have filled out a bit more since then!! We all had the usual children’s illnesses, e.g. Measles, Chicken Pox, Mumps and Whooping Cough. I think it was during 1936 when a lot of us had Whooping Cough and were ill for weeks. I was immunised against Diphtheria during the war and this was the start of the prevention of all these illnesses. The School dentist came once a year with a mobile surgery in a caravan and we had our teeth filled with the old treadle drill and gas was used for extractions. We had this done during lesson time and when we came back into the classroom, we hung our mouths open and pointed to what we had done so the other children could see. Miss King told us to sit down and be quiet so we didn’t have to make a fuss. In 1940 the School Dentist was a very nice man called Mr Chamberlain who named me Pixie, which was very apt. The next year an older man came and I heard that Mr Chamberlain had gone into the Air Force. My sister, Ruth, has related a story to me which shows what an understanding teacher Miss King was. Ruth took a rotting carcass of a bird to show her and instead of saying “take that thing out of here” she inspected it and pointed out various parts of its anatomy and talked to Ruth about it. She then suggested that it would be a good idea to bury it under the Acacia tree.  Sadly, at the end of the school year in which we were eleven we had to leave Widdington school. Pupils then went on to Newport School until they were fourteen and were taken each day by car. There was, however, an opportunity to sit for a scholarship and, if successful, the boys went to Newport Grammar School and the girls went to the Herts and Essex High School, Bishop’s Stortford. After I left Widdington School, there were many changes in my life. My eldest sister, Eileen, left home to become a children’s Nanny. I had a new baby brother and our two evacuees had gone home. I started a new school which was like another world. I last saw Miss King in 1959, when I was staying with my mother and took my new baby to show her. I think she retired a year or two after that and the school closed. That is the end of my pre-war memories and the end of an era.

THE WAR YEARS 1939—1945

In September 1989, the 50th Anniversary of when war was declared, I wrote an article for Widdington Magazine called Outbreak of War, September 1939, which they published. I shall, therefore, start by recording this account, as I wrote it, eleven years ago.
I was eight years old and during that summer there had been talk of war and some Austrian refugees came to Widdington. I still remember their names, and some of them became friends of my Aunt Ruth. A titled lady, Mrs Von Karla and her two daughters stayed at our house for a while. I remember the daughters were very pretty and spoke perfect English.
We were all supplied with gas masks which were black and came in three sizes, small, medium and large. I had a small black one but would have liked to have had a Mickey Mouse gas mask which was brightly coloured and supplied to very small children. At school we used to practise wearing these and tried to be brave. They felt a bit hot and stuffy and when you breathed out, they made a rude noise at the side. Later on in the war, an additional filter was added which was bright green. I am thankful that we never did have a gas attack and had to wear them for real.
One Sunday afternoon we walked right to the end of Cornells Lane and along the cart track to the fields. A huge trench was being dug from left to right as far as you could see and was called a “tank trap”. I am glad that this was never put to use either and I expect it was filled in long ago.
On Sunday, September 3rd, I sat on our front door step with the cat. As a child, I spent quite a bit of time sitting there because in that elevated position, I could see right across the green and beyond, and watched everything that went up and down the road. Also the sun always shone in those days! I sat there waiting for the evacuees to arrive from the East End of London. Each house had previously been visited to see how many children they could take in. We had been recorded as having room for two girls. When the coaches arrived, they stopped outside the Hut and the occupants went in there to be sorted out. They all seemed to be mothers with small children and were allocated to various houses in the village. We didn’t have anyone at that time but later on in the war we did have two girls with us for a year. Their names were Anne Webster and Valerie McClelland. During the next week or so the mothers used to sit on the village green during the day and Widdington must have been a very bewildering place after the East End of London. I remember one lady going into the village shop and asking for some beetroot and when she found it wasn’t cooked, she didn’t want it. I didn’t know you could buy cooked beetroot. Most of the mothers soon moved back to London but three families stayed until the end of the war. As they lived quite near to us, we became very friendly. They were Jewish and I was interested in their different customs. They also introduced us to new foods such as halva, matzo and cooking oil. I was especially friendly with one family, namely Mrs Israel and her children, Godfrey, Lilly and Stanley and
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visited them once when they returned to Spitalfields, London, but that was forty years ago. I  often wonder how they are.
After that memorable day in 1939 we eventually started a new term at school and life settled down but was never quite the same again. We had food rationing and when I asked my father what that meant, he said that everyone would be allocated a set amount of food. As I didn’t eat much in those days and meal times were a bit of a worry, I replied that if I couldn’t eat mine all up I would have to leave it!! However, we managed and although we didn’t have the variety of food we have today, we didn’t go hungry. (I used to long for an orange though).
We often laugh because I got married on September 3rd, but that was sixteen years  later. We are still battling on!
Preparations for war were made during the summer of 1939. Mum bought a load of blackout material to make curtains as when it got dark, no lights were allowed to show. The cry of “Put that light out” was heard if a light was seen from a window or door. I have already mentioned the gas masks and Ration Books were issued for food. Sweets were in short supply and it was better when they came on ration as everyone had something even though it was only 2 ozs a week. Bread wasn’t rationed until after the war. Eventually clothes came on ration and nothing was wasted. “Make Do and Mend” was a slogan and every scrap of material, wool and paper was put to good use. When I see what is left at the end of a jumble sale today, I think of the war years when everything would have been sold. Some people had money but not enough clothing coupons and some people with large families had the coupons but no money so deals were done. There was a great trade in second hand goods. If you needed to replace household linen, you had to apply for dockets. There was The Ministry of Food, Ministry of Fuel and Power and a Ministry of everything else. Funnily, you didn’t need clothing coupons for hats.
We had enough food but there was nothing very fancy. We fared better in the country as we grew vegetables, had fruit in season and the meat ration was helped out with the odd rabbit, pigeon or dare I mention pheasant which Dad caught. Sausages tasted more of rusks and seasoning than meat, the bread had a darker texture, probably because the flour was not so refined and cakes and biscuits were only plain as there was hardly any icing sugar about. Christmas cakes were “iced” with dried milk and water. It looked all right but didn’t taste like icing. Later on in the war, America helped us out by sending dried egg and spam. Ships went in convey across the Atlantic but were often destroyed by U-boats. We never had any oranges or bananas until after the war. Milk was fetched in a can from the milk shop at Pond Mead and when I was small, Uncle Horrie was the milkman. He used to bring the milk in and put it through a filter and then measure it out. Later on, milk was brought to the house by Mrs Walters and her daughter from Quendon in a churn and measured out. Sometimes I went across the meadow at the back of our house to Mrs Campbell’s at Priors Hall Farm to get milk. I cannot remember when we stopped fetching milk and it was delivered to the door. We
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mostly drank tea during the day and cocoa when we went to bed. Very rarely we had coffee which was either ground coffee and made in a jug or Camp Coffee in a bottle. There was no instant coffee at all.
The displays in shop windows were made of cardboard as the goods inside were very depleted. The bananas were made of plaster. There were only a few toys in the shops and these were mostly lead soldiers, toy tanks and other war vehicles, books made of greyish poor quality paper, a few lead farm animals and dolls with cardboard heads and rag bodies. People made soft toys out of old coats which were also used to make rugs. The material was cut into strips and pegged through with a special tool onto a piece of sacking. Newspapers consisted of only a few pages on recycled paper.
Before Jimmy and Ruthie were born, Mum sometimes took in paying guests. They had the front bedroom and meals in the front room and she was an excellent caterer. I have her Visitors Book and it appears that Mrs Emma Karplus came in July 1939 and in August we had Mrs Von Kahler and her two daughters Lieselotte and Elfie who spoke perfect English and had been presented at Court. They were all Austrian refugees escaping the Nazi regime and came to Widdington with the help of the Tugendhats who came to Widdington in 1938. Mrs Von Kahler gave Mum lots of beautiful clothes and these were adapted for us to wear. I had a dress made out of a brown velvet evening dress which used to ride up inside my coat and I would be walking with my knickers showing. Mum made a nightdress for herself out of the lining. I used to walk about in the bedroom wearing blue and white high heeled satin court shoes about six sizes too big for me. I also still have some trinkets which they gave us. There are two small wooden clogs with Bruges written on them, a very small leather shoe decorated with red wool and a little leather note case with a badge on the front saying TURIET u BARDACH, VIENNA. There were other Austrian ladies in the village and Mrs Kelvin and her friend Olga came to work as cook and maid for Mrs Dillon-Robinson. They later went to work away in a school and Aunt Ruth corresponded with them for many years. There was Mrs Karbash and her son Rudi who was interned, also Mrs Kalivoda (I have no idea how you spell it). They were all musical and some were marvellous pianists. Getting back to the Visitors Book, Mr and Mrs Walters came at the end of August but it doesn’t say whether it was 1939 or 1940. I don’t remember them but they came from Hampstead. Mr and Mrs Matthews came for five weeks in the Autumn of 1940, their address being Newbiggin Street, Thaxted and they wrote “Five lovely weeks spent here never to be forgotten owing to the kindness of Mr and Mrs Jim Stalley”. In November 1940, Mr and Mrs Bookman from Cricklewood came but I cannot remember anything about them. Then Mr and Mrs Goldstein from Golder’s Green came for two weeks to December 1st. I think they were acquaintances of Mrs Israel, a Jewish lady who came as an evacuee and lived two doors away. They were an elderly couple and their daughter-in-law came to stay during the winter, probably January 1941 as there was snow about, to have her baby. While she was carrying the baby, she had lived through the London Blitz and spent a lot of time in Air Raid Shelters and the hospital booked for her confinement
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was bombed. It was arranged she would stay with us and Mum would look after her. She was very nice and used to sing and Mum would whistle the latest songs. She had made beautiful clothes for the baby - little embroidered gowns and of course everyone knitted little matinee coats and booties. One day she had a spurt of energy and was outside sweeping the snow. During the night, things started to happen and Mum waded up the road through the snow to Hoys as they had a telephone and she needed the District Nurse. The baby was born during the day. Nurse was with Mrs Goldstein and I heard a scream and Nurse banged on the floor for Mum’s help so I ran to the shed to get her. A little boy was born but sadly he only lived a few days. Mum said he looked blue and they tried to get him to feed. He was called Michael and is buried in Widdington Churchyard next to the yew trees where the still born babies were buried. His father, who was in the Air Force, came, and Mr Court came to see them. Michael was a little Jewish baby and I probably am the only person who remembers him, apart from his family, so that is why I have recorded this. About eighteen months later, they had another little boy called Martin (I think) and he was well.
A Mr and Mrs Cheverst came to stay in July 1943 from Muswell Hill but I do not remember them at all. That seems to be the end of the visitors. At the back of the book, Mum has recorded the childhood illnesses of Jimmy and Ruthie and dates of various immunisations. She has also written “Money make the household but only one the home.”
After the first flush of activity when war was declared, things settled down for about a year. Then we had Dunkirk in the summer of 1940. I remember Aunt Ruth pointing to maps in the newspapers showing how our troops in France could be cut off by advancing German forces. There was a mass evacuation from Dunkirk beaches from May 27th to June 4th to bring our men home across the Channel and every available small boat was used to do this. Then in September 1940 London was Blitzed and we had the Battle of Britain. The bombing in London was terrible and Aunt Ruth went with the Dillon-Robinson family to London to do domestic work for them. Cdr. Dillon-Robinson worked at the Admiralty and they took a flat in Dolphin Square. I was so worried about Aunt Ruth and pleased when she returned to Widdington because the bombing was so bad. Today there are many books showing photographs of the devastation at that time and people used to go down the Underground to sleep at night. They took blankets and tea and there was a wonderful air of comradeship about. In times of trouble, people tend to be nicer to each other. They speak and help where they can and the natural English reserve is broken down. Widdington had some stray bombs which were meant for Debden Aerodrome. Some incendiary bombs fell in the fields but fortunately the corn had been cut so there was only the stubble to burn. There were some whistling or screaming bombs which sounded frightening as they came down. One night Aunt Ruth was returning to Spring Hill as she “lived in” and one of these came down. As she leapt into a ditch a man called out “Gawd help yer gal, ‘cos I can’t” God did help her and she got back safely. Sometimes we would walk to a field to look at a bomb crater. We also had a Soldiers Searchlight camp in the village. This was in the field opposite Wyses Farm at first
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and then they moved to the field next to Shiptons Farm where there is a double bend in the road. There were several wooden huts where they lived and of course the Searchlights and I think they were there for the duration of the war. This made great excitement for the young ladies of the village. (I was too young). I know of two weddings which resulted in these young people getting together namely Floss Chipperfield and Ken Spall, also Grace Canning and Mr. Quinnell. After Jimmy was born in 1942 and Mum no longer wanted to keep our dog Toby, the soldiers took him in and gave him a home.
As well as the London Blitz, Thursday 14th November 1940 was the night of the “Baedecker” raid when German planes attacked five of our Cathedral cities. The hardest hit was Coventry. The Cathedral was destroyed together with over 60,000 buildings and 550 people were killed. Our Hurricanes and Spitfires defended our country and eventually after nine months Hitler ordered the war effort to be diverted to Russia. 48,000 Londoners were killed or wounded during the Blitz and thousands made homeless. We must not forget that as many innocent lives were also sacrificed in Berlin. War is terrible and Hitler and his cronies had a lot to answer for.
I think it must have been 1941 when Dad was called up and went into the Air Force. His number was 1134702. When he went for his medical aged 35 he was passed as A1 which was surprising. He was trained as a Flight Mechanic and was sent to Morecambe. I used to write to him and make him a calendar for each month. He sent me some sweets which looked like sea shells and I had never seen these before. He also told me that he had seen the sun, the moon and the stars all shining at the same time. We had Double British Summer Time in the war and probably round about the longest day, it was not dark for long up in Lancashire. Later on he was moved to Yorkshire and the Airfields near Thirsk. He used to talk of Lancaster bombers as he had to see to these when they returned from raids. One night I went to bed in the front bedroom with Mum and woke up in the back bedroom with Eileen. Dad had come home as he had been in hospital to have a vein stripped from his leg. He was sent home by train and walked from Newport station during the night. Some time during 1942 he was discharged from the Air Force as medically unfit. I have now come across his calling up papers and also discharge papers which are dated 3rd April 1942.
During 1941, when Dad was in the Air Force, we had two evacuees living with us. Anne Webster was 10, my age, and she had been living with Mrs Nora Carmichael. Her brother, Peter, aged 8, stayed with Mrs Pettitt, the Blacksmith’s wife and their cousin John was with Mrs Askey on Spring Hill. I got on very well with Anne and was sorry when she did not return to us after going home to Isleworth for the Christmas holidays. Mum was pregnant with Jimmy so had enough on her plate. The last time I saw Anne was on the train going to London. Dad, who was on leave, and I got out at Bishop’s Stortford and he found a lady on the train to look after Anne until they reached Liverpool Street Station where her mother would meet her. You would not dare do that today as there are so many nasty characters about. Anne and I wrote
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to each other until we were about 16 when we left school. This story has a happy ending because we have been able to meet up again. Her cousin, John Mitchell, visited Widdington and wrote an article for the Widdington Magazine and the Editor very kindly gave me his address and telephone number. As a result, I contacted Anne and she came to see me last Spring in 1999. She now lives in Hampshire. We married within a week of each other and both have two daughters. The other evacuee was Valerie McClelland who was 7. Her family had moved to Widdington and lived in a cottage at Wood End. Her married sister lived at Newport. Eventually the parents moved back to London, Valerie came to us and her two elder brothers went elsewhere. Valerie wasn’t with us as long as Anne was.
With all the families being evacuated from London, the number of pupils at Widdington School doubled in size. We all had to carry our gas masks with us. They were in a square cardboard box which was put in a case made of American cloth. Some of the boys had theirs in a metal cylindrical type case with which they used to slosh each other. An Air Raid Shelter was built in the school playground but we never had to use it. Before it was built, we used to shelter under our desks but no bombs were dropped near us. Eventually things quietened down and school returned to normal. The boys used to play games pretending they were hurricanes and spitfires and made noises like machine guns.
One evening at the beginning of 1942, I was in bed and we had an air raid so I was allowed to come downstairs. Mum and Eileen were sitting in front of the fire knitting baby clothes and I looked in wonderment. Dad was away in the Air Force. Mum then told me she was going to have a baby and I was surprised as I was eleven years old but I was also quite excited. Lots of preparations were made during the next few months as the baby was going to be born at home. The District Nurse whose name, I think, was Nurse Dutton but we called her “Nurse”, was wonderful. She worked so hard and was always cheerful. Dr Brown would be in attendance if needed. Mum and Eileen knitted matinee coats and after the birth Mum made little rompers and embroidered french knots round the hems. She had a large rubber sheet for the bed and Mrs Stanley, across the road, did the laundry. A maroon coloured pram was bought and my cot was in action again. She prepared a baby’s basket which contained the talcum powder, vaseline, cotton wool, zinc and castor oil ointment, brush and all the other paraphernalia.
Mum’s babies were kept spotless and one thing she did, which I copied when I had my babies, was the routine for cleaning eyes. She dissolved a few Boracic crystals in an egg cup of warm water and cleaned the baby’s eyes with swabs of cotton wool dipped in this. She had no cotton buds so made little twirls of cotton wool to clean noses. Mum was 36, which was getting on a bit in those days, when Jimmy (Maurice James Walter) was born June 8th 1942, weighing 6 1/2lbs. Mum said he looked like a little rosebud but I thought he looked a bit red and shrivelled. There were no complications with the birth and Granny, Eileen and Aunt Ruth kept things going at home. I was still at Widdington school and Eileen was working as a teacher at Waterside Prep. School at Bishop’s Stortford. Vera Lynn was singing “The White
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Cliffs of Dover”. It seemed strange having a baby in the house after there being just Eileen and me for so long. However things settled down and I remember Jimmy cried a lot at first until Mum put him on the bottle and used the same formula as she had used for me and that was when I recalled the fishy smell of emulsion. Jimmy was wheeled round the village in his pram and we all helped with this. Dad had been discharged from the Air Force so was back working up Mrs Medley’s. About this time, Dad and I went to Bishop’s Stortford and he saw some grapes in a shop which was a rare sight. He would have liked to have bought some for Mum but on enquiring the price it was £1 per pound. Compared with todays values, this would be at least £50 which was well beyond his pocket.
1941/42 was my last year at Widdington School and there was the opportunity to sit for a scholarship to attend the Herts and Essex High School at Bishop’s Stortford. Miss King put my name forward so at the beginning of 1942 I went to South Road School at Saffron Walden to sit for the entrance exam. I was the only girl from Widdington and didn’t know a soul when I got there. Mum arranged for little Auntie to take me and we went in Hoy’s taxi. Little Auntie visited her relatives until I was ready to come home. We did arithmetic which I liked and had to write an essay and the subject I chose was “My Rabbit”. I survived this ordeal and the next stage was to attend an interview at the Herts and Essex High School. This involved reading a piece to the Headmistress and answering questions. Eileen came with me and impressed upon me not to speak with an Essex accent. I must have sounded like Eliza Dolittle and The Rain in Spain Stays Mainly in the Plain. Fortunately, I passed so started at the Herts and Essex in September 1942. Eileen had left the year before and as I have mentioned, was working at Waterside School and used to cycle to Bishop’s Stortford everyday. She taught the youngest boys and was very good at her job. However, she decided on a change, so after a year she left home and got a post as a Nanny at Fenstanton to look after Martin and Diana. She hadn’t been there long when she met Colin. By then, she would have been 18.
All too soon it was time for me to leave Widdington School in the summer of 1942. Miss King had been a good teacher and I just ran across the green to school. Life was very different when I started at the Herts and Essex and I had to cycle to the main road and catch a bus to Bishop’s Stortford. I had my cousin Mollie for company as she had been there for two years before me. We only went to school in the morning as Clapton County High School from London shared our school, because of the Blitz, and went in the afternoon. We had to go Saturday mornings and also had homework. I soon settled down and was very happy there and made friends. Eileen had left home and I missed her so much. Every five weeks she came home for a long weekend and I really looked forward to this. Eileen brought Colin home to stay for Christmas 1942 and we awaited their arrival. When the taxi drew up, Mum flew upstairs, I hid behind the front room door and Aunt Ruth greeted Colin with “I expect you are on strange ground”. Eventually, Mum appeared and I was dragged out and introduced and Colin remembers a creature with arms and legs flying and someone saying “This is Daphne”. I kept showing him my boxes of reels of cotton and embroidery silks saying “Which one do
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you like best?” which has become a family joke.
The attack on Pearl Harbour was December 1941 which brought the USA into the war. During the middle war years fighting was going on in the Far East, the Middle East including Libya, also Italy and of course the Russian front. Some European countries were occupied by German forces. Our troops were sent to India and Burma. Singapore, Java and other Islands were taken over by the Japanese. A good part of the whole world was at war. China and Japan had been fighting for years and there had been the Spanish Civil War during the 1930s. The countries in Europe which remained neutral were Switzerland, Spain, Sweden and Southern Ireland. Debden Aerodrome was taken over by the Americans and were often seen driving about in their Jeeps. When daylight raids were made on Germany towards the end of the war, we could hear the engines of their Bombers, possibly Marauders, Flying Fortresses and Typhoons, warming up in the early hours of the morning. The Yanks, as they were called, seemed to have a supply of candy, nylons etc. which attracted some girls. Children used to say “Have you got any gum chum?” and Americans had more money to spend than British Servicemen.
As time went on, Mum found she was pregnant again and Ruthie (Ruth Millicent) was born 26th April 1944. Again, the birth was at home and Nurse and Dr Terry (a lady) were in attendance. Mum was 38 and her labour was long and drawn out. Something seemed to have “got stuck” but then the Doctor (I think), moved something and Ruthie was born weighing 7½lbs with a funny shaped head which soon righted itself. I kept Jimmy, who was only 22 months old, amused in the back meadow whilst all this was going on and he tells me he remembers as he was bored and so was I as well as being worried sick. I was 13 years old and helped at home as did Granny and Aunt Ruth. I think it was Easter School Holidays. Ruthie was fed on Oster Milk and Mum had a hard time coping with everything. Washing clothes took ages and there were shortages to contend with as well as rationing and she was not a young woman. Today, lots of women don’t start their families until late 30s but housework with all the mod. cons, is so much easier. I used to help Mum as much as I could and walked miles round the village with Ruthie in the pram and Jimmy sitting on a board on the end. Ruthie used to throw all the covers out and sit there whistling and I would have the covers tucked under my arm as well as pushing the pram. I had real training for when I had my own family and I feel as if I have been washing up all my life!!
Doing my homework wasn’t always easy for me as I had a lot to do especially during the last two years at school. When the war ended, Clapton County High School went back to London so we went to school all day and no Saturdays. Everything went on in our back kitchen and I could either do my homework after Jimmy and Ruthie went to bed and I had helped to bath them, or I sat at the other end of the table and risked soap suds landing on what I had written. In summer I could sit on the front door step or go to my bedroom, when I had the little room, and sit side saddle at the dressing table. Poems were often learnt
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sitting on the bus. I somehow managed to cope with all this as I had youth on my side. I did quite well at school and have very happy memories. We wore school uniform, which hadn’t changed much since Eileen started, and because of war time, I had a mixture of new, second hand and altered clothes as everyone else did. I was also in Hart House to follow Eileen.
Apart from school uniform, I have been thinking about what I wore when I was about 9 or 10. We had vests and liberty bodices, called stays, which had one suspender on each side. These were supposed to keep my nigger brown stockings up but they were always in wrinkles. (We were allowed to say “nigger brown” in those days). I had two pairs of fleecy lined knickers, one pink and one blue, with elastic in the legs and a pocket in which to keep my piece of rag. These were changed every week!! I had a navy blue gym slip and wore a jumper underneath. Mum made me a coat which was fawn astrakhan and the original had belonged to Aunt Mag. I had knitted myself a blue pixie hood, which was the latest fashion, and I probably looked a sight but I was quite happy. I had a decent coat and knitted hat to wear on Sundays and probably a dress. I didn’t like new clothes and preferred to be inconspicuous. Sometimes Mum curled my hair each side near my ears with curling tongs if I was going somewhere special and I hated this. In summer I wore a dress, white rayon socks, which easily made holes, and sandals. In winter I wore shoes or wellingtons and loved walking in ditches. Mum was very good at needlework and could make clothes, either from new material or converting from another garment. Everyone knitted and old wool jumpers were unpicked, the wool made into skeins, washed to straighten the wool and then re-knitted. I still did this years after the war ended.
Another thing I helped Mum with when I was about 13 and 14 was the shopping. We were registered at Newport Co-op and our rations were delivered each Tuesday. We had points for various tinned items and I used to cycle to Newport and choose what to have. Sometimes I asked for Golden Syrup and they looked in a book to see if it was our turn. On the subject of rations, I have come across two Ration Books which belonged to Dad for the years 1952/53 and 1953/54. There is also his Identity Card. Everyone had to register at the beginning of the war and we all had cards with a number. My number was DDWH 71/3 which is the number on my Medical Card. Saturday afternoons I went on the bus to Saffron Walden and it was 6d Return for a child. I had to go to Boots to get the Oster Milk, Gripe Water, Glucose, Magnesia, Cotton Wool and all the other things babies need. I liked to look round Woolworths but couldn’t buy much a) because I had hardly any money and b) most things were rationed. Widdington had their own special bus and there was only one hour to do the shopping. Some people had gone earlier, after dinner, to the pictures and came home on the bus when the matinee ended. They would have had to walk to the Bridge to catch the earlier bus as it did not come into the village. Cinemas were always full and Saffron Walden had two in those days.
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Everyone used to sing during the war and there were some wonderful songs. I used to sit in the lavatory belting these out - There’ll Always be an England, Run Rabbit Run, The Last Time I Saw Paris, Bless Them All, We’ll Meet Again and so on. Roy Simmonds, next door, would say “Hark at that ode gal Stalley”. I associate “Bless Them All” with Dad and “When the Lights Come on Again” cheered us up because this was all the rage in the last stages of the war. There was also a song called “Only 5 minutes more - let me stay in your arms” which was popular when I was 14. I mustn’t forget Vera Lynn, who was called The Forces Sweetheart because she entertained the troops, and husbands and wives and courting couples will always remember her songs. Another two songs which come to mind are “Lilli Marlene” and “You Are My Sunshine”. Sometimes the soldiers at the camp used to put on a show in the Hut. They sung, did sketches, I think one could draw and they had many talents between them and I really enjoyed these shows. Any entertainment was appreciated in the village to liven up these dreary times. Sometimes there was a fete and prizes were National Savings Stamps, also a Mock Auction where you bid and bought stamps and also had the item you bid for which villagers had given.
When I was about 12, Nanny Payne, Tugendhat’s Nanny, started up the GFS (Girls’ Friendly Society). We used to meet in the Hut once a week and do handicrafts, learn to smock, play games and socialise together. As it was affiliated to the Church, we sang a hymn and said a prayer. Sometimes we went to a Festival in Saffron Walden Church, also Chelmsford Cathedral and once, when I was 15, we went to The Albert Hall. This would be 1946, after the war. I remember we did a concert and Mrs Bass and Mrs Briner coached us. We sang “Where my Caravan has Rested” and dressed up as gypsies. This was very exciting. Aunt Ruth and May Chipperfield also used to belong to the GFS but I think they were called Helpers. When Nanny Payne moved away, Miss Binckes took over the job of running the GFS and we used to meet in her bungalow in the latter years and play cards. By that time, we had grown up, got married, some had left the village and the whole thing fizzled out.
When I was about 12 or 13, I was in the Church Choir. We wore the veils which Mrs Court had made. Miss Binckes used to play the Church organ and once we sang an Anthem - Lord, How Manifold, How Manifold are Thy Works. In May 1945 I was Confirmed in Saffron Walden Church. There were about six of us girls from Widdington and we had attended lessons with Mr Court. There were probably some boys but we were kept apart. I wore Eileen’s confirmation dress, the choir veil and white socks and brown sandals. One girl from another village was dressed up like a bride. Nanny Payne gave me a little book called The Daily Light - a Bible Reading for each day and I still have this. Nanny wrote in the front of the book - Daphne Stalley. In Commemoration of her Confirmation from R. Payne. GFS 24/5/45. In those days I mostly went to Church Sunday morning to Morning Prayer. Sometimes I went to “The 8 o’clock” as Mum called it, with Mum, which was Holy Communion. During the war, because of the blackout, Evensong was held in the Hut during the Winter months.
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When I was about 10 years old, Sunday school was held in the Chapel and was run by Miss Banks who was a dressmaker. We used to hear about Missionaries in Africa and children suffering from Leprosy. Mr Smith was the Chapel Minister who sometimes preached and his wife played the organ or harmonium with her little legs flying up and down the pedals. Each week we were given a small text and I loved these as they had pictures of birds or flowers on them plus a verse from the Bible. When we had 12 we got a large text to hang up. When we had 3 of these we could have a Bible or Prayer Book. I had a Prayer Book which I still have dated 14/6/42.
I have been trying to think if there was any other excitement on the go but each day was much the same. I went to school and we had to work hard. We had a long day as I left home at 8 o’clock to cycle to Newport to catch the bus and did not return home until 5 pm. I then had lots of homework to do in the evenings and weekend. I was very happy at the Herts and Essex, made friends and joined in with whatever was going. I loved it if we did a play as I enjoyed acting and being on the stage. I also liked to play the piano and had a few lessons with Mrs Bass. She used to play the mandolin and taught me to read music. I would have loved to have had proper lessons as I more or less had to teach myself but it gave me great pleasure. When I wasn’t at school I had to help Mum a lot in the house and look after Jimmy and Ruthie. I liked to go up and see Granny and Grandad as they always made me welcome and I loved it if Aunt Ruth came to tea and also when Eileen came home for her long weekend. Any activity in the village was an added bonus and occasionally I went to the pictures.
I always enjoyed my outings with Aunt Ruth when we went to Saffron Walden. Sometimes we went to the Museum and inside was a large stuffed elephant. I loved seeing all the exhibits and the lay-out has altered so much since those far off days. Sometimes we went to Fry’s Gardens (called Bridge End Gardens) and I loved walking round the little paths and climbing the metal steps to stand on a platform amongst the fir trees. Considering it was war time, it was kept in good order. There was a vegetable garden but the maze was locked up. We usually went into a cafe to have a cup of tea. I remember there was a restaurant behind the Co-op grocery and we would have beans on toast and sometimes we went to The Copper Kettle for tea. We looked round the shops and there was one called “The Bombed Out Shop” which sold all sorts of things. I bought a small tin which contained a few first aid items. The man said it didn’t contain any ointment and said “The best ointment around is lard”. I still have this tin and kept hair pins and metal hair curlers in it before the days of perms. Every night when we went to bed, we put these hair curlers in. In the morning you combed it out and if it was a wet and damp morning, I need not say what happened after I had cycled two miles to Newport to catch the bus.
Sometimes I would go for a walk with Granny up to the wood and once we went up  Cornells Lane. We had gone passed the turning to Mole Hall and Swaynes Hall, when we
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came across hundreds of baby frogs crossing the road from a ditch. I was so taken up with these that I gathered a bag full and took them home and made a place for them at the top of the garden. I don’t remember the outcome but I expect they all leapt away into the meadow at the back of our house. Granny would have said ’’Well, I never” which was one of her expressions. Granny would have been in her early 60s then.
I have already mentioned going to the Co-op at Newport to choose what to have with our points for other food apart from the basic rations. One week Mum wanted me to go to Holgates, the Drapers, in Newport to get some Sanitary Towels. “Don’t you dare buy those made of compressed paper, they fall to bits. I want those made with cotton wool”, she said. I had not started to need such things but went into the shop and asked the sour prune for Mum’s requirements. The Sanitary Towels she wanted were in short supply and I was shown some which I knew would not meet with her approval. Miss Holgate ripped open the box, took a towel out, dragged it apart and said “What is that made of?”. When I said “Compressed paper”, she gave such a snort and I made a quick retreat. I was in a no win situation as I was sandwiched between Mum’s wrath and Miss Holgate’s sarcasm. I did not go in there again.
In Widdington, during the war, we had the Home Guard. These were men too old to be called up or were in reserved occupations. They did fire watching from the top of the water tower and generally kept an eye on things. We had ARP wardens who cycled through the village blowing a whistle when there was a raid. Later, we had sirens which probably came from Newport and if I hear that noise in films it still gives me a horrible feeling. The warning siren wailed up and down and the all clear was a clear signal all on one note which sounded such a relief. We were shown how to use a stirrup pump to put out fires, we collected metal which would be turned into aeroplanes etc. for the war effort. We collected waste paper and if you went shopping, you took your own paper or bag. We picked rose hips which were made into rose hip syrup for babies.
Another group of people who were around during the war and a few years afterwards, were the Land Girls or Women’s Land Army - they tend to get forgotten. They worked on the farms as many of the young men had been called up to go into the forces. I remember Miss Toomey who lodged with Mrs Hall up Cornells Lane. She used to come to the GFS. They wore a uniform which consisted of breeches, a thick woollen jumper, cotton shirt and a hat. They worked very hard and I remember Colin saying some were employed at the Nurseries at Galley Hill. One job was picking frozen Brussels sprouts in the middle of winter and their hands got so cold, they cried with the pain.
We still celebrated Christmas but in a quieter more simple way. Granny gave me the last of her decorations to put up, which we did each year. Sometimes Aunt Ruth bought me a Christmas Tree which I decorated with real coloured candles in little metal holders. I filled the stockings for Jimmy and Ruthie and loved doing it. Mum always cooked a nice dinner and managed a few extra treats. Sometimes Granny and Grandad came to dinner, also Little
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Auntie. One year May Chipperfield and family came on Boxing Day and once Aunt Ruth stayed the night. That year she gave me the white china dog with black spots which I had so admired in her trunk of ornaments. When I was about 14, I had a chemistry set which I really wanted. Eileen and Colin used to come and stay and they always bought me lovely books. I loved Enid Blyton and used to have Sunny Stories which came out about once a fortnight.
In 1944 we went to Floss Chipperfield’s wedding. She married Ken Spall from the soldiers’ camp and I loved seeing all the preparations. Aunt Ruth and I went up to Aunt Annie’s house, Floss’s mother, and saw the bridesmaid’s dresses which were blue. Little Anne Chipperfield who was about 3 wore a poke bonnet. The reception was in the Hut - sandwiches and cakes - and I thought it was all very exciting. They were also singing “When the Lights come on Again”. We had probably had D Day when our troops went over to France and started pushing the Germans back and there was a glimmer of hope that one day the war would end. According to the Hutchinson Encyclopedia, US soldiers landed on the Normandy coast on 6th June, 1944 the beginning of the Allied invasion of Europe. It was one of the largest and most complex movements of men and equipment in history and involved, British, US and Canadian troops.
In writing about the war years, one of the most prominent men at that time was Winston Churchill, who was the Prime Minister of a Coalition Government. He inspired the whole nation with his famous speech “We shall fight them on the beaches and we shall never surrender”. There were many dark days during the war but this man kept us going and was seen going about his business wearing a siren suit and smoking a cigar. When the war ended, there was an Election and he stood for the Conservative Party and the slogans were “Help Him to Finish the Job”. Surprisingly, Mr Atlee of the Labour Party was our Prime Minister and I think people wanted Social Reform and a better world for the working classes. The birth of the National Health Service was in 1948.
The Battle of Arnhem was an airborne operation by the Allies 17th - 26th September 1944 to secure a bridgehead over the Rhine, thereby opening the way for a thrust towards the Ruhr. It was only partially successful and sadly there were 7,600 casualties. One day, when I was sitting in school in an upstairs classroom, a great number of aeroplanes went by towing gliders. The teacher interrupted her lesson so we could watch and explained they were carrying troops and subsequently we learn from history, they were going to Arnhem.
The bombing of Dresden by the Allies on the night 13-14 February, 1945 in a massive air raid, created the worst firestorm of the war. There were 8 square miles of devastation. Meanwhile, Britain was being bombarded by German flying bombs in 1944 and 1945. Many thousands were killed in air raids on London using the VI, also called Doodle Bug and Buzz Bomb which was powered by a simple kind of jet engine. You heard the horrid drone of the engine and saw flames coming out of the back and knew you were safe whilst hearing the noise. It was when the engine cut out that people waited for the crash and resulting devastation. Then came the V2 which was a rocket bomb with a preset guidance system - the first long range ballistic missile. These were deadly because you could not hear them coming so could not take cover.
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The launching ramps for these deadly weapons were across the Channel. I remember going into our back garden and seeing a Doodle Bug fly over and shall never forget the horrid noise it made. I don’t remember where it crashed but it missed Widdington.
As our Allies advanced through Germany and we read reports in the papers, one of the most horrific accounts was when the British troops liberated Belsen on 13th April 1945. Belsen was a Nazi Concentration Camp in Lower Saxony and when our troops entered the camp they found several thousand bodies laying around and the remaining inmates were barely alive. It was the first camp to be liberated by the Allies. Regarding Berlin, air raids and conquest by the Soviet Army 23rd April - 2nd May 1945 destroyed much of the city. Hitler committed suicide as Berlin fell. During the war, I read in the paper that it was Hitler’s birthday and he was 50+ and in my innocence I thought he was old and would soon die and the war would end. The war finally ended 8th May 1945 and there was much rejoicing. We were so pleased that the war in Europe had ended and most of the people in the village attended a social evening and dance in the Hut. Mum and Dad came over and I remember doing the Conga round the green. An American service man gave us a ride in his lorry through the village and we were so happy and excited. However, the war with Japan still carried on for a few more months until the USA dropped Atomic Bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and Japan surrendered in August 1945. We had not heard of Atomic Bombs and there was utter devastation. We lost one man from the village during the war - Mark Hollis who was Sir Claud’s son. Leonard Duller was taken prisoner and I remember how pleased people were when he came home. Another man, Mr Hall, escaped, and made his way home via Spain. You never forget the evil of war and when I see a swastika, it fills me with foreboding.
When the war ended, there was another light at the end of the tunnel and that was Eileen’s and Colin’s wedding on 30th June 1945. I found the preparations very exciting. Eileen had her wedding dress made and Joyce and I were bridesmaids and we went to Cambridge to buy the dresses. Joyce was in blue and I was in pink with matching head dresses. Mum made the wedding cake in the oven on the paraffin cooker and Jim Cooper and family iced it. Mrs Israel managed to get a lemon, costing 6d, when she went up to London, to use in the icing. Colin’s cousin George was Best Man. The wedding was in Widdington Church and Aunt Ruth looked after Ruthie, who was only a year old, whilst we were there. I used to tease Jimmy and say he had got to be a Page and wear a ruffle round his neck. He used to get cross and fortunately for him, he didn’t have to go through the ordeal. Eileen’s bouquet was red carnations and bouquets were much larger then and hung right down the front of the dress. Joyce and I had pink carnations and blue delphiniums. A car load of Colin’s relatives arrived from Hilton to attend the wedding and everything went according to plan. The reception was held at home and Mum did all the catering. I always associate orange blossom with Eileen’s wedding as it was in full bloom at that time. Someone managed to get a film so a few photographs were taken - there was no official photographer. Eileen and Colin went to London for their Honeymoon and then lived with Colin’s parents at Park Villa,
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Hilton until Colin was able to live in the bungalow which went with his job at the Nurseries at Galley Hill. The Nurseries were at the cross roads between St Ives and Hilton and Cambridge and Huntingdon. The Nurseries grew vegetables and tomatoes and I think Colin was made Foreman and the bungalow was next to the Nurseries. It all looks so different today and appears to be a broiler house business and the bungalow is hardly visible from the road when passing by in the car.
Getting back to farms, another group of men who worked on the farms were Italian prisoners of war. They wore a special uniform with round patches stitched on it and they lodged with the farmers. Later on, German prisoners of war did the same thing and sometimes joined in with village social events. German prisoners of war were very clever at making wooden toys and Colin gave some of these to Jimmy and Ruthie which he obtained from those working at Mr Price’s Nursery.
It was during the war that we were immunised against diphtheria as this was sometimes a fatal disease for children. We had the usual coughs and colds and influenza. According to the Encyclopedia, penicillin was around from 1941 but I don’t remember it being prescribed until many years later. There were M & B tablets but I don’t know what they actually were but they were large and Ruthie had them as she suffered with bad throats.
Tuberculosis, formerly known as Consumption, was infectious and mostly eventually fatal during the 1930s and early 1940s. Patients were given good food and fresh air was recommended. Will and Annie Chipperfield’s son, Cyril, had T.B. and lived in a wooden chalet in their garden. He was brother to Ted, Joe and Floss who were Dad’s second cousins. I do not remember him. During the early 1950s, the chalet was transferred to our garden and Aunt Ruth lived in it for a few years. According to the Encyclopedia, a vaccine, BCG was developed around 1920 and the first antituberculosis drug, streptomycin in 1944. Mum has recorded in her Visitor’s Book that Ruthie had a BCG vaccination in 1958. This became routine procedure for all school children.
I had Chicken Pox when I was 10 and I didn’t feel ill but wasn’t allowed to go to school and kept away from other children. I was upset because I couldn’t go May Singing and watched them all going up the road with their crosses covered in Spring flowers. I didn’t have Mumps until I was 20 which I caught off Ruthie. I felt ill for a few days but had to be off work for 3 weeks as I was in quarantine. Colds were treated with Vic Vapour Rub (Vic Brand as Mum called it), Camphorated Oil, Cough Mixture and gargling with TCP. I used to suffer from chilblains on my feet as there were no fur boots around during the war. After cycling 2 miles to Newport, sitting on an unheated bus to Bishop’s Stortford, I was frozen by the time I got to school.
Sometimes the radiators weren’t very hot in school as there was a shortage of fuel. The  boilers were heated by coke. At home, we had no heat in the bedrooms and in winter the frost
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would make patterns on the windows. We had water bottles or a hot brick wrapped in an old jumper. We wore bed socks and cardigans on top of our nightdresses to keep warm. Looking back, we kept quite well on the whole. The school dentist used to come from time to time and did fillings, the old painful way with no pain killing injection, and the treadle drill, extractions and “regulations” which meant teeth to be straightened. I needed a tooth extracted as it stuck right out (inherited from the Ketteridge side of the family) but they wouldn’t do it and I waited until I went out to work. The gap soon closed up.
I mentioned May Singing and I wrote an article for Widdington Magazine in 1988 explaining what we did on that day. I will include that article as it was written then. They asked if we could record the May Song on tape, which as you remember, we did at Ethel and Tom’s Golden Wedding party. We all had hysterics but managed to sing without any interruptions. On reflection, it would have been lovely if we had recorded our hysterical laughter as well. I still have the tape and listened to it this year May 1st 2000.

LETTER FROM DAPHNE BRIDGEMAN (NEE STALLEY) NOV. 1988

I was born in Widdington in 1931 and lived there until I married in 1955 but came back regularly to visit my mother until she died in 1979. I still come to the Churchyard to visit my father’s and mother’s grave which is on the right-hand side as you go in the lych gate - James Alfred Stalley and Queenie May Stalley.
By various means, I usually get a copy of the Widdington magazine and was interested to read the May singing article in the June issue. I was one of the May Singers during the war and shall never forget the excitement we felt on getting up very early to start the singing before we went to school, then again in the dinner break and we finished our visits to every house in the village when we came out of school. Of course there were not so many houses in the village then. I don’t know what the doll in the hoop represented - we never questioned things like that but accepted that was how things were done. My Aunt Doris, most years, did the hoops and we made our own crosses. These were two pieces of wood nailed together, the back of which was covered with greenery. We picked bluebells, paigles (oxslips), cowslips and cuckoos (purple orchids) and made these into small bunches which were tied to the front of the cross.
Years later when my young brother and sister went May Singing I had the pleasure of helping my Mother do this for them. One year I had chicken pox and couldn’t join the May Singers but sat on our front door step and watched them go by. As I didn’t feel ill, I wasn’t very pleased about this. The song we sang went like this:-

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I’ve been a rambling all this night
And sometime of this day
And now returning back again
I’ve brought you a branch of May
A branch of May, my dear I say
Before your door I stand
‘Tis but a sprout, but it’s well budded out
By the works of our Lord’s hand
The hedges and the fields so green
As green as any leaf
Our heavenly Father watered them
With his heavenly dew so sweet
And now my song is almost done
I can no longer stay
God bless you all both great and small
I wish you a joyful May.

When I went to the Herts and Essex, we had longer school holidays than the village school. It was my great delight if Miss King sent a message to see if I would help out and teach the infants because for some reason the usual infants Teacher was unavailable. I loved doing this and at that time wanted to be a school teacher when I left school. Quite often suitable young girls were used to teach infants even though they had not been to a training college but all that has changed. It was 1945 when we had a fete in the village and there was a fancy dress parade. I went as Snow White and Mum made me a dress with a velvet bodice. Jimmy was dressed as a dwarf and Dad made him a wooden pick axe out of a piece of apple wood. Someone made a cine film of this event and when it was shown in the Hut I was amazed to see us on film. I was 14 and Jimmy was 3
In August 1945 I went to stay at Hilton where Eileen and Colin were living with Colin’s parents at Park Villa. During this week, Japan surrendered on 14th August as a result of the Atomic Bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the war at last ended. I joined in with the celebrations in the village. There were races on the green and I was going great guns until someone touched me whilst running and I was thrown off balance and went flying. Eileen and Colin were watching from Mrs Britten’s window. They had a piano playing at the cross roads and someone brought a drum set. After a lot of fiddling about he packed it up so that was a
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bit of a damp squid. There was a dance in the school and Mrs Britten and I went to a Church Service. Colin’s brother, Seat, came home on leave and Eileen had to share my bedroom and Seat shared with Colin. Bing Crosby was singing “Don’t Fence Me In”, Vera Lynn sang “Always” and “Yours” and Frank Sinatra was also very popular. I liked staying at Hilton and everyone seemed to talk about cricket. Buses ran from the village to Cambridge and then I came home on the train to Newport. Those are my memories of VJ Day.
I recently turned out a cupboard and came across something which I didn’t know existed. I knew I had Mum’s Doctors’ Book which most people had in the days before the National Health Service, which they studied for minor ailments. Inside was the Infants Dietary Sheet No.1 taken from Woman’s Companion. It contains a chart specially compiled by “Matron” of Wife and Home and Woman’s Companion. It says “Feed baby naturally when possible”. If all efforts fail, it gives the recipe for preparation of Humanised milk as follows:-
To make 5 Ounces
Milk 2 ozs. Water 2 ¾ ozs. Emulsion 2 tsp. Lime Water ¼ oz Sugar of Milk 2 tsp. It also gives details of making up larger quantities up to 20 ozs. Then there are instructions  for feeding Hand-Fed Babies from Birth. (I see emulsion has to be gradually introduced!!).
Quantities of food for each feed according to age of baby and number of times during the day. e.g. 6 am, 10am, 2 pm, 6 pm and 10 pm. (Not at night!!) How to mix the food and general notes. Chart 3 is a Dietary Sheet for the Second Year which could be applicable today but most of the suggestions were prepared at home instead of bought in jars and ready made rusks in packets. Eighteen month old babies can have “A little uncooked lettuce shredded up”. I didn’t know anyone would cook lettuce. I knew I wasn’t wrong about the smell of emulsion as it is mentioned so much in the instructions.

In the Doctors’ Book is a cutting taken from a magazine entitled “A Pity that Home Dyeing’s Neglected”. It gives instructions and the various pitfalls in Home Dyeing, it suggests which colours dye best to another colour and do not mix different makes. It brought to mind how Mum loved to dye curtains and usually favoured yellow and sometimes green. I think the dyes were called Dolly Dyes and the article did not have to be boiled. It sounds a messy job!!.
I have recorded my memories of VJ Day, August 1945 and thankfully all hostilities had ended and we entered the Post War Years. I went back to school in September and started a new school year. I say all hostilities had ended but there was much suffering going on in the world and lives to be put back together again.
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THE POST WAR YEARS - 1945 ONWARDS
Although the war had ended, we still had food rationing until 3rd July 1954. At first it seemed strange to buy clothes without coupons but we did not have much money and shops did not have much to sell. It was lovely when bananas were available but only to infants and young people. We weren’t called teenagers. You were either a schoolgirl or a young woman out at work. Also didn’t have to have moods and be difficult. You had to get on with things and adjust to growing up as best you could. I remained at school until July 1947 and was happy there but we did have to work hard and had lots of homework so there was not much time to do anything else. We had to choose our subjects for School Certificate (which was in force before GCE and O levels) and had to do Maths which consisted of Arithmetic, Algebra and Geometry. We had to do English Language and English Literature. We had to do a language and I chose French and we had to do a Science and I chose Chemistry because my friend Raymonde did. (I should have done Biology). I also did History and Geography. I did obtain my School Certificate and if I wished to take Higher School Certificate which was the equivalent of A levels, I would have needed to go into the Vlth form until I was 18. After that you would be expected to go to University and then get a job such as School Teaching. I don’t think Mum and Dad would have been able to afford the cost for me to do that even if I had wanted to. I decided to leave school at 16 and get a job locally and earn some money. When I was younger, I had wanted to be a school teacher but also I eventually wanted to marry and have a family and in those days, having a career and being a wife and mother, didn’t go together. I was very fortunate in the fact that the school asked me to go for an interview at a firm of Accountants in Bishop’s Stortford as they needed a junior office worker. I went and was offered the job which I gladly accepted even though the money was low, as I wasn’t used to having any!! I took to the work like a duck to water (apart from the telephone switchboard, as I had only spoken on the phone about twice before in my life) and very soon was transferred to the Audit Room and had several rises during the first year. When I was told I was going to work in the Audit Department, I felt as if I was walking on air. I also improved on the telephone. I was taught book-keeping, PAYE, auditing and preparation of financial accounts. Also all office procedure and this knowledge has proved useful and kept me in good stead all my life. I paid to go to evening classes to leam shorthand and typing but eventually gave this up as I didn’t use it at work. Thankfully, the typing has been a help especially in the age of computers. I remained at L.H. Benten & Co. which changed to Benten, Price & Bailey and then Price, Bailey & Partners until I married and then did part time work at home for them until I had Carol.
On reflection, I think I would have enjoyed doing a course of Business Studies or whatever it was called then, at Cambridge Tech. when I left school, but I didn’t know about it. I probably did just as well starting at the bottom of the ladder and learning the ropes whilst working.

I think the best way for me to write about the Post War years is to take each year at a time and try to remember any matters of interest. When the war ended in 1945 it was so nice to be finished with the blackout. We were still rationed and it took several years before all those in the armed forces were demobilised. During the war, a large majority of people wore a uniform and it was strange to see men and women eventually walking about in civilian clothes. Europe was full of Displaced Persons and the Encyclopedia describes them as “Originally a refugee left without a home country by the border changes arising from World War II. Also used to describe the millions of refugees who had been uprooted by war and transported elsewhere, so that they had no home to which they could return”. Truly, so many people were suffering. Some had lost all contact with relatives, cities were raised to the ground and there were refugee camps all over Europe. I have since read of terrible atrocities which went on. You would not believe there could be such cruelty in the world. Here, in England, we had prisoner of war camps containing German and Italian men who, gradually, over the years, were returned to their own countries. The BBC have made a documentary showing German prisoners mostly worked on farms but were not allowed to fraternise until December 1946. That Christmas, some were invited to spend Christmas Day in people’s homes. Most prisoners returned home to Germany by 1948. Some chose to stay here and make a new life. In November, the trials of major war criminals opened in Nuremberg.
Eileen and Colin were living at Hilton with Colin’s mother and father at Park Villa which was beside the Green. I loved it when we went to see them. Dad must have got his Morris 8 going, which was black and maroon, Reg. No. ARO 734, and I don’t know where the petrol came from. Red petrol was about which was for people who had a business. Eileen and Colin used to come and stay with us sometimes, probably at Christmas. I was busy with school work and helping Mum with Jimmy and Ruthie. School leaving age was 14, so the other girls in the village had left school and gone out to work. I felt like the odd one out but had friends at school.
When the war ended, I was allocated a French pen friend which was arranged by the school. Her name was Janine Tridard and she lived at Nimes. We wrote for several years and I always enjoyed receiving her letters which contained post cards, greetings cards and souvenirs. I reciprocated with the English equivalent and I was fortunate to have such an interesting friend. I think she was very clever and studied for her Baccalaureate. I was still writing to her in 1951 but we gradually lost touch.
We now come to 1946. I was 15, still very thin and undeveloped and when not at school I felt neither a child nor grown up. Difficult years, which eventually go away. Dad decided that summer, to take us all on holiday to Clacton. We stayed in a boarding house quite near the sea front. The weather was awful, even I was hungry and Mum found a flea in the bed. The five of us were in one room. I could have had a room by myself at the top of the house but preferred to be with the others so slept with Jimmy who was 4. We tried going out
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in the evening to the pictures but Ruthie made it a misery so Mum, Dad and I took it in turns to babysit. I think we were all glad to come home. When the landlady asked if we had enjoyed our holiday, Dad said “No, we hadn’t”. She said “No one else has complained” and he said “You should hear what they said behind your back”. You couldn’t use the bath, there was an old piece of lino laying in it.
Eileen and Colin had moved to Galley Hill, the nursery where Colin worked. Colin was Foreman and a nice bungalow went with the job. It was my greatest delight to stay with them. Eileen and I cycled everywhere and went to St. Ives most days. They made me laugh so much, I had a job to eat my food. Colin had to pump the water every night into a tank and tilley lamps were used for lighting. We listened to the wireless a lot, Housewife’s Choice, Workers’ Playtime, Stand Easy, Up the Pole, Sandy McPherson and the Electric Organ from Blackpool and much more.
Bread rationing started on 22nd July, 1946. It wasn’t rationed during the war. These are called the Years of Austerity but I didn’t remember anything much different. I used to knit and sew and decided to knit a fair isle jumper as they were all the rage. I went to Marjorie Jolland’s wool shop in Saffron Walden and asked for a pattern and she showed me children’s patterns!! I was upset and asked for ladies size and made a very nice fawn jumper with a fair isle pattern size 32” bust. You needed clothing coupons to buy wool. You did not need coupons for yarn but things would have hung like a sack.
* Life continued as usual. Apart from school, I went to GFS, Church and anything going on in the Hut. Life was not very exciting but it was the same for most people. The cinemas were always full and sometimes I was able to go.
Looking through an Encyclopedia, I see that Goering committed suicide on 16th October 1946. The Nuremberg trials were still going on. Goebbels, another of Hitler’s circle, also committed suicide when Berlin was taken by the Allies in 1945. Hess, another Nazi leader, was sentenced to life imprisonment and died in Spandau Prison, Berlin in 1987. He was 93.
I think it was 1946 or 1947 that Eileen took me up to London for the day. This was a wonderful experience and my first time on the Underground. We went into a room with a lot of other people and the floor began to move. I screamed - I did not know we were in a lift. We went to a theatre and saw Tessie O’Shea singing Money is the Root of All Evil. I think we went to Madame Tussaud’s. Even though the war had ended, there was still a lot of bomb damage about and it was quite a number of years before all buildings were either repaired or re-built.
When the American Service Men came here during the war, they were a great attraction  to the girls and some got married. After the war, these Gl brides, as they were called, plus any
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babies born to them, went to America to join their husbands, who had returned earlier, and started a new life. They were very brave to take such a big step but America was believed to be as shown in the films - a land of milk and honey. Most couples settled down to a new life together and have returned to England from time to time for a holiday and to see relatives. Sadly, some girls were disillusioned and their expectations were not all they were lead to believe. They had been “taken for a ride” and returned to England if they were able to do so. It must have been terrible for those who could not afford to come back and had to live in an unbearable situation.
We now reach 1947. The first pantomime I ever went to was on 21st January 1947 at the Arts Theatre, Cambridge. I went with the family and we parked the car in the Market Square - impossible today. I don’t remember what it was called but they sang the song “How do you feel when the bells begin to peel? Everso Goosey, Goosey, Goosey”. We enjoyed the pantomime but had an horrendous journey home because of thick freezing fog. Dad had to open up the windscreen to see and I was in the back of the car with Jimmy and Ruthie covered in a fish meal sack to keep us warm. At one stage, someone with a hurricane lamp led the line of cars. When we reached the Memorial at Great Shelford, the fog had almost cleared and we made the journey home. To cap it all, I read in my diary, that I got into trouble at school the next day because I had taken time off to go to a Pantomime. Fortunately, the Head Mistress relented as I had never been to one before.
The winter of 1946/47 was very harsh. We had lots of ice and snow and coal was in short supply. I had no fur boots so suffered from chilblains as we got cold cycling to Newport to catch the bus. The buses had no heaters and the double deckers had no doors. (I have previously mentioned this). When the thaw came in March, there were terrible floods and the fens were badly hit with large areas under water.
On April 1st., school leaving age was raised to 15. I was very busy with school work as I was taking exams for School Certificate in the summer. We had the results in August and I was so pleased that I had enough Credits to obtain my Certificate. Sometime during that year, I went with the school to see Lawrence Olivier in Henry V at the Regent Cinema. Another school visit was to the Gas Works in Bishop’s Stortford. We learned how gas was made from coal and the bi-products were coke, creosote, benzene etc.
After exams, we relaxed a bit at school and I remember going to Takeley Forest to have a picnic and poke about in the lake. We also learned a bit of Greek and Book-keeping which wasn’t much like it really Was. (Everything is now Computerized!!). I left school at the end of July, stayed with Eileen and Colin at Galley Hill and started work on 18th August 1947. I left home at 8 am and returned at 7 pm as we worked until 6 pm. Also Saturday mornings 9 - 1 pm but had one Saturday morning off a month. Even though I did not get home until 7 pm, I had no homework to do, so had finished my day.
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Now I had left school, I was starting to grow up. I had a little bit of money to spend after paying bus fares and dinner at the British Restaurant. I sometimes went to the pictures and dances were held in the Hut. Sometimes there were social evenings. I enjoyed playing the piano and bought sheet music which cost one shilling. I still went to the GFS and at some point, Nanny Payne moved away to Greenstead Hall at Ongar and Miss Binckes took over.
The summer of 1947 was very hot and sadly there was an epidemic of Infantile Paralysis now called Polio. Several people in our area caught this terrible illness. One of these was my cousin Joyce Chipperfield, who lived in the village. She worked at Spicers Paper Factory at Sawston and one day she didn’t feel very well. She played a game of tennis and the next morning she could not move. Because she had tired her muscles in playing tennis, the paralysis was worse. She was taken to an isolation hospital at Brookfields in Cambridge and put in an iron lung - the first time it had been used. She was only 21 and was left paralysed for the rest of her life. I shall write more about Joyce as she was an inspiration to us all. Fortunately, today, people can be immunised against polio and I think this was started in the 1950s. At first there was the Salk vaccine given by injection and then a vaccine given by mouth which is much kinder when immunising young babies.

When Guy Fawkes day was near I was able to buy Jimmy and Ruthie some fireworks from Crisps Toy Shop at Bishop’s Stortford. These were in a bag costing about 2/6d and you were only allowed one bag and had to accept what was in it. It was nice to be out at work earning something so I could buy a few things. Some of the shops sold ice cream but it wasn’t as nice as it is today and I remember buying some cherries. My best friend at school was Raymonde who lived at Sawbridgeworth. She stayed on at school and eventually went to University at Bristol. Several of my friends and I went to tea with Raymonde at Sawbridgeworth just before I left school. I remember this because her mother had made a cake which looked like a water lily and I had never seen such a beautiful cake. Raymonde’s father was still in the Air Force. We lost touch as we went our separate ways.
The people at work were very nice but much older than me. I still keep in touch with Audrey who started working at L.H. Benten & Co. just before I did as she had just returned from America. She had been a Gl Bride, gone to America but was divorced and returned home to Bishop’s Stortford.
Sadly, whilst I was still at school, Uncle Horrie died in 1947. I do not know the date but cousin Alan has done a family tree so will know all the exact dates of our family. Uncle Horrie was the first of my relatives, whom I had known, to die and it was very sad especially for his family. Auntie Doris had three children (my cousins) who were then Mollie aged 18, Rosemary aged 15 and Alan aged 4. Auntie Doris was living in Red House Cottage at the time and Uncle Horrie had been working with Dad at Mrs Medley’s in the garden.
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On 20th November 1947, Princess Elizabeth married Prince Phillip, the Duke of Edinburgh in Westminster Abbey and this caused great excitement. I remember listening to some of the celebrations on a radio in the cloakroom at work. One of the men had brought his radio but you weren’t allowed to leave your desk for any length of time. Especially as I was supposed to answer the switchboard.
During all these years, Granny and Grandad lived up the road near The Square and I could always go up to see them whenever I wanted. Sometimes Aunt Ruth was there but she worked as a cook in various large houses in the village. Also she suffered with what was termed as a “nervous breakdown” from time to time and spent long periods, once at Colchester and then at Fulbourn Hospital. She always got better and was her old self once again. As Jimmy was now 5 he would have started Widdington School which would make things a bit easier for Mum.

As Mr Court had retired in 1947, we had a new vicar called Mr Albert John Pearman. He was about 40, very nice and a lot of people went to Church. He wasn’t married but had a housekeeper and the Rectory was still next to the Church. I attended his Confirmation lessons as Mr Court had been a bit forgetful when I went to his lessons. It was not his fault - he was getting old. Mr Pearman was only with us for about 3 years and then went to the I. of Wight in 1950 and Mr James Thomas Stevens came.
Two school teachers from the Herts and Essex High School lived in a furnished cottage in Widdington, only a few doors away from us, next to Pa Salmon. Their names were Miss Scott and Miss McGuiness. Sometimes, if they were away in the winter, I used to make sure their pipes didn’t freeze by seeing to paraffin heaters. In return they loaned me some of their books as I liked to read. We were studying Pride and Prejudice at school and they loaned me other books by Jane Austen. Miss Scott had been my form teacher when I first went to Herts & Essex and I think they both taught Maths.
It was 1947 when I first heard of a biro. Someone at school had one and of course today we could not imagine a world without biros. When I first went out to work, we did our Audit ticks with coloured pencils but when we could buy coloured biros, we used those. The early ones used to make a few blobs but improved over the years. Another invention at this time was the plastic mac and I remember looking at one hanging in the school cloakroom. I was able to buy a three cornered plastic head scarf at this time. The plastic mac came later and was invaluable when riding home on my bike on a dark rainy night.
I have now reached 1948 and I was 17. It was 20th February 1948 that Grandad died. (I found the entry in my old diaries). He was taken to St James Hospital, Saffron Walden and Mum and Dad were called. It was during the evening and I was baby sitting when Jimmy woke up with one of his nightmares. He used to cry and scream and you had to sit with him
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until he woke up otherwise he would get out of bed whilst still asleep. Meanwhile, Ruthie had woken up,  gone downstairs and found Mum not there and had hysterics. She wanted to sit on her pot and be sick at the same time. I brought Jimmy downstairs and when Mum and Dad came home, I was sitting in the chair with both of them on my lap. Grandad was born 30th September 1868 so was 79. A good age in those days.
I mentioned earlier that Mrs Taylor, next door, had a shop but she hardly sold anything and it may have been closed as she was old and eccentric. Her niece, husband and their daughter Pam Rowlands moved next door to look after her and opened up the shop. Pam was a year younger than me and we got on like a house on fire. I was so pleased to have a friend next door and someone to go out with. We went to the pictures together and any other social events. We still keep in touch at Christmas and Birthdays, (she is one year and one day younger than me) after all this time.
At work, Jessie, the Secretary, got married and we all went to her wedding at Clavering. I wore my first pair of nylons and had to look after them as they cost about 10/- which was a lot of money. In the summer I went to stay with Eileen and Colin at Galley Hill. One day we went on the train to Kettering and visited Wickstead Park. We went on the water chute and laughed until we cried. I loved staying with Eileen.

I was getting on fine at work and loved doing Auditing and Accounts and they taught me each stage of the work. I went back to the Herts and Essex High School in the Spring to receive my School Certificate and met my old class mates which was nice. At work, another girl called Frances came to see to the telephone and general office work. As she was my age, I was pleased about this and we got on well even though we were chalk and cheese.
I see in the Encyclopedia that Price Charles was born 14th November 1948, so I had better record that event. Bread rationing ended on 29th July 1948. I remember going to two 21st Birthday parties in the Hut. One was for Joan Hoy and other for Margaret and Alec Campbell who were twins. I did enjoy these evenings and was getting used to going to social occasions. I found adjusting to growing up a bit difficult especially as I looked about two years younger than I really was. I got there in the end and was more confident by the time I was 18. I had filled out, as they say, and clothes fitted me. Clothes were made for children and adults with nothing for the in between years. Today, teenagers are well catered for. There were some nice films made about this time, some black and white and some in Technicolor. I knew most of the film stars by name and there were two cinemas in Bishop’s Stortford, both with a balcony. The Regent, which had the best films and The Phoenix. There was Great Expectations, Spring in Park Lane, Oliver Twist, This Happy Breed, The Way to the Stars, Gone with the Wind and many more made in these post war years. Stars were Anna Neagle, Richard Attenborough, John Mills, Jean Simmonds, Michael Wilding, Rita Hayworth, Judy Garland, Betty Grable, Fred Astaire, Stuart Granger, Elizabeth Taylor, James Mason, Vivienne Leigh, Lawrence Olivier and so on.
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When I was 17, I decided I would be interested in learning how to type and do shorthand. I did not need to do this at work as I was working with Accounts which is a different kettle of fish. I went once a week to evening classes, after I finished work, to Miss Lawrence who lived near Northgate End and the classes were held in her house. The typewriters were the sit up and beg machines which worked perfectly well. I went for about 18 months but, as I didn’t use shorthand at work, I didn’t get enough practice, so gave it up. I used to come home on the train to Newport as there wasn’t a suitable bus. I think Pa Salmon is worth a mention as he was such a character. He lived near us in a cottage by the green and the one next to that was where he kept his Second Hand “Funiture” for resale. I can picture him wearing an old coat, cap and leggings. He had bright eyes and was as sharp as a needle. He lived with his wife and they had four sons, all married. As well as furniture, Pa sold all sorts of things and our dog Toby was bought from him for 8/6d. He used to go shooting rabbits and other creatures, with Dad and often came round our house for a chat. He talked non-stop and one day said “Some people would rob Christ of his shoelaces”. This fascinated me as I always thought Jesus wore sandals, not a pair of lace ups. He also had other various expressions which I won’t mention!!
In 1948 there were big social changes because this year was the birth of The National Health Service starting on 5th July 1948. People no longer had to worry about Doctors’ fees if they were ill. Everything was free - hospital care, visits to the Doctor, prescriptions, spectacles and dental treatment. A weekly stamp was purchased, called National Insurance which also covered Unemployment and Pensions. As the years have gone by we all know that there are now charges for prescriptions, spectacles and dental treatment apart from children and people on low incomes. It was a wonderful idea and although the National Health Service is struggling today to keep up with all its commitments, think how awful it was when you had, say toothache and you had no money or having complications whilst giving birth. Also, as the years have gone by, medicine and operations have become much more sophisticated.
We have now arrived at 1949 and this was the year when I had my new Raleigh bicycle with 3 speed and hub dynamo which cost £18. I flew like the wind on this and cycled everywhere. It served me well for years and after I married, David used to cycle to Hatfield Broad Oak on it to work. Eventually, I didn’t do so much cycling as I was pram pushing. It was about this time that I had my first perm. Previously, we wound our hair up in hair curlers when we went to bed and combed it out in the morning. The weather, humidity and other circumstances played a big part in the success or failure of this chore. Anyway, the perm took all afternoon and consisted of winding lumps of hair round curlers which hissed when a clamp was put on. The result was that there was a mass of frizz, so tight I had a job to get a comb through. Eventually, the ends of the hair looked as if they had been burnt. I said “Never again” but a year or so later cold perms came out. This was a lotion put on the ends of the hair and wound round curlers and was not so drastic especially if you had fine hair. I
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found this acceptable and of course perms have improved enormously over the years. Once I tried having straight hair which would be so much easier but I looked like a boiled egg with a sweeps brush on top. I had very fine dark brown hair. When describing this, my friend wondered why the egg had to be boiled!!
I mentioned that I loved playing the piano and used to provide the background music for a group of youngsters in the village who did acrobatic routines. I usually played Sleepy Lagoon and we joined up with a Concert Party from Newport and entertained people in villages in the surrounding area. Sometimes they were at British Legion Social Evenings and at one village, which could have been Hempstead, the piano was so damp, the keys wouldn’t play and they had to find another. In the opening chorus, we all used to sing “Here we are Again “ I loved amateur dramatics and wished there had been more opportunity to do this.
It was in 1949 that Dad bought our TV. It was a cabinet style with a 12” screen and two doors on the front to close it up. The make was Murphy. It cost 100 guineas and I think the licence was £2. Not many people had TVs in those days. When Dad was contemplating buying a television, the retailer at Saffron Walden invited him to view a play, which was being screened one evening, at his house. I accompanied Dad as Mum didn’t want to go and I thought it was wonderful to see a play televised in a sitting room. The play was a school story on the lines of “Goodbye Mr Chips” - I cannot remember the exact title. The lead part was played by Jack Hulbert but I could be wrong. Dad was impressed, so bought the set. Programmes were only televised for a few hours in the evening at first. There was the news and weather and if a play was being shown there would be an interval mid¬way. A pleasant scene would be shown together with appropriate music and a bell was rung when it was ready to start again. Of course, there was only one Channel and ITV didn’t come on the scene until 1955. BBC2 came many years after that. Aerials were very large in the early days and we had one which looked like a huge H attached to the chimney. As the years went by, broadcasting times gradually increased until we have the situation today where programmes are on 24 hours a day with many channels and it keeps expanding all the time.
In these post war years, there were wonderful musicals being shown in London at the theatres in the West End. Titles which come to mind are Oklahoma, Annie Get Your Gun, Carousel and South Pacific. Most of these were written by Rogers and Hammerstein and were first seen in America. The lead parts were played by Mary Martin, Ethel Merman, Lena Horne, Howard Keel and Edmund Hockridge. The music and songs are still popular today especially with those of us of more mature years. The only live show I saw was South Pacific in 1952 but many of them have been made into films.
In the summer of 1949, Pam and I had a holiday at Clacton and stayed at a Guest House which was very nice and a great improvement on the one in which I stayed in 1946 with the family. Dad took us to Clacton in his car and Pam’s father, Mr Rowlands, fetched
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us home. We enjoyed our holiday and spent our time sitting on the beach, looking round the shops and going to the pictures and probably a theatre. We had three cooked meals a day which people don’t seem to want today and it made a lot of backwards and forwards to the Guest House. We were young and walking didn’t bother us.
During the war, clothing, textiles and furniture had a Utility Mark which specified how much material could be used in making the garment or article. Clothes rationing ended 15th March 1949. In the late forties, The New Look came into fashion which consisted of a dress or coat with a longer skirt reaching about two-thirds or more down the leg and a much fuller line using more material. Clothes began to look elegant and fashion came into its own once more. Young ladies looked very smart wearing a nice dress with a full skirt, handbag and high heeled shoes. Quite often hats were worn for special occasions. During the war, headscarves were made into a turban and worn at work for practical reasons. Headscarves folded into three corners have been worn for years and there is nothing warmer when riding a bike but these days are considered frumpy. Nevertheless, the Queen and I still wear them on a cold day.
On February 20th 1950, Eileen and Colin moved to Bourn and had their own smallholding. Colin had left Mr Price’s Nursery. They lived in a bungalow along the road which branched from the main Cambridge to Bedford road and went into Boum village. They lived near Bourn Airfield and people were living in the vacated huts nearby and were called squatters. There was a shortage of houses for newly married couples and people often had to start married life living with relatives which isn’t easy. They were at least on their own if they were able to set up home in one of these huts and eventually they would get a Council House as there was a vast building programme in progress everywhere. Pre-fabs (prefabricated houses) were being built as they were quick to erect and contained all modern conveniences such as fridges, cookers, fitted kitchens and bathrooms. They lasted for many more years than originally planned. There was a field next to Eileen’s and Colin’s bungalow, also a two roomed bungalow from which they obtained rent and they kept chickens and also had a goat. They worked hard to make a living. On 1st August 1950, Linda was born in Mill Road Hospital, Cambridge and we were all delighted as well as greatly relieved that the birth went well. Linda was induced at eight months so she didn’t get too big and weighed 6 lbs which was good. Mum went and stayed at the bungalow whilst Eileen was in hospital to keep things going and Colin cycled from Bourn to Cambridge in the evening to see Eileen in hospital. Not many people had cars in those days. Petrol rationing ended on 26th May 1950.
Points rationing ended on 19th May 1950. We had been allocated points to enable us to buy tinned items and other groceries. Shopping was getting easier but the war had ended five years previously so the years of austerity, as they are called, had dragged on. Soap rationing ended on 9th September 1950 and detergents started to appear in the shops. Tide was the first, I think, followed by Daz. This made washing up easier as previously, soda was
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used plus a bar of green or yellow household soap. Scouring was done with Vim or Pulvo (Co-op). This was a gritty white powder. I can remember having Spaghetti on toast for the first time which was a change from baked beans.
During the summer of 1950, Pam and I had a holiday at Worthing. We went by coach from Victoria and travelling was no problem. We got back from the theatre one evening and the proprietors of the Guest House said there had been a phone call for me to say Linda had been bom. I was over the moon and the rest of my holiday was made more enjoyable. There was another Royal birth in 1950. Princess Anne was born on 15th August. When Linda was a few weeks old she was Christened in Bourn Parish Church on 10th September 1950. The families attended the Service and I was one of the Godmothers. Jack and Doreen were the other Godparents. I loved to stay with Eileen and Colin and sometimes went for the weekend as well as staying for one week’s holiday in the summer.
Regarding my work, I quite often had to do Audits in offices in other towns. It was easier for us to visit the client instead of the client having to bring books to our office. I went to Hoddesdon, various places in Bishop’s Stortford, including the Herts & Essex Building Society, once to Cambridge and spent a while one summer at Hayters, the lawn mower people at Spellbrook. We went by Public Transport or were taken by car. I preferred to work in our own offices as I was on home ground. Sometimes I went over to our Harlow office. All this travelling about was during 1950 until 1955 when I married. It made life a bit more interesting and of course, I met a lot of people.
My social life was getting better. In the Autumn of 1950, I started going to Madam Black’s Dancing classes which were held in the Baptist Church Hall in Portland Road, Bishop’s Stortford and later on in the Empress Ballroom which was near the back of the Post Office in South Street. We did ballroom dancing, Victor Sylvester style and there were no wall flowers as she made everyone get up and dance. During the interval, we could buy a cup of lemonade for 2d and the girls were not allowed outside. She had no hanky panky going on so her dance hall had a good reputation. She charged 2 shillings for each class. When I mentioned wall flowers, this involved a row of girls sitting on chairs along the sides of the dance hall. The boys used to stand around the door talking and if they felt like it, they would ask a girl to dance. Of course, it was better if you went with a boy friend. If you didn’t get asked, you felt ugly and conspicuous but girls could dance together. Usually things livened up after the interval when all the boys had returned from the pub. I am referring to Saturday night dances which were held in the local villages and towns and I usually had a good evening especially if I went to Bishop’s Stortford. There were no drugs about in those days and the worst that happened was some boy being sick because of too much beer. I often used to stay with friends as I couldn’t get home or several of us would hire Hoys taxi. If I stayed with friends, I would take my breakfast in my overnight bag, which consisted of an egg and a piece of margarine. I had to do this because of rationing as people did not have unlimited food for
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everyone. You cannot imagine doing that today but we do tend to take flowers or a little treat when visiting. There wasn’t much to take years ago and flowers were usually picked from the garden. I also liked Old Time Dancing and in the early 50s American Square Dancing became popular. At Madam Black’s, we danced to records but there was usually a band at Saturday night dances.
There was a war going on in Korea in 1950 with the North Korean troops fighting South Korea. USA troops supported South Korea and on 6th September 1950 British troops were in action. The worry of another war was never far away and people were apprehensive about Nuclear War and that the Korean situation could explode into something bigger.
About this time, there was talk of building Council Houses up Hamel Way. This was a field and reached by a cart track from The Square, going between Mr Wright’s thatched cottage and Granny’s house. There were various meetings as the cart track would have to be turned into a road and a slice of Granny’s garden would be needed to widen the track. Aunt Ruth got very upset and said she didn’t want a main road going past her lavatory door. The road was built, Aunt Ruth moved from the house and things settled down.
In 1950, our Vicar, Mr Pearman, left Widdington and moved to the I. of Wight. I went to see him the next year as I was on holiday on the island. I seem to remember that he did not have good health and was resting in bed. Mr James Thomas Stevens was our next Vicar and lived at the rectory with his wife. The rectory was still next to the Church but some years later, it was sold and a new rectory was built near Miss Binckes’ bungalow between Pond Mead and Spring Hill. Mr Stevens used to walk through the village wearing his long black cape and Dad used to call him Mr Sanderman who was in the adverts at the time. In the 40s and 50s, everyone used to knit and I always had a short sleeved jumper or cardigan on the go. Some had a pattern knitted in - I remember butterflies and a row of horses heads and some had a fancy pattern. We also did sewing and made blouses and summer dresses. I used Mum’s Jones Sewing Machine and later on in 1954, bought my own Singer hand machine which is still in use today and works perfectly. It is a real Rolls Royce type of machine with superb mechanism. Later on, I got interested in embroidery and made table cloths, tray cloths and chair backs which came in handy for my bottom drawer. I am sure girls don’t have bottom drawers today!! I used to buy a periodical called Stitchcraft which contained all sorts of patterns, ideas and items you could order by post. Transfers for embroidery were the vogue at that time. I used to buy the Daily Mirror which cost 1d and magazines such as Home Notes, Womans Weekly and Womans Own. The problem pages were on a different dimension to those you read today. I thought it would be interesting to write about the cosmetics we used in the early  1950s. Foundation cream was applied followed by face powder. Ponds products were popular
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and I went on to use Yardleys. Lipstick was in great demand, thickly applied to make bright glistening lips. Sounds awful now. Eye shadow and eye make-up was about but this came into its own in the 1960s. Cold cream was used at night and there was Ann French cleansing milk. I can remember Ruthie covering her feet with nearly a whole jar of my face cream. We used to share the back bedroom. There was face make-up called pan stick which was a beige colour and applied to the face making a thin film on the skin. I never used this as my skin was a beige colour anyway. In the middle of winter, people often ask me if I have been on holiday and I say “I wish I had”. I shouldn’t think the pan stick did much good as it would clog the pores up and I remember seeing someone whose skin looked like orange peel because she had used too much make-up for too long. Nail varnish was used, either red or transparent. Deodorant was in a small bottle called O-Do-Ro-No, white for normal strength and pink for stronger. Hair shampoo was liquid in a bottle and I remember one called Drene. You could also buy a powder in a packet which was mixed with warm water. Popular perfume was Evening in Paris and Californian Poppy but these used to give me a sick headache feeling. I have since heard that some perfumes can do this. I did, however, like Goya perfume especially Gardenia. There was talcum powder which was nice and bath salts, probably coloured scented soda, which were a bit of a waste of time in our tin bath in the shed.
It was during 1950 that Dad had the shed modernised into a kitchen. The walls were lined, the old copper taken out, a sink unit installed and water was heated in a Burco Boiler. Mum also had an electric Cooker and an electric Kettle so life was made easier for her. She still had to walk from the back door across the yard to the shed as this was not joined to the house until many years later. The yard was now concreted with nice paths and a lawn made in the back garden. The old privy was sealed up and an Elsan Chemical Closet installed. Dad had to dig holes to bury the contents until a man came weekly with a tanker lorry to collect this and charged 1/- to perform this valuable task. He was worth his weight in gold.
Granny died 10th February 1951 of bronchial pneumonia and was buried 15th February. After she lost Grandad, she found it hard to cope. Her life had been spent looking after him especially in the latter years. Aunt Ruth tried to cheer her up and I think she stayed with Aunt Hilda for a while. She also came to stay with us so Mum could look after her but the house was full and there wasn’t much peace. Granny told me she enjoyed watching me doing up my Christmas presents which must have been Christmas 1949. One day she decided to go home but she didn’t get better and eventually went to Fulbourn Hospital. I remember visiting her and the ward was so full it was a job to reach her bed. Today, she would probably be given anti¬depressants and would perhaps have lived a few more years. She lived to be almost 73 which was quite good considering she was worn out and frail.
In 1951, I have mentioned before, that I had Mumps which I caught off Ruthie. I did not ail much and if I needed advice or medicine, I used to see Mr Calder, the Chemist in Bishop’s Stortford. To me, he was like an elderly, friendly Doctor and was very helpful. I didn’t have
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many headaches in those days - the migraines came later on but my eyes used to get tired which is not surprising considering the work I did. When I was 22 I went short sighted and had to wear glasses most of the time. I had a pair of rimless spectacles which were fashionable and not so obvious. It was wonderful to see distance in focus again but I could read without glasses. In the last couple of years or so I am no longer short sighted but would be unable to read and write without my glasses. I think we kept fit because the rations were low in fat and sugar and we walked or cycled everywhere. Tea rationing ended 5th October 1952, Sweet rationing ended 4th February 1953 and all food rationing ended 3rd July 1954. We then started to hear brand names such as Stork Margarine.
In 1951, we had the Festival of Britain which was opened by the King on 3rd May 1951 from the steps of St Paul’s. This was held at the South Bank, London and consisted of the Dome of Discovery, The Skylon, The Shot Tower, Battersea Funfair and the Festival Hall. The Festival Hall is still there today. I didn’t go to the Festival of Britain but wish now that I had paid a visit. It ended on 30th September 1951.
It was around 1950/51 that Dad kept pigs and chickens. The chickens were kept in a corner of the meadow behind our house. I think Dad had an arrangement with Mr Campbell, the owner. The pigs were kept in Mrs Medley’s sty and one day she asked him if he could make room for her pigs!! He then bought a piece of ground near the allotments called Smallcroft which he gradually turned into his own Smallholding business. Sometimes there was a runt in a litter of pigs. A runt is a small weak pig which probably would not survive but Mum used to bring these up by bottle feeding them. They became quite tame and she never had a failure.
On 11th June 1951, Dad received the Deeds and Documents of the purchase of Granny’s house and Dullers, next door. Granny had died so the house was empty. Aunt Ruth spent many months in Fulboum Hospital and when she came home, she had a wooden chalet in our garden. She also got a job being a companion/help to Miss Binckes and had her own bedroom there so it all worked very well. She was very popular and was asked out to tea most days and of course spent a lot of time with us. Dad had the two houses done up and then let them. Granny’s house was let furnished.
My cousin Mollie married Tony on 1st December 1951 in the Catholic Church at Saffron Walden. Dad gave her away and Mum and I also went to the wedding. The reception was held at The William the Conqueror Public House in Widdington. Mollie then moved away to Sunbury-on-Thames where Tony’s family lived.
At Church, I always loved the Harvest Festival and we went as a family. Extra chairs were brought in as the Church was always full. When I go to Harvest Festival at the present time, I can still hear Dad singing “We plough the fields and scatter the good seed on the land”.
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At Christmas, we now had the mid-night service on Christmas Eve when Holy Communion was celebrated and Carols were sung. I used to buy a Christmas tree for Jimmy and Ruthie, decorate it and fill their stockings. I loved doing this. When I cycled home from work on Christmas Eve, in the dark with rats and other creatures scuttling in the ditch, it seemed such a special time. The stars would be shining brightly and when I got in there would be a smell of Mum’s cooking. Christmas only lasted for two days and then it was back to work but it was a real family time. Jimmy and Ruthie used to attend Sunday School in the Church on Sunday afternoons. I cannot remember who took the classes but it may have been the Vicar.
Television was expanding and was being broadcasted for longer periods. It was only black and white as colour didn’t come for a long time. There were children’s programmes which Jimmy and Ruthie watched especially Annette Mills with Muffin the Mule. I bought the song book and Jimmy and Ruthie used to sing whilst I played the piano. Ruthie used to sing “Here comes Muffin, Silly old Fool”. We also had other songs in our repertoire such as “Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer” and “I saw Mommy kissing Santa Claus”.
There were a lot of good British films made in the early fifties at Elstree and Pinewood Studios. Many were stories about the war such as Rommel - Desert Fox, the Cockleshell Heroes, Odette, The Bridge over the river Kwai, The Cruel Sea and a Town like Alice. There were comedies with Norman Wisdom and films about inventors such as Marie Curie, William Friese-Greene and John Logie Baird. Film stars were John Mills, Richard Attenborough, Jack Hawkins, Richard Todd, Alec Guinness, Kenneth Moore, David Niven, Margaret Lockwood, Virginia McKenna, Diana Dors, Marilyn Monroe and many others, some of which I have previously mentioned.
I used to take Jimmy and Ruthie out for little treats. Sometimes we went to the pictures and I remember taking Jimmy to open day at Debden Aerodrome about September 1952. We went on our bicycles. We had a day at the sea-side because the coach came to Widdington to pick us up one Sunday. Just as we were going to catch the coach to come home, Ruthie pushed her toy boat into the middle of the boating pool and I had to wade in on the green slime to retrieve it. I also used to buy them a comic each week. Jimmy had The Eagle and Ruthie had The Girl and I vaguely remember Sunny Stories but it wasn’t written by Enid Blyton. I always loved going for walks in the countryside and there was something to see each time. Blackberry picking was very popular and hazel nut picking in the woods. We were lucky to have such fresh air and all that flora and fauna around us.
On 2nd January 1952 I was 21 so became of age legally. I had a little party in our front room in the evening which was attended by my family and my friends. Dad bought me a cake which was made at Pearsons at Stansted.
On 6th February 1952 the King died at Sandringham and he was only 56. Princess 
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Elizabeth, who was on tour in Kenya with the Duke of Edinburgh, returned home as she was now Queen. All forms of entertainment closed down until after the funeral on the 15th February at Windsor and only serious music was played on the wireless. I was going to a St Valentine’s Dance which was cancelled, so was disappointed. Identity cards were abolished on 21st February 1952.
Each year I had a holiday at the seaside in the summer and went with a friend. Later on, usually September, I had a week’s stay with Eileen. I used to take Linda out in her push chair across Bourn Airfield and on the bus to Hilton to see Mrs Britten. Later on, when they lived in Cambridge, we went to the Botanic Gardens. I remember going to Bedford on the bus with Eileen when Linda was about two and we went to Clacton on the train from Cambridge. We got a lift from Cambridge to Bourn in the evening in a pigs van - someone whom Eileen knew. Eileen and Colin had to give up their smallholding at Bourn and went to live with Mrs Britten at Hilton for a short while. They then moved to Burrells Field Cottage at Cambridge and Colin was chauffeur/gardener to Canon Hulbert-Powell who lived at Burrells Field, Grange Road. This would be about 1953.
In the Autumn of 1952, I went to the Motor Show with Dad at Earls Court, London. Laurie Monk, Dad’s friend and my friend Violet also went. Soon after this Dad had his Morris Minor VHK 191 850 ccs. This car was ordered before the war so he had to wait a long time to receive it and was told when it would be ready. Most cars were black in those days.
I remember listening to The Archers on Violet’s portable radio. I cannot remember exactly when the programme started but it is still going strong after all these years. Sometimes, on a Sunday afternoon, Mum and Dad would go to see Eileen. I would look after Jimmy and Ruthie, give them their tea and put them to bed. When I announced “Bedtime”, that was Ruthie’s cue to run across the green and up towards the Church. I could also run like a hare and used to catch her by the school playground.
1953 was the year of the Coronation of H.M. Queen Elizabeth II in Westminster Abbey on June 2nd. This was a marvellous occasion and was watched on TV by most people as those with televisions invited friends and neighbours to their houses. People talked of the new Elizabethan era. On 29th May 1953 E.P. Hillary and Sherpa Tensing reached the summit of Everest and the news came through at the time of the Coronation. On the Eve of Coronation Day, I attended a Coronation Ball in Saffron Walden County High School with Jim Hoy. We were friends and enjoyed Old Time Dancing. A song was written for the Coronation which started “In a Golden Coach”. I bought the sheet music and used to play it on the piano.
During that summer, I had lots of outings with Violet and we had many laughs together. Pam  had moved away and was courting Derek.
On 24th March 1953, Queen Mary died at Marlborough House aged 85. Sugar rationing 
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ended on 26th September 1953. Around this time, I bought Mum a Hoover Cylinder Vacuum Cleaner. I think Dad and I paid the Deposit between us for a present and the rest I paid by Hire Purchase. Purchase Tax was added to the cost of luxury items. Previously to this, Mum did her cleaning with mops, brooms, brush and dustpan and an Ewebank Hand Carpet Sweeper. The Vacuum Cleaner would make life easier. Jimmy left Widdington School in the summer of 1953 and started at Saffron Walden County High School in the September. Before he started, Mum and I visited the school, which was fairly new and we were quite impressed as there was so much to see. Ruthie attended two years later and there was an opportunity for her to do pottery and art work.
The most important date for me in 1953 was 21st November when I met David. We had both been invited to a 21st Birthday Party in Bishop’s Stortford, which was held in the Empress Ballroom and Madam Black was the MC. I had hardly got into the room and sat down when Madam Black grabbed me and grabbed David, who was talking to his brother and friends and said “You two can dance”. I thought he seemed very nice and was easy to talk to. He told me he was a Lance Corporal in the Beds and Herts Regiment, stationed at Bedford and was on leave for the weekend. We danced quite a bit together that evening and he wanted to see me home. I laughed and said “You don’t know where I live” - it was quite a performance getting back to Widdington and I was sharing Hoys taxi with some other young people. We exchanged addresses and met the next week and went to the pictures. From then on, we never looked back as we seemed made for each other right from the start. Sometime during December, we went up to London on the Green Line and then to the West End. I always refer to this outing as when we went to Fairyland as everywhere was lit up with Christmas lights and we were so happy together. We went to a play “Seagulls over Sorrento” which was being shown at one of the theatres in Leicester Square. It was very popular at that time. When we got back to Bishop’s Stortford, David brought me home in his father’s car. We wrote to each other, sometimes he telephoned me at work (too many private calls were frowned upon) and he came home on leave whenever he could. National Service was still in force and when the boys reached 18 years, they had to serve two years. As David had been an Apprentice Carpenter and Joiner for five years, he didn’t start his time in the Army until he was twenty. He signed on in the Regular Army for three years and had already served one year when we met. He loved it and was an Instructor in Small Arms. Sometimes they went out on Schemes and he would lead the men up sewers and suchlike. He told me he was nicknamed Errol Flynn and when he saw my face, as I was thinking of Errol Flynn and his womanising, he quickly assured me it was because of his (David’s) escapades such as retrieving a home made raft from a lake, in the middle of winter. In films, Errol Flynn was always up front leading men through goodness knows what. Conscription ended in 1960.
We now come to 1954. I had met David’s parents and the rest of his family. He was the eldest and had two brothers and two sisters. He also had a Grandmother who was widowed and was a great character. She spent the summer at Yarmouth as she let two caravans. David and I got engaged at Easter 1954. He chose the place, which was beside the lake at Amberton
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Hall up Cornells Lane. We bought the rings at Otto Wehrle’s in Cambridge, the same shop as  Mum and Dad and Eileen and Colin got their rings.
When David and I decided we would like to get married, he felt it correct to ask Dad’s permission even though I was over 21. Mum and I cleared Jimmy and Ruthie from the front room and left David and Dad to talk. Of course Dad agreed and asked when we were thinking of getting married. David said “In about eighteen months time” and Dad said “That is a good time as I have got some pigs going then”. He was thinking from a monetary point of view but I like to think I went with the pigs. Another time, when David came home on weekend leave, Dad and I met him at Audley End station with Mrs Medley’s Hotchkiss. Dad pretended to be his chauffeur and as David stepped off the train Dad said “Over here Sir” in his best voice. Another time, when David only had a few hours off, we met in Cambridge one Saturday afternoon. I came on the train from Bishop’s Stortford after working during the morning and David came by train from Bury St Edmunds. We met on the station and spent the afternoon sitting on Parkers Piece. We then had to go our separate ways - a bit like Brief Encounter. Young people don’t have those problems today and can meet up whenever they can and most have their own transport.
On 20th May 1954, David’s baby brother Vernon was bom in the Herts and Essex Hospital. His youngest brother Barrie was 13 so there was quite a big gap. His mother had knitted some lovely baby clothes. David’s sister Janet got married on 3rd April and I was a Bridesmaid, also his sister Thelma. I was also a Bridesmaid to my friend Joan, with whom I worked, on 30th January 1954. The other Bridesmaid was Valerie who was the Secretary in the office. I seemed to go to a lot of weddings in those days as I had a lot of friends.
The Korean war was still going on and David thought that he would be sent abroad to Korea. Fortunately, this did not happen and he was moved around from Bedford to Bury St Edmunds, Colchester, Hythe and back to Bedford. He became a Corporal and then a Sergeant so did well.
Roger Bannister ran a mile in under 4 minutes on 6th May 1954. Previously Chris Chatterway had run a mile in 4 minutes. When I used to run for the bus, I used to say I had done a Chris Chatterway. At this point, it might be a good idea to record how difficult it was to have a social life whilst living at Widdington apart from attending functions in the village. The last bus from Bishop’s Stortford to Saffron Walden was 8.15 pm and I had to cycle from Newport as the bus only went along the main road. If I went to second house cinema, there was a bus leaving at 10.30 pm to Quendon. I then had to cycle up Holly Road past the chalk pit and in the dark was not a nice experience. Also the field at the bottom of Holly Road used to flood and with the ditch containing something nasty running alongside, you can guess what happened. David found out about this when returning to Bishop’s Stortford one night and was running to catch the bus from Quendon. I was always prepared for obstacles and carried a torch. I have even cycled home from Bishop’s Stortford with Violet after a dance and would
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not wish my offspring to do so today. Fortunately, I quite often stayed with friends or shared a  taxi with others from the village. It is good that young people today have their own cars.
Recently, I visited Widdington Churchyard to identify some graves. Emily Ketteridge died 5th June 1949 aged 68 and I think this was Aunt Mag, one of Granny’s sisters. Maybe she was Emily Margaret. Aunt Mag lived up Wood End in a very nice bungalow with her brothers Vic and Fred and kept house for them. Eileen and I used to go up and see her when we were children. They had a piece of ground beside the bungalow and kept chickens. Uncle Fred died 18th February 1953 aged 63 and Uncle Vic married Annie Renfrew 1st April 1950. When Aunt Hilda (another of Granny’s sisters) retired from working in Muswell Hill, she moved to Uncle Vic’s bungalow where an extension had been added. Aunt Hilda was born 3rd February 1887 and lived to be 74. Uncle Vic was born at the turn of the Century and lived to be 77. Aunt Hilda was a nice lady and she looked a bit like Granny. She never married and worked for a family referred to as “The Lewises”.
About 1953, a Cricket Club was started in Widdington probably by Leslie Dennison. The cricket was played in a meadow behind one of the big houses on the right hand side of Cornells Lane. I remember going to watch a game with Aunt Ruth. About 1954, there was a dreadful epidemic amongst the rabbit population called myxomatosis which destroyed them. You saw rabbits sitting in the middle of the road with runny closed eyes unable to move. This disease wiped out most of the wild rabbits but after some years, they were back and we are again hearing of this terrible affliction.
New foods were coming onto the market. Some which come to mind are instant coffee, instant whip - we previously had Blanc-mange where you boiled the milk. Packet soups. I remember Mum describing Chicken Noodle soup and saying that the noodles were already in the packet. Previously, we had a block of soup which was mixed with water and milk and heated up. Flavours were Tomato, Oxtail and Green Pea. Frozen foods were beginning to appear and I remember Birds Eye Peas and Fish Fingers. Fridges were luxury items so people tended to buy food as an when they needed to eat it. Washing machines were also a luxury item. New materials were being invented and products made of plastic and nylon were coming onto the market. Decorating materials were improving all the time and I made some bathroom curtains out of plastic material when David and I were getting our home together.
1955 was spent preparing for our marriage. We need somewhere to live and wanted a place of our own. Private house building was getting underway and previously a permit had been needed with rules and regulations regarding materials used. Boyd Gibbons started building an Estate in Bishop’s Stortford with fairly affordable prices. To buy and older property, you need a deposit of around 20% and Mortgage Interest was 41/2%. The wife’s earnings were not taken into account and monthly repayments should not exceed one week of the husband’s earnings. We found an older property at Bishop’s Stortford in Bartholomew Road,
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which was at the end of a terrace. It had two bedrooms and a bathroom had been recently added. It cost £750 so we went ahead and bought it. There was no hot water so bath water was heated in a gas boiler. However, it was wonderful to have a tap with cold water and a plug for the water to drain away. As David was away in the Army, Dad was very good to accompany me when viewing property and a lot of the cheaper houses needed modernising. When we walked up the stairs of one house, you could see the sky.
Preparations for the wedding were going ahead and I went up to Oxford Street with my friend Eileen Pluck, with whom I worked, to buy my wedding dress and two bridesmaids dresses. Eileen was one bridesmaid, in blue and David’s sister, Thelma, was the other one in yellow. (Ruthie didn’t want to be a bridesmaid). It was easy to get to London on the Workmans’ Train from Newport to Liverpool Street and the fare was very cheap. As we went through Whitechapel, a clock on a large building used to read 8 am. We then went up the West End by tube. I went again that summer with Mum to buy her outfit and we had a nice day together.
We got married on September 3rd in Widdington Church, with Mr Stevens officiating the Marriage Service. A reception was held in The Hut for family and friends. The wedding cake had been made at Pearsons of Stansted. The best man was David’s brother Tony. When we signed the Register, there had been 26 weddings since Mum and Dad got married. They also had been married 26 years and had celebrated their Silver Wedding the previous year. As I sit here writing my memoirs, we are at Ross-on-Wye on holiday and have just celebrated our 45th Wedding Anniversary.
The wedding went according to plan. We had the bells rung and two hymns which I always associated with weddings from the days when I was a child. Namely, Love Divine and The Voice that Breathed O’er Eden. The next day we went to Jersey for our honeymoon travelling by boat from Southampton. At the end of the week, David had to go back into the Army until he was demobbed a few weeks later. He then returned to the Building Trade. My friend, Eileen, lived with me during the week whilst David was away. I had started a new life after living at Widdington for 24 years. I was now a married woman, living at Bishop’s Stortford and I still kept my job at Benton, Price and Bailey. It was lovely not to have the long journey to get to work.
Meanwhile, at this same time, Mr and Mrs Medley retired and left The Red House and moved to London, Dad left that job and worked for himself full time on his Smallholding. He had been planning for the future and had bought a deep litter house for a rotation of chickens. After about a couple of years his health began to deteriorate and he was unable to cope with all that he had planned to do but that is another story. As some of the members of my family are no longer with us, I am going to record my memories of them. The newer members of the family will not have even known some of them and they must never be forgotten as they played such a big part in our lives.
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MEMORIES OF MEMBERS OF OUR FAMILY

DAD

Dad was born James Alfred Stalley on 7th April 1906 and was Granny and Grandad’s third child. He went to Widdington School until he was 14 and worked for Mr Nordon at Newport in a garage but I am not sure when he actually started. Dad was left handed but wrote right handed because, at school, they tied his left hand up to make him write right handed. A cruel thing to do. Dad was fairly tall - 5’10” or 5’11” and average build. He had light brown hair and blue eyes. He was a mild tempered man with a great sense of humour. He married Mum on 14th September 1929 and I shall record this in more detail when I write about Mum’s life story. My special name for Dad was Jasper. His initials are J.A.S. and Jasper seemed to flow from this and the name suited him. Even today, some members of the family refer to him as Jasper. As well as being my Dad, he was my Godfather.
Dad had many interests when he was a young man and I shall recall some of them. He was a Boy Scout Leader with the Scouts at Newport and Mr Nelson, who lived opposite was also a Scout Leader. When I was small, the Scouts used to walk from Newport, probably the Sunday before Bank Holiday Monday in August and attend a picnic tea, which Mum had prepared, in the meadow behind our house. I think they then went to Evensong which was held on the Vicarage lawn and the village Brass Band played the hymns
He used to keep Angora rabbits and I have come across one of his notebooks where he has listed the Bucks and the Does. There is no date but I would guess at 1929 or 1930. When I was a baby, Mum knitted me a bonnet using wool which came from his Angora rabbits. Also in the notebook it says “Cottage let to Mr Pavey from 21st October 1933 at 9 shillings per week. Cottage let to Miss A Renfrew 6th October 1934”. He bought this cottage as an investment and I remember Agnes bringing the rent each week. I have also come across a Certificate showing that he became a member of the Band of Hope dated 14th April 1913. He would have been 7 years old.
Dad could turn his hand to most things. He repaired wirelesses run by batteries and accumulators. People used to come to the back door and say “Would Jim come and look at our wireless?”. He could also repair bicycles and this was another sideline. He grew all sorts of vegetables and was an expert with tomatoes, cucumbers and melons. He had a cold frame in the garden where the melons grew. He built a lean-to greenhouse for the tomatoes which was at the top of the garden. A rabbit’s tail on the end of a piece of wire hung in the green house and this was used to pollinate the tomato flowers. He grew cabbage, broccoli and lettuce plants to sell, as well as for his own use and people used to come to the back door to purchase a score of this, that and the other. He also had an allotment and there is nothing to compare with fresh picked peas or dug up new potatoes.
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I can see him now, working in the greenhouse, pricking out seedlings. He was a very neat worker and used to take little intakes of breath whilst working which whistled through his teeth.
I don’t know how old he was when he learned to drive a car but driving was second nature to him. I expect working in a garage had something to do with it but I have already recorded that he had to leave the garage work and take up a gardener’s job for health reasons as fresh air was better for him. Another job he did was to mend our shoes especially during the war. He had a Hobbin Foot (last) which was kept in the cupboard under the stairs. It was made of metal and had three feet to fit different sizes of shoes. (Looked like the I. of Man Symbol). Dad was good at wood work and made a lovely chicken house. He also built a coal shed with breeze blocks.
Another different side-line was being an Insurance Agent for Saffron Walden Friendly Society, I think it was called. People paid 2d or 3d a week for various covers and he used to visit Mr Stacey at Saffron Walden who was in charge. We used to sit in the car while he talked to Mr Stacey and it took ages or so it seemed.
For recreation, Dad used to go to the Men’s Club Room in the village to play billiards and he liked to play Bridge. He used to smoke - most men did but hardly ever went up to the pub. He worked hard and during the post war years, had pigs and chickens and used to go shooting with Pa Salmon. When we had TV he found it relaxing to watch and loved the news and weather.
From the age of about 50 onwards his health wasn’t good and he had several spells in hospital. He had to give up his small-holding and worked on a turkey farm and various other jobs when he was well enough. He had so many things physically wrong with him, heart attacks, cancer of the colon, ulcerated legs, problems with circulation as well as a nervous breakdown. When he was well, he used to take Mum on lovely holidays to the West Country and Scotland staying at Bed and Breakfast establishments. Once he took Carol and me with them to Scotland when I was expecting Christine. He loved to prepare the food when we stopped for a picnic.
During April 1968, Dad had a big operation for cancer of the colon and fortunately he recovered enough to be able to give Ruthie away at her wedding on 1st June 1968 when she married Roland. The reception was held at Chesterford Country Club and when we sat in the grounds of the Club in the afternoon, he seemed to gain some inner strength and was his old self. Sadly, he wasn’t so well with his nerves during the summer and finally suffered a stroke and was sent to the Herts and Essex Hospital at Bishop’s Stortford. He was there for several weeks before he died. He was able to speak and his movement returned but gangrene started to appear in his feet and sometimes he was confused. I visited him on Friday evening 1st
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November and was able to have a conversation but his mind was muddled. Soon after that, he slipped into a coma, pneumonia set in and he died on Monday 4th November 1968. Mum and Jimmy sat with him until the end. I had to leave the hospital a little before this to see to Carol and Christine. He is buried in Widdington Churchyard and there is a stone to mark his grave which is at the right hand side near the lych gate. When I used to visit Mum after Dad died, I imagined he was working in the greenhouse and would walk through the back door any minute. Of course, he didn’t.
MUM
Mum’s early life was not the usual run of the mill and someone with more ability than I have could write a marvellous novel recalling her life and experiences. She used to talk to me a lot and I shall record her memories just as she told them to me. This will cover the time from when she was born until I was born as her life after that is already recorded in my memories of Widdington.
Mum was born Queenie May Collier at 8 Fortescue Road, Mitcham on 14th April 1906 and was the youngest of a large family. She used to think she was born 1st May 1907 until she obtained her Birth Certificate at the beginning of the war. She had a brother George, whom she called Fred and who was three years older than her and they used to visit a dairy which was like a corner shop at the end of the street. When she left the area at the age of six, the family had moved to 5, Northwood Road, Thornton Heath, Croydon. The houses were in a terrace and had bay windows and one family lived upstairs and another downstairs. Mum said they came down a staircase at the back of the house and there were open fields but when we visited the area in 1964, it was built up. Mum said her Mother, whose name was Annie, was a tall lady with dark hair and she remembers walking up the street with her. She loved her mother and I remember there were times when she felt very downcast because her mother had died when she was a little girl and she didn’t know where she was buried. Her father’s name was Charles and he was a Bricklayer Journeyman. It is said that he had ginger hair and Mums’ sister Nellie was the only one who looked like him. Charles Collier and Annie Barnes lived in the same street in Croydon and were married 6th May 1889. Mum had two older brothers, Bert and Charles. One was in the Army and he used to hold out his swagger cane for Mum and George to jump over. Mum was told that one of them (I cannot remember which) helped to build Wembley Stadium. She had three older sisters, Rose, Daisy and Nellie.
Her final memories of Croydon are seeing her mother laying on the floor in the house and she knew something awful had happened. The blinds were drawn. Mum and George were taken to a Children’s Home in May Day Road, Croydon and were split up and Mum was upset. She remembers the smell of a Christmas Tree. One night she was made to get out of
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bed to fold up her clothes and put them in a basket which she should have done when she  went to bed. As she stood on the cold stone floor, her nose began to bleed.
Her mother died on 26th December 1912 in Croydon Union Infirmary of Septic Pneumonia age 43. I managed to find this out in 1964 and I also traced her grave which is in Croydon Cemetery. Jimmy took Mum, Dad and myself to visit the grave and Mum’s places of abode and I think it helped to settle a few things in her mind.
After Mum’s experiences in the Children’s Home, her next memories are being on a train with other children and getting off at Newport Station. This would have been 1913. There were ladies waiting on the platform to foster these children and Mum took one look at Little Auntie and flew into her arms. The children did not appear to be allocated to a definite lady and the person in charge said to Little Auntie “And which one are you going to have, Mrs Rust?” and Little Auntie looked at Mum and said “It looks as if I shall have this little girl”. How fortunate Mum was to be with such a nice lady who looked after her so well until she grew up and what a lovely village in the country to be brought to. Mum always called Little Auntie “Mum” and she was a mother to her. Mum’s brother George (called Fred) was fostered with Mrs Fish at Newport and her sister Nellie was fostered with someone in Widdington. Nellie was older than Mum and she never said much about her. Her sister Rose, who also was older, was in service at Debden but how she got there and what happened to her, Mum never knew
Mum went to Widdington School until she was 14 but she was really 15 as she was a year older than her Guardians, who were now in charge of her, thought she was. Her teacher at school was Miss Perks and she was friendly with Aunt Ruth. She also said that she and Dad were childhood sweethearts. She was a Girl Guide and we have her badges which she won for doing various skills. She was in the Red Rose Patrol and she stitched all of her badges onto a piece of brown paper for the Boy Scouts to see when they came for their annual picnic at our house before the war. When Mum died, my daughter Carol, asked if she could have these badges to keep in Mum’s memory. I think Mum also belonged to the GFS and the Band of Hope and of course she went to Church and Sunday School and was Confirmed. Other friends at school would have been Floss Chipperfield, Florrie Banks and Cis Duller.
When the First World War started in 1914, Mum would have been the same age as I was when the Second World War started. She told me about Zeppelins coming over and that word sounded very awesome to me. She told me about the bad ‘flu epidemic in 1918-1919 when many people died. She spoke of all the young men in the village who went away to serve in the war and probably went to France and we now read what a hell hole the trench warfare was. In Widdington Church there is a Plaque listing the names of the men who gave their lives in that terrible war. Their names are Charles Banks, Frank Barrett, Frank Canning, Sidney Canning, George Cox, Frank Pallett, Sidney Pallett and George Wright. Underneath
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it is written “Their Glory shall not be blotted out” Eccles. XLIV 13.44. This is Ecclesiasticus Ch 44 v 13 from the Apocrypha. All of the surnames are familiar Widdington surnames to me. There is also a Roll of Honour listing 39 men who returned from the war, 10 of which did not go overseas. This shows that 47 men from Widdington served in the First World War which is a lot of men from such a small village.
I have an Illustrated New Testament which belonged to Mum. Inside it is written “Queenie Collier. A Gift from Widdington Congregational Sunday School 25.6.1916”. Mum would have left school about 1921 and she wanted to be a Nurse. However, she had no say in the matter and a job was found for her doing domestic work for Mr William Stride and his wife Sarah at Priors Hall. She was given a trunk for her clothes and a uniform was provided. And so she went into service. I think she lived in but of course still visited Little Auntie as that was her home.
She told me of one or two incidents whilst working at Priors Hall. One day she was walking across the yard with some broken glass in her hand, she tripped and fell and cut her hand badly at the base of her thumb. A large piece of material was wrapped round it and she was taken by pony and trap to Dr Brown at Newport. She said he plunged her hand in boiling water, it was stitched and blue stone was put in the wound to bum out the dead flesh. No antibiotics in those days.
She was given a piece of yellow kitchen soap to wash herself with and one day Mrs Stride said “You do not seem to use your soap Queenie”. Mum replied “I buy my own, I have not been used to using that sort of soap”. She was a very spirited young girl. She said the walls of Priors Hall were very thick and it was said that a secret passage ran from Priors Hall to Widdington Hall and went under the Church. Monks used to live there and there was a small room called The Powdering Closet which had a bulging ceiling. All this intrigued me as a child as I was into reading Enid Blyton and the Famous Five and their secret tunnels.
When Mum was about 16 or 17, Dad went into hospital to have his appendix out. When he came home, he went all moody and wouldn’t speak to her. She was so upset that she left her job at Priors Hall and went to work at The Copper Kettle Restaurant at Saffron Walden. I don’t think she liked the job very much especially as when she shelled peas, she was told to put the maggoty ones in as well. This would go against the grain as we never did that. Meanwhile, Mrs Stride from Priors Hall died and Mum wrote a letter of condolence to Mr Stride. One day, when she was cycling back to Saffron Walden, Mr Stride met her on the Railway Bridge near the main road and thanked her for her letter. He then asked if she would be willing to work for him again as his Housekeeper. She considered his offer and decided to take the post so came back to Priors Hall. Mum was a beautiful young woman with black hair and brown eyes. She was only about 5’ tall, average build but I expect she was quite slim in her young days and had small feet. Mr Stride fell in love with her and married her. They had
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one daughter who is my sister Eileen. Eileen was born in a Nursing Home at High Wycombe and when Mum was in labour she thought she would have to be cut open for the baby to be born. The nurse cried because Mum had no idea how babies were born naturally. Mum vowed and declared that any children she had would not be brought up in ignorance and she told each one of us the facts of life, as it was termed in those days, as and when she thought the time was right. She told me to beware of signs and suggestions but she didn’t say what they were so I was always on my guard!!
Her years married to Mr Stride were short but she appeared to be happy and he cared for her very well. He used to go shooting in Debden Park with his friends and she would walk across the fields behind the Church to meet him. He bought her a pianola and she started to leam to drive the car. Sadly, Mr Stride became ill and went to Harrogate with my mother to stay in a hotel so he could partake of the Spa Waters. He became very ill and Mum looked out of the hotel window and saw a man whom she recognised from Newport so she asked him to help her. A Doctor was called and they stayed there until Mr Stride could be taken home. He didn’t get better and had a nurse to see to him during the day and Mum did the night nursing. She used to read the paper to him as I think he was interested in Stocks and Shares. He died about 1927 and Mum was left a young widow with a small child. She always referred to him as “Eileen’s Daddy”.
Mum moved from Priors Hall to The Cottage with Eileen and bought the furniture from Fishpools which I think was near Waltham Cross. Aunt Ruth, who was her friend, stayed with her some of the time. Soon after she moved to The Cottage, a man visited her who said he was her brother Charlie. He took her by surprise and she didn’t quite know what to say. He said that he had promised his mother that he would see that she was all right but he had waited about 15 years before he visited her as their mother had died in 1912. She gave him a cake which she had just made and he went on his way and she never saw him again. She has a photograph of her sisters Daisy and Nellie dated 11th November 1921. I think Daisy used to write to her when she was a child and Mum thought she worked in a school at Streatham. She has a photograph of her brother George who was a good looking young man. After he left Newport he worked in Biggleswade and then went to Brixton. He visited Mum about 1930 to ask her advice about his girl friend and after that she didn’t see him for over 40 years even though we tried to trace him.
After Mum had been widowed about eighteen months or more, Dad comes onto the scene again. Aunt Ruth was the go-between and gave her a message from Dad which said that on a certain evening at a certain time he would be across the road and would flash his torch. If Mum was in favour of seeing him again, then he hoped she would let him know. I don’t know if she flashed her torch but they got together, became engaged and were married in Widdington Church on 14th September 1929. It sounds so romantic, just like a Barbara Cartland novel. Mum wore a beige silk dress with flying panels and a hat to match which had
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a high crown. (This hat was kept in a box in the big cupboard upstairs and l used to wear it walking round the bedrooms until Mum came flying upstairs). As Mum didn’t have a bouquet, Auntie Doris picked some Asters from the garden for her to carry. Aunt Ruth looked after Eileen while they were in Church where Mr Court officiated at their wedding. As they were being married on that September day, Mum said a shaft of sunlight came through the window and shone across them. There was a small reception at Granny and Grandad’s house and they went to Hove, Nr Brighton for their honeymoon.
One morning, soon after they were married, Mum woke up and the bedroom became filled with a bright light. A lady drifted in and came to Mum’s beside and said “There dear, you are happy now”. She then drifted away and the light went with her. Mum was convinced it was a vision of her mother.
I was born in 1931 and I have already recorded the next 24 years earlier in this book. When Mum was in her 50s and early 60s, her time was spent nursing Dad during his various illnesses. Ruthie was away nursing but Jimmy was still at home. Thursday was her day for visiting me at Bishop’s Stortford when Dad went to the Market. I also visited her with Carol and Christine and sometimes they stayed with her, one at a time, or we all stayed for a week. We could go on the bus and walk from the Bridge. After Dad died 4th November 1968, Mum was never really well for the next ten years. After Jimmy married Hilary in 1970, she lived on her own but spent quite a bit of time staying with each of her children and often had friends to stay with her. Her life was centred around her family and home. She belonged to The Mothers’ Union and Women’s Institute and would always make a cake or knit a pair of socks for a stall. She attended MU Church Services but was shy about attending functions in the Hut. Aunt Ruth was completely opposite and used to bring her all the news so Mum lost a dear sister-in-law and friend when she died in 1972. Mum was a very religious lady who used to read her Bible, pray and was pleased to be a member of the Church of England. She liked to attend the 8 am Holy Communion and also enjoyed accompanying me, when she was staying at Bishop’s Stortford, to the Morning Eucharist at Holy Trinity Church. She also loved to have people to dinner and found the cooking no problem. Of course, we, as a family, loved this, talking and laughing round the table.
About 1973 or 1974, Mum’s brother George visited her at Widdington. For years she longed to see him again but we didn’t know where he was. It appears he hadn’t been all that far away and was then living at Colchester with his second wife, Gladys. He had five children by his first wife whom he had divorced. He had one son, Terry who, I think, lived in Canada. His four daughters are Jackie, Julie, Ann and Brenda. We visited George and Gladys at Colchester and I met one or two of his daughters and saw photographs of them. Mum also stayed at their house. Sadly, Mum did not see George for long because he became ill and went to hospital in Colchester. He died about 1975 and Gladys eventually moved to Southend. I never had a chance to speak to him about the Collier family. Once, Gladys came
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to stay with Mum at Widdington.
After Dad died, Mum’s heart trouble got worse and she had several heart attacks. She became diabetic and suffered with arthritis. She used to get a terrible pain in her chest and I would get phone calls where I would have to drop everything and get to Widdington as quickly as possible. I was never quite sure what I would find when I got there but we coped. Sometimes she had a bad turn when staying with Eileen and once went to Addenbrooke’s. The terrible pain turned out to be gall bladder trouble and stones in her liver and she had a big operation in April 1978 followed by another in November. Her heart trouble was getting worse and while she was staying with Eileen, it got so bad, Eileen had to call the Doctor. She died in the ambulance on the way to Addenbrooke’s on 10th February 1979 aged 72 years. We received a phone call late at night and went rushing up to the hospital and I was expecting to see her but was shown into a room where Eileen sat, who told me she had gone. Even though you know that one day it would happen, you are never ready when it does and fall into a state of numbness and shock. There had to be a Post Mortem because she died in the ambulance and the weather became atrocious with ice and snow so the funeral was delayed. We were in a state of No Man’s Land until after the funeral when the situation really hit us. She is buried in Widdington Churchyard in Dad’s grave, so they are together.
Eventually, the house was cleared and put up for sale. When it was finally sold, I walked round the empty rooms for the last time recalling in my mind all that had happened there. I had to close that chapter of my life but for a while, I used to go back in my dreams. I would be in the house and knew I shouldn’t be there. I could hear the new owners returning and they would find me but then the dream would fade and I was never caught. Eventually, I had to let go and the dreams stopped.
EILEEN
My sister Eileen May Stride was bom 30th October 1924 in a Nursing Home at High Wycombe. She weighed 7 lbs, had dark brown hair and brown eyes. She lived at Priors Hall Farm with her father, William Stride and our Mother. Sadly, her father became ill and went to Harrogate to partake of the waters as it was a Spa Town and they thought the minerals in the water would help. Eileen went to stay with Auntie Effie, her father’s relative, at Newport while they were away. Her father did not get better and returned to the farm where he later died. Eileen was only about two or three at the time so would not remember much about him. He was not a young man and is buried in Widdington Churchyard on the left hand side of the path going to the Church door near the lych gate. He has a stone but the inscription has worn away and is difficult to read but could be April 1927. It also says James William Stride but I think he was known as William.
After Eileen’s father died, she moved to The Cottage with Mum and Percy Stride, her 76 father’s son from a previous marriage, moved to Priors Hall Farm. Eileen and Mum lived at The Cottage and eventually Mum married my father, James Stalley, on 14th September 1929. Dad was a good father to Eileen and then I was born in 1931 so we grew up together. Eileen was 6¼ years older than me. She was a wonderful sister and very protective towards me. I have already recorded all the things we did in the 1930s and 1940s until she went away to work in 1942. She taught me to knit and do joined up writing and encouraged me to eat up my dinner. When she was at work, she bought me lovely books and two nice dresses when I was about 14 which actually fitted me. When she was 14 and I was 8, I must have been a right pain.
* I misread my notes. Eileen’s father’s name is William James Stride * I have also recorded that after she married, It was my greatest delight to stay with her.  She had a great sense of humour and once we went into a toy shop in Huntingdon because  I wanted to buy some toy soldiers for Jimmy. An elderly lady was serving and I asked if I  could have one on horseback and as the lady bent down to get one out of the box she made  a rude noise. The door crashed as Eileen fled from the shop and I found her up the road,  leaning against a wall with tears streaming down her face. Another time, we sat on the bus  and a woman got on with a french stick in her basket. Eileen whispered “That woman buys  her bread by the mile” and we couldn’t stop laughing. Once we went into Robert Sayle’s to  buy Mum a cardigan and we laughed so much we couldn’t ask for what we wanted. All of the  assistants were laughing as well and it was a wonder we completed our purchase. The silly  thing was, we didn’t know why we were laughing.
The years went by. Eileen and Colin moved from Burrells Field Cottage to Burrells Field, a large house which she rented from Trinity College. She let the rooms to students and worked extremely hard for a good number of years. Colin was a Gardener and then Head Gardener for Trinity College. Linda grew up and married Brian 29th August 1970 in Trinity College Chapel. I lived in Bishop’s Stortford and Eileen and I kept in touch and visited each other whenever we could. In 1974, for health reasons, she gave up her business at Burrells Field and moved to Great Shelford. She said to me “When are you coming to live near me?” and I said “When I can”. I was able to do this in 1976 and lived only a mile away from her house. This was lovely as we met up whenever we could and were able to do things together. Eileen was a busy person and very popular and hospitable. She was a good needleworker and made most of her own clothes, her knitting was of high quality and she was a good cook. She was also very good and diligent in caring for Mum in her latter years.
When Colin retired in 1987, they moved to the Annexe at Linda’s house in Great Chesterford but she still came to see me each week and it was my delight to spend the day with her. She had problems with her health but never the less it was a great shock to us all when she died in the early hours of November 1st 1992 after suffering a heart attack. She had enjoyed the previous evening with Colin, Jim and Hilary when they shared a meal together
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to celebrate her 68th birthday which was on 30th October. I won’t dwell on this sad time as it  goes without saying how much we all miss her.
GRANDAD STALLEY
Grandad’s Christian name was Walter and he was born 30th September 1868 at Thaxted. His father was James born in 1829 and mother was Mary nee Townsend bom 29th March 1834. In 1861, their address was Trundles End, Thaxted. His siblings were Joseph, Martha and Alice. Alice married John Chipperfield and Annie Stalley, his cousin, married William Chipperfield so that is how we are related to the Chipperfields. I think Grandad’s father was a tenant farmer and Prouds Farm, Thaxted comes to mind. Grandad married Granny 24th July 1897 and they had four children. Mary born in 1898, Horace 27th August 1899, James 7th April 1906 and Ruth 29th August 1908 and they lived at The Square, Widdington. Grandad worked at Priors Hall Farm. Grandad had retired from farm work when I first remembered him but I think he did a bit of gardening for Mr Fawcett. He was average size, had white hair and a moustache and also suffered badly with arthritis. He had several interests, one of which was bee-keeping and the hives were at the top of the garden. I remember seeing him with Mrs Duller, next door, wearing straw hats with veils over their faces and we had to get into the house quickly because the bees were flying about all agitated. Another sideline was hair cutting. There was a wooden shelter in the back garden where he did this and it also contained the chair and hair cutting utensils. He used to cut my hair when I was a child and also Eileen’s and his hands used to shake a bit. He grew vegetables and got very frustrated in later years when he couldn’t do his garden. He had bought his seeds, one Spring but was unable to sow them himself and said “I expect I shall have to “bun” them”. Aunt Ruth was very helpful so I expect she sowed them. He also had soft fruit trees in the front garden, a plum tree at the top of the back garden and a Cricksy tree near the back door. These were very small yellow fruits - a cross between a plum and a greengage. (I cannot find anyone who has heard of a Cricksy tree). He used to supervise Eileen’s latest boyfriend with the picking of the larger plums and kept pointing to plums, with his stick, which were almost out of reach. It is a wonder they did not fall off the ladder.
In his latter years, Grandad slept in the front room and there was a shelf behind his bed which looked like a Chemist’s Shop. He had several things wrong with him and Dr. Salaman was a regular visitor. He may have had bad legs and I associate Ucal Ointment and TCP with him. He was crippled up with arthritis or rheumatism and walked with a stick. Granny looked after him and was always going up and down the garden with pails. He loved to listen to the news on the wireless and we had to keep quiet while that was on. (It was war time). H e used to sit in an armchair by the kitchen range in the back kitchen. He was always nice to
me but once said a silly thing. When Jimmy was born, we took him up to see Grandad and  he said to me “Your nose is out of joint now” as he placed half a crown in Jimmy’s hand. (The
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coin was bigger than Jimmy hand). I didn’t know what he was talking about as the thought  had not occurred to me. I was 11 years old.
Once, when Granny went to stay with someone, I went up to see to his breakfast. He had a boiled egg and the bread had to be cut exactly the right thickness. He was very particular. I must recall one amusing story which Aunt Ruth told me. It was Sunday teatime when they were children and were sitting round the table in the front room. Dad made a rude noise and Grandad banged on the table with his fist and shouted “Jim”. The lamp went out and Granny cried. You can picture the scene.
Another piece of information is worth recording and I shall do this as told to me by Aunt Ruth. It would be about 1907 and Grandad went to Saffron Walden Hospital as he had a burst bowel. This would be very serious today, so imagine having an operation nearly 100 years ago. He would have been almost 40. I was told that the nurses had to clean all the muck out of his wound and as he lay in bed, the death- throes started to creep up his body and when they reached his heart, it thumped and banged away and then things subsided. He must have been a strong man because he survived this terrible ordeal. When he was due to come home, Granny was waiting in The Square with Dad, a small child, in her arms. Some lady admired him and Granny was all of a twitter as Dad had filled his trousers. I don’t know what means of transport was used to bring Grandad home.
Grandad died 20th February 1948 when I was 17 at St. James Hospital, Saffron Walden. He was almost 80 and considering his ailments he had reached a good age for that time of day. He is buried in Widdington Churchyard with Granny but there is no stone to mark the grave. It is a little way back from the front wall, left hand side of the lych gate, somewhere near the Ketteridge graves which do have stones. Grandad loved his Grandchildren and I shall always remember him with affection.
GRANNY STALLEY
Granny was born Alice, Millicent Ketteridge on 26th February 1878. She was the eldest of a large family and the names of her sisters are Blanche, Eva, Dora, Mag born 1881 (? Margaret or Emily), Hilda Rose born 3rd February 1887. Her brothers are Fred born 1890 and Vic bom 1900. Grade and Archie died when they were children. I do not know which years Blanche, Eva and Dora were born. Granny married Grandad 24th July 1897 when she was 19 and Grandad was 10 years older. Granny’s mother was called Ellen, referred to as Grandmother Ketteridge, who always sounded a strong, capable and dominant woman. She was born 19th August 1857 in Union House, Dunmow and her name was Ellen Turner and she lived at Broxted. Her mother’s name was Eliza Turner. Ellen Turner married Alan Ketteridge from Debden 29th June 1877. Alan Ketteridge, who was my Great Grandfather, was born 20th March 1853 and he died in 1908 aged 55. It is said that he became mentally ill and was
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sent to an Asylum at Brentwood. They hit him as part of the treatment!!. It is also said that he had been working on a roof in the hot sun so the poor man was probably suffering from sun stroke or something similar and wasn’t mentally ill at all.. When he died, Grandmother had the children to see after who were not out at work, also she fostered children and was the village mid-wife and layer out of the dead. She was a hard working woman. Amongst her foster children were Auntie Doris and her brother Jim Raw. Also Ruby and Dot Potter who I have mentioned earlier in the book. There was also someone called Kath. Grandmother Ketteridge died 19th November 1925 aged 68 so I never knew her. It is said that she drank some cocoa, went to bed and died in her sleep. A wonderful way to go. I think Vic and Fred were still living at home. Granny originally lived at Broxted. Later, her mother and father lived in the house next to the Post Office, Widdington. As you face the Post Office, it was on the left hand side. I do not know when they moved there. As I have previously mentioned, Granny had four children, the last being Ruth born 29th August 1908 and when she was born, someone said, very tactfully, “she’ll never live” which must have cheered Granny up no end. Three of Granny’s sisters were married. Aunt Blanche was married to Bill Wilton and they lived at Sutton Bridge, Nr. Kings Lynn. He was a Customs Officer and they had one daughter called Grace. They had a car and sometimes used to visit Widdington before the war. Aunt Eva was married to Mr Kirby but I do not remember his name. They had a pub at Portsmouth and had two children, Gwen and Ken. I think they kept in touch with Uncle Vic. Aunt Dora’s surname was Ketley and they lived at Great Leighs, Nr Chelmsford. I have already written about visiting her whilst recording my childhood memories. As I try to picture Granny, she was average height, rather thin with white hair. She was a gentle person, very kind, worn out and had a job to keep up with what she had to do. Grandad needed looking after, housework and washing was done the hard way and cooking was done on an oil stove or kitchen range. She had no sink until the 1940s and drinking water was fetched in a pail from a tap in The Square. There was a pump outside the back door which she shared with Mrs Duller for washing water. Granny was quite religious and had a box of little rolled up texts and each day she undid one and read it. She liked to listen to the Daily Service on the wireless and used to make noises of agreement with what was said. She looked after the chickens and I can picture her stirring up their food in a pail. When washing up, she would wipe the jug about 25 times and we would get impatient waiting to take it to fetch the milk. When baking, she could make wonderful oat cakes. If I think of groceries, I associate her with Edwards Soups, Mazawattee Tea, Enos Fruit Salts, Sanatogen, Hoys Bread and Lux soap flakes. Granny suffered a lot with headaches and spent a lot of time in bed. She probably had migraines but we didn’t know about them then. She didn’t move far from the house but sometimes we went
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for a walk to the woods. She had a small dog called Mickey, who did a lot of yapping and its lead was tied to the table leg. She had various cats, one of which was named Kaiser Bill by Aunt Ruth. I loved going up to see Granny as she didn’t mind what you did. Sometimes I slept in one of the bedrooms if we were full up at home when Mum had visitors and needed my bed. I usually had the back bedroom which was Aunt Ruth’s room really. After Grandad died, Granny wasn’t very well and seemed to go into a decline. Aunt Ruth tried to cheer her up but she didn’t improve. Sadly, she had to go to Fulboum Hospital and she was probably there about a year and died 10th February 1951 from bronchial pneumonia. She was buried in Widdington Churchyard 15th February 1951 and Dad went to the funeral. In my diary of 1951, I have recorded that there were a nice lot of flowers. After I was married, I lay my wedding bouquet of red roses on her grave before leaving Widdington to live at Bishop’s Stortford
AUNT RUTH
Aunt Ruth was born Ruth Martha Stalley on 29th August 1908 Granny and Grandad’s youngest child. She was a bright young girl, with fair hair and blue eyes who attended Widdington School and was also my Mother’s friend. Miss Perks, the Headmistress, wanted her to sit for the Scholarship but Granny and Grandad could not afford the expense involved in attending High School and Granny wanted Aunt Ruth to help her in the house when she left school. Her first job was Nursemaid to Nancy Stride, Gladys and Percy Stride’s daughter, who lived in The Cottage where I was bom. As a young woman, Aunt Ruth played the violin at dances and Grandad taught her to do this. She also played tennis with other young people on the Rectory lawn. She was 22 when I was bom and was one of my Godmothers. She worked for Mrs Wall, in a domestic capacity, who lived up Cornells Lane. Mrs Wall taught her how to cook and she was always in great demand because of her skills. She could make home made mayonnaise and knew how to carve meat. Goats were kept at Weft House and when I was a small child she told me she road up Cornells Lane to work on the back of a goat and hung her case on its homs. She was wonderful with children and a marvellous story teller. Her repertoire consisted of Mrs Beak-Duck and Silas Fox, Nancy the Naughty and a Tale of a Bold Bad Mouse, the characters being Peterkin Mouse and Dame Margery Mouse. She gave me the book, which I still have, containing these stories but her version was much better and full of imagination. There are many children who remember these stories including my own children and children in the village when she did baby sitting. She worked at one time for Mrs Dillon-Robinson as parlour maid and/or cook, living in, also Mrs Maxwell-Scott and Mrs Tugendhat. About 1938, she went away to work at Epping for a while. I did not like it when she went away as she was
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my favourite Aunt and I loved being with her and got excited when she came to tea. She had a kind, cheerful personality with a great sense of humour and everybody liked her. When I went up to Granny’s, as a child, I loved it if Aunt Ruth was there as she used to let me look in a trunk which was in her bedroom. It was full of china ornaments and I used to take them out and look at them. She used to play her wind -up gramophone and one of the records was “We all go up up up the mountain and we all come down down down again”.
I thought it was wonderful. She could make the most boring of walks interesting and used  to poke about in hedges and ditches to find things. She gave me another book called “The Mistress of Lydgate Priory” with a sticker inside saying “Awarded to Ruth Stalley, Widdington
School, St. VI Jan. 20 1922, James W. Court. When I was 11 she gave me her tennis racquet. Aunt Ruth bought a piece of ground, 1/5th acre, from Mr Campbell of Priors Hall and it was situated on the corner of the road going up to the farm on the right hand side. She had fruit trees, a filbert nut tree and grew lots of vegetables. There were various sheds and she spent many happy hours working on her piece of ground. She eventually sold it when she could not manage to do the work. Aunt Ruth had a sister, Mary Ellen, bom 1898, who died 19th August 1933 aged 34 so I do not remember her. I have seen her photo and she was a pretty girl with dark hair and bright eyes. She was 9 or 10 years older than Aunt Ruth and she sounded a nice person. She went into Saffron Walden Hospital - I do not know why but I seem to remember she had fallen from her bicycle. She picked up an illness whilst in hospital which may have been Enteric Fever and died. She never married. I have come across a Marked Testament which belonged to Mary Stalley and came from Widdington Sunday School Chapel. A Marked Testament has important scriptures underlined and marked in red. Aunt Ruth gave me this book 19th July 1941 when I was 10. When she was well, Aunt Ruth worked in many of the houses in the village and her last job was Cook for Lady Rowley at The Red House. Previously she had been Companion/Help to Miss Binckes and lived at The Bungalow. Sadly, every few years, Aunt Ruth became ill from about the age of 36 years onwards. She would find everything too much to cope with, have a terrible pain in her head like birds’ feet scratching, wear dark glasses, become melancholy and stayed in bed. Granny would look after her and later on it was Mum and eventually she would go to Fulbourn Hospital. She would be there for months and have electroconvulsive therapy treatment which eventually got her better. I read in an Encyclopedia that today it is given under anaesthesia and with a muscle relaxant. In the 1940s, she told me she had to climb on the bed, a gag was put in her mouth and the treatment started. Sounds horrific. She was very resilient because she made friends, went for walks round the fields and attended therapy classes where she made soft toys. My needlework basket came from Fulbourn and
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Aunt Ruth arranged for it to be made. Mum and Dad were very good visiting her and also Eileen went, in the latter years, when she lived at Cambridge. Aunt Ruth was very thin when young but as she got older, she put on a lot of weight. She did not over-eat, so it may have been due to her medication. When she was well again, she was her old self and you could not equate with her depressive state. As she got older, her depression followed on from contracting the ‘Flu. She would cough a lot which made her head bad and then her mental illness would start up again and eventually she would go to Fulboum. In her latter years, she got better much more quickly as medication improved. I have already mentioned that after Granny’s house was sold, Aunt Ruth had a wooden chalet in our back garden which was like a bed-sit. She lived in it when she was not working as a Housekeeper or at Fulbourn and had her meals with us. She was popular and often invited out to tea and spent a lot of time visiting Aunt Hilda. She attended the Congregational Chapel in the village and had a busy social life. She belonged to the W.l. and went to Whist Drives. One Christmas she won first prize at a Whist Drive in Saffron Walden Town Hall and someone said “Who is this Ruth Stalley?” and the reply was “I think she is a sort of Dealer”. This tickled her pink. After I married, I loved it if Aunt Ruth came to stay with us and my children loved her too. Aunt Ruth used to know about everything that went on in the village and told Mum all the latest news. Aunt Ruth didn’t get married until she was 60. When she was young, she had boyfriends and was getting quite friendly with one young man in the village but sadly, he got killed on a motor bike. In her late 50s, she went to be Housekeeper for Mr Tom Rust, a Widower, who lived up Hamel Way. They decided to get married and Jimmy and I went to their wedding at Saffron Walden Registry Office on 14th September 1968, just after her sixtieth birthday. (She was looking forward to being 60 because she qualified for the Old Age Pension). Their was a small reception at their bungalow and Jessie and Jack Lindsell were in charge of the catering. I have a nice photo of this occasion. They were married just under 31⁄2 years when, sadly, Aunt Ruth died. She had gone to Fulbourn again, the second time since her marriage, and died of physical causes. She had contracted the ‘flu again around Christmas time and her chest was bad. This, in turn, made her head bad and she had to go to hospital. She died 19th February 1972 of bronchial pneumonia and weight problems. After all her suffering, her body could take no more. Uncle Tom Rust was left on his own once again. 63 is too young to die and I still miss her but if alive today would be 92. My memories of her are still fresh in my mind. She is buried in Widdington Churchyard in her sister Mary’s grave which is near Granny and Grandad but there is no stone.
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LITTLE AUNTIE
Little Aunty was Mum’s Foster Mother and she was born 22nd November 1871. Her name was Katie Smith and she lived at Rickling Green. Her first husband was George Rust and they got married 25th December 1912 and they lived in a house opposite Bishops, Widdington. As it was unlikely that Little Auntie would have children of her own, she decided to foster and Mum was the first who probably came in 1913. Little Auntie’s mother died 30th July 1888 and I think her father lived with her. He died 3rd November 1928 aged 83. She was not married very long to Mr Rust as he died 11th March 1916. I have gleaned all this information from a little book called Birthday Scripture Text Book which has been handed down through the family. It says “Lucy Reed. In Loving Remembrance of her dear Aunt Emma March 12th 1894, from her Uncle John, Widdington. (Aunt Emma died March 11th 1894). Katie Smith, Rickling Green. In Loving Memory of dear Aunt Lucy who died September 28th 1905.” (Katie Smith is Little Aunty). Mum had this book when Little Auntie died 25th March 1959, buried 28th March 1959 aged 87 years. I had this book when Mum died 10th February
1979 aged 72 years. Little Auntie had several foster children and the names I remember are Little Arthur (who stamped on Mum’s harp!!), Ethel Ives born 3rd March 1918 and Harold Martin born 24th September 1909, who, I think, Auntie fostered but he may have been a relative. Little Auntie was a good mother to Mum and looked after her well. She was dressed nicely and Mum had Guardians who checked that she was being cared for. A Mrs Grouse was one (the name sounds quite formidable) who was followed by Miss Midgley from Saffron Walden. Mum kept in touch with Miss Midgley and we used to visit her in a large house called Larchmount opposite The Hospital. Little Auntie was a small lady, very neat in appearance with her hair drawn up into a bun. She had damaged one eye and had to go to Moorfields Hospital in London. The pupil was left flowing out a bit as if it had leaked. She had been working on a rug, hurried to finish it and the pegging tool slipped and went into her eye. I think her sight was all right. Mum lived with Little Auntie until Mum went into Service but of course still went to see her on her days off. When I was Christened, Little Auntie was one of my Godmothers. When it was decided what I should call her, they chose Little Auntie, as she was quite petite and I already had Granny Stalley. She married Thomas Wilson 23rd September 1933 and lived in a house at Spring Hill. I called him Uncle Tom and they always had a tin of boiled sweets and I loved it when he said “Give Daph a sweet”. He worked at Priors Hall Farm until he retired and just had to cross the field behind his house to get there. I remember he used to work in his garden with Little Auntie and they grew lots of vegetables and they also had gooseberry bushes which we could share if we picked our own. When visiting, I had to sit on a chair but if I could get outside I used to walk round the paths in the garden and inspect all the sheds and chicken houses.
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Auntie’s house was always very clean and tidy. Uncle Tom had been married before and had a son called Ernie who was very clever. He was bom 6th January 1906 and when he retired, he moved back to Widdington and later died in 1990. Uncle Tom died 22nd July 1946 and Little Auntie lived alone for many years. Mum kept and eye on her and Tom’s brother George visited her. Also Ethel used to visit from time to time and brought Peter when he was small. Eventually, Little Auntie had a fall and had to go to St. James’ Hospital, Saffron Walden. She died 25th March 1959 aged 87 so Mum was able to tell her, whilst she was still at Widdington, that Carol was born and she clapped her hands with joy. Carol was born 29th January 1959. Little Auntie is buried in Widdington Churchyard.
JOYCE CHIPPERFIELD
Joyce was born 5th June 1926 and named Joyce Rose. Her father’s name was Edgar (called Eddie) and her mother was Florrie. They had a Building Business in the village with the Timber Yard next to The Square. Joyce told me that our fathers were cousins, probably second cousins - you have to work it out. Joyce has a brother called Jack, three years older than her and he still lives in the village with his wife, Joy. Joyce was a happy pleasant child with a round face, blue eyes and fair hair. She was friends with Eileen and I remember the three of us went for a walk and picked some mushrooms which we cooked at Joyce’s house. We also used to ride three on a bike. Eileen cycling on the pedals, Joyce sitting on the seat and me sitting on the back mudguard. It was painful when we went over a stone and Eileen used to ride into a bank so we could get off. Perhaps the brakes were no good. Joyce used to take me to Widdington School until she was 11 and then she had to leave and go to Newport School. She was ill when she sat for the Scholarship to go to the Herts and Essex High School so of course did not pass. This was a shame as she was very bright. She left school at 14 and went into service in one of the big houses in the village. I think it was The Red House (Mrs Medley). Eventually she went to work at Spicers Paper Factory at Sawston and used to cycle to Newport early in the morning to catch the bus. In 1945 she was Eileen’s Bridesmaid and I was the other one. She used to go to dances in the village, play tennis, go to GFS and was very lively, active and a lovely girl. In the summer of 1947, there was a polio epidemic and sadly, Joyce contracted the illness and was very ill. (I have written about this in my memories of 1947). She was 21. After being in an Iron Lung (the first time it was used) she was left virtually paralysed from just below the neck down. She could breath on her own, had a bit of movement in one hand so could write, her toes moved a little and she could move her head. She was in Newmarket Hospital for a long time and her Mother and Father hired Hoys taxi and visited her every
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Sunday afternoon. They also took one other person from the village and we took it in turns to go. It was so sad to see a young person having to be in bed. Eventually she came home and her Mother and Father and members of the family looked after her. People in the village took her out in her wheel chair, massaged her limbs and of course the District Nurse was a regular visitor. The village raised money and bought her a television and she was always a pleasure to visit. The day came when her parents could no longer look after her and she went to live at The Marillac at Brentwood. This was a small hospital for females with chronic illnesses and was run by Nuns. It looked like a hotel, was clean and bright and Joyce was happy there and made friends. She went to be assessed and it was decided that she would sit at the reception desk, answer the switchboard, which was modified to cope with her disability and she knew everything about the running of the Hospital. She did that job for many years and it was a life saver for her. She also did typing on an electric typewriter and there was not much she did not manage to do. Her friend, Breda, helped her physically and she helped Breda, mentally. They used to go on holiday, sometimes abroad and latterly at Park House, Sandringham. Whilst at Park House, Christmas 1990, Diana, Princess of Wales, ran over from Sandringham to see them. She was so natural and friendly and sat chatting to them until she had to leave because she had promised to watch a film with her boys. We started to take Joyce out about 1966 when we had a car and took her to the seaside for the day. This progressed to staying for a weekend in the summer. We lived at Bishop’s Stortford and arranged for her to have a ride in an aeroplane from Stansted Airport. It was only small in those days. We took her to Takeley Forest in her wheelchair and she loved being out in the fresh air. After we had central heating, she was able to stay for a day or two at Christmas and not just come for the day when we used to take her to her brother Jack’s at Widdington. We took her to a Pantomime at Harlow and they took two seats out so her wheelchair could go in. These days there are better arrangements to cope with the disabled. After we moved to Great Shelford, she stayed four days at Christmas. The girls were growing up so could help me to look after her and David did all the lifting. Joyce was wonderful company, she never complained and showed us the best way to deal with her problems. She came on Christmas Eve and Carol and Christine used to undo her presents and Joyce wrote down who had given her what so she could thank people. David took her to Jack’s on Christmas Day and she spent Boxing Day with us. The next day she went into Cambridge with Carol and Christine and they looked round the shops. The day after that, David and I took her back to Brentwood. We did this for years until the Christmas before she died, she was too ill to come. Once in the summer, we took her to Woburn Abbey, also to the Arts Theatre in Cambridge and a meal at The Varsity. She was so interested in everything. She was very popular at The Marillac and was taken on outings and her friend took her into Brentwood for shopping.
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Sadly, in the late summer of 1991, she became ill and was unable to eat. There seemed to be a blockage so food and liquid would not go down properly. It appears she had cancer of the esophagus. She went to a hospital at Harold Wood and then on to the London Hospital for tests and laser treatment. We visited for several weeks and she returned to The Marillac. We knew she was ill but it was still a shock when we learned that she had died 24th January 1992 aged 65. She once said to me “I hope I don’t go on too long”. She had enough to cope with without all the problems of old age. We were all very sad to lose her and I still miss her phone calls, letters and visits. We went to a Thanksgiving Service for her life in the Chapel at The Marillac, followed by Cremation and her ashes are in Widdington Churchyard in her Mother’s and Father’s grave. At The Marillac, a Conservatory has been built and it was proposed that it would be called The Joyce Chipperfield Room. We all feel very privileged to have known such a remarkable lady. I hope you have enjoyed reading about my memories of Widdington and the family. It has turned out a bigger project than I had originally planned and is also a Social and Historical Document. I have enjoyed doing the research amongst books and papers in my possession and visits to Widdington Church and the Churchyard. Cousin Alan Stalley has made a Family Tree on Dad’s side of the family. It would be nice if someone in the family could find out more about Mum’s relatives. It is said that Mum had a Spanish Grandmother and I believe this could be so. I have dark brown hair, brown eyes and look as if I have just come back from the Costa Brava. Mum had black hair, a strong personality which must have helped her with all the trauma of her early years. Another matter of interest for the family is that I inherited all of Aunt Ruth’s photos. My next project is to sort these, identify them and put them in an album for posterity. You will notice that I have called Jim and Ruth, Jimmy and Ruthie because in my years at Widdington, they were children and in those days, Jim was Dad and Ruth was Aunt Ruth. We have moved on a generation since those days so have another Jim and Ruth. There are two things I would have liked to have done in my life. The first is to play the piano really well. I would have loved to have had proper lessons but did my best in the circumstances. The second thing is to be able to swim. There was no opportunity to do this as a child and I didn’t try until I was 50. I went to evening classes with Eileen and I was a disaster. She was able to cope with it but the teacher said I looked frantic which I was. I didn’t know I had this aversion to water and didn’t want to let go of the side. I really tried and got a certificate for doing about 5 metres with armbands. Eventually, I transferred to the basket work class which I took to like a duck to water. Excuse the pun. If I had one-to-one tuition, starting in 2’ of water and gradually working my way up, in the morning and not in the evening
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when I had just eaten my dinner, I might have some success. After all, I learned to ride a bike in the shed!! I shall soon reach my three score years and ten. It has been quite an experience delving into the past to recall my memories but it is also important to look ahead. I have a good husband, two lovely daughters, not forgetting, of course, my two sons- in-law and our lovely Grandchildren who will carry the family into the future. Widdington will always be special to me and although my home is no longer there, I can always visit the Church and Churchyard where most of my relatives are at rest.

 
May God Bless you all
Daphne Joan Bridgeman (nee Stalley)

The Millennium Year 2000