An Outalong Childhood by Margie Bowden (nee Jenkins)
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Ed. Note: Margery was born in number 4 Clifton Terrace, Southend in the last year of Queen Victoria’s reign. These are some of her memories, painstakingly recorded in an exercise book in the 1970s and lovingly kept by her family.
By Margie Bowden (nee Jenkins)
I will start as far back as I can remember. I went to school in Southend, the one on the Mumbles Road; which is now the boathouse (Ed: now part of Patricks with Rooms). It was alright going to school then, because it was not far from where I livid, but I will never forget the day when we had to go up to the new school, which is in Dunns Lane.
The National School, near the Antelope Public House
The Church School, Dunns Lane
That day we all had to march up to the new school dressed in our white pinnies and we were proud of ourselves. We had tea in school. But as time went on, we were sorry we ever went up there, as we had to go in the girls’ gate. To get there, we had to go up Church Park, along the back of the Church and up Westbourne Place, so you can guess we were nearly always late. So Mr. Clough , our Head master used to call us the ‘late scholars of the Outalong.’ More often than not, we would have to stay in after school, but we got though school life.
You say, today, what did we do with our time years ago? I will never forget our August holidays. We used to have better weather then and I well remember spending all day down on the beach in just a frock and knickers. So, we would take off our frocks and go in and out of the tide just when we liked. After a bit, we would dress go home for tea and then go back down to collect oyster shells, sand, green weed, little shells and stones. We would build a grotto and trim it up smart.
Grotto
Then we would wait for the old Mumbles Train to come along and we sing ‘patronize the grotto please, a ha’penny or a penny!’ The people sitting on the top would throw us pennies and with the people passing on the ‘concrete’, we would make quite a bit, which we would save up and go to the shows. Magical Oyster Shell Grottoes
They came every year on the holiday to the ballast bank (that is now where the bowling- green and tennis courts are). We would have a few rides on the horses and swings and if we were lucky we could go in the big tent to see the show. I well remember them selling teasers around the shows—these were tubes filled with water and the boys and girls would squirt them at one another.
I expect not many of you can remember the Figure Eight on the bottom of Church Park, where the bowling-green is now. When I was in school, one of my brothers, Henry was working on it and I used to take my friend and sit on the railings to see if there was any luck to have a couple of rides. He would say clear off home and do not come back! (those were the days!)Sometimes over the summer holidays, my father and brothers used to take us out in the skiff down to Oxwich bay for an outing. We would pull the Pansy behind and father would put us ashore for the day or till the tide came in, then back home tired but happy. Another thing we would do was to get an old tray and go up Dickslade on to the Mumbles Hill, and then sit on it and come right down to the bottom and up again until we got tired. Then we would go to Tiddy’s Ood—a wood behind George bank, and make a swing in the trees or play house. We used to spend all our holidays doing one or other.
Now in the winter, when it was snowing and frozen, we used to get a bucket of water from the pump and throw it along the promenade by Southend Station over night and when we had the chance, we had some fine slides. We used to run till we got to the slide and slide to the end till it was time to go home, not forgetting to put some more water down for the next day.
Steam Train at Southend
I well tell you another thing we used to do as children. Where the Tivoli is now, was a skating rink [roller skating] called the Kersaal. As we grow older, we used to save 6d all week to go out to the skating rink on a Saturday afternoon; we could do anything on them then—waltz two-steps and play touch.
Later, it had to be closed, as it did not pay. So they sold the skates for 2/- a pair and my youngest brother went up and bought us a pair each for my sister and myself. So after school, all us Southenders would go up and down the road from the station to the Ship and Castle (now replaced by the Conservative Club). I would not like to try it now! We had some fine times I can tell you
The Ship and Castle Hotel, Southend
We had no telly or wireless, but I will tell you what we did with our winter evenings. My brothers used to make picture frames with white wood and cigars boxes. They would cut out all sorts of patterns and stick them on to the frames and varnish them. They would also pick all the pretty shells off the beach and make frames with them; put boats in bottles. My brother, Alfred made a full masted sailing boat and made a glass case for it.
Alfred
He even made the sea with putty and painted it green and white. It was a sight to see! When they got tired of working, we would go into our parlour and there we had a piano, violin, cornet and an accordion. All my brothers would have a go at playing anything in those days, while we had to sing. I will tell you how my big brother, Alfred came home from Tom Owen one day and said to my mother, ‘I am going to learn to play the piano.’ He was 16 years old and saved up all his money. There was a sale on down where the Canopic is today and he made my mother go down and bid for it. He had the piano for £5 and in those days it was a lot of money!
Now in those days we used to go to Church and Sunday School. When it was our Sunday school outing, we would all meet at the school with our cups in our hands. In those days, there were no transport like today, so we had to march up Venn’s Field up West Cross (Moorside Road today) and the teachers would put up swings for us in the trees and play games till tea time. We would have tea—currant cake, seed cake, bread and butter and juice —and it tasted good! Most of the time, we would break our cups. After tea, all the older folks (Mothers and Fathers) would come up, the Mumbles Band would turn up to play for us and we would sing and dance. Then we all walked home very tired but happy. What a lovely time we had! We would have far better times than the kids have today.
Now we come to Christmas. We used to look forward to this more than ever, as we used to help Mother dress up the Horse s Head. The Story of the Mumbles Horse’s Head We would go to Kemp’s for quarter yards of ribbons in several pretty colours. Then we had the job of making rosettes to dress him up, just like he is today. All the boys of Southend used to call and see him and ask what could they do to help and was there a chance of going out with him. I well remember my brothers saying to them ‘caste thee sing? well let’s hear thee’ and they would pick out the best. But it was usually the same ones each year. They had grand times with him. They used to be asked to all the parties around the village and go in all the pubs, walking for miles. We still have him and he is over 100 years old now.
Tom Owen
We used to look forward to Christmas and New Year as every New Year’s day we would dress up an orange with currants or raisin and a card, then go around the village wishing everyone a Happy New Year. We would get enough money to go to Tom Owen’s show (that's where the Catholic Church is today). What good times we had. Then on a Saturday afternoon we would see a show. First, there was a picture and a ticket for Tuesday’s show after school.
I remember when I was still at school, my father used to sell oysters on a big oyster table out by the White Gate (where the cars now go down to the pier). He would sell them and open them for people to eat by the table. Seven fine oysters for 6d. I remember a poor old man with only one leg who used to come down on the old Mumbles Train. When I went home from school, I used to take tea out to my father, so I always asked my mother to put in extra tea for him and I would play his organ while he ate. My sister and I often had a good laugh about it, when we think of the things we used to do.
Now my two youngest brothers were in the Mumbles Silver Band. They used to call it Bob Todd’s Band as he was the leader. What we liked to do was to walk with the band, when they marched the solders to Church. We used to look forward to Sunday.
But the Mumbles Band did not last much longer, as one of the boys was called up then another and so there were not many left in the band and it finished up with solders joining in to make enough to get them to church. We just used to have some wonderful tunes in those days, but in 1914, it was spoiled for us. My two brothers, Alfred (pictured above) and Ernest, were called up and joined the navy and never came back.
Ernest
My two brothers, Alfred (pictured above) and Ernest, (pictured here) were called up and joined the navy and never came back.
But as I grew up, I had to do my share of work as my father was a fisherman, dredging for oysters in winter and fishing in the summer. So I had to learn to pull the boat, pump out the skiff, bag oysters, open them and help to sell them with my father. We used to send some to London or anywhere they were wanted. We used to bag them and wheel them to the old Mumbles Train at Southend and send them by rail. We also used to supply B.E. Jones‘s restaurant, who paid us 4 shilling per hundred (120 oysters) for large ones. As I got older; I got used to it.
I rowed the boat by myself as a treat in the evening, when the tide was up on the beach. It was a sight to see the regatta in those days and I used to row in the ladies’ competition and I won many a race. We would dress up the boats with bunting and flags. They used to bring loads of visitors and we would put on a concert, charging 3d a chair and they were always full. Everyone had a good time. Now in those days, my father and brothers used to go fishing all day and I would have to be ready with the scales and barrow by the time they got in, just as all the others did. The visitors used to wait for the fish by the beach, so with what was left, father would go up though the village selling fish for 6d a pound for the best plaice, 4d for sole and a bundle of little maids for 3d. They were small ray fish and very nice they were too. When father finished selling, he would come home and have some tea, change and go down to the boat again. We had a nice boat, which would hold 9 persons and father would take people out for a row right up the bay for 6d and 3d for children. It was a pleasure to go for a row in those days, not like today. When the Ragged School children came down to Bracelet for a day’s outing in the open cars on the Mumbles Train, all the boat men used to go out with the boats and have a good day’s work. Many times I had to take tea to father out at Langland or Bracelet and stop there till he finished and help him pull home. I used to let him have a pipe while I rowed him home in to the mooring. Those were the days!
I
will tell you about one night when I was the only one left living at home. Father had been fishing up the bay with a line, in our boat called the Pansy and when he came back the sea had gone out. So rather than pull the boat right up the beach, he put grall line with rope up the beach intending to go back when the tide came in to pull it in. But alas the evening passed and we all went to bed. Then my mother called me to get up quick, as father had forgotten the boat and the wind had risen to gale force! Father told me to get the coxswain of the lifeboat, who just lived by us and his granddaughter came with a hurricane lamp. The five of us could see the boat bobbing up and down; father managed to get the rope and we all pulled and pulled but could not get it in. We tried till the tide reached the top of the wall, then we gave up. Father said we would have some fire wood in the morning, but, with the daylight father got up to find the surprise of his life for there was the boat lashed to the piles alright. Nobody could have done this with hands. The sea must have taken a turn of the rope and wound the boat around the piles every wave till there was no more rope left. Father went up the beach to find the oars and the stanchions. She was painted up to look like new in no time.
My father, William Jenkins
in his lifeboat kit
Now I tell you another tale. As fishermen, my father and brother were lifeboat men and my youngest brother, Ernest was lampman. Of course, the lifeboat in those days was in the old boathouse and when called out, the Mumbles Train used to have to stop for the men to get the boat down and up. So in our house every night during the winter, my brothers and father would put three wellingtons, jerseys and coats ready in case there was a call. If there was a call up we would all get and I and my pal, Connie Tucker, who was the granddaughter of the coxswain, would go out with my youngest brother and stay with him till the boat come back. How they used to save lives in those days I will never know, but they did!
The six men that came back from the 1903 disaster
My father was one of the six men that came back from the 1903 disaster. I was only two years old then and he said he would never go in a lifeboat again. But as time went by, if there was no one to go, he did till he was too old.
The six brave men who died in 1903
Another job we had to do was to help my father and brothers to pick seaweed to plant potatoes. When the tide was in, Father used to put the boat out by the pier. When the tide went out, we had to take an old knife and cut seaweed till the boat was full, leaving enough room for one of my brothers to pull it back in to Southend. We all tucked in and brought it up to the top by the railings ready for the man with a horse and cart to take it out to the fields in Limeslade. There, Father had five rows all ready at the farm near the orphanage up Tichbourne. He would let out the rows to the fishermen for a few shillings a row. Once the potatoes were drawn in, that was it until the next year. What fun we had when the cart would bring in the potatoes in sacks. Then my brothers would carry them up to the bottom of the George, as it was a good way up and my sisters and I would carry them up the passage. Then we would be ready with buckets and with rope tied to them. We would take it in turns to pull them up to the first landing and then up to the attic, where we would stack them for the winter. We had enough potatoes to last us until the next season. Father would always keep some for seed potatoes.
Soldiers on parade outside The George & Beaufort Hotels
When the 1914 war was on, there were soldiers billeted in the George Hotel, the Mermaid, the Ship and Castle and as children we had the time of our lives with them. They used to give us duff (that was currant pudding). There was a pump by the George and if any of the solders had done wrong, they would strip him to his trousers and put him under the pump, which always was a good laugh. Another thing the solders used to do was to toss up the man who had done wrong up in a blanket six times. We used to watch all that going on and have a sing song with them. We could not get home from school quick enough in those days.
All those days are gone forever and I expect there are a good many more tales I could tell you. But I hope this as given you a look my childhood spent Outalong in the days before the Great War.
Margery Bowden died in 1981 at the age of 81.