MANNING FAMILY 1955-1963

Date: 06Jun1955

Cottage: Landseer

Phillip left in July 1956

Edward left in July 1957

Richard left in July 1960

Peter & Alec left in July 1963

My four brothers and myself were :'Placed into the care of the LCC Children's Department on the 27th May 1955, and were taken to the Residential Care Home at 117 Hornchurch Road, Hornchurch, Essex on the 6th June 1955 to reside in Landseer Cottage'.

I and my brothers found our time in the Homes a good one compared with the conditions we were living in in Bethnal Green, and the abuse we received from our manic-depressive father. The only down-side was being bullied now and again by older boys, but this was limited as once we told our older brother it stopped.

We were all in Landseer Cottage. Mr. Leveridge was a very pleasant and kind man and liked all of the Manning boys as we were respectful of him and his wife.

In fact when Alec & myself were about 8 years old they wanted to adopt us and took the two of us to their own house in Romford for tea and TV on several occasions. My father, although he only visited us once or twice in all our time there, refused their request. When we were about 12 or so Mr Leveridge allowed Alec and myself to use his small workshop, which he had, for tinkering about with an old motorbike.

Mrs. Leveridge was a little more strict especially in keeping us clean and tidy by making sure we washed our hands and faces before we could eat our meals. That's something we didn't do when living with our parents. She did try to teach us how to play the piano but we were more interested in getting out onto the fields to play cowboys and Indians. She was the one in charge when she had the 'naughty boys' peel the spuds for the 20 or so in the cottage. I recall having to peel them on several occasions, but that was fun as we sat around the 'spud room' table singing boy scout type songs and the time flew by.

Tilting the bucket involved one child pushing the wheelbarrow with the other in the wheelbarrow. The idea was to get the pole into the hole whereby the water in the bucket would tip out behind you as you went under it, but the person on the ladder wanted to get a laugh from the crowd and on just about every occasion tipped the full bucket of cold water onto the two kids below.

Peter

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