THE LIFE AND TIMES OF STANLEY ROBERT WALPOLE (RETIRED) AND LIVING IN CANADA.
EARLY YEARS
I was born, so my Mother said, at 06.30 on Saturday July 28th. 1917 at the village of North Elmham, Norfolk, England the home of my maternal grandmother who acted as the midwife. Very few mothers went to hospital to have babies in those days, a neighbour or relative usually helped out with births. I guess there were no complications with respect to my birth as we returned home to Mileham, 6 miles away, a few days after my birth. How we returned home I can’t say (I was too young at the time to remember) There were no busses or trains nearby and very few motor cars. Maybe we walked with me in the pram (as they were called). Mother often walked the 6 miles to see her mother and took my older brother, Aubrey, with her in the pram. In later years, when I was old enough, I walked the 6 miles, sometimes getting a ride in the pram but on the return journey we had to walk as the pram was usually full of ‘goodies’ that grandmother had given us. She had chickens and ducks as well as a number of fruit trees so we had eggs and fruit as well as other goods. To help out the family budget she also kept us kids supplied with candies, usually toffee which she called ‘stickjaws.
I remember my Mother telling me that when I was about a year old she held me up to watch the German zeppelins flying over looking for somewhere to drop a bomb or two. They were used briefly for this purpose during World War one.
I was the second child of Fred and Ada Walpole. Mother’s maiden name was Bartie. My older brother, Aubrey, was born October 8th. 1915. Other family members followed at regular intervals of around two years. Eileen on March 11th. 1919, Leonard on March 29th. 1921; Joyce on July 1st. 1922 and much later, Norman on February 9th. 1935. (An afterthought I guess). Mother did have two more, boy and girl twins who died of pneumonia before their 2nd birthdays. There were no antibiotics in those days and we had no doctor within easy reach.
Dad was a farm labourer earning a bare, minimum wage of 30 shillings a week. We lived in a rented cottage in Mileham with no electricity or running water, for which they paid 5 shillings a week. We used paraffin lamps and candles, wood and coal for heating and cooking and drew water from a well in the garden by dropping a bucket down on a rope then winding it back up full. It was very good water, completely unpolluted. Our house had two good sized bedrooms plus sitting room, kitchen and pantry. The toilet was a ‘two-holer at the bottom of the garden. If one of us had to ‘go’ after dark other kids had to accompany us to keep the ‘bogy’ man away, as we believed. My parents occupied one bedroom with the newest youngster, later on, when we had the full family I shared one bed in the other room with Aubrey and my sisters shared the other one, in the same room.
Each room had a small, open fireplace which could be used when it was very cold (it was always cold in the bedrooms in the winter). Mother used to warm the beds with the aid of a warming pan which was metal with lid and filled with hot coals from the downstairs fire. Later on we did get stone hot water bottles but heating water on the ‘hob’ of the fireplace was a long process especially on Saturday evenings when we had to have our weekly baths in the big, tin bath. The water was changed for the girls after the boys had been washed and packed off out of sight, we were poor but we were seldom cold and never hungry as Dad had two allotments on which he grew all types of vegetables.
We also had lots of fruit from the farm, as well as from Grandmother who would send ‘good stuff’ to us via the salesman who came around the villages with his horse and cart selling oil, pots and pans and many other items which were not available in the one village shop. While we could not afford to buy much meat we had other meat in the form of rabbits, which Dad used to shoot on the farm and chickens, which were given to us by the farmer quite-often. We had enough chickens in the yard to supply eggs. Mother used to make some very tasty dishes with the rabbits. If Mother had a few eggs, surplus to our requirements, she would sell them to the neighbours and save the revenue derived therefore for clothes. It usually took a long while to save enough but she did it eventually.
We never went to a barber for a haircut for two reasons: one, there were none in or near our village and two, there was no money for haircuts. So Dad would cut our hair, the boys that is. He cut it very short leaving just a small ‘forelock’ at the front. The girls would help each other with their hair with Dad doing the odd bit of trimming as directed. There is a story with reference to having forelocks, in the old days (long before our time) etiquette dictated that men doffed their hats and touched their forelocks when meeting members of the opposite sex or anyone in a higher level on the social scale. Hats were never worn indoors. How times have changed now with baseball caps being the choice of most males that seem to be worn at all times even indoors. Dad would also pull our baby teeth when they became loose. When we were older and needed an extraction the local doctor did it. A ‘jack of all trades’ it seems.
SCHOOL
We went to the village school, a two-roomed one with a female teacher in each room, one for the small kids and one for the bigger ones. School leaving age was 14 but many left before then to work on the Fens and so help out the family income. I was always considered to be the ‘bright one’ and at age 11 was given the opportunity to graduate to high school. To do so I had to write an exam and if one passed high enough received financial assistance for transportation and clothes. I passed ok and went to high school. I don’t remember too much about my days at the village school in Mileham. I suppose that level of education did not present any problems for me. I do remember that when my brother Lenny started school at age 4 we had a great deal of difficulty in getting him there. He simply would not go willingly so my brother Aubrey and I had to literally drag him the one mile to school which was at the far end of the village from where we lived. Not only that, but once we got him there he would not sit still in the classroom so one of us had to stay with him to keep him quiet and seated. We took it in turns. As this was in the infants side of the school I did not appreciate having to waste time sitting there as I enjoyed being in the “senior” room and was studying for entry into high school. Aubrey did not mind too much as he was not too interested in school. He would rather be out at the farm which was his love. We did eventually settle Lenny down enough so that the teacher could handle him and keep him interested.
One thing I remember from my school days was the toilet system. Having no sewers in the village all toilets were of the one or two holer type. At the school we had two for the boys and two for the girls, each one had a little trap door at the back for easy removal of the containers for emptying. The bigger boys would get stinging nettles when they saw one of the girls go into a toilet, gently open the trap door at the back and poke the nettle in so that it stung the girl’s bottom. There would be a scream and the poor girl would flee into school to tell the teacher. No-one owned up to the prank of course so we would all be kept in school after regular hours as punishment. Our two teachers were not very good disciplinarians and probably thought it was no big deal but had to show a bit of authority I suppose.
Speaking of toilets, (what a subject) I now wonder how adults managed at night when they had to use a chamber pot that was kept under the bed. I suppose it was not too difficult for males but must have been rather difficult for women especially older ones getting down to sit on one of those things. For us kids it was a piece of cake of course. No-one wanted to risk a trip to the bottom of the garden to use the out-house during the night. We did have a small flashlight to use but that did not provide much light and if the weather was bad it was no fun running down there.
Dad was quite a disciplinarian and his leather belt came into play whenever one of us offended him or broke one of his rules. Lenny was the rebel of the family and was always in trouble. Aubrey and I were either too smart or too “chicken: to cross Dad too much so were seldom in trouble with him. Mother would always be on our side.., she was a “softy”. Although she was not actually afraid of Dad she did not argue too much with him except when- he was waving his belt at- one-of us. then she would say” Fred, leave-the boy alone”. I did not see too much of Dad during my high school days as he left for the farm early and I did not get back from school until supper time this was called “tea time" in England as most people had the main meal at midday. After I had eaten I had homework to do and Dad was out working on one of his allotments most of the-time except in the winter then he had stock to feed on the farm so was away a lot. Aubrey and I would go to the farm with Dad on Sunday mornings to feed the animals, we would help to grind the turnips and mangols (a type of turnip but red inside) ready for him to feed the animals. The farmer lived in the farm house and his wife would often give us something to eat as we went down there before having breakfast. We would get home about 9 am. And Mother would have a meal ready for us which we- always ate with relish even though we had had something to eat at the farm. Food was something we did not waste in those days, it was too hard to come by so we ate whatever was put in front of us.
As the nearest high school was at Fakenham, 10 miles away and there was no access to bus or train service I had to use a bicycle for transportation, which the- Education Authorities paid for, it was 3 pounds. As the bike had only one gear (no fancy 5 or ten speeds in those days) it was at times, a very tough ride for an eleven-year old who was as skinny as a rake. Windy days were bad as were days when it rained or snowed. I often arrived at school pretty wet and there were few places where one could dry out, it’s a wonder I’m still here to tell this tale!!). I used to whistle all the way to school. The workers in the fields said they could hear me coming and could set their watches by me. (A joke I imagine). During part of the 4 years I spent at the high school I had company as two other boys from local villages would ride along with me, this was more fun and I didn’t whistle so much then - too busy talking.
I don’t think I got as much out of school as I should have done because of the travel chore and the fact that we ‘scholarship kids’ as we were called were looked down upon by other kids whose parents could afford to pay for their schooling and supply pocket money as well, something I never had. I reached Form 5A which, I suppose would be equivalent to grade 11 here. Form 6 was the top one. I was almost 17 when I left school in 1934 with no prospects whatsoever except working on a farm, which I did for a while.
I should have mentioned that during school summer holidays my brother Aubrey and me were sent to our maternal grandparents at North Elmham to help out with various chores such as gardening, looking after the chickens and ducks, collecting eggs etc. We had to fetch water by the bucket from a pump in a field behind the house, which was a daily chore. The house was an old thatch cottage with no conveniences of any kind. Grandmother was a ‘pack-rat’ and rooms were cluttered up with old newspapers, magazines, clothes etc. It had stone floors which, to say the least, were very cold. Some parts were covered with old bits of carpet or lino but in general it was a cold old place.
For the brief while that I worked on the farm I had to do a lot of hard work for which I was completely unsuited. One day I was sent to plough a large field where the grain had been harvested. I had a pair of horses and a heavy iron plough. Most ploughs had wooden handles and were fairly light but iron ones were very heavy and had gone out of fashion at most farms. Ploughmen would just put their arms under each of the plough’s shafts when reaching the end of the field and lift it round ready to start back with another furrow. However, the iron plough was too heavy for me to do that so the trick was to sit on the end of the plough and let the horses pull it round with my weight, ostensibly, keeping the plough upright and set for the next furrow. Rookie that I was, the plough got away from me and I ended up on my back in the dirt a couple of times before I got the hang of it. The horses must have realized that I was not very conversant with handling a plough and remained quite docile until I straightened myself out again. I was all alone in this big field with the horses and flocks of seagulls looking for worms or whatever they could find to eat, so no one witnessed my misfortunes and my efforts at being a ploughman which I failed miserably.
During harvest time we had to carry a hot dinner each day into the harvest fields for Grandfather and Uncle Albert (Mothers only sibling). The farm where they worked was a couple of miles away so we had to walk or run pretty fast to ensure the meal was fairly hot when they received it. There was an orchard at the back of the house belonging to the village hall and some of the trees had huge apples, some of which would fall off. Grandmother used to push one of us through a small window that looked on to the orchard to pick up these apples and hand then to her. If there were not enough on the ground she would use a big pole to knock some off. We had to be quick in case someone from the Hall staff was around as we were not allowed to help ourselves. Grandmother would have been a good partner for old Fagan of Dickens’ Oliver Twist.
Aubrey and I used to get a real “kick” watching Uncle Albert shaving Grand-mother every Sunday morning. She grew quite a bit of hair on her chin which Uncle Albert would remove with lather and an open razor. We watched with fascination needless to say, had never seen a woman getting a shave before .It is a matter of record that in her young days Grand-mother was quite a beauty and had all the boys of the village after her. She lived to a fine old age, about 90 I understand when she died. She was quite a lady in many ways but we were a bit scared of her as she could be pretty tough but never administered corporal punishment on us but then, I don’t think we did anything to annoy her, just helped around the place as directed!.
We did have a “His Masters Voice” phonograph that played round (Jam jar type) records which slipped on to a cylinder. It was a squeaky sort of sound. We had a lot of Scottish songs I remember and some orchestral ones.
The favourites were the old British Music Hall silly songs with jokes. I imagine such a machine would be worth quite a bit now as an antique but my young brother, who lived with Mum dumped it after she died not realizing that it was an antique. From somewhere I obtained an old, wind-up portable record player that played the wax 33 rpm records. I bought a couple in the town for a few pennies when I had some and enjoyed playing it. I had one record of Irish songs including Alexander’s Ragtime Band. I think I wore that one out as I played it so often. I added a few more records when I had the necessary cash but they were second hand ones pretty scratchy but it was all we had and we made the most of it.
I remember one year I “did a harvest” which is how we referred to working on the farm at harvest time during the school break. Dad had persuaded the farmer to give me a job which was driving the loads of grain from the harvest field to the stacks and threshing machine which was always located in the farmyard near to the farm buildings and farm house. I was about 15 at the time and small for my age so hard work did not come easy to me. The wagons were drawn by a pair of horses, no mechanical equipment in those days as there is now, One day I had to drive the heavily loaded wagon over several fields to the stack through a number of gates with a pair of fairly frisky horses.
This one particular day my working life came to an end. I had to drive the loaded wagon over three fields through three gateways I did fine until I got to the last gate which, as bad luck would have it was right by the farmyard. The farmer, who was a miserable old man anyway, was standing right there and watching me. Being a bit nervous I guess I lost my concentration and one wheel of the wagon hit the gatepost, it just dislodged the post a bit but did no real harm. However, as you can guess, the old misery went into a rage and sacked me on the spot saying it would cost money to straighten the post so my 10 shillings would be forfeited. I suppose I wept seeing my hard-earned wage gone as I had already worked for a couple of weeks.
When Dad heard about it he too was mad but not at me but at the farmer as I had contracted to work the whole month of harvesting for the princely sum of 10 shillings about two dollars, as an American dollar was considered to be 5 shillings then. The farmer said I would have to forfeit the ten shillings to pay for a new gate post. Actually it was no big deal to straighten the post and re-set it so there was no requirement for a new one.
Very few of the men talked back to the farmer, who they always called ‘master’, to his face at least but this day Dad threw caution to the winds and demanded I get my 10 shillings back. Dad was seldom heard to swear but this day I heard lots of ‘damns and blasts’ flying around The farmer did respect Dad as he was a good worker and had been at the farm a long time so in the end I got my wage but not my job. I was not too sorry about that as I was not cut out for heavy farm-type work.
I guess the farmer’s rule was “one strike and you’re out”. The other men were surprised at Dad’s attitude as very few dare argue with the “master” for fear of losing their jobs which they had to rely on. Farm work was all that was available in the small villages. It was poorly paid work, just enough to keep a family from going hungry and to pay any other bills. Having credit was frowned upon. Fortunately we had a big garden plus two allotments where Dad grew all the vegetables to last us through the year so we made do very well. I was very proud of my Dad that day as he stood up for me without any reproach for my carelessness.
During my latter high school days I used to go into the harvest fields where Dad worked and the men would send us lads to the local pub for beer. This we received in gallon jugs. We had to go around the back of the pub as it was an offence to serve us being underage and out of pub hours to boot. We had no village policeman or any law officers but there would be the danger of some busybody seeing the activity and reporting it. We would lug these heavy gallon jugs back to the fields and were often invited to have a drop. My Dad, who didn’t drink anything stronger than his heavily sugared tea did not allow me to drink any much to my dismay but when he was not there the men would coach me into having a drop. I have enjoyed the stuff ever since!!
Needless to say there was no T.V. This was not only because we had no electricity but because T.V. was not invented when I was a youngster. We did have a little wireless set on which we could get the B.B.C. one and only station, but that was about it for home entertainment. I don’t recall that it was used very much as we kids spent most of our time out of doors during leisure hours. When I got to high school I was always late home, having to cycle 10 miles of course, then I had homework to do after I had eaten a meal so had little time for any leisure activity except at weekends. Having no electricity meant that we had no refrigerators, so Mother had to keep perishables cool the best way she could. She usually kept milk in cold water, although we got it in small quantities from the farm. It also meant no ice-creams or anything like that. The only time we got ice-creams was when we went to town and only then if we had the cash, which was not often. If I had “tuppence” to spend when I went to high school I would get an ice-cream in Fakenham before leaving for home but again, that was not very often.
I should correct my earlier notes with respect to shops in our village as there was actually two others apart from the main one. Mr. and Mrs. Pigg had a small shop which was also the Post Office. They sold non-perishable goods mostly and here is where we used to go to get Dad’s weekly supply of cigarettes. He used to have Churchman’s which this shop sold loose from larger boxes. They would weigh them out and Dad knew he should always get 12 in an ounce. Sometimes it would be only eleven and Dad would get mad and say: “that old girl has weighed her fingers again.” So we used to try and be there when the daughter was serving in the shop. We often got 13 then which made Dad happy.. This was Dad’s weekly treat after he had been paid by the farmer on a Saturday. He somehow made them last all week, Mother did not smoke and we kids dare not try one out; it would have been a fate worse than death!! There was also a little “sweet” shop across from the school owned by Mrs. Barnes who had quite a variety of candy of all sorts, colours and sizes which she dispensed from her front room. She sold loose ones by the ounce as well a “gob-stoppers, liquorice sticks etc. etc. She would always find something for us even if we only had a penny or even a half-penny. Any kid that was “flush” with cash was most popular and we would hang around them hoping for a sack of something, I have seen a “gob-stopper” passed around to two or three for each to have a suck! We were never fussy about doing that or having a bite out of some ones apple didn’t seem to do us any harm, besides most kids got the childhood diseases at the same time in the village, such as mumps, whooping cough, measles etc. I guess we were a tough bunch and our parents did not fuss over us as most parents do today.
I have always felt that my Father and Mother could have improved their status in life if they had had the opportunity. But there was little such opportunity in a small village in those days so one had to resort to working on a farm or going into domestic service to maintain any type of lifestyle. I consider myself fortunate that I was able to attend high school and proceed from there to a life outside of the village environment. Later on, when I was in the R.A.F. I was able to take educational courses such as advanced maths and English. I learned how to write composition, frame reports etc. which stood me in good stead later on when I became an administration officer in Ottawa.
There was not much for children to do in the village except help around the farms. We used to go hunting for birds eggs for our collections. We would make two small pin holes in each end of the shells, blow out the innards and when the shells were dried out would add them to our collection. Some of us had really nice ones of all shapes and colours. Most of us had home made catapults which we carried with us and I recall one time I fired a stone from my catapult at a blackbird sitting in a fence. I killed the poor bird and watched it fall to the ground. Afterwards I realised what I had done and how I had possibly left its eggs, and possibly it’s young, without support. It took me some time to get over my guilt and I don’t think I ever used that catapult again. There were several small ponds around the farm lands in which the moor-hens used to make nests. Their eggs were a nice size and could be cooked and eaten. If we were fortunate enough to find some we would take them home and Mother would fry them for us. Often the nests were out of our reach in the ponds so we tied a large spoon to the end of a pole and scooped the eggs out like that. Sometimes we would drop one or two in the water but by and large we got quite efficient in handling the pole with eggs in a spoon attached. Anything we could get to supplement the family food supply was very welcome.
We used to climb trees and play soccer and cricket on a meadow close by, that is if someone had a ball. It was a happy day when we could get hold of a proper cricket bat, usually a broken one discarded by the local cricket team. We had a very good cricket team in the village made up of local men most of whom were Walpole’s, Taylor’s ,Godersons, and Casons all brothers or cousins. We kids used to watch the games every weekend when they played at home and looked up to the players as our idols, hoping one day soon we could also play for the team. Later on, when I was in high school I got the job of scorer for the team, a very important job it used to be, one had to be exact and record the runs, overs bowled and compile other statistics. I felt very proud. I particularly enjoyed travelling with the team to away matches, we travelled with the local village bus hired for the day. 1 especially enjoyed the tea breaks, a tradition in cricket. The local ladies would serve tea, sandwiches and cakes, all home made of course. They always tasted much better than ones Mother made. After the game the teams would adjourn to the local village pub for a few beers. I, being under age, was not allowed inside the pub so had to wait outside until the team decided to leave for home. Sometimes it was a fairly long wait but I was always generously supplied with non-alcoholic drinks and potato chips which satisfied me I guess.
We had no village hall then and any village social activities were held in the school. This did not provide too much room but I seem to recall that it was adequate. Whist drives and dances were the prime activities. We had a two women band, piano and drums, I seem to think. At Christmas we would go out carol singing and always ended up at the village “big house” where we were given cake and pop, a real treat. Christmas was always an exiting time in our lives. Even though we didn’t have much we enjoyed what we did have. With only one small shop in the village and little access to a town except by bicycle, we had little to choose from. The shop-keeper would clear out his front window of the regular, everyday stuff, and put in some Christmas stuff- a few tin toys (made in Germany) and some soft ones, some garlands, Xmas crackers, candy etc. We kids would never pass the shop, either going to or coming from school without spending some time gazing into the window and hoping we would get a toy or some other special goodies in our stocking.
Christmas Eve was a big day for us, Dad would bring in a holly tree from the farm which we all would help to trim with whatever we had to trim it with, mostly home made items or some we had scrounged. Having no electricity we could not have lights but did have some of those small candles in holders clipped to the tree. These would be lit on Xmas Day, pretty hazardous one could say but we never had any disasters in that respect. We would each have one of Dad’s stockings to hang up which we explored on Christmas morning. We almost always knew what we would get, an orange, apple, some nuts, a candy and a tin trinket (couldn’t call it a toy). This was about all we would get, sometimes a book which I always enjoyed. Dad would kill one of the cockerels which we had fattened up in the yard, for dinner and Mother’s contribution, other than the meal, was a bottle of Stone’s ginger wine. We did not care for it but as it was sweet we tried it, there never was any liquor in our house as Dad did not drink, couldn’t afford to.
Of course we had lots of good vegetables and bottled fruit so Christmas dinner was a very happy occasion. My special friend’s parents had a farm and were better off then we were. At Christmas his Mother would make lovely cookies such as shortbreads with icing,
Easter was the time we got new clothes as Mother paid into a ‘clothing club’ all year and this provided her with enough money to buy us something new so that we could go to church at Easter looking good. I used to get some of Aubrey’s things that he had grown out of (he grew much faster than I did) and I did not get too many new things until I went to high school. I had my first pair of long trousers then as most young boys wore short pants.
Easter was also the “Alms” period when the poorer families in the village went to church on Easter morning to collect free loaves of bread provided by various merchants I think. They were given out in accordance with the number of children in the family plus parents. Mother always came home with six loaves which, at that time was a great help to the family budget. I recall the time when I was about eight or nine someone bought me a small mechano set. I can’t remember who my benefactor was but I sure treasured that set and could make a number of small toys with it. I longed for the day when I could add to it as one of the wealthier boys had a much larger one with which he could make much bigger items. He was a nice boy and we would be invited to play with it as well. I also had a good collection of marbles of all colours and sizes. At a certain time of the year we would play marbles, spin tops with the aid of a whip, play conkers and other simple games foreign to the youngsters of today. Conkers are the seeds of the horse-chestnut trees and when dried are as hard as a rock. We would drill a hole through the best one we could find put a string through it and then challenge others to a conker dual. Each success we recorded in our minds and we would refer to our winners as a “sixer” or sevener” or whatever success we had had with one .It was pretty serious stuff but lots of fun. We would scour under the horse-chestnut trees, and there were plenty about, for a good conker, one that was well shaped and had the potential of being a winner they were cased in a prickly shell which we had to remove but that was no problem to us. I see “conker” trees around Nanaimo but doubt if the youngsters today know anything about the play that we did. Too bad, it was good clean fun but then we had little else with which to amuse ourselves.
We also used to go “nutting” as there were woods just outside the village that contained nut bushes and trees of all kinds. There were chestnuts, walnuts, hazelnuts besides horse chestnuts for our ‘conker’ games. There were lots of different berries as well. This particular wood belonged to a farmer who was not a bad sort of chap and allowed us to cross his fields providing we did no damage nor left gates open. He had a very fierce bull. One day we were merrily crossing the field when the bull appeared from around a corner. We ceased our dawdling pretty quickly and headed for the sanctuary the wood provided. We were Ok on the way back as the bull had now joined the cows at the end of the field and so had more important pursuits than chasing a few lads. We had to climb the trees to reach most of the nuts and usually one boy would be helped up to pick and drop the nuts down to the rest of us. We would then share them out We would go home with a good supply as a rule. Dad would always ask if we behaved ourselves and did nothing to incur the displeasure of the farmer. Word would soon get around the village if we did so we had to ‘abide by the rules’ and be able to go back for more another day.
I used to go to Sunday school on Sunday afternoons and sing in the church choir in the evenings. Some Sundays we went morning, afternoon and evening. The church was quite a popular place then and most of the village people attended services. Now, I understand there is no rector and very few services as the travelling rector has to provide services at three or four villages. This means that Mileham gets a service once or twice a month, a far cry from my day. My Dad was no sportsman and did not participate in any of the village activities. As he had no spare money for drinks, although I never ever saw him taking a drink of alcohol, he could not afford to go to the pub even had he wanted to. Today there is no pub in Mileham. In my day there were two where much of the village activity took place -and much of the gossip.
Dad used to rent the local common land at 10 shilling a year to shoot mostly rabbits. I used to enjoy going with him on these trips to the common which was not too far away from the village. We often came home with two or three rabbits. Sometimes Dad would sell one or two in the village for a bit of pocket money to buy his one luxury, cigarettes.
There were no places for kids to swim. The only waters around were the duck ponds on the farms where the horses drank and the wildfowl played. We did find one pond not too far from the farm where Dad worked that was nice and clean and not too deep. I recall one time a bunch of us were playing in the water, I suppose I would have been seven or eight, and some of the brave ones stripped down to their undies, especially a couple of the girls. One of them, after we had got pretty wet took off her panties to dry herself. This was the first real time I noticed the difference between boys and girls. Although I had two sisters we seldom saw them without clothes on as Dad was quite a prude. From then on I looked at girls with much more interest but always too shy to openly show any interest.
On moonlight nights we would play “Hide and Seek” in the fields which used to be fun. There was never any fear then for kids to play outside at night even though there were no street light, just the glow from lights in the houses. These were paraffin lamps and candles as we had no utilities of any kind and made do with what we had. On November 5th we celebrated Guy Fawkes Day with bonfires and fireworks. There was an old castle ruin on a hill at the end of the village and we kids would love to play up there on these nights. There were dungeons of a sort where we would play Hide and Seek. Most of us had small flashlights which we used sparingly as batteries cost money which we did not have.
When we did have sixpence, usually after a visit to Grandmother (she would give us pennies, those big, heavy ones which we would carefully save until we had enough for a picture show at Litcham Odd fellows Hall), then we would walk the three miles to see a film and a serial. The serials went on for weeks so if we wanted to see the ending, eventually, we had to attend regularly. When this was not possible any one who had been to see the next episode would return and tell us all about it. In this way we, more or less, kept up with the plot.
Another one of our hobbies, if one can call them that, was picking wildflowers. There were lots of primroses in the hedgerows and if we could find some violets or cowslips, we were very happy and took them home for Mother.
There was a thick holly hedge at the back of our house where some of us would play. We made a cave in the middle of the hedge and put an old tarpaulin over the top to make a little dry haven. When it rained we would run to our holly house and enjoy the patter of the rain on the tarpaulin, it seemed very comforting then.
One of our real treats was the annual Sunday school outing to the seaside at Cromer. The school teachers would hire the old bus and in our Sunday best (we were not allowed to go looking like rag-a-muffins as Mother would say) even though we were going to, hopefully, play on the sand. We took our meagre saved cash with us and the first order of business was a fast visit to the novelty shop. We would look at all the good things which we did not have in the village, drool a bit but could not buy. We would buy some sticks of seaside rock, which had the name of Cromer all the way through to take home for the others in the family. This was a special treat, all we could afford. The teachers would provide a lunch for us which we ate on the beach, a real fun day which we so much looked forward to. Sometimes we would get two trips to Cromer which certainly was a plus.
In 1926 there was a general strike in Britain when most of the working class, as they were called, were off work. My parents must have been worried sick with no income. Dad would go down to the common and shoot some rabbits and wild duck, if lucky. He even shot pigeons which Mother would skin and make into a pigeon pie for dinner. With lots of fresh vegetables to go with it, it certainly tasted good, there was no other type of meat available so one had to make do and enjoy or go hungry.
Washing facilities at our house were, to say the least, primitive by today’s standards. We washed in the pantry in cold water in the mornings as that was where the buckets were kept after being drawn from the well. If we got out of bed feeling a little sluggish the cold water wash very soon woke us up. Mother used to wash the clothes in the copper. It was a big iron bowl with a fireplace underneath which was lit to heat the water. She had a thick, cudgel type of stick with which she stirred the clothes to get the dirt out. With Dad working on the farm and us kids playing outside most of the time I imagine there was plenty of dirt. The copper was also used to heat water for our Saturday night baths in the old galvanized bath tub which was placed in front of the fire. Mother would be on her knees washing us in turn when we were small, there was usually two of us at the beginning, then my eldest sister came along and she had three of us to do. By the time the other brother and sister arrived Aubrey and I were big enough to wash ourselves. We had to be off to bed before the girls were bathed. After washing the clothes they would be hung out on the line in the garden. On wet or wintry days we had clothes drying all over the house.
One thing I remember about high school was an occasion when Dad gave me two shillings to purchase him a sugar-beet hook from the town. It must have taken Dad quite a while to save the two shillings. In those days most farm work was done by hand and sugar beet was ploughed up but the beet had to be topped and tailed by hand. The hook had a pointed end with which the beet were lifted up by the worker to be topped. A horse and wagon would them come along to collect the beet which, again, had to be loaded by hand. Anyway I took this two shillings to school and during the day we had P.T. in the gym. I hung my jacket up with the money in the pocket but when I came for my jacket after P.T. the money was gone. Knowing how much the two shillings meant to Dad I was mortified and with tears in my eyes reported the matter to the teacher. He was a very sympathetic man and from some fund kept at the school for various purposes he produced two shillings. I purchased the hook from the hardware store and with it safely in my bag I sang all the way home. It seems there was a lot of pilfering at the school and finally they caught one boy who, it appeared did not need any cash, he always had plenty of pocket money which boys like me envied. Maybe he got it from other boy’s pockets. Two shillings would have been quite a loss to Dad I was sure glad the matter turned out ok. It almost spoiled my day and many more I would imagine.
Dad was not too happy with me working on a farm as he felt that with the education I had I should be doing something better (like working in a store or something only there were none nearer than the town 10 miles away.
DOMESTlC SERVICE
At this time, an uncle who was a butler for a wealthy family in London came for a holiday and suggested to my parents that I could do very well in ‘Domestic Service’. I could earn as much, if not more than Dad was getting at that time. We all agreed that this might be the way for me to go so he made arrangements through an agency for me to go for an interview with a family who had a house in London and one in the country. 1 went with this uncle to the interview and was hired right away. I came home, gathered up my few belongings and caught a train from the nearest station to home, 5 miles away. (1 can’t remember how I got to the station, possibly the local farmer took me in his Model T Ford, the only car in the village at that time outside of the village Gentry who lived in the Hall.
I travelled to a small village called Epping Green in Hertfordshire where I became a Footman to the family of Brigadier General Sir Brodie Henderson, (there was a son and daughter both in their late 20s). The family was very good to me, I had my own room, clothes provided, good food and some six maids to keep me company. The butler was my superior and he was quite nice, they also had a cook, housekeeper and two chauffeurs. They also had a stable full of horses with a groom to look after them. The family did a lot of riding around the estate. Compared to Mileham this was heaven and I became very good at my job and was paid two pounds a week, which was about the same as Dad was getting on the farm. I was also getting free room and board and clothes.
I was well off and soon bought myself a nice new bike, a Raleigh racer with a three speed, which was the top of the list for bicycles in those days, I think I paid 5 pounds for it. A couple of times I rode home to see my family when I had some time off. It was about 75 miles I guess.
While with the Henderson’s I had two trips to their hunting lodge at Glen Clunie near Braemar in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. We went up by the night express from Kings Cross station in London and had berths on the train. I had to share a cabin with two of the maids who had been chosen to go to work at the lodge. I was 18, young and innocent so the girls were safe (I guess I was too!).
