Margaret Forrest (née Symonds) - Memories of Croxley Green
MF: My name is Margaret Forrest , sorry, my name is Margaret Symonds. I was born in Croxley in 1940 at Broxbourne House in Essex Road. My father during the war was an ARP and he then went into the RAF in 1942 in Stornoway in the Hebrides. Previous to that he was in the coffee shop in Watford, the tea importers, with that lovely smell that came out with the coffee. He was a manager there. Then he went into the RAF till 1946. During that time my mother actually had cancer from when they got married in 1938 – they got married in St Mary’s Church in Watford. They bought their house in Croxley for £750 and paid £5 deposit. My brother also was born in Broxbourne House, that was in - two years later. My mother actually died in November 7th 1945 and my father married again in March 1946. And I now had a step sister as well. Schools. I went to Yorke Road school and the toilets were outside. I remember we had tapioca, which I loved actually, we had rationing and so it was liquorice sticks, flying saucers, sherbet dabs etc. Yorke Road school used to be a boys one side and a girls the other side, but when I started there was the two room were just one for the younger children, so I was there from five till eight.
BS: Where did you go after that from Yorke Road school?
MF: From Yorke Road I went to Harvey Road.
BS: And what did Harvey Road school look like then?
MF: Harvey Road school as we could see from our own house – or rather my father took a picture in 1938 – looked like a cowshed. It was a long building made of wood. Inside the long corridor with all the classrooms going off. You had the boys’ toilet one end, the girls’ toilet the other end, also the headmaster’s office up the same end as the girls’. There was also a canteen there which was one of these buildings that were put up during the war – so I don’t think there was one previously, that came later.
BS: Did you eat lunch at school or did you go …
MF: I ate although I was only round the corner, but I think it was easy for my stepmother and for us to stay at school.
BS: Did you wear uniform in those days, or
MF: No. No we didn’t have any school uniform. I’m trying to think about Harvey Road. Can’t remember. The only time I had a school uniform was when I went to Durrants, and that was obviously – I didn’t pass my eleven plus so I went to Durrants.
LW: And what memories do you have of Harvey Road? Were you happy there?
MF: Oh yes, yes. Harvey Road I was in the netball team and we used to play ball up against the buildings and obviously hopscotch, conkers, which you’re not allowed to do any more. Football, rounders, marbles, cricket, tag, ompom.
BS: Ompom? What was that?
MF: Oh ompom we did down the woods. Ompom – because we had the railway on one side and Croxley Woods on the other, which we spent most of our time when we were at school down in the woods. Down the dell, which was a bomb hole I believe, and somebody had put a rope up in the tree with a stick across – we used to just stamp on that and sail across. We never even thought it was going to break. Yes. So down there this ompom thing – well, somebody stood by a tree, everybody else went off to hide and the idea was you got back before – and if they saw you move anywhere, they’d just shout out ‘ompom’ and you had to come back out. So we did lots of – had picnics out there – as I said, played cricket there rather than at school. The – oh, of course skipping, five stone, which was – when I was there was little [rubber] ones, little square wooden ones, I was quite good at that – not any more because my hands got arthritis (laughs). Right, so. Well, all games.
LW: So your house backed onto the woods?
MF: No, mine backed onto the railway line, the cutting. But if we wanted to go through to the woods, because everybody knew everybody, you didn’t lock your doors, mum would go off shopping, I’d come home from school, and she’d left the tea on the table, you just walked in. Anyway, so we knew people on the other side and we just went and k nocked on the door “can I go through?’ So we did. And on the street we played ‘What’s the time Mr Wolf?’ and I don’t know what the other one was called – but it was not very nice, really, but they’d tell you to do, say, a pigeon step, so you did a pigeon step, and then a big step and then a watering can, that wasn’t the nice one, because you had to spit! (laugh) And then wherever yours landed you would go and stand there - the idea of course was to get there first. What else did we do? Snowball fights, so each side of the road built their own wall and so you’d try and get the other – from the other side.
LW: What was Christmas like in Croxley?
MF: My Christmas – my father when he was there I think he did come home most Christmases – and I believe he used to dress up as Father Christmas. I’m afraid I have blocked most things before I was five. The last time I saw my mother was on a stretcher going from the front to the ambulance, and she just put her hand up. Anything previous to that I don’t remember. I’ve obviously blocked it out for some reason.
BS: You were obviously very young as well.
MF: Yes. So I don’t know anything prior to that.
LW: But your schooldays were happy?
MF: Oh yes, oh I liked school.
LW: Did you do any clubs and things after school? Or
MF: Well, do you want to go back to Christmas?
LW: We can do, yes!
MF: Yes. Christmas. As I say I don’t remember - my stepmother, ad me and my sister, my stepsister, she was just eighteen months older than me – and we slept in a double bed together – and we decided we were going to stay awake and find out who Father Christmas was – as you did – and of course my mum comes in – I call her mum because she was my mum for as long as I knew- and she came in and she looks round and we start giggling. “You naughty girls!” So anyway she said “Oh well, never mind,” she said, ‘you’re not to open it till morning.” So you had one of her lisle stockings. So – you know the whole stocking. And you had the usual things – with the apple and the orange and a banana and a drawing book, and obviously pencils. I can’t quite remember what else that was. And then you had a big present. And I can only remember two of them: one was a hot water bottle shaped as a bear with its cap over; the other one was a needlework box, but it wasn’t a needlework box it was a jewellery box. Because I liked needlework she’d got this jewellery box and put all the odds and ends in it. So that was the only present. And then you had the Christmas tree, which I think one of these pictures I have – where the doll’s house was, the Christmas tree stood just there, with the French doors. Oh – and on VE Day would it have been? There was a big bonfire between Frankland Road, the cross roads, right in the middle of the road, and also a big party going way up. I can remember that, I don’t know why, because I’d have been – yes, I was six, wasn’t it? It finished in ’46.
BS: ‘45
MF: Yes, 1946, it actually finished completely. So I remember that. I went to Brownies, which funnily enough I asked the Brown Owl recently and I said – she said she was a Brown Owl – so I said ‘do you still have a toadstool and all the Brownies sit round and then you go down – oh I’ll do it now – anyway, you go down and you’re going ‘towit towoo towit towoo’” Sounds so silly now, doesn’t it?! (Laughs)
BS: And what did Brown Owl say to you – do they still do that?
MF: No. (Laughs) No. And of course the Brownie uniform has all been modern – I mean what I had was the brown dress with the leather belt and a woolly hat and the tie, I suppose.
LW: Yes, I did too.
MF: There was a triangular – well, a piece of material which you had to roll up, make your own, do the knot, and then of course you had to do a reef knot behind. So I can remember that. Guides. On Good Friday we used to go for a hike, and that was usually to – no it wasn’t Chorleywood – Sarratt – Chipperfield. Yes. So we used to walk to Chipperfield and you’d take your – I had a proper little billy can because I think Dad had had it – and then I think – the thing I remember we had to fry an egg (laughs) – I remember frying an egg, I can’t remember anything else about it. So – and I went camping with the Guides. That was great fun, I really enjoyed that, because I liked knots, I liked making things, so it made your tripod to put your washing up bowl on, you put sticks and things so you had everything elevated. Of course you didn’t have any soft mattress or anything, you just had your groundsheet, which then when you packed up in the morning all your bedding – you know, your sleeping bag, would be rolled up, made a nice neat pack for them to come round and inspect. Yes. So you also had all your jobs – you were either going collecting firewood – which of course you’re not allowed to have fires any more – or you were in the cooks – so you were allocated doing cook jobs. Anyway, it was fun. We had a bell tent which was nice because you were all feet first to the pole. Of course you had to put it all up when you got there. So that – I never went any further than the Guides. Probably because I left home.
BS: Do you remember where you met in Croxley, you know, was it in one of the halls in Croxley, for the Brownies and the Guides? Was it All Saints Hall for the Brownies?
MF: Yes, it was All Saints Hall. It was all up the church.
BS: Was it the Guides as well?
MF: yes, they were both there. And opposite where the pub is called – now, what is it called The Sportsman.
LW: The Sportsman.
MF: Alongside The Sportsman there was a shed to me, and I did acrobatics there. My sister did tap dancing. So I didn’t teach her anything to do with acrobatics– she wasn’t that way inclined, but I was – if you did the splits that way, you got six pence, if you did it that way, you got a shilling. But I didn’t get that way. But I was quite good. I could do the backbends and all the rest that you did. And then when we got home, Dad put a piece of lino in our back room and then my sister taught me to tap dance. What else did I do? Wasn’t exactly in Croxley but we saved up our pocket money, which wasn’t very much, probably about a shilling, and saved it up and we went ice skating at Wembley. So we went up by the church, caught the bus there, into Ricky, caught the train up to Wembley, I assume, it went then. And we learnt to ice skate.
LW: That would have been in the early Fifties, would it? You’d have been twelve.
MF: Yes, probably somewhere between – well, when I was thirteen – I don’t know whether I said, that’s when I went into a convalescent home. So I was in a convalescent home for about three months.
LW: Where was that?
MF: St. Leonards. On the coast. (LW: OK) Because that was what they always thought, if you were by the sea – my brother went to Broadstairs, but he was away for a year or more. But as I said I don’t think my mother could kind of cope really, so she just hoped this would improve us. My schooling at Durrants – go on to Durrants? (LW: yes). As I said I didn’t pass my O level A level what is it (LW: Eleven plus) The eleven plus, that’s right. Yes, I’m thinking ahead of – when you leave. I again enjoyed needlework – the first thing you had to do with needlework was make a domestic science apron (LW: apron) That was the first thing, because otherwise you couldn’t go cooking, you see, you couldn’t do your domestic science. So they had to do that first, so I did that. I loved cooking. I think one of the things that I did in the sewing […] was I learnt to smock. So I smocked a baby’s dress. Also made a dirndl skirt for myself – you remember all this?
LW: Yes, some of it, I did do the apron.
MF: yes. A dirndl skirt. And then as I said I loved games. Wasn’t a lot of good at running but I could do short. But I loved – what did you do with it? Throwing a ball.
BS: Netball?
MF: No. I played netball there as well. No, it’s like you see how far you could throw.
LW: Like the shot put.
MF: The shot put thing. Also I was quite good at hop skip and jump. Anything in that line. But I didn’t like anything to do with especially English.
LW: OK!
MF: I mean I’ve learnt a lot more obviously as go on. Somewhere I’ve (looks for something) Anyway, that one is Harvey Road. I started trying to find all the names. Yes . Now, I didn’t like school. So I thought I wasn’t any good. But then looking at these reports I was in what they called A Lower , One Lower, so One Lower when you first went, then Two, Three, whatever. So in this one I came fifth out of thirty-three, so it can’t exactly call
BS: fifth is not bad.
MF: No. That’s right! I did have one of them with a bottom thing saying ‘it’s a shame she’s missed so much school’. Which of course because of my asthma, yes. But most of the one that – put some hard working in maths – I didn’t mind maths. Well my husband keeps on pointing out it’s not maths it’s arithmetic. But as I said I didn’t like – you know I got – reading and that – ‘satisfactory progress’. And then another one I was ninth out of thirty one. And they all are saying good, good, good. So I wasn’t that bad. And this one I was second in a class. And that was in 1955, so that was the July one. So as I said, although I – anyway I thought I wasn’t any good, so I didn’t want to go any further. So what’s the next one that you stay on? Is that O Level?
LW: Yes. So you didn’t stay on? You left school at fifteen?
MF: I left when I was fifteen. As I said, my birthday was on the 1st of November and then I told it – well, I’ll say it again now.
LW: You could leave then, could you, in November?
MF: Oh yes. You could leave at Christmas, you didn’t have to wait till the summer, no, you could – well, if you didn’t want to go on, there was no purpose.
BS: So you didn’t even have to stay up for the whole year? You could just go at fifteen?
MF: Yes. Yes.
LW: And what happened then?
MF: Well, that’s when I went to the Youth Employment Centre in Watford and it’s one bus into Watford, you had the 321, 351 – there was a Green Line, can’t remember what that one was – but I also remember that you would go up Frankland Road stand outside the station, railway station as we called it, not this silly thing, whatever it’s called now – can’t remember anyway.
BS: Tube station?
MF: Train station, that’s it! No, it’s the railway station. Anyway. You’d stand there, the buses were nearly always full, because not many people had cars. Oh, going back. I also went to Sunday School. (LW: Oh yes) And I went in a car, there were about three cars I think up Frankland Close, and only certain people had cars. Anyway, they used to take me and I used to have to dress up in my Sunday best with my felt hat. My coat and the hat as far as I remember was actually made by my mother. She was a very good seamstress. And reading all about when they were doing what was called ‘bottom drawer’, she was making pillow cases, curtains, her own dresses, all my clothes. Then my stepmother threw the treadle machine away, sewing machine away, but never mind, she wasn’t that way inclined.
LW: And you’ve inherited her skill?
MF: Yes. And my mother also, my birth mother, was also house proud. And the neighbour next door, who told me later in life, she said ‘she asked me round for a cup of tea’ and she said she was on her knees with a tooth brush and she was going round the skirting board. And she had just been married, the lady next door, and she thought ‘God, have I got to do that?’ (laughs) So she was so surprised. Anyway, going back to Sunday School. That was – must have been held in the church but I can’t remember. Mr. Suffrin was the (pause)
LW: Vicar? Up at All Saints?
MF: Yes. And lived actually in the vicarage, which was opposite then. Which got bombed in the war. Well, a steeple at the far end, with a flying bomb. Came down on a parachute as far as I know. Anyway, so you did all the usual things at Sunday School and you learnt this that and the other and then at the end you’d get a stamp – looked like a real stamp with perforations and it would have something in the Bible that you had to go home and read. And – yes, what else? Oh, you did drawings, because you had to do something that was (normal) shall I say? I was confirmed. I think that was when I was probably – the year I’ve forgotten – probably I think when I was about fifteen, probably, the same. Yes.
LW: So, you left school, and you went to the Youth Employment place in Watford (Yes, yes). Did you go on your own?
MF: No, I went with my stepmother, who then – when the woman asked me ‘what would you like to do?’ My mother answered for me, because I just looked, and she said ‘she doesn’t want to work in a factory or a shop. She needs to be outdoors.’ And to me ‘is there any other job?’ So she goes through her cards and – no computer – she goes through her cards. ‘Oh,’ she said ‘there’s one for a dairy maid.’ So I thought. ‘Shall I make an appointment?” So my mother of course says ‘yes.’ ‘It’s in Bedmond.’ So anyway we went to the interview, which is two buses, because you’ve got to go into Watford and come back out, ad we went to see Lady Elizabeth Motion, who was – oh dear, I can’t remember what you call it – Lady in Waiting to the Queen Mother. And this was a big house down Serge Hill. So anyway, they interviewed me and obviously sounded I was OK. So I started there in January in the snow. So my jobs then were supposed to be looking after calves, that’s obviously feeding them because you took them away from the cow quite early, once the colostrum, they’d had that was a benefit for the calf, you then had to feed them, which is like stuffing their head in the bucket of milk with your finger so that they thought and then you gradually take your finger away, and then obviously we did bottling the milk, so I bottled the milk. I had to stand on a crate to put the milk into the cooler, because I was short! Anyway, so I carried on doing that, and there was a lovely cowman, typical cowman with a white moustache, he was obviously near retirement, because he said ‘girls don’t muck out. You bed down.’ We also had a young bull and I didn’t know anything about bulls, he was a cow to me, so I used to go in and sprinkle all the straw and that and go round him and whatever. Anyway, he left and then we had another manager, about 31, and he was all change. You had to do everything, including learning how to drive a tractor and again it was just a Massey Ferguson I think, a little grey one, and so I did. The only thing is because of being short to put the brakes on I had to jump on the brake because it’s just too thing – you’re supposed to just lean forward, but I had to jump on the brake. Then he said I’ve got to learn how to plough, so he took me into a field that’s between – if you know Serge Hill and there’s another road, but if you don’t it’s like a corner plot. Showed me what to do. You go round and round first of all and then you go up and down, and of course when you go up to the end you’ve got to lift the plough up. Well I kept forgetting to kind of do it straight away, so instead of me going up to the end like that, went a bit like - a bit curved at the end. But he just left me! ‘When you’ve finished, come back.’ So I did. Anyway, so that is what I did. I got five shillings for seven day week, from six in the morning till possibly seven at night, with a two hour gap in the middle. But instead of me having a rest I had – I didn’t have to, but I was asked – to feed chicken, collect eggs, go round the field and get mushrooms for the big house. Anyway every third weekend I’d go home and have a weekend at home, so on the Friday on the two buses, to go home. If we go back again, at home we all had – well, me and my brother had jobs. I think either one of us had to wash up on a Sunday, and chop wood, had to learn how to lay a fire by – newspaper, fold it in a knot, and then you lay them so that the knot edge is sticking out and then you put your sticks which we had to chop and my sister, I’m afraid, didn’t do a lot. I think she was a bit of mother’s child, obviously, because she was a single child. She used to sit and read all the time. I didn’t have patience to read. I had to do things, which […] and – you’re going to have to sort out a lot because I keep going backwards and forwards!
LW: That’s OK. So how long did you work at the dairy farm?
MF: I went there […[ and I left when I was seventeen.
LW: Hard work.
MF: Because they – oh that was the other thing, because we started in that winter, I wore winceyette pyjamas, but when I got up at five o’clock in the morning I just stuck my corduroy trousers on the top and a jumper and a coat and wellington boots, because I had water swimming all round in the dairy, and hay in my wellingtons, because the old boy said that’ll keep your feet warm. Because you know wellingtons are cold. So that was that. What was I going to go back to? I went bac to - Oh, and Dad used to put Blakeys in our shoes – do you know what a Blakey is?
LW: No.
MF: Right. A Blakey is a metal horseshoe usually with studs in it, so that would be banged into your heel, and sometimes you put them on the toe. The idea is it doesn’t wear out. Also – because we didn’t have much money – if my sandals were getting too small, he’d cut the toe out (laughs) so you could wear them a bit longer. (pause) That picture you saw with us just our knickers on and you don’t really notice but my elastic wasn’t in the knickers and – because my mother wasn’t like that, you know, she – once they got bad they just got thrown away, they didn’t get mended, and so we’re mucking about in the summer, which summers were always summer – winters were winter, summer was summer – so if it was very hot Dad got out the hosepipe and he’d sprinkle us, or we were playing leapfrog and he had a big wooden tool box that – it was a big lump of wood – and that was a seesaw. So we made our own (LW: yes) Also as I said I liked doing things. I made a go-cart, trolley as we used to call them, so the usual thing, some wooden box on the back with some wheels and
LW: Did you go sledging in the snow?
MF: No. No. this was just wheels. We used to go from the top of Frankland Close all the way down. I did make a brake on mine, it was just a piece of wood with a nail through it, and then when you pulled it it went against the wood.
LW: Very practical.
MF: I was. That was it. That was me. I was the practical person. As I said. Reading, even now, I’ll pick up the newspaper, I’ll read the headlines and about the first few – oh, I ca’t be bothered with this. (laughs)
BS: You told us the story earlier on about making a camp down the embankment into the railway cutting.
MF: So at the back of our house as I said you could look straight across but we – Dad made a – allotment. Many of the people did because this is war, so if you could grow vegetables then you did. We had a big apple tree which was a Bramley as well at the bottom, so we had where he went over and did his – and then – in those days it was steam engines and at certain times of the year they’d come along and they’d burn the bottom part of the embankment, that was to stop any of the bits flying out of the chimney to set light, so they did it and then it was under control. Also there was a few trees at the top by now – as I said, we’re talking about ’38 when there was nothing, so by the time I was ten, eleven, there were saplings, quite sturdy ones, kind of down to about half way down. [Then me] because I also liked dolls, so I used to make a camp down there and to make sure I didn’t fall, I got rope and roped it all round the trees so if I did slide down a bit I’d be caught. But also I made a fire as though it was a proper chimney, so I did a bit on the side and then go up – do the fire and then the smoke would come out of the top – so it was like a chimney. Well, as I said, you amused yourself. And we had a lady down the road who had chicken, so we thought that was very – as I say, well, we used to go round there and look at the chicken. We actually had a cat called Binkie. She kept having kittens. Unfortunately my Dad would stick them in a bucket of water and drown them. But we did keep one, called Blackie, but this silly – called Binkie – I had a doll’s pram which – I don’t know if you saw it – a doll’s pram, like the actual doll – ordinary prams, that had bit in the middle, and it used to be covered up. But when the baby got bigger and sat, the feet would go down the hole. Well, the cover was gone and this silly cat had her babies down the hole and she couldn’t get them out. (LW: oh) That was a bit – a bit silly, but my Dad made a lot of our toys, like pushing a horse along. But he did that all while he was in Stornoway (LW: Right) because I suppose they had time while they were waiting for these aeroplanes to come in.
LW: So he’d come home with presents? (MF: Yes) The toys that he’d made.
MF: Yes. And puzzles (LW: yes) He made puzzles and he still did them when he came home, and he had a fretsaw. Another thing that my stepmother threw away. He used to make these puzzles. I’ve got one somewhere in my garage. And he made shapes, you know, you’d have something like a horse or dog or something in amongst it, you know.
LW: Very creative.
MF: All wooden of course.
LW: Yes. So when you think back to Croxley and your time there, what do you
MF: Croxley Revels?
LW: Yes.
MF: We used to go to Croxley Revels every year, and for some reason now they all seemed to me, they always had a thunderstorm. I remember one incident anyway and it thundered and lightning and rain, and I ran all the way home. (Laughs) Also there used to be a fair opposite the church where the school is. And that – well I used to like the penny slot machines, where you used to pull a handle and they’d go whizzing round and go into a cup, and also the – what are they called? (long pause) Bumper cars.
LW: Oh, the bumper cars.
MF: Which now you’re not allowed to bump. We always did bumping.
BS: Did the fair come once a year in the summer or - ? (MF: Eh?) Did the fair come once a year in the summer?
MF: It was once a year. I don’t exactly remember when, but I know it was one of the highlights, like the Revels. I think I did the maypole one year. I did have one – not a very nice experience. You hear it all the time now, but I was riding my bike – I think I was going home from the church end this chap on the other side of the road with his bike, he said ‘Excuse me, can you tell me where the school is?’ So I said ‘Well, the only school I know –‘ Now Rickmansworth school hadn’t been built, but there was a school right down in – right down through the woods where you start off at the church and keep going. So I said ‘that’s the only one I know.’ ‘Oh, can you show me?’ So being naïve off I go right down – ‘No, that’s not it,’ he said. ‘Don’t you know any more?’ ‘No.’ ‘Well, they’re building one.’ So we came off the main track and walked towards, so you could see. So ‘No.’ So I was thinking well, I don’t know, this is a bit odd. So anyway we start coming back on the main track. Then he stops and starts wheeling in towards the woody bit and he says ‘you not coming?’ ‘No’. I thought he was going to do a wee, you know, that’s my only thing, you know, because to me that was awful. I mean I’d never even seen my father go to the toilet, let alone – you know. So I just thought, you know, I’d heard of men going behind trees, you see, and I
LW: That was the worst thing you could think that might happen?
MF: Yes. That’s it. That was my worst thought. Anyway, I got on my bike and (rushing noise) home – straight upstairs to my bedroom, never said a word, later in life my Mum said ‘I knew something was wrong because you don’t normally come in and’ - you know, like that. But as I said you hear that all the time now. So I don’t know what would have happened. But I never went …
LW: No, so it wasn’t all idyllic, but generally looking back – happy memories?
MF: Oh yes. That was the only thing upset me, yes.
LW: Good.
MF: I can’t really think of anything else.
LW: Well it’s been really interesting hearing all that. Fascinating. You’ve been preparing it all so well. Because you’ve obviously given talks before, so you’re quite used to talking about your past. (MF: Yes). Well it’s really kind of you to share it.
MF: Well, if you go right through this
LW: Yes, and you’ve got it all documented
MF: Yes, it’s all done, yes. This was the house in Witney etc
BS: How long did your father and stepmum stay living in Frankland Close?
MF: Her dad stayed all his life – died at age of 90.
BS: So your connection to Croxley stayed by going to visit him?
MF: I went every week to do his housework. Yes. Yes.
LW: So then you saw Croxley very different from how it was when you lived there?
MF: Well, houses and all that were all having extensions put in the roof – in fact the house that we sold, that one they put an extension on after. I’m just looking through any of these other bits that I think.
LW: Well, thank you very much.
Other personal things not transcribed.
MF: You know we didn’t have a washing machine. We had a copper, boiled it all up. We had a table that had – you lifted the lid up, you lifted the table up, and then it had a mangle underneath. In fact it’s in the shed, or in my garage.
LW: You kept it?
MF: Yes, I’m afraid I’m a bit of a hoarder. And the breakfast table had a toaster, so when I do talks I’ve got the toaster, and I show them. And it’s one that you pulled it down and it would turn the toast. But it was also plugged into the light. Sitting on the table at breakfast just – yes. You had one – the bulb coming down and then you had another one came this way and that one was to the toaster. I assume it didn’t use much electric. But there you are, see. The larder – the house actually was quite modern. [noises looking through photos] Well, that was Yorke Road with a climbing – have you seen pictures like that? (could copy) Yes, there you are, see, on the plank of wood.
BS: Oh, your seesaw.
More hunting for photos.
MF: We used to get savings stamps. That’s Princess Anne. (etc)
BS: Did you ever go to the pictures as a child – into Watford or ?
MF: No. Went to Rickmansworth. Saturday morning pictures at the Odeon. So not the Picture House, which is just under the railway, it was the Odeon. And that was sixpence if you were downstairs and ninepence if you were upstairs. And of course you always had your one – the picture would go on for the next week – you always had a cowboy one, and then you always had a sing-song where the organ came up and then they’d have the words up on the screen with a ball bobbing along the words so that you could read it.
BS: And that was all at the Saturday morning pictures? (MF: Yes) and did you go often?
MF: I think we went once a week on that one. Yes. No – it’s something you know when you start talking.
LW: Well, you’ve remembered loads. Is that one of your school books?
MF: Well this is something I did – well there again you see I liked - We went for a walk and then they wanted you to say what you’d seen
MF: Going back to Yorke Road School. They had one of these big – I mean is it a boiler – can’t remember what you’d call them. You know what I mean, it was just a round thing, that heated the whole room. (LW: Yes, like a stove). And you’d just throw coke in the top of it. It used to get very hot and they had a guard rail across it, so if you got wet coming to school you’d hang all your coats there, and they’re all steaming. And then in the winter, the milk that we all had – the quarter pint, I think – the top had usually blown up, so you had the cream sticking out the top, and they used to stick it by the fire. I think that put my milk – I didn’t like it then. It was, you know, semi warm. So that was another thing I – I can remember that yes, it was not nice.
Added at a later date;
Looking back on my childhood days In Frankland Close, I remember going through Croxley Wood on the way to Rickmansworth with a jam jar with a hole in the top and string to carry it. On the way was the River Chess where we would sit on the wooden bridge and put a piece of bread in the jar and dangle it in the river, hoping to catch some tiddlers. They never lived once I got them home.
Down the canal we would watch the barges going through the locks, carrying coal and paper, with all the families living on those barges.
Every night when it got dark the gas lighter man would come on his bike with a hook and pull the chain on the gas street light. In the morning he would pull the other chain and turn it off.
During and after the war my mother would go to the British Restaurant with my aunt to save on our coupons.
Also at a large house on the Green my stepmother would take good clothes that we had grown out of to the W.V.S Women’s Voluntary Service and exchange them for larger ones. We eagerly waited to see what she had brought back.
Various services used to come up our close. The milkman, who had a limp, pulling his electric milk float, bringing the glass bottles to your door and picking up the washed empty ones. The greengrocer with all the vegetables. You queued by his van to be served.
The baker who came to the door with his basket of loaves, no wrapped ones. The butcher and the wet fish shop were up the road. I went to the fish shop to ask for fish for the cat, which was heads and odd bits, which Mum boiled up. There was no tinned cat food. At the butchers we had more beef for Sunday lunch than chicken. At Christmas we had a capon. We had the Betterware man come to the door, hoping to sell you brooms, brushes and polish. He would often give you a small sample tin of polish or a small gadget like a door stopper. A knife sharpener would come on his bike, lift his back wheel up and pedal to make the sharpener wheel turn to sharpen your knives and scissors. All these things are long gone. We have supermarkets and DIY stores, so I just have my memories.
BS: Where did you go after that from Yorke Road school?
MF: From Yorke Road I went to Harvey Road.
BS: And what did Harvey Road school look like then?
MF: Harvey Road school as we could see from our own house – or rather my father took a picture in 1938 – looked like a cowshed. It was a long building made of wood. Inside the long corridor with all the classrooms going off. You had the boys’ toilet one end, the girls’ toilet the other end, also the headmaster’s office up the same end as the girls’. There was also a canteen there which was one of these buildings that were put up during the war – so I don’t think there was one previously, that came later.
BS: Did you eat lunch at school or did you go …
MF: I ate although I was only round the corner, but I think it was easy for my stepmother and for us to stay at school.
BS: Did you wear uniform in those days, or
MF: No. No we didn’t have any school uniform. I’m trying to think about Harvey Road. Can’t remember. The only time I had a school uniform was when I went to Durrants, and that was obviously – I didn’t pass my eleven plus so I went to Durrants.
LW: And what memories do you have of Harvey Road? Were you happy there?
MF: Oh yes, yes. Harvey Road I was in the netball team and we used to play ball up against the buildings and obviously hopscotch, conkers, which you’re not allowed to do any more. Football, rounders, marbles, cricket, tag, ompom.
BS: Ompom? What was that?
MF: Oh ompom we did down the woods. Ompom – because we had the railway on one side and Croxley Woods on the other, which we spent most of our time when we were at school down in the woods. Down the dell, which was a bomb hole I believe, and somebody had put a rope up in the tree with a stick across – we used to just stamp on that and sail across. We never even thought it was going to break. Yes. So down there this ompom thing – well, somebody stood by a tree, everybody else went off to hide and the idea was you got back before – and if they saw you move anywhere, they’d just shout out ‘ompom’ and you had to come back out. So we did lots of – had picnics out there – as I said, played cricket there rather than at school. The – oh, of course skipping, five stone, which was – when I was there was little [rubber] ones, little square wooden ones, I was quite good at that – not any more because my hands got arthritis (laughs). Right, so. Well, all games.
LW: So your house backed onto the woods?
MF: No, mine backed onto the railway line, the cutting. But if we wanted to go through to the woods, because everybody knew everybody, you didn’t lock your doors, mum would go off shopping, I’d come home from school, and she’d left the tea on the table, you just walked in. Anyway, so we knew people on the other side and we just went and k nocked on the door “can I go through?’ So we did. And on the street we played ‘What’s the time Mr Wolf?’ and I don’t know what the other one was called – but it was not very nice, really, but they’d tell you to do, say, a pigeon step, so you did a pigeon step, and then a big step and then a watering can, that wasn’t the nice one, because you had to spit! (laugh) And then wherever yours landed you would go and stand there - the idea of course was to get there first. What else did we do? Snowball fights, so each side of the road built their own wall and so you’d try and get the other – from the other side.
LW: What was Christmas like in Croxley?
MF: My Christmas – my father when he was there I think he did come home most Christmases – and I believe he used to dress up as Father Christmas. I’m afraid I have blocked most things before I was five. The last time I saw my mother was on a stretcher going from the front to the ambulance, and she just put her hand up. Anything previous to that I don’t remember. I’ve obviously blocked it out for some reason.
BS: You were obviously very young as well.
MF: Yes. So I don’t know anything prior to that.
LW: But your schooldays were happy?
MF: Oh yes, oh I liked school.
LW: Did you do any clubs and things after school? Or
MF: Well, do you want to go back to Christmas?
LW: We can do, yes!
MF: Yes. Christmas. As I say I don’t remember - my stepmother, ad me and my sister, my stepsister, she was just eighteen months older than me – and we slept in a double bed together – and we decided we were going to stay awake and find out who Father Christmas was – as you did – and of course my mum comes in – I call her mum because she was my mum for as long as I knew- and she came in and she looks round and we start giggling. “You naughty girls!” So anyway she said “Oh well, never mind,” she said, ‘you’re not to open it till morning.” So you had one of her lisle stockings. So – you know the whole stocking. And you had the usual things – with the apple and the orange and a banana and a drawing book, and obviously pencils. I can’t quite remember what else that was. And then you had a big present. And I can only remember two of them: one was a hot water bottle shaped as a bear with its cap over; the other one was a needlework box, but it wasn’t a needlework box it was a jewellery box. Because I liked needlework she’d got this jewellery box and put all the odds and ends in it. So that was the only present. And then you had the Christmas tree, which I think one of these pictures I have – where the doll’s house was, the Christmas tree stood just there, with the French doors. Oh – and on VE Day would it have been? There was a big bonfire between Frankland Road, the cross roads, right in the middle of the road, and also a big party going way up. I can remember that, I don’t know why, because I’d have been – yes, I was six, wasn’t it? It finished in ’46.
BS: ‘45
MF: Yes, 1946, it actually finished completely. So I remember that. I went to Brownies, which funnily enough I asked the Brown Owl recently and I said – she said she was a Brown Owl – so I said ‘do you still have a toadstool and all the Brownies sit round and then you go down – oh I’ll do it now – anyway, you go down and you’re going ‘towit towoo towit towoo’” Sounds so silly now, doesn’t it?! (Laughs)
BS: And what did Brown Owl say to you – do they still do that?
MF: No. (Laughs) No. And of course the Brownie uniform has all been modern – I mean what I had was the brown dress with the leather belt and a woolly hat and the tie, I suppose.
LW: Yes, I did too.
MF: There was a triangular – well, a piece of material which you had to roll up, make your own, do the knot, and then of course you had to do a reef knot behind. So I can remember that. Guides. On Good Friday we used to go for a hike, and that was usually to – no it wasn’t Chorleywood – Sarratt – Chipperfield. Yes. So we used to walk to Chipperfield and you’d take your – I had a proper little billy can because I think Dad had had it – and then I think – the thing I remember we had to fry an egg (laughs) – I remember frying an egg, I can’t remember anything else about it. So – and I went camping with the Guides. That was great fun, I really enjoyed that, because I liked knots, I liked making things, so it made your tripod to put your washing up bowl on, you put sticks and things so you had everything elevated. Of course you didn’t have any soft mattress or anything, you just had your groundsheet, which then when you packed up in the morning all your bedding – you know, your sleeping bag, would be rolled up, made a nice neat pack for them to come round and inspect. Yes. So you also had all your jobs – you were either going collecting firewood – which of course you’re not allowed to have fires any more – or you were in the cooks – so you were allocated doing cook jobs. Anyway, it was fun. We had a bell tent which was nice because you were all feet first to the pole. Of course you had to put it all up when you got there. So that – I never went any further than the Guides. Probably because I left home.
BS: Do you remember where you met in Croxley, you know, was it in one of the halls in Croxley, for the Brownies and the Guides? Was it All Saints Hall for the Brownies?
MF: Yes, it was All Saints Hall. It was all up the church.
BS: Was it the Guides as well?
MF: yes, they were both there. And opposite where the pub is called – now, what is it called The Sportsman.
LW: The Sportsman.
MF: Alongside The Sportsman there was a shed to me, and I did acrobatics there. My sister did tap dancing. So I didn’t teach her anything to do with acrobatics– she wasn’t that way inclined, but I was – if you did the splits that way, you got six pence, if you did it that way, you got a shilling. But I didn’t get that way. But I was quite good. I could do the backbends and all the rest that you did. And then when we got home, Dad put a piece of lino in our back room and then my sister taught me to tap dance. What else did I do? Wasn’t exactly in Croxley but we saved up our pocket money, which wasn’t very much, probably about a shilling, and saved it up and we went ice skating at Wembley. So we went up by the church, caught the bus there, into Ricky, caught the train up to Wembley, I assume, it went then. And we learnt to ice skate.
LW: That would have been in the early Fifties, would it? You’d have been twelve.
MF: Yes, probably somewhere between – well, when I was thirteen – I don’t know whether I said, that’s when I went into a convalescent home. So I was in a convalescent home for about three months.
LW: Where was that?
MF: St. Leonards. On the coast. (LW: OK) Because that was what they always thought, if you were by the sea – my brother went to Broadstairs, but he was away for a year or more. But as I said I don’t think my mother could kind of cope really, so she just hoped this would improve us. My schooling at Durrants – go on to Durrants? (LW: yes). As I said I didn’t pass my O level A level what is it (LW: Eleven plus) The eleven plus, that’s right. Yes, I’m thinking ahead of – when you leave. I again enjoyed needlework – the first thing you had to do with needlework was make a domestic science apron (LW: apron) That was the first thing, because otherwise you couldn’t go cooking, you see, you couldn’t do your domestic science. So they had to do that first, so I did that. I loved cooking. I think one of the things that I did in the sewing […] was I learnt to smock. So I smocked a baby’s dress. Also made a dirndl skirt for myself – you remember all this?
LW: Yes, some of it, I did do the apron.
MF: yes. A dirndl skirt. And then as I said I loved games. Wasn’t a lot of good at running but I could do short. But I loved – what did you do with it? Throwing a ball.
BS: Netball?
MF: No. I played netball there as well. No, it’s like you see how far you could throw.
LW: Like the shot put.
MF: The shot put thing. Also I was quite good at hop skip and jump. Anything in that line. But I didn’t like anything to do with especially English.
LW: OK!
MF: I mean I’ve learnt a lot more obviously as go on. Somewhere I’ve (looks for something) Anyway, that one is Harvey Road. I started trying to find all the names. Yes . Now, I didn’t like school. So I thought I wasn’t any good. But then looking at these reports I was in what they called A Lower , One Lower, so One Lower when you first went, then Two, Three, whatever. So in this one I came fifth out of thirty-three, so it can’t exactly call
BS: fifth is not bad.
MF: No. That’s right! I did have one of them with a bottom thing saying ‘it’s a shame she’s missed so much school’. Which of course because of my asthma, yes. But most of the one that – put some hard working in maths – I didn’t mind maths. Well my husband keeps on pointing out it’s not maths it’s arithmetic. But as I said I didn’t like – you know I got – reading and that – ‘satisfactory progress’. And then another one I was ninth out of thirty one. And they all are saying good, good, good. So I wasn’t that bad. And this one I was second in a class. And that was in 1955, so that was the July one. So as I said, although I – anyway I thought I wasn’t any good, so I didn’t want to go any further. So what’s the next one that you stay on? Is that O Level?
LW: Yes. So you didn’t stay on? You left school at fifteen?
MF: I left when I was fifteen. As I said, my birthday was on the 1st of November and then I told it – well, I’ll say it again now.
LW: You could leave then, could you, in November?
MF: Oh yes. You could leave at Christmas, you didn’t have to wait till the summer, no, you could – well, if you didn’t want to go on, there was no purpose.
BS: So you didn’t even have to stay up for the whole year? You could just go at fifteen?
MF: Yes. Yes.
LW: And what happened then?
MF: Well, that’s when I went to the Youth Employment Centre in Watford and it’s one bus into Watford, you had the 321, 351 – there was a Green Line, can’t remember what that one was – but I also remember that you would go up Frankland Road stand outside the station, railway station as we called it, not this silly thing, whatever it’s called now – can’t remember anyway.
BS: Tube station?
MF: Train station, that’s it! No, it’s the railway station. Anyway. You’d stand there, the buses were nearly always full, because not many people had cars. Oh, going back. I also went to Sunday School. (LW: Oh yes) And I went in a car, there were about three cars I think up Frankland Close, and only certain people had cars. Anyway, they used to take me and I used to have to dress up in my Sunday best with my felt hat. My coat and the hat as far as I remember was actually made by my mother. She was a very good seamstress. And reading all about when they were doing what was called ‘bottom drawer’, she was making pillow cases, curtains, her own dresses, all my clothes. Then my stepmother threw the treadle machine away, sewing machine away, but never mind, she wasn’t that way inclined.
LW: And you’ve inherited her skill?
MF: Yes. And my mother also, my birth mother, was also house proud. And the neighbour next door, who told me later in life, she said ‘she asked me round for a cup of tea’ and she said she was on her knees with a tooth brush and she was going round the skirting board. And she had just been married, the lady next door, and she thought ‘God, have I got to do that?’ (laughs) So she was so surprised. Anyway, going back to Sunday School. That was – must have been held in the church but I can’t remember. Mr. Suffrin was the (pause)
LW: Vicar? Up at All Saints?
MF: Yes. And lived actually in the vicarage, which was opposite then. Which got bombed in the war. Well, a steeple at the far end, with a flying bomb. Came down on a parachute as far as I know. Anyway, so you did all the usual things at Sunday School and you learnt this that and the other and then at the end you’d get a stamp – looked like a real stamp with perforations and it would have something in the Bible that you had to go home and read. And – yes, what else? Oh, you did drawings, because you had to do something that was (normal) shall I say? I was confirmed. I think that was when I was probably – the year I’ve forgotten – probably I think when I was about fifteen, probably, the same. Yes.
LW: So, you left school, and you went to the Youth Employment place in Watford (Yes, yes). Did you go on your own?
MF: No, I went with my stepmother, who then – when the woman asked me ‘what would you like to do?’ My mother answered for me, because I just looked, and she said ‘she doesn’t want to work in a factory or a shop. She needs to be outdoors.’ And to me ‘is there any other job?’ So she goes through her cards and – no computer – she goes through her cards. ‘Oh,’ she said ‘there’s one for a dairy maid.’ So I thought. ‘Shall I make an appointment?” So my mother of course says ‘yes.’ ‘It’s in Bedmond.’ So anyway we went to the interview, which is two buses, because you’ve got to go into Watford and come back out, ad we went to see Lady Elizabeth Motion, who was – oh dear, I can’t remember what you call it – Lady in Waiting to the Queen Mother. And this was a big house down Serge Hill. So anyway, they interviewed me and obviously sounded I was OK. So I started there in January in the snow. So my jobs then were supposed to be looking after calves, that’s obviously feeding them because you took them away from the cow quite early, once the colostrum, they’d had that was a benefit for the calf, you then had to feed them, which is like stuffing their head in the bucket of milk with your finger so that they thought and then you gradually take your finger away, and then obviously we did bottling the milk, so I bottled the milk. I had to stand on a crate to put the milk into the cooler, because I was short! Anyway, so I carried on doing that, and there was a lovely cowman, typical cowman with a white moustache, he was obviously near retirement, because he said ‘girls don’t muck out. You bed down.’ We also had a young bull and I didn’t know anything about bulls, he was a cow to me, so I used to go in and sprinkle all the straw and that and go round him and whatever. Anyway, he left and then we had another manager, about 31, and he was all change. You had to do everything, including learning how to drive a tractor and again it was just a Massey Ferguson I think, a little grey one, and so I did. The only thing is because of being short to put the brakes on I had to jump on the brake because it’s just too thing – you’re supposed to just lean forward, but I had to jump on the brake. Then he said I’ve got to learn how to plough, so he took me into a field that’s between – if you know Serge Hill and there’s another road, but if you don’t it’s like a corner plot. Showed me what to do. You go round and round first of all and then you go up and down, and of course when you go up to the end you’ve got to lift the plough up. Well I kept forgetting to kind of do it straight away, so instead of me going up to the end like that, went a bit like - a bit curved at the end. But he just left me! ‘When you’ve finished, come back.’ So I did. Anyway, so that is what I did. I got five shillings for seven day week, from six in the morning till possibly seven at night, with a two hour gap in the middle. But instead of me having a rest I had – I didn’t have to, but I was asked – to feed chicken, collect eggs, go round the field and get mushrooms for the big house. Anyway every third weekend I’d go home and have a weekend at home, so on the Friday on the two buses, to go home. If we go back again, at home we all had – well, me and my brother had jobs. I think either one of us had to wash up on a Sunday, and chop wood, had to learn how to lay a fire by – newspaper, fold it in a knot, and then you lay them so that the knot edge is sticking out and then you put your sticks which we had to chop and my sister, I’m afraid, didn’t do a lot. I think she was a bit of mother’s child, obviously, because she was a single child. She used to sit and read all the time. I didn’t have patience to read. I had to do things, which […] and – you’re going to have to sort out a lot because I keep going backwards and forwards!
LW: That’s OK. So how long did you work at the dairy farm?
MF: I went there […[ and I left when I was seventeen.
LW: Hard work.
MF: Because they – oh that was the other thing, because we started in that winter, I wore winceyette pyjamas, but when I got up at five o’clock in the morning I just stuck my corduroy trousers on the top and a jumper and a coat and wellington boots, because I had water swimming all round in the dairy, and hay in my wellingtons, because the old boy said that’ll keep your feet warm. Because you know wellingtons are cold. So that was that. What was I going to go back to? I went bac to - Oh, and Dad used to put Blakeys in our shoes – do you know what a Blakey is?
LW: No.
MF: Right. A Blakey is a metal horseshoe usually with studs in it, so that would be banged into your heel, and sometimes you put them on the toe. The idea is it doesn’t wear out. Also – because we didn’t have much money – if my sandals were getting too small, he’d cut the toe out (laughs) so you could wear them a bit longer. (pause) That picture you saw with us just our knickers on and you don’t really notice but my elastic wasn’t in the knickers and – because my mother wasn’t like that, you know, she – once they got bad they just got thrown away, they didn’t get mended, and so we’re mucking about in the summer, which summers were always summer – winters were winter, summer was summer – so if it was very hot Dad got out the hosepipe and he’d sprinkle us, or we were playing leapfrog and he had a big wooden tool box that – it was a big lump of wood – and that was a seesaw. So we made our own (LW: yes) Also as I said I liked doing things. I made a go-cart, trolley as we used to call them, so the usual thing, some wooden box on the back with some wheels and
LW: Did you go sledging in the snow?
MF: No. No. this was just wheels. We used to go from the top of Frankland Close all the way down. I did make a brake on mine, it was just a piece of wood with a nail through it, and then when you pulled it it went against the wood.
LW: Very practical.
MF: I was. That was it. That was me. I was the practical person. As I said. Reading, even now, I’ll pick up the newspaper, I’ll read the headlines and about the first few – oh, I ca’t be bothered with this. (laughs)
BS: You told us the story earlier on about making a camp down the embankment into the railway cutting.
MF: So at the back of our house as I said you could look straight across but we – Dad made a – allotment. Many of the people did because this is war, so if you could grow vegetables then you did. We had a big apple tree which was a Bramley as well at the bottom, so we had where he went over and did his – and then – in those days it was steam engines and at certain times of the year they’d come along and they’d burn the bottom part of the embankment, that was to stop any of the bits flying out of the chimney to set light, so they did it and then it was under control. Also there was a few trees at the top by now – as I said, we’re talking about ’38 when there was nothing, so by the time I was ten, eleven, there were saplings, quite sturdy ones, kind of down to about half way down. [Then me] because I also liked dolls, so I used to make a camp down there and to make sure I didn’t fall, I got rope and roped it all round the trees so if I did slide down a bit I’d be caught. But also I made a fire as though it was a proper chimney, so I did a bit on the side and then go up – do the fire and then the smoke would come out of the top – so it was like a chimney. Well, as I said, you amused yourself. And we had a lady down the road who had chicken, so we thought that was very – as I say, well, we used to go round there and look at the chicken. We actually had a cat called Binkie. She kept having kittens. Unfortunately my Dad would stick them in a bucket of water and drown them. But we did keep one, called Blackie, but this silly – called Binkie – I had a doll’s pram which – I don’t know if you saw it – a doll’s pram, like the actual doll – ordinary prams, that had bit in the middle, and it used to be covered up. But when the baby got bigger and sat, the feet would go down the hole. Well, the cover was gone and this silly cat had her babies down the hole and she couldn’t get them out. (LW: oh) That was a bit – a bit silly, but my Dad made a lot of our toys, like pushing a horse along. But he did that all while he was in Stornoway (LW: Right) because I suppose they had time while they were waiting for these aeroplanes to come in.
LW: So he’d come home with presents? (MF: Yes) The toys that he’d made.
MF: Yes. And puzzles (LW: yes) He made puzzles and he still did them when he came home, and he had a fretsaw. Another thing that my stepmother threw away. He used to make these puzzles. I’ve got one somewhere in my garage. And he made shapes, you know, you’d have something like a horse or dog or something in amongst it, you know.
LW: Very creative.
MF: All wooden of course.
LW: Yes. So when you think back to Croxley and your time there, what do you
MF: Croxley Revels?
LW: Yes.
MF: We used to go to Croxley Revels every year, and for some reason now they all seemed to me, they always had a thunderstorm. I remember one incident anyway and it thundered and lightning and rain, and I ran all the way home. (Laughs) Also there used to be a fair opposite the church where the school is. And that – well I used to like the penny slot machines, where you used to pull a handle and they’d go whizzing round and go into a cup, and also the – what are they called? (long pause) Bumper cars.
LW: Oh, the bumper cars.
MF: Which now you’re not allowed to bump. We always did bumping.
BS: Did the fair come once a year in the summer or - ? (MF: Eh?) Did the fair come once a year in the summer?
MF: It was once a year. I don’t exactly remember when, but I know it was one of the highlights, like the Revels. I think I did the maypole one year. I did have one – not a very nice experience. You hear it all the time now, but I was riding my bike – I think I was going home from the church end this chap on the other side of the road with his bike, he said ‘Excuse me, can you tell me where the school is?’ So I said ‘Well, the only school I know –‘ Now Rickmansworth school hadn’t been built, but there was a school right down in – right down through the woods where you start off at the church and keep going. So I said ‘that’s the only one I know.’ ‘Oh, can you show me?’ So being naïve off I go right down – ‘No, that’s not it,’ he said. ‘Don’t you know any more?’ ‘No.’ ‘Well, they’re building one.’ So we came off the main track and walked towards, so you could see. So ‘No.’ So I was thinking well, I don’t know, this is a bit odd. So anyway we start coming back on the main track. Then he stops and starts wheeling in towards the woody bit and he says ‘you not coming?’ ‘No’. I thought he was going to do a wee, you know, that’s my only thing, you know, because to me that was awful. I mean I’d never even seen my father go to the toilet, let alone – you know. So I just thought, you know, I’d heard of men going behind trees, you see, and I
LW: That was the worst thing you could think that might happen?
MF: Yes. That’s it. That was my worst thought. Anyway, I got on my bike and (rushing noise) home – straight upstairs to my bedroom, never said a word, later in life my Mum said ‘I knew something was wrong because you don’t normally come in and’ - you know, like that. But as I said you hear that all the time now. So I don’t know what would have happened. But I never went …
LW: No, so it wasn’t all idyllic, but generally looking back – happy memories?
MF: Oh yes. That was the only thing upset me, yes.
LW: Good.
MF: I can’t really think of anything else.
LW: Well it’s been really interesting hearing all that. Fascinating. You’ve been preparing it all so well. Because you’ve obviously given talks before, so you’re quite used to talking about your past. (MF: Yes). Well it’s really kind of you to share it.
MF: Well, if you go right through this
LW: Yes, and you’ve got it all documented
MF: Yes, it’s all done, yes. This was the house in Witney etc
BS: How long did your father and stepmum stay living in Frankland Close?
MF: Her dad stayed all his life – died at age of 90.
BS: So your connection to Croxley stayed by going to visit him?
MF: I went every week to do his housework. Yes. Yes.
LW: So then you saw Croxley very different from how it was when you lived there?
MF: Well, houses and all that were all having extensions put in the roof – in fact the house that we sold, that one they put an extension on after. I’m just looking through any of these other bits that I think.
LW: Well, thank you very much.
Other personal things not transcribed.
MF: You know we didn’t have a washing machine. We had a copper, boiled it all up. We had a table that had – you lifted the lid up, you lifted the table up, and then it had a mangle underneath. In fact it’s in the shed, or in my garage.
LW: You kept it?
MF: Yes, I’m afraid I’m a bit of a hoarder. And the breakfast table had a toaster, so when I do talks I’ve got the toaster, and I show them. And it’s one that you pulled it down and it would turn the toast. But it was also plugged into the light. Sitting on the table at breakfast just – yes. You had one – the bulb coming down and then you had another one came this way and that one was to the toaster. I assume it didn’t use much electric. But there you are, see. The larder – the house actually was quite modern. [noises looking through photos] Well, that was Yorke Road with a climbing – have you seen pictures like that? (could copy) Yes, there you are, see, on the plank of wood.
BS: Oh, your seesaw.
More hunting for photos.
MF: We used to get savings stamps. That’s Princess Anne. (etc)
BS: Did you ever go to the pictures as a child – into Watford or ?
MF: No. Went to Rickmansworth. Saturday morning pictures at the Odeon. So not the Picture House, which is just under the railway, it was the Odeon. And that was sixpence if you were downstairs and ninepence if you were upstairs. And of course you always had your one – the picture would go on for the next week – you always had a cowboy one, and then you always had a sing-song where the organ came up and then they’d have the words up on the screen with a ball bobbing along the words so that you could read it.
BS: And that was all at the Saturday morning pictures? (MF: Yes) and did you go often?
MF: I think we went once a week on that one. Yes. No – it’s something you know when you start talking.
LW: Well, you’ve remembered loads. Is that one of your school books?
MF: Well this is something I did – well there again you see I liked - We went for a walk and then they wanted you to say what you’d seen
MF: Going back to Yorke Road School. They had one of these big – I mean is it a boiler – can’t remember what you’d call them. You know what I mean, it was just a round thing, that heated the whole room. (LW: Yes, like a stove). And you’d just throw coke in the top of it. It used to get very hot and they had a guard rail across it, so if you got wet coming to school you’d hang all your coats there, and they’re all steaming. And then in the winter, the milk that we all had – the quarter pint, I think – the top had usually blown up, so you had the cream sticking out the top, and they used to stick it by the fire. I think that put my milk – I didn’t like it then. It was, you know, semi warm. So that was another thing I – I can remember that yes, it was not nice.
Added at a later date;
Looking back on my childhood days In Frankland Close, I remember going through Croxley Wood on the way to Rickmansworth with a jam jar with a hole in the top and string to carry it. On the way was the River Chess where we would sit on the wooden bridge and put a piece of bread in the jar and dangle it in the river, hoping to catch some tiddlers. They never lived once I got them home.
Down the canal we would watch the barges going through the locks, carrying coal and paper, with all the families living on those barges.
Every night when it got dark the gas lighter man would come on his bike with a hook and pull the chain on the gas street light. In the morning he would pull the other chain and turn it off.
During and after the war my mother would go to the British Restaurant with my aunt to save on our coupons.
Also at a large house on the Green my stepmother would take good clothes that we had grown out of to the W.V.S Women’s Voluntary Service and exchange them for larger ones. We eagerly waited to see what she had brought back.
Various services used to come up our close. The milkman, who had a limp, pulling his electric milk float, bringing the glass bottles to your door and picking up the washed empty ones. The greengrocer with all the vegetables. You queued by his van to be served.
The baker who came to the door with his basket of loaves, no wrapped ones. The butcher and the wet fish shop were up the road. I went to the fish shop to ask for fish for the cat, which was heads and odd bits, which Mum boiled up. There was no tinned cat food. At the butchers we had more beef for Sunday lunch than chicken. At Christmas we had a capon. We had the Betterware man come to the door, hoping to sell you brooms, brushes and polish. He would often give you a small sample tin of polish or a small gadget like a door stopper. A knife sharpener would come on his bike, lift his back wheel up and pedal to make the sharpener wheel turn to sharpen your knives and scissors. All these things are long gone. We have supermarkets and DIY stores, so I just have my memories.
