Z1205/161

Male. Worked for Cryselco. Childhood memories of "holidays" at maternal grandparents at the Bakery, Marston Moretaine. b. 27.02.1920 SIDE A (00 mins)Born and raised in Kempston. Lived in same house all his life. Great grandfather was painter for Hoo Manor House. House was originally an estate house. (05 mins)Shops in Bedford near town bridge in 1920s. Father and mother married in 1915. Kempston in 1920s: gas street lamps, horses and carts (only 4 cars: doctor and 3 big houses). Fogs. Quiet roads. (10 mins)Could have had gas but grandmother didn't approve of it. Outside water pump and washhouse. Once-a-week bath night, using tin bath. Cut-throat razors for shaving. (15 mins)Electricity put in1932/33. Aunts fed up with servicing the oil lamps each day. Started infant school aged 3 ½ yrs., on Bedford Road, Kempston. At 7 yrs. boys and girls split and went to separate schools until 1929 when a mixed elementary school was created. Left aged 14 years. (20 mins)Started work at Clare & Sons (established 1806), jewellers in Bedford High Street (opposite Goldings). Worked 8am to 7pm weekdays, 8 - 8 Saturday, with Thursday afternoon off. 5 shillings (25p) a week pay. Assistant ("dogsbody" to both shop and workshop). (25 mins)"Carriage trade" customers who arrived in a chauffeur-driven car and had jewellery taken out for them to view in the car. "The customer was always right". Pay rose to 7s.6d (37 ½ p) after two months. Gave 12 1/2p to mother. Chose to buy his own clothes. AS a child earned one penny pocket money by doing work around the house on Saturday mornings. Bought 4 farthing sweets at Bedford market stall called Mans. (30 mins)Grocers shop in Kempston, Pearce's, sold everything. Came round to houses, took orders and then delivered them. Payment on Saturdays, on account. Mother went twice a week to the butchers for fresh meat. Joint for Sundays only. (32 mins)End of Side A SIDE B (00 mins)Childhood memories of his mother pushing him in the pram from Kempston to the bakery in Beancroft Road (now Hilson Close), Marston. Had bread fresh from the oven. Huge vegetable garden at the front and chickens and pigs. Three water pumps in village: one at bakers, one at rectory and one at the bell pub to serve the community. Used to come with buckets to fill up. When old enough, used to come for fortnight holidays, staying with grandparents. In those days, everyone accorded the status of "Mr." or "Mrs", rather than using Christian names. Bread made by hand, rather than by machines. (05 mins)Villagers used to pay the baker 1d (less then ½ p) each for their Sunday meat to be roasted in his oven (many didn't have their own oven) and Yorkshire puddings, to be collected at 12 noon. As a child, he was sent on Mr. Linger's horse-drawn carrier's cart, via many villages, to Marston for his holidays. During his holiday he would go out on his grandfather's car, delivering bread around the village. A large white loaf was 2 ¼ d (wholemeal was regarded as "pig's food" then. Outside earth-closet lavatories at far end of garden; human waste dug into garden. Mother was an apprentice dressmaker at E.P. Rose, the high-class Bedford department store from 1890s. (10 mins)She had to walk to Millbrook railway station and take the train into Bedford to St. John's station. She lived to be 98 years. As a child he used to go gleaning for corn for the hens, after harvesting, and potato picking and blackberrying. Kempston "Statty" fair - last week in August down Bunyan Road in a field behind the Boot public house. Roundabouts, swing boats, toffee apples. (15 mins)"When the Statty had gone, you could shut your doors" - Autumn weather set in. very hot in houses in summer because they only had coal fires to cook with. Flies were dealt with using sticky brown fly papers. Annual killing of a pig. Pig's blood kept for the making of black puddings. Mother made lard from the fat of the pig. The meat was salted or pickled. Hams were hung by the side of fireplaces to smoke them. A range of pig sties behind the cottages. His family were in key positions in the village: Bell Pub, blacksmith's, Moot Farm (now Marston Manor Restaurant). (20 mins)A lot of scrubbing took place in houses to keep them clean. Grandfather used to place a dozen small loaves in the church porch every Sunday, as part of a charitable bequest to assist village widows, who had to go and collect them.During economic depressions, when agricultural labourers were laid off work and could not afford bread, the baker would carry on delivering bread, free of charge, to his regular customers and when they got jobs, later, in the brick industry, they paid him back.During Second World War he was in the Pay Corps but was taken ill and it was discovered he had an enlarged heart. He was invalided out and got a job at Cryselco. He was in the Observer Corps as a volunteer, reporting enemy aircraft. (25 mins)Bomb damage in Kempston during World War II. (30 mins)Biggest change he has observed in his life - the lack of community spirit and neighbourliness these days, compared with his youth. Everyone knew each other and spoke to you in the street. His mother would often offer to do washing for women who were unwell, using the old copper to heat water and a mangle to wring out the clothes water. (32 mins)End of Side B END OF INTERVIEW, Original Interview 60 mins.

30 September 2002

From: 1915 To: 2002

item

Cryselco Ltd,
Clare & Sons,
Goldings,
Hillson,
Rose, E P & Son

gas lighting, horses, fog, wash houses, water supply, electricity, schools, wages/conditions, jeweller, child labour, sweets, grocers, bakery, public houses, pigs, Marston Moretaine Moat Farm, blacksmith, POVERTY, brick worker, World War Two, air raids over UK, charity, MARSTON MORETAINE, KEMPSTON, Kempston Hoo Estate, MILLBROOK, Bedford St John's Street, BEDFORD