Reference
X962/T21
Title
Transcript of interview with Glenys Johnston, born 7 January 1930, Billington Road, Leighton Buzzard. Father was sand pit worker for Arnolds. Interviewed by Carmela Semeraro.
Date free text
Interview date 24 February 2009
Production date
From: 2009 To: 2009
Scope and Content
(00 mins)
Maiden name – Glenys Gilbert – well-known surname in Leighton Buzzard. (There was a Gilbert Foundry in St. Andrew’s Street.)
(05 mins)
Father had several step-brothers, since his mother died when he was quite young and his father remarried and had several more children.
Glenys – born in Billington Road (house, called Chalmers, no longer there.) House was a tied cottage belonging to Joseph Arnold – father worked for Arnold’s in the nearby sand quarry.
(10 mins)
Nice house but initially with primitive facilities – a bucket lavatory, no inside water supply (well outside). Mains water was later laid on, then much later gas, then electric. Mother brought up six children (three boy, three girls). Detached house – no neighbours – large garden – father made swing on cherry tree – children had a good time. Played in sand pit when not at school and adults not around.
(15 mins)
Nearby, across the road, was the railway which ran from Leighton Buzzard to Dunstable, with level crossing gates. Beyond that – Spinney Pool – man-made – where they swam during summer holidays. Small ‘crib’ area – fenced off to provide a safe area for children to swim in. Water polo and swimming galas were held there, as well as diving. Father bought season ticket for the children.
(20 mins)
Brothers, Derek, played water polo and Malcolm had a cup for diving from the diving board.
Pages Park close to them – had a maypole and swings and a slide. Children spent a lot of time there. Glenys played mainly with girls. Mother packed jam sandwiches and the children would spend all day there – “a lovely young life”.
When the boys swam in the evening mother would shout to them to come home and they would hear.
(25 mins)
Father had a piece of shrapnel in his lung from the First World War and didn’t have good health – he died when he was 48 and Glenys was 12 years old. He was a mechanic and wore greasy overalls. He started the machinery each morning in the sand quarry. He was very strict with his sons but less so with his daughters.
(30 mins)
Father used to start work at 6 am to start the machinery. He came home at midday for a meal. After his death, it was run by electricity and started with a button. You could see the quarries from their front window and a bridge in Village Road. [Later, after they left, their house was modernized, with a bathroom, but demolished around1967].
Glenys and a sister did a lot with colouring-in books; Dad had a wireless with earphones (‘cat’s whisker’); the eldest brother was a bell ringer at All Saints Church; the other brothers were in the church choir.
Glenys attended an infants school in East Street – they walked to school in all weathers and there was no school meal at lunchtime.
They knew the name of everyone who lived in Billington Road.
Glenys left their house in 1950; soon after she was married.
(35 mins)
Her mother stayed – paying rent of 12 shillings and sixpence (62½p). When her parents had first moved there, there were only two bedrooms but Arnold’s had added another bedroom to make three double bedrooms. There was a kitchen (called a scullery then) and two main rooms. Before he was ill, her father grew vegetables there in the garden.
(40 mins)
End of interview
Summarised by Stuart Antrobus (16 November 2009)
Format
Microsoft Word File
The Greensand Trust
Leighton Buzzard Library
Reference
External document
Level of description
item