Reference
Z1606/9
Title
Personal diary labelled 'vol. VII'
Date free text
26 January 1949 (part) - 27 September 1950 (part)
Production date
From: 1949 To: 1950
Scope and Content
Volume focuses primarily on domestic life in Bedford at 66 Marlborough Road in the late 1940s. It details caring for her elderly father whose health is deteriorating, and her brother Jim who has an ulcer. In the course of this volume, her father passes away (30/10/1949) and the following months make frequent reference to her grief. During the volume Leah refers to her own loneliness and depression. It focuses heavily on gardening, food preperation, cleaning and craft. Frequently mentioned are the Literary Society, Townswomen's Guild and Folk Dancing Society. Also mentioned are:
Getting a perm (7/2/1949)
A local boy being shot in the eye by another (20/2/1949)
Learning about the functions of the National Health Service (11/3/1949)
Feeling an 'ineffable sadness' (3/4/1949)
Being given cocaine at the dentist (6/4/1949)
Resigning as treasurer of the adult school (6/4/1949)
Seeing a band of blind ex-servicemen in Bedford (13/4/1949)
Visit to Stevington (16/4/1949)
Feeling like her 'joyfulness is all past' (17/4/1949)
Trip along Icknield Way including Deacon Hill (19/4/1949)
Compares her father to Mr Woodhouse in Jane Austen's 'Emma' (27/4/1949)
Visit to Newton Blossomville (27/4/1949)
Jim having a 'meal test' at hospital, including having his stomach pumped multiple times (28/4/1949)
Town Council election results (14/5/1949)
Finding a wasps nest (14/5/1949)
Visit to Ickwell May Day celebrations, including first experience of candy floss (22/5/1949)
Visit to Cromer, including Walsingham Shrine (28/5/1949 - 3/6/1939)
Joins newly formed Queens Park Townswomens Guild (17/6/1949)
Her father's funeral (2/11/1949) reference is made to 'feeling no emotion'
Sudden death of a local chimney sweep (7/11/1949)
Jim's ulcer becoming worse (November 1949)
Arrangements for Jim's operation and it's taking place, plus his relocation to a convalescent home in Woburn to recover (15/1/1950-27/2/1950)
National election results (25/2/1950)
Visit to Sunderland (13/4/1950 - 27/4/1950) (includes a disagreement with some Scots on the train, and discussion fo the changes to the landscape due to bombing)
'Tornado' in Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire (27/5/1950)
Trip to Cambridge for the boat race (12/6/1950)
Folk dance festival at Ickwell Bury (1/7/1950)
Trip to Sunderland (21/8/1950-3/9/1950)
Conversation with a 78 year old Bedford Morris Dancer (12/9/1950)
Level of description
item