Leonard to the family:

Dear Alec June Susan & Carol

Many thanks for another long letter received this morning together with Susan’s effort of a drawing of Grandfy. (I hope I do not look like that Susan – nearly all glasses.) Still thank you very much for enclosing it with daddy’s and mummy’s letter.

We did not really expect letter on Tuesday this week – the P.O. collect so early on a Bank Holiday but it must have been a change for you to type it on the Monday. It was not a bad holiday here for weather. We saw on TV you had had a good drop of rain. The worst day was Tuesday when of course bulk of Bank Holiday traffic was over. I actually watered garden on Monday evening but rain came on later and continued most of night. Noted you will all be on the 5.5 p.m. Paddington on Thursday the 17th and I will be at Yatton to meet you. Mum will have something ready for the girls by the time we reach home. It’s nice to look forward to your coming down even if only for a few days. Had a card from Joe and Lydia yesterday posted at Blackpool. Their coach on the return journey tomorrow (Thursday) is now running via Yatton to set down another party so they will alight there and we shall meet them with car about 5:30 p.m. Expect they will return to Tiverton on Sunday evening. Will remember you to them and mention the snapshots. According to weather forecast we are going to have showery weather over the weekend but hope there is no more gale force wind. It was terrific here for about 24 hours and garden looked a mess after it.

So you put the bar up on Susan’s pals over the Bank Holiday. Where do they live and is it far from your house? What did the driver of the Anglia want? Some compensation for shock? Some nerve! Has your car gone in for the necessary repairs yet or have you arranged it for the weekend you are here? Position re: Seymour and McDonald etc. noted. Expect you are waiting to see if there might be anything in your line in subsequent moves.

Norman Allen called round last weekend for information in connection with a vacancy in freight train section DTMO. Marshalling Instructions are the chief items of the job and I do not think he stands any chance for it, never having had anything to do with the formation etc of freight services.

You say Carol will not mind parting from Susan for a day or two but will Susan mind stopping with us?

The fair is in full swing at the moment. Mum and I had a look round last Saturday but we both thought it was a poor show compared with those of the past – not so many stalls. The inevitable Bingo was there and doing the best business but what people see in it beats me. It’s a mere gamble*.

Last week I dug up two or three roots of ivy and potted them into 3-inch pots. I hope they will grow but will keep them for a while to see if any progress. Seems to me that when one tries to cultivate weeds it is not easy. (Food for thought there surely.) Have managed to propagate some more ice plants from leaf cuttings.

You were on right lines in solving Rebecca’s problem and Geoff also says it cannot be solved by algebra. Some good ones on TV now in a program called “Pit your Wits”, too good for me.

No we do not know to what part of Spain Geoff and family are going. Tossa da Mar was in the news this morning owing to five English people including one girl getting mixed up in a scrap in a drinking house.  Did you read about it?

Your lawns must be looking much better now after the rain on the new seed. At least you appear to have saved the seed from the birds. A good crop of dahlias then to give a splash of color. Assume you can still keep the girls off your small plot at bottom of garden. To date have picked 117lb runner beans and 30lbs tomatoes and in each case there are plenty more to come. Yesterday I picked 16lbs runner beans from both sides of one of the rows and these went down to Elford about 9:30 a.m. Apart from bulk lots to him I have a few private customers locally including Bill Aston, Roy Hewett and the Clarkes and Hailes (at bottom of garden). Could not do anything outdoors yesterday first and ground too wet later so racked off all the wine into bottles, the parsnip and the blackcurrant and rhubarb which has been in storage jars and the cherry which had been under fermentation lock. It all tasted a bit sharp but it is all new stuff and may improve by keeping. Still have a half bottle of your carrot wine on hand but the other two kinds you brought down have long since disappeared. No elderberries available yet – next month the time to gather.  Must make some more of this – as good as burgundy. Have about two and a half bottles left of last year’s brew.

Plenty of literature arriving from Football Pools already must have another try for a fortune – could still do with it.*

Fancy Lay looking for a house or bungalow in the £5,000 region, the rates would be pretty heavy too on such a place. Prices seem exceptionally heavy for property on the coast in the counties of Hampshire, Sussex and Kent, a case of supply and demand. It’s a bit easier further West until you get into the Torquay area.

I don’t expect you remember Anthony Dxxxx the son of Edward Dxxxx auctioneer and estate agent – the former was found shot on the Mendips near Priddy last Friday – verdict yesterday – suicide whilst balance of the mind disturbed. He had been in trouble with the police on two occasions the second being as recently as last week.**

A couple of weddings at Parish Church last Saturday for which the bell-ringers were required. Understand another on the 19th inst. when you are here but I do not know the time yet. Well, I think this is the lot once more – all our love to you both and more kisses for the girls. Looking forward to seeing you all soon. Mum and Dad. 

Eva to the family on the remaining three quarters of a sheet of Leonard’s writing paper:

Dear Alec June Susan & Carol

Many thanks for letter & Susan’s drawing exactly like Grandfy. We shall be on the lookout for you next Thursday.

Hope the weather improves, it has been raining all afternoon and we expect Lydia and Joe soon. We have to meet them at Yatton.

The bean and tomato stakes are still on but slowing down a bit. Mr Aston has just looked in for some of each.

The fair is a washout this time nothing interesting to see except the bingo game. We bought some gingerbread, gone up threepence since the last time.

The gale blew down our lovely gladioli and they were tied to stakes, also ripped off felt off of next door’s shed. Looks as if a horse had been through the flowers.

We had plenty of people here over the holiday up to and including Wednesday.

Well this is the lot for now. See you soon lots of love from Mum and Dad.

*So Bingo is ‘a mere gamble’ but the Football Pools is … what? A technical exercise involving skills and knowledge? Double standard here, methinks…

**This may be special pleading, but I suspect the poor man had actually been ‘in trouble with the police’ after being caught with another man. There seems no other good reason for not naming his ‘trouble’, nor for him to have committed suicide rather than be prosecuted. [Crime may be considered disgraceful, but very few people accused of – say – burglary feel the need to make away with themselves rather than suffer the consequences.] He clearly felt his life was not going to improve, and he would be better off out of it. The above is the reason I have redacted his surname; it would be awful if a relative Googled him and found me speculating about whether or not he was gay.