On reaching the letter filed as being from 7 July 1961, it turned out it should in fact have been dated 7 July 1960 and is therefore included under that date.
Category: Uncategorized
Tuesday 4th July, 1961
Leonard to the family:
Dear Alec June Susan and Carol
Many thanks for another long and newsy letter. Glad to hear birthday letters arrived safely and that you will find a good use for cash.
Mum and I have just been up to Hill Road for a few odds and ends and recalled in at the new cafe on the front for an ice cream – hope your mouths won’t water.
It is so hot here again today but Saturday night we had thunder and lightning and rain from about midnight until 3 a.m. – the rain continuing until about 11:30 a.m. since when until today it has been much cooler. It was a lovely drop of rain though and has done a lot of good. You apparently had the rain Sunday morning. Incidentally I expect you guessed it was Mum who got hold of birthday card for you but we both thought it was good.
Note your efforts with concrete posts for fence etc and Susan’s valiant struggle with the ‘oil can’ – she was only helping. Yes it is a messy and tedious job putting creosote on strips of wood – I suppose you got more on your hands and clothes than on the wood. Assume you eventually got posts upright with the 4×2 and cross pieces.
Have been having more trouble with pond. I noticed one morning last week the water level had gone down about 2 inches in shallow portion since the night before and the weed in places was high and dry. I put hose on and raised level so that all weed was floating again but next morning it was well down again. Then decided to take weed out and see how far water level would drop. The shallow part is now dry but deep portion full and holding. Looks as if the pressure of water has forced out loose filling somewhere and we have to start all over again to find leak. Noticed one live eel only and he has got much bigger assume he is now in deep portion. When weather properly settled again may have another try at sealing shallow apart. I imagine that when we feel cash when you were here dash and accumulation of dust dirt and leaves had got into the crevices and temporarily sealed same.
Have had one or two trips down to river but have never seen any more fish other than eels. nor more logs requiring rescuing.
Just been looking at Susan’s painting thank you very much Susan but don’t start using daddy’s creosote as paint or you will soon be in hot water.
The Drewett episode was given us practically verbatim by Roy and Mrs Hewitt who of course live about three doors from Iris.
Surprised you have not since heard from Geoff – query not even for the 28th ulto? Note you had a card from Lyng. Don is 60 on the 27th inst and we have asked them to come up to lunch either the Sunday before or the one after to celebrate – can always have a glass of cold water.
Yes it was bad luck to find coal dumped in yard but everything is in order now and we should – with what we had left over from last winter – have enough coal to see us through the coming winter.
You are quite right about the Exeter to Clevedon trip in the first car they ever had dash query OD2280 – a hot dinner here waiting for four of them and they were stranded at Wellington. Well we had a lot to eat as a result for a couple of days but should like to have seen their faces when they realised Wellington was as far as they were going to get that day. The Dawlish episode though I think was scandalous. An engine will fail but to turn out another dud at Westbury which could only get to Patney & C* is terrible and I expect someone heard all about it.
Note your back garden now looking up and that at least one of the rose cuttings still survives. it has been a most difficult time for all garden plants. I’ve had to use hose nightly for about two hours to keep things going. the runner beans are beginning to form and it won’t be long now before can pick. Mum has been busy morning and again late afternoon picking raspberries – these two have had daily attention with hose. The cherries are turning quickly now and this morning I picked 6lbs for a brew. According to Bravery this quantity requires 4lbs of sugar which I’ve just covered with hot water into which I also put a bunch of lemon balm. The other mixture, blackcurrant and rhubarb, still working quietly and next week will go under fermentation lock. Note you have not yet tried the Elder Flower – awaiting your report on this before dishing it out here to my friends or enemies.
So your films generally speaking are pretty good – bound to have one or two not quite up to expectations. I like the sound of the one you took of group in front of greenhouse truly rural.
Mr Aston gone to a Bristol hospital today for X-ray and has to go in again next week to hear result, seems to be getting a lot of pain after meals. I still think it is only an ulcer but he will soon know for himself.
Not much local news this week – the place is fairly full of visitors and charabancs bring in the daily ones regularly. Too wet to go for our usual jaunt round the Hill on Sunday so had a rest instead.
I’m selling lettuces to Elford now at 4d each to sell again at 6d and have plenty in garden for him if he wants them – something like 130 and more seed in.
Heels visitors went home last Thursday having had a wonderful fortnight for weather. Our neighbours and next again (Mrs Drewetts) are still busy painting outside of houses and we hear Spencers are moving out shortly and Mrs Rees Barrett comes in on the 12th. New people have taken over the Triangle Post Office.**
No more now – all our love to you both and lots of kisses for Susan and Carol. Hope you are all keeping well. Mum and Dad
*After some head-scratching and consulting the invaluable British Railways Pre-Grouping Atlas and Gazeteer Fourth Edition, published by Ian Allan, price 25/-, we were able to read this place name as Patney and Chirton. This suggests that the first engine on the train – which was presumably heading to Paddington – managed roughly 90 miles before being removed and replaced at Westbury, whereas the replacement keeled over after only 12. That being the case, it’s almost a miracle that the replacement engine had the strength to be shunted onto the consist in the first place!
**Clearly Mrs Rees Barrett was held personally responsible for (if not actually guilty of) the theft from the Triangle Post Office earlier in the year. See https://wordpress.com/post/onthetrack.home.blog/1647 . Whether the door was left open accidentally or deliberately, and whether the money was stolen then or on another occasion, must be a matter for conjecture.
Eva to the family on the remaining three quarters of a sheet of Leonard’s writing paper
Dear Alec June Susan and Carol
Many thanks for letter and drawing of red girl, quite coming on with portrait painting.
Well here we are nearly roasted again. I went into Bristol yesterday (Wednesday) with Mrs Marshall who had to see a brother-in-law in St. Mary’s. You could hardly breathe In the city there was not a breath of air going.
Had a letter from Joe and Lydia yesterday as well. They are going on a 6 day coach tour beginning August 5th to Blackpool (2 days) Buxton (2 days) the Peak District and back to Weston on the 10th when they would like to come here for weekend; they never make up their minds until the last minute.
John starts his holiday on Sat. they are going to Looe; I believe they did last year. They go with his friend wife and baby. I believe Spensers are moving on Saturday. I see Ian is home running about.
Mrs Clarke has gone to Weston again for a few days – doesn’t seem to be able to settle for long.
Have been busy washing curtains and blankets, ought to have done it before, and to make a bit more work last night I tipped over a cup of coffee in my lap so dress etc. had to be done.
Well I think this is all news just now so will close with best love from us all.
Mum and Dad
The letter from Eva is adorned with pen drawings of the sun, some gibbous moons, and a couple of smiling crescent moons (or possibly bananas?).
It’s time to talk about the Huguenots… Part Two
Well, this is a big subject with a lot of ramifications! Apart from anything else, the present database contains over 300 people descended from Mathieu and Ester Mocquard – and that’s only the line through their eldest child, John (Jean Enry)! The line from their second child, Ester, is fairly well-established and is available online, but it seemed too massive an undertaking to incorporate it as it would very likely double the contents of the database – if not more. As for their third child, in a way he is the most interesting of all – although not to posterity, as he died unmarried and as far as we know did not father any children. He did, however, have a brief but fascinating career at sea, aboard HMS Cambridge, which I suspect he may also have helped to build as she was laid down at Deptford near where he lived. His name was Daniel, and he is the first in a series of Daniel Mocards/Macords whose brothers were very often called John. Daniel will, at some point, merit a post all of his own.
Given that families in those days tended to be larger, it’s quite possible that there were other siblings that we have not yet been able to identify – or, sadly, who were born and died in rapid succession without making much of a mark upon the world. For the time being, it is probably wise to assume that John, Ester and Daniel were the only ones who survived to adulthood. Similarly we have, so far, no information about the dates of death of Mathieu and Ester, although we suspect this information probably is available somewhere.
So, for now, let’s follow the first John Macord – also known as Jean and Jonathan. He was born in 1721 and baptised at the French Protestant church in Soho Square. He earned his living as a butcher, and was married at the Fleet Prison or thereabouts in 1748 to a woman named Ann or Agnes Gandey or Gander; their eldest child – another John, of course – was born in 1749 and baptised as St. George’s in the East which became the family church for many generations to follow. Whether in that case they can still be described as ‘Huguenots’ is a moot point, but they certainly remained staunchly Protestant!
We do not know for certain where they lived at this time; however in later years the family lived at a house on Old Gravel Lane which had been built a few years earlier in what was then a semi-rural area. Given that succeeding generations of Macords were deeply involved in house-building and buying, selling and letting property, it might be possible to conclude that the first John (the butcher) built his own house before he married Anne – and it was no doubt his place of business, too.
Again, although families at the time were often larger, we have firm evidence for only three children from John and Anne’s marriage – John II, Margaret, and Mary. John II was born in 1750 and in about 1770 he married a lady named Ann of whom we have no further details at the moment. They had five children, beginning with another Ann in 1771, at which point they lived in Pennington Street and John II earned his living as a carpenter and undertaker. I like to think that he, or another member of the family, may have made coffins for the victims of the Ratcliffe Highway Murders.
John II’s wife Ann seems to have died before 1785, and so did their son (yet another John!) who could not have been more than five or six years old. Subsequently John II married Mary Armstrong; the connection between the Macord and Armstrong families goes back at least to the first Daniel, the mariner who served aboard HMS Cambridge; Francis Armstrong was one of his shipmates and to judge by the fact that their enlistment numbers are only two digits apart it seems likely that they had been boyhood friends and/or workmates in Deptford and had signed up together in the Navy in search of adventure and booty!
Without wishing to complicate things further at this stage, I’ll conclude today by saying that John II moved into the house at Old Gravel Lane – presumably built by his father – in 1777. He continued the family tradition of building and owning properties, among others a small development of four houses and one workshop or outhouse between Choppins Court and King Street, very close to the St George’s Workhouse. This was in the part of London later excavated to make way for an extension to the docks; a canal between Shadwell Basin and Spirit Quay now runs through this area.
No pictures or descriptions of Macord’s Rents have yet been traced, but ‘rents’ at the time are best summed up as small and no doubt dark individual rooms opening onto a gallery or landing such as the wretched dwellings described by Charles Dickens in ‘Little Dorrit’. They would all have shared a privy and had to use a nearby pump for water. The only rational conclusion to form from this is that the Macords – who may have had many fine qualities otherwise – were at this time almost certainly slum landlords and were contributing to the poverty and wretchedness of London’s underclasses rather than doing very much to alleviate them.
On which note, we will step aside here and return with the next generation of Macords in a few days’ time.
Sunday 21st May, 1961
Alec to his parents:
Dear Mum and Dad,
Thank you for your letter with, all the latest news. Glad there was another effort by Susan. I understand that there is a page or two for encloseure [sic] again this week. Susan was up with the lark on her Birthday as you may imagine. She and Carol came into our room and the presents and cards were examined when the tea was brought in. Birthdays tend to be joint affairs with these two. To start with we always contrive to have some little thing for the non-Birthday girl and in any case large articles have to be bought with an eye to joint ownership. There were rows of cards for Susan which covered the mantlepiece and the T.V. We bought Susan/Carol a scooter which is causing problems of synchronisation. Susan had a nice tennis raquet [sic] (toy-size) and they both had large plastic spades each for the sea-side. Lots of books mace their appearance and some nice things to wear. There was no party this time, but we shall have to see that they get their share. Susan has already had another Birthday Party invitation. She will attend on Tuesday of this week. Apparently Susan must have told all the boys and girls that it was her Birthday as a little boy who we had not previously heard about gave her a small plastic baby in a bath.
Have done no more to the cupboard so that will now have to wait until return from holiday. So far there has been no attempt to open the cupboard by the girls, but I expect I shall have to fit a lock of some kind. Some game with Cornish though.
We have noticed that the weather is much colder, and June is of the opinion that we shall get no change until the moon changes. (After the holiday of course). We shall have to send a spaceman up to change the moon occasionally.
Not an easy trip to Tiverton by the sound of it? I expect it can be made easier by going out round Exeter – no point in going to look for trouble. In any case I have no definite plans to go there.
Not much joy from one bucket of cockles then. Would have thought there would have been enough for an army.
I remember that Exmouth was supposed to be Mum’s first job away from home. Wiveliscombe was another I believe, also Bridgwater.
Note horse has been away for a change of diet and to gather his strength for visit from two small girls.
You ask about school. Susan turned up early from school one day last week (lunchtime) and when tackled about it, said that she had come home to play with Carol. When June took her she reported the matter only to find that they had not missed her. (Where have I heard all this before?) That resulted in Susan being marched up to the Headmistress. We do not know what was said.
Our freiends have just left, or rather I have just taken them back to Hillingdon. There [sic] children are among the least well behaved, but to-day they were much better than I have known them. Still bad.
Hope the visit from Headstone Lane goes well. Seems a long drag just for a few hours, but he has been doing that for years – must like travel.
I cannot be too sure about the rose cuttings. One is certainly taking root and shoots indicate progress, but the other two seem to make no movement although leaves are still on.
Why Labour In your ward? Is this the first time? Should have thought the West End was true blue, or slightly pink. Do not really know who got in here. We voted, and that was that. We do not take a local paper.
Rhubarb wine progressing. Brought in a large handful of lemon balm and put straight Into the ferment together with almost half pound of sultanas. After a week strained off the fermenting juice, put in the sugar (three pounds) and a tablet of wine nutrient, and bunged the lot under fermentation lock. It is kicking away merrily at the moment with plenty of white froth. Will look forward to your various brews.
I am afraid peas are a crop which seems to do badly these days. I never hnd much luck with them. The bean varieties do much better.
Have passed on the news about the nest. Hope it is still there when we arrive.
I suppose the reason that the Spencers have not sold their house is due to the price asked. Drewetts went all right and so did the one next to you. They will have to cut their price if no buyers come forward soon.
Nice try by Mum apparently but should not have liked the tannery.
I suppose we shall pass through Wincanton any time between 1–/0pm and 2-30 next Saturday if all goes well. Do I gather fron your enquiry that you may be there? If so perhaps you will let me know where to look out for you. *
We shall look up Aunt Lydia and Uncle Joe when we are at Exmouth.
Well will close now and look forward to seeing you again very soon.
Love from us all.
*To reiterate: Alec at this stage is nearly thirty-nine years old. This level of mollycoddling utterly defies description.
Tuesday 16th May, 1961
Leonard to the family:
Dear Alec June Susan & Carol
Many thanks for another newsy letter and drawing (from Susan) received today. Thank you very much Susan – it is such an important day for you isn’t it? Five years old today – how do you feel? We have been thinking of her quite a lot and pictured her telling all her school friends “I’m five years old today”.
So you have all but finished the cupboard in front room and find it is a good alternative storage place for wine – have you put a lock on it? You would want one if you kept it in Cornish’s house here. He knows where to find it and does when Mrs Cornish is out shopping etc.
Noted June not keen on broad beans – I must have misunderstood your previous reply on the subject. Am hoping we shall have a few carrots ready for the girls – its those I’m bringing on in one of the frames.
Yes you seem to be having a very busy time in the Work Study Section and I expect you are looking forward to your holiday – which reminds me the weather this week although dry so far is very much cooler and not nearly so pleasant as when we were away. Hope it will improve by the time you start off.
To get to Exmouth from Clevedon I suppose the shortest route – and the one we took a couple of years ago – would be via Cullompton, Pinhoe and Countess Wear (near Whittlesea)* but another way is via Honiton then on the Sidmouth road as far as Sidford then turn right to Newton Poppleford then left to get on to the Budleigh Salterton route. I reckon it would take 2½ to 3 hours direct Clevedon to Exmouth. Yes Tiverton to Exmouth is an hour’s run – 26 miles – but one has to get through the City of Exeter which at times can be very difficult.
So you have had mussels – I hate the things but enjoy cockles. Frankly a bucketful does not go very far once they are shelled but it’s worth it to go out and gather them. The best time to go out is about three hours after full tide has turned when the cockles are left stranded. They quickly burrow down about four inches and remain there until the tide returns. Incidentally as soon as the water has left them uncovered the gulls get busy as usually at this moment the shells are open and cockles feeding.
Regarding the sketch I sent you I meant ti have indicated that from the point shewn where you enter the area until you reach Morton Road** the distance is approximately one mile perhaps just under. Yes there are plenty of facilities for the children and given nice weather I’m sure you will enjoy the holiday. It is a place Mum and I like very much and you may remember Mum telling you it was her first place away from home – in Tuckers a big shop near the main shopping area.
No I don’t think Mrs Cornish had any cause to examine the fruit trees. At the moment the horse is away on the farm doing a little work but we expect it back any day now to get on with the job of clearing the grass.
So Susan was not very energetic when she went to the front on the first occasion – thought she liked washing. How is school going? You did not comment this week.
Can remember the name of Clegg at the wedding but am afraid I cannot picture Mr & Mrs Clegg now. There were quite a lot present including all the Uncles and Aunts and it would be difficult to recall them all. Still we expect you were glad to see them once more although perhaps did not anticipate seeing them at that particular time.
Note more friends visiting you this coming weekend. As you know Geoff and family are coming down on Whit Monday. Down on the 9.5 a.m. Paddington and back on the 4.35 Taunton – a very long journey each way and only just over five hours here but we shall be very pleased to see them.
Glad to hear you think three of the rose cuttings are pulling through. Fresh shoots should however be soon showing. Am afraid the slugs ate most of that clump of Chrysanths you gave me but it is possible I shall save one.
Since writing the above Norman Baker has brought back the horse so have been down the field to see him in safely.
Not a lot of local news this week again. Had local election on Tuesday last and the Labour candidate got in for this ward although the Conservative candidate polled more votes than the Conservative winner last year.
Your rhubarb brew should be alright – there is quite a lot of the yellow variety about but generally it is not quite so sweet as the red or raspberry kind. The addition of lemon balm leaves would improve it in any case. I’ve strained off my parsnip wine into the two sweet jars you gave me – filled one up and nearly filled the second. It is clearing very quickly and the taste is quite good.
When I next write Don & Joan – later this week – will tell them we shall be calling on them, as invited, on the afternoon of Wednesday 7th June. We asked them to look up this week while Don still on leave but they say they are very busy but would like to run up later on.
Bill Aston went on outing last Saturday and said that the happiest people present were the retired members – all the others were grousing about this and/or that. The lunch was not up to standard either. However he had a most enjoyable time and got back about 10.0 p.m.
The ground here is still like lumps of concrete and I’ve used hosepipe a lot to water runner beans and keep bath full. The greenhouse takes a lot of water carrying. It does not look as if I shall get much success with my second row of peas – not up yet and they should have been showing a week ago. I am fairly certain the soil is too rough altogether this year but must try once more. Picked peas are better than those you buy in a tin.
Found a thrush nest last week with young ready to fly – in fact they went next day. The nest is in the hedge between Heels and our garden within about four feet of the house. I had noticed the parent birds about for some time and thought nest was in Golden Privet hedge but could not find it. Anyhow unless Heel removes it shall have at least one to show Susan & Carol although the birds have flown.
Well I think this is about the lot for another week.
All our love to you both and lots of kisses for Susan & Carol.
Mum & Dad
[Scrawled at top of first page as if in afterthought: “?Time at Wincanton 27th May”]
*’Whittlesea’ in this context is the bungalow where Leonard’s parents/Alec’s grandparents, Tom and Emily Atkins, used to live. Its name was not taken from the railway station in Cambridgeshire, but instead from the town in Victoria, Australia, where Tom’s sister Mary Maud lived with her Chinese market-gardener husband and their descendants. It’s impossible to know when contact between the two branches of the family was lost, but as Mary Maud and Tom died within six months of each other (she in late 1940, he in April 1941) it would be fair to suppose that it was at some point during the war. Alec did have vague recollections of ‘packages’ from Australia being delivered during the war, but in later life treated the ‘Chinese relatives’ as a bit of a silly rumour incapable of proof. As far as I know his researches never uncovered the existence of that particular branch of the family, nor indeed of Mary Maud herself.
**I suspect this would be the first ‘two centre’ holiday we had. We stayed one week with a Mrs Le Dieu, presumably in Morton Road, and this looks very much the sort of establishment we were in – although obviously very much improved since those days.
Emily outside ‘Whittlesea’, about 1936
Eva to the family, on the remaining three-quarters of a sheet of Leonard’s writing paper:
Dear Alec June Susan & Carol
Very nice drawings this week. I believe we’ve got nearly twenty altogether. We have been very busy tidying up this week. This weather is lovely & hope it will last for your visit to Exmouth & here.
Spencers have not sold their house yet, it seems to hang fire somehow. I believe they are asking too much for too little. Gibsons have not moved into Drewetts house yet although they are doing extensive operations inside the house. All the Capels have gone to Holland & Germany for a holiday.
Somebody has got me on cleaning the lectern for a few weeks while they are busy. Mrs Cummings is out of hospital but can’t do much yet so may be doing the mags again this time.
We had a good journey to Morlands Rug factory at Glastonbury. The first five minutes was a bit revolting as we visited the tannery but after that it was A1. The loveliest rugs & bootees & slippers, they didn’t slip us any only a few samples of sheepskin all colours. Some were going to make puffs of the pale colours. They gave us a nice tea however.
On June 1st we shall be going to Cannington Farm Institute then on to Taunton for rest of time & Maynards & tea.
The horse is back with a difference, he has had a fourpenny all off & looks a bit bald after what he was.
Well I think this is the lot. Note that I have allocated the singles for the girls so you will not need the cot mattress.
Love from Mum & Dad
Tuesday 25th April, 1961
Leonard to the family:
Dear Alec June Susan & Carol
Many thanks for your combined letter received this morning – have started to reply tonight as we hope to be in Bristol on Wednesday evening (more of this later) and I do not like leaving the whole letter to Thursday.
Fancy Susan going to & from school on her own – how long does it take? query ten minutes.* Expect it is a job to get much out of her at present but various bits and pieces will come out when you least anticipate it. She must be a very proud young lady going off on her own. The weather has not been too good either, even for such a short journey.
Very sorry to hear you have had a bad cold June and we hope you have shaken it off by now. We have kept fairly free recently but with such changeable weather anything can happen.
Note you have been having visitors and looking forward to another evening out – makes a nice change from routine. If Peter and Brenda find themselves in this area when out on their travels we should be very pleased to see them. As you know we shall be at Exmouth during the first weekend in May but after that should be here on Sundays until further notice. They must pick a fine day though – Clevedon not much of an attraction for visitors in wet weather but really delightful on warm & sunny days.
Glad Carol had her birthday present safely and we note it has gone to her credit in Post Office – very nice too. She does not mind now at being on her own all day – can quite appreciate she wants to help Mummie. Is she interested in what Susan has to say about school?
It was no fault of yours that we did not go to Eastcote whilst we were at Ruislip – the weather was such that we were better off indoors except when we went over to Wembley on the Thursday and that to us was new ground and quite interesting. Shall hope to visit Eastcote on another occasion.
Mum must draw a little sketch for you shewing route to your holiday accommodation – presumably you will be entering Exmouth from the Budleigh Salterton direction. Note you will try and get some good holiday snaps this time. We have only seen the one snap taken by Joe or Lydia which as already mentioned is very good but I think they took one or two more which we shall probably see when we go down again.
Don and Joan duly arrived on Sunday but it was a miserable day, only clearing up in the late afternoon. Still we were pleased to see them and had a good natter. Don brought up 12 flagons cider which are now in store in garage – the previous consignment being still in use. They asked about you all and if they would be seeing you sometime during the time you are on holiday here.
Tomorrow afternoon (Wednesday) we shall be going to Bristol to see Mr & Mrs Newman and shall not be home until about 10.0 p.m. – hope weather improves. It has been raining continuously since 9.30 a.m. after a glorious day yesterday (Monday).
Stacey called up later today and wanted us to go to their place (near Zoo) on Saturday but Mum has one of her nights out then attending the Clevedon Playgoers last show of the season so another visit to Bristol is off until after Whitsun.
Had a letter from John Wills (Secretary of Office Outing Committee) yesterday with an invitation to the Bristol D. T. M. staff outing to Paignton on Saturday 13th May but am doubtful if shall accept. Incidentally the invitation for the first time includes wives. Expect Bill Aston has had a letter too but I’ve not seen him since last Friday. He was then going to be busy on his allotment (behind Mogg’s house). Did not see him on Sunday for our usual walk round the hill because I had to hurry home to be here for the arrival of the visitors from Lyng.
The railway gazette you gave me was read by Bill Aston & Roy Hewitt and Don took it back with him and also the books for mechanics you let me have – all very interesting.
This week I took down remainder of staging in greenhouse and now have planted out a total of 44 tomato plants – ten each in nos 1 & 2 bays and 12 each in nos 3 & 4 bays. Outside I’ve put in the sticks for runner beans – 201 altogether – and set beans in against 104 of them. Against the other 106 I shall transplant from boxes at end of month – these are already about 2″ high but if frost anticipated at night I can put boxes inside. The row of garden peas was a failure – the sparrows pecked out the shoots as soon as they came through soil. The remedy – black cotton along the next lot which will go in as soon as can walk on garden again. Of the 50 or so lettuce plants I’ve been protecting nightly I’ve lost a couple but have plenty from which I can replace. The gale force wind today has blown the broad beans about and blown over part of the hedge between us and new neighbours – had to cut it away as it was blocking drive to garage. Looks a bit ragged for a few feet but it will recover by the end of the summer.
The electricians arrived on Monday and they have been busy rewiring from the attic downwards. This means the bathroom being done out when they have finished and the biggest bedroom repapered. Still it had to be done.
The horse still behaving himself and having his fill of grass with the odd lump of sugar. Yes I’m sure Susan & Carol will be pleased to see him – at a distance. Mother always carries a stick when she goes down the field to inspect the fruit trees but it is the horse that does the disappearing trick.
Parsnip wine still under fermentation lock but working much more slowly now. You are fortunate to get old of those nice gallon jars. Is your last lot of wine still working?
Thursday 27th April
Now continuing letter after our visit to Bristol yesterday – a really fine sunny afternoon and moonlit evening for the run home at 9.15 p.m. Today I put in another row of Peas & carrots. Found the carrot fly had had first outside sowing of carrots but those in frame looking fine. This afternoon started on bathroom – cleaning off ceiling – sandpapering woodwork and walls and filling in cracks etc. Another busy day tomorrow obviously.
Now must close or mum will not get much of a look in this time.
All our love to you both and lots of kisses for school girl Susan and Carol.
Mum and Dad
*Yes, just fancy – not even five years old at this point and walking to school and back unaccompanied twice a day, a distance of a good half a mile each time (checked on GoogleEarth), crossing a couple of roads, because Mum can’t be arsed to sling baby sister into the pushchair and go along. The fact that nothing untoward happened can only be attributed to a miracle. June really did like her kids to be ‘out of sight, out of mind’ so that she could ‘get on with the housework’, 90% of which she made for herself. It was her way of feeling validated, which is really pretty sad. And Google Earth says 10 minutes for an adult, so maybe 20 for anyone with five-year-old legs?
Eva to the family on the remaining half sheet of Leonard’s writing paper:
Dear Alec June Susan & Carol
We are up to our eyes in decorating at the moment. Problem is whether to have pink walls & blue doors or vice versa. The electricians made a has of everything leaving their mark & am afraid it will have to stay until we decorate the rooms in turn.
It is very foggy here now & I expect another fine day.
Yesterday afternoon while Leon was busy stopping up I did some grubbing out grass by the shed which was about a foot long & wringing wet.
Glad Susan is going on at school alright. I thought she would soon want to go it alone because she knew the way the Sunday morning she showed us. What is the score (handicap) round in Alec’s golf, one in three? I wouldn’t know. Do you have to caddy for yourself?
Mrs Cummings in Southmead hospital for an operation expects to be in there three weeks & yours truly is delivering the church magazines for her.
The ‘do it yourself’ shop is open in Alexandra Road where the fish shop was & seems a good place. Name of Hollyman.
Well I think this is the lot now lots of love from us all & kisses for Susan & Carol.
From Mum & Dad.
[Sketch at the bottom of the sheet that looks like a set of lockpicks or crochet hooks marked ‘What is this?’ Almost certainly intended to be a set of five (!) golf clubs in a bag without a handle … ]
A note on historical inflation calculations
There should be a letter from Alec to his parents for Sunday 9th April 1961, but it seems to have vanished – and, although I have an undated partial letter floating around loose in the box, it is very unlikely to be from this particular date due to its contents.
Therefore, this seems a reasonable moment to explain where I get my ‘2021 equivalent’ money calculations. I use a very helpful calculator on ‘This is Money‘, which is part of ‘MailOnline’ (no political agenda intended). This is not the only such calculator available, but for the sake of consistency I think it’s important to use the same one every time – and this just happens to be the one I used in my previous occupation as an editor and publisher of fiction books.
It’s really nigh-on impossible to pin down equivalent values from one era to another. There are always websites that will tell you how much a pint of milk cost in 1961 and how much it costs today – ditto a pair of shoes, a modest family car, a TV licence, a flight to Alicante etc. etc. The simple fact is that of course inflation does not move at a level pace across the board, and manufacturing/harvesting processes change all the time. Also markets open up and close again with astonishing frequency, which is why betting on stocks and shares has always seemed an especially hazardous occupation. (Short-term no doubt there are profits to be made, but you’d better be prepared to keep your money on the move!)
In particular, the cost of housing has increased out of all recognition in the past sixty years – despite the fact that the supply has also gone up. Houses in Leonard and Eva’s road in Clevedon were selling at around the £3,000 mark (depending on condition) in 1961. Their house – which has admittedly had plastic windows and solar panels since their time, but now has only half as much garden – would be something like £425,000 if it came on the market today; that’s a mark-up of about 1,400%. If all inflation operated at the same level, a toaster – £6 in 1961 – would be £8,400 today, whereas the cheapest one in Argos at the moment is £9.99!
So, on the whole, these calculations have only limited usefulness – unless one cares to speculate how much profit could have been derived by hanging on to a house which, in Leonard and Eva’s case, they had moved into the moment it was completed and moved out of forty-eight years later without ever having had to change the light-bulb in the hall. For anyone who reads these posts and is not in the same ever-so-slightly-over-21 age bracket as the present author it may, however, serve as a salutary reminder that “The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.”
The Baker Bunch – Part Two
We continue the saga of the children of William Augustus and Alice Esther Baker with their five youngest – all boys.
Alas, not the movie-star of the same name, who was forty years younger and Welsh. Stan was married to Grace Maud Philpot and they had one son, Philip Stanley Baker – June’s ‘Cousin Phil’ – who laid much of the groundwork of the family history detective work in this particular line. Alas, in later years, June became very confused, and actually spent a whole day with her Cousin Clive thinking he was Cousin Phil. Phil died in 2007, and it would be very interesting to know what had happened to his research material; enquiries I have made have yielded precisely nothing, unfortunately.
Reg was married to Jessica Munton, and their son was named John – and this is, I’m afraid, all the information I currently have about him except that, like all of his brothers but Frank, he both served in the First World War and worked his entire life for the GWR.
We’re on safer ground with Frank; he was June’s father. He married Edith Nellie Louise Mullinger (1895-1987) in 1919 and they had four children – William Edward Frank (‘Teddy’), June Edith, Pauline Mary, and Peter Neville Macord.* Frank was excluded both from working with the GWR and also from active military duty in the First World War as the result of a childhood accident which left him with only one eye. He did, however, go to France as an ambulance driver; the emotions of Alice as she waved away all seven sons, in turn, to the battlefields can only be imagined.
Frank had a glass eye, and is reputed to have entertained guests by taking it out and polishing it at the dinner table – but this story seems to have circulated about everyone who ever had a glass eye, and should probably be taken with a pinch of salt! He was variously in the licensed trade, a cinema manager, and the proprietor of a tobacconist and sweet shop – the business, and premises, of which he is trying to divest himself of in the course of the 1960 and 1961 letters on this site. He was also a Freemason, but this is an area of family history which is notoriously elusive and I have not attempted to research it yet; however I am aware that the masons refused to help Edith when, towards the end of her life, she needed a place in a residential care home.
Cyril married Beryl Smith, and they had four children – Patricia Kathleen, Iris, Anthony Cyril Raynham, and Clive Robert Ian. Again, as with some of the other ‘boys’, this is all the available information at the moment; clearly further research is indicated.
Lacking any definitive information about how his nickname came to be, it isn’t difficult to imagine young Hubert being his mother’s darling and consolation after the death of her husband. Apart from this we know little, and it is only recently (i.e. February 2021) that a photograph of him has emerged on a ‘Member’s Tree’ in the Ancestry database, incorrectly labelled as being of Frank. Clearly a wrong attribution had become attached to it by someone who had never met Frank, or indeed anyone who knew him; close scrutiny, however, reveals a cap badge bearing the Prince of Wales’ feathers, and we know that Bunny was in the Prince of Wales’ Own Civil Service Rifles.
The circumstances of Bunny’s death are still a mystery, although it should be possible to research. He died (appropriately for a railway worker) at Railway Dugouts, near Ypres, on 18 January 1917, and is commemorated on the Ealing Memorial Gates at Ealing Common, along with over 800 other local men.
So, these are the seven men and two women who made up ‘The Baker Bunch’. They undoubtedly knew hardship – Alice used to tell her sons always to carry a half-penny and a stone in their pocket, so that they could jangle them together and sound wealthy even though they weren’t – however they all seem to have won through in the end and made decent lives for themselves and their children, who by my reckoning numbered 26 in all, with goodness knows how many grandchildren, great-grandchildren, great-great grandchildren (Frank certainly has at least three!) and potentially great-great-great grandchildren before too long.
It really needs little more than this snapshot of one family to realise exactly how big a task Family History is, even when you already have a lot of the information you need. Family is indeed, as Dodie Smith memorably called it, a ‘Dear Octopus’ from whose tentacles one can never completely escape; that being said, however, it is not un-reasonable to document it to whatever extent is possible – if only so that future generations do not continue to confuse Phil with Clive, or Frank with Bunny!
[*Mullinger and Macord are both fascinating families with very long recorded histories; the Macords in particular were Huguenots who fled to England from religious persecution in France in the seventeenth century, and it would be reasonable to suggest that every single Macord in the various online genealogy databases is somehow related to ‘our’ Macords – it’s a particularly unusual surname. My distant relative Colin Gronow is currently working on a definitive ‘One-Name Study‘ of the Macords. The name came into the Baker line via Alice Esther’s mother Rachael Nickolls Macord.]
The Baker Bunch – Part One
The history of the Baker family (June’s ancestors) as I know it goes back to a certain ‘Symon Baker’ born in about 1620, of whom all we know is that he had a son called Daniel born about 1650. They seem to have originated in Gloucestershire and eventually gravitated to London, with certain excursions to Lancashire and Guernsey when one of the 19th century William Bakers was ordained in the Church of England and naturally had to go where he was sent.
His eldest son, therefore, William Augustus Baker, was born at Farnworth in Lancashire in 1854. William Augustus described himself in the 1881 census as a ‘tea dealer’ (which I suspect means he sold tea from a cart, rather than being a commodities broker on the Stock Exchange), but by 1891 he was calling himself an ‘accountant’. He died in 1897, aged only 43, leaving behind a widow and nine children. This is the ‘Bunch’ we’re going to be talking about today – and we have an almost unprecedented opportunity of seeing them all in one place, which probably last happened at some point before or during the First World War.
William and his wife Alice – she was born in Stepney of a father who was a Customs officer and a deaf mother – managed to squeeze out nine living children in fifteen years, despite taking a breather in 1884, 1887, 1889, 1891 and 1894/5. There is little evidence to suggest how Alice and her children supported themselves in the immediate aftermath of William’s death, although later evidence would seem to suggest that they took in lodgers – and no doubt some of the elder children were able to do part-time work, but there is a gap in the record here. William Augustus’s will, which was not proved until 35 years after his death, declared effects to the value of £250 – roughly £17,000 in 2021 money.
So here is our cast of characters: William Augustus and Alice seem to have evaded being photographed – unless they turn up in the background of a wedding group somewhere – but their children managed at least one turn each before the lens. Since there are so many of them, we’ll have to split them into two groups.
Eda never married. By the 1891 census she was already living with her family in what would be her lifelong home, 17 Eccleston Road, West Ealing, London. Always referred to just as ‘17’, this property was not relinquished by the family until some time in the 1970s. In 1901 she was a ‘domestic nurse’ (i.e. nurserymaid or similar, probably untrained) to a family named Spencer in Rickmansworth; in 1911 she was living – presumably in a similar capacity – with her younger married sister, Nell, who had a six month old son. Eda then disappears from online records until the death of her mother in 1928, after which her surviving brothers joined forces to ensure that she would either inherit or otherwise acquire the lease of 17. The details are still elusive, but she was certainly in the business of letting rooms to lodgers – specifically, it seems, to single young men who worked for the GWR and later British Rail. This was how Alec came to be living there immediately after WWII, and how he met – and eventually married – her niece June.
The eldest of what I have called elsewhere ‘The Fabulous Baker Boys’. Six of the brothers worked for the GWR in some capacity, and all six of these eventually went off to fight in the First World War. Will married Gertrude Chaloner and they had two sons, another William and a Ronald. I have not had a chance yet to research either the wartime careers or the GWR work histories of the ‘boys’, so details are somewhat lacking in many cases.
Rob was married twice; the first time to Annie King, with whom he had four children – Joan, Olive, Delphine and Derek – and, after her death in 1929, to Rhoda Mary Balsdon. The last of the ‘boys’ to die, Rob lived in a house in Ealing with Rhoda and their hyperactive poodle, Pepe. He was house-bound for many years, and was therefore the first person I knew – and probably one of the first in the country – to own a (*gasp*!) colour television. He used to enjoy watching the racing on ITV in the afternoons, but whether or not he ever had a flutter I am unable to say.
Nell’s life had interesting parallels with her mother’s. Alice married at 28 and was widowed at 43; she had nine children, the youngest being eight months old when his father died. This youngest son was also the first of the children to die, being killed in action in 1917 (see Part Two). Nell, in turn, married in 1909 at the age of 23 to John Stewart Percy and was widowed at 40. She gave birth to ten children – James, Mary, Maxwell, Barbara, Pamela, Montague, Anne, Jean, Colin and Timothy – the last of whom was born after her husband’s death, and unfortunately died as a baby.
If Nell was employed outside the home at any period between the 1901 census – when she is a ‘scholar’ at the age of 14 – and the date of her marriage, the record does not show. Her husband’s untimely death in 1926 left her a wealthy woman with a large family, and her younger brother Frank became her business manager; he ran cinemas, pubs, hotels, dance halls and at least one billiards club on her behalf for a period of more than thirty years before she began to divest herself of them.
She was clearly, from her photo, the glamorous one in the family!
Sunday 5th February, 1961
Alec to his parents:
Dear Mum and Dad,
Thank you both for your letters again this week. It seems that you have both had a really bad bout of flu this time and also postal staff if your mail is arriving late. The flu that is going about is supposed to be a strain of the Asian type that laid me out in 1957 in the December twice just in advance of your expected Christmas arrival. If you recall we were in doubt for a long time whether to call it all off. I well recall that I had not up to that time (or since thank goodness ) had an attack that made me feel so ill. Temperature must have been in the 200 mark* and could not lie comfortable. Had to turn over at least once every 30 seconds while the fever was on. It seems that the attacks are widespread new, and affect the whole of the Country. So far touch wood we hare not succumbed although we have all felt slightly off colour with headaches etc. Things all very normal to-day I am glad to say.
Mc Donald went down with it on Thursday, and Lay went home in the afternoon. A junior typist also complained of it on Thursday and failed to turn up on Friday. That accounts for one on either side of me in the office. I am not surprised it has left you very weak, and you are wise not to attempt too much too soon. I should not attempt anything more energetic than wine tasting in the garage for a day or so.
The school which we hope to accept Susan is almost directly behind us in Field End Rd. It is a very nice fairly modern school which we have seen from time to time as it is our local polling station. To get there Susan will have to go up over the top of this road and turn right at the bottom. I am not sure if there is a way in from this side or if she must go round by the Clay Pigeon and turn right again.
Your comment on the weather prompts me to say that yesterday was a very fine day for the most part although there was quite a lot of rain in the night. Friday was good too with quite an amount of sun. Generally the week has been a lot milder, but Monday presented us with a thunder storm accompanied by rain and hail for a short time about 6-0 pm. I was in the train homeward bound at the time and missed it. (The storm.)
Yes the serious work now starts in this department. From what I can see of it one has to define ones own area of influence or else it never gets done. Have L.D.C. Consultation meetings lined up for Monday ( Kensington Parcels ) Tuesday ( Acton Yard Staff and Old Oak Common Signalmen) and Wednesday ( Oxford Passenger Station ). At the moment I am included out of the Oxford jaunt, but if the flu casualties hare not returned I may yet land the whole lot. Have put Notley into Paddington Parcels alongside the existing team leader to assist and deputise in his absence. He may have to supervise a second assignment to prepare a scheme for Paddington Goods Shunters. My commercial colleague is meeting the Goods L.D.C. to start that one off this week.
I have to clear a lot of air with McDonald this week regarding the basis for Operating Schemes. He will have to give a decision on a number of points. Lay seems unable or unwilling to give any decisions other than to say Mr McDonald will not like that. Unfortunately I cannot seem to be able to get him to say what Mr McDonald would like.
Note you will be coming up on the Wednesday before Easter and hope the weather will be good for you. You might as well use the garage ( if you can get your car in ) as not much point in protecting an old car and leaving a fairly new one outside.
I gather the expert has finished your trees. Has he drastically thinned them out? I should imagine that is what he would have done. Should like to hear any comments he may have made about the quality etc of the various types of tree. Of course if there is an embarrassment of apple wood at Devonia we could relieve you of some of it, if there is some spare room in the boot.
Poor old Welch, I reckon he got that job to get him out of the way. He was not too bright on original work but may be better on routine fetching and carrying, tho I am afraid there is no equivalent place to Transom House or Marland House ( Cardiff } or the new place at Birmingham. We are occupying the fifth floor in the old Chief Commercial Officers block. ( Above D.O.S.O. on arrival side.) At the moment we are all seated on one long desk ( shades of journal clerks ) with no drawer or cupboard accommodation. All my stuff brought over from Winsland St by Notley in parcels and boxes remains dumped on the floor in a heap by the window. I have refused to consider opening any of the parcels to extract papers until our final accommodation is ready. McDonalds office should have been ready for his return but was only completed the early part of this week. He has green carpet overall and one desk in a room about as big as Bristol S.M. Lay and Davis (Head of New Works ) will occupy his old office and their carpet and renovated desks were being positioned towards the end of the week. Have not looked in to see what progress made. Poynter Mures and myself will have separate desks in line across the top of the outer office and then next again will be two lines of double sided desks for about twenty admin staff. Behind them will be two desks for the Research Head of Section and his assistant. I forgot to say that a typing pool suitably shut off by glass screens will be situated between Lay’s office and ours. From what I can see of it the former Commercial people have [to] live on near starvation level so far as equipment and stationery goes. Frightened them to death the other day when I put in a requisition for complete stocking of a Work Study Coach.
John seems to have landed on his feet where business is concerned. Was it his choice, or is this a bit of Joe’s astuteness?
Re OMO bright lamp. We went to Ealing yesterday but did not have a lot of time for window gazing. We are going again next week so may see a shade we like. In any case we should have a lot more time when you come up.
Re paddling. As stated yesterday was very sunny, so sunny in fact that Susan asked to have the paddling pool on the lawn. Just a bit optimistic.
Nice for you to get a letter from Arthur, but what weather. Perhaps it is not a bad place if they get little rain generally – good for rheumatism I should think.
I expect your indoor plants are nice. I am afraid they get too rough treatment here.
I thought the boy who lived next to Elfords was called Ronnie Hoy. He left about 1929 anyway.
Hope extra health service charges will not affect you much. Expect the increase in Railway Pensions will not affect you as the retirement date stipulated was prior to 1955. Still it is good to know these things are being attended to.
Hope Norman has a good interview and wish him luck, but it would seem he is in need of it if that number of applicants is lined up. It is in his favour that he has an interview and thus has an opportunity to win friends and influence people. Speculation as to the result is a waste of time I suppose, but if their organisation is as large as ours, there will be need for about 14 class two’s so he should not be too far away from selection even if unlucky this time. If he should be successful and is sent here on a course ask him to pop in and see me.
Well have been instructed to clear the table for early lunch. ( Headstone Lane jaunt has reshuffled the timetable.) Will close now hoping that you both are a lot better and shaken off the effects of the flu. There are several rows of crocuses out in South Ruislip so that means the better weather cannot be so far away now, and perhaps you can got some healthgiving sun through kitchen or porch windows.
Love from us all for now.
[*Yaaaay, manflu! Naturally Alec’s temperature was higher than anyone else’s ever and of course he suffered more than any human being ever has. It’s a miracle he survived!]
On The Track 