Category: Uncategorized

The mystery of the missing brother

On By Sue JenkinsIn UncategorizedLeave a comment
Teddy in approx. 1924 and 1944

Now we come to one of the sadder chapters of our family history, the story of June’s missing brother. That is to say, he wasn’t literally ‘missing’ – he didn’t go off hiking one day and never come back, or anything like that – but he was deliberately expelled from the family for conduct that has never been specified, and there was no remotest possibility of forgiveness or reconciliation for the rest of his life.

William Edward Frank Baker (Teddy) was born at 112 Tenison Road, Cambridge, on 26 March 1922, the first child of Frank – then a cinema manager – and Edith (nee Mullinger). There is a photo of him as a small child, certainly less than two years old, and then a gap in the record until he joins Lindisfarne College, Westcliff-on-Sea, in January 1934 at the age of 11.

I have a full set of school reports, which seem to suggest that he was ill during his first summer term and missed quite a lot of school, after which he struggled to catch up. His strengths were maths, ‘handwork’ (presumably carpentry) and, unexpectedly, French – although he clearly enjoyed larking about and was not particularly serious about his work. As far as his conduct goes, his headmaster – one Edward Daws – repeatedly refers to him as a pleasant and good-natured boy; not academic, perhaps, but practical and straightforward, and one who should do well in later life.

Of course, you have all worked out already what’s coming young Teddy’s way; he was born in 1922, and would therefore have been 17 at the start of the Second World War. In 1939 he was living with his parents at the Victoria Hotel in Wolverton (‘The New Queen Victoria’), and was described as an ‘Assistant Hotel Manager’. His father was the manager. Teddy’s parents, two sisters and his baby brother (June, Pauline and Peter) all lived there as well; so did his maternal grandfather William and his mother’s sister Nell – plus a barmaid, the barmaid’s child, and another couple who were probably lodgers. This is a household of ten people, and although the building is quite large it was operating as a hotel and may also have had letting bedrooms – which would have been more than enough to keep the family busy cooking, cleaning and otherwise catering for themselves and their guests.

Details of Teddy’s wartime career are not available at the moment; the MoD will not release them without the consent of the next of kin until 25 years after the individual’s death. He was in the RAF, he was not a pilot, and he served in the Far East; that’s all I know.

In 1943, Frank and Edith inserted a notice in one of the Southend newspapers (not yet identified):

BAKER: Of age on March 26th 1943, William Edward Frank (RAF) eldest son of Mr and Mrs Frank Baker, late of Strand Cinema and Mascot Cinema. Now of Tower Arms Hotel, Iver, Bucks. [2739A]

And then there is silence. We have Teddy’s own word (in a letter to Alec Atkins after Edith had died) that he ‘lost contact with his family in the 1950s’. June’s only comments about this ever were ‘he was a tyrant’ and ‘he broke his mother’s heart’. Alec went to considerable lengths to track him down via the secretary of the RAFA at Uxbridge in 1987, because Teddy had been left a small legacy in Edith’s will. Teddy decline to benefit, and asked that the money should be sent to the World Wildlife Fund instead. Alec was quite brusque, saying that he didn’t know why Teddy had remained apart from his family and he didn’t want to know, and there the correspondence ended.

In late 2003, June was contacted by an heir hunter in connection with Teddy’s own estate; Teddy had apparently died in early 2001 – about six months before Alec, as it happens – and there was a small sum of money to be distributed between his heirs. As Pauline had also died by then, and had no children, June and Peter shared the legacy between them; June was reluctant to accept the money, but recognised that it would enable her to help her grandson, Robin, so put most of it into an account for him.

And now there’s nobody left to explain how and why a family member was so effectively shut out that his death wasn’t known about until more than two years after the event. Nothing about Teddy’s school reports indicates a ‘tyrant’ in his youth; he was never in trouble with the police as far as I know, but until I can access his service record it’s impossible to know what may have happened to him during the war. My best guess at the moment is PTSD, which changed his behaviour, or possibly some involvement in the infamous RAF mutiny of 1946. Or, indeed, both.

Teddy never married, nor had children, and the rest of his life is a mystery. He may have worked for the RAF in a civilian capacity, as I received the garbled impression that he was a steward in the Mess at RAF Hendon, but unless I can make contact with someone who knew him towards the end of his life this is unlikely ever to be resolved.

I’ve applied for Teddy’s death certificate in case it sheds any more light on the subject, but at the time of posting this it still hasn’t arrived. I’ll update if there is anything of interest to report when it does get here.

Anyway, Teddy was a perfect example of the way the family as a whole tended to deal with problems – i.e. ignore them, and the people who create them, and simply make them go away. There was a similar case in the 1980s when they tried to magic away someone who did not fit their template for an ideal human being – but somehow or another, and to their eternal chagrin, I’m still here, and I’m the one who gets to tell the story.

I’m really sorry, Teddy, I wish I’d known you; I think we’d have had quite a lot in common!

The Fabulous Baker Boys

On By Sue JenkinsIn UncategorizedLeave a comment
Left to right: Will, Rob, Stan, Reg, Frank and Cyril. Date unknown, but certainly inter-war; 1930s perhaps?

I thought we’d done this before, but apparently not. Therefore – since we have recently mentioned June’s uncles Stan (who died in May 1960) and Will (who had a stroke that same year but survived), and we will shortly be mentioning Cyril who also died in 1960, and June’s father Frank is never far from the proceedings – it’s probably time to do them justice.

William Augustus Baker, 1854-1897, who described himself as a ‘tea dealer and rent collector’ (although we suspect his tea dealing was done from a barrow on a street corner somewhere) was June’s grandfather; however he died nearly thirty years before she was born. He had married Alice Esther Daniel in early 1854, and by the end of that year the first of their nine children was born; this was Alice Edith Macord Baker, 1882-1962, (‘Macord’ being a family name with a fascinating pedigree of its own), who is the Miss Baker (Aunt Eda) who sometimes appears in the letters.

Apart from Eleanor, 1886-1964, who made an interesting marriage and was subsequently the family superstar, all the rest were boys: William Ernest (Will), 1882-1962; Robert Lionel (Rob), 1885-1971; Stanley (Stan), 1888-1960; Reginald (Reg), 1890-1968; Frank, 1892-1963; Cyril, 1893-1960; and Hubert Dudley (‘Bunny’), 1896-1917.

Frank was blinded in one eye as the result of a childhood accident, which kept him out of military service in the First World War when – as far as I know – all his brothers went; however he was able to serve as an ambulance driver. Bunny, who was in the Civil Service Rifles, was killed in 1917 on active service and buried at Railway Dugout cemetery, Ypres. Alice was awarded a pension on his behalf.

All the surviving ‘boys’ except Frank joined the GWR. Again, his disability prevented it; Frank became ‘business manager’ for Eleanor when she was widowed, and ran a number of hotels, pubs, and other commercial operations on her behalf.

As you will have gathered, railways were what brought the family together; Alec Atkins, as a young man, came to lodge at the house in Ealing which was then owned by Eda Baker – and which presumably gave priority to young GWR railwaymen – and there he met her niece, June, whom he married in 1954.

Taken in the late 1950s, so potentially about 25 years later than the picture above. Left to right: Will, Rob, Stan, Reg and Cyril. I would like to thank the ‘boys’ for kindly lining up in birth order each time and making a humble chronicler’s life easier as a result.

In the late 1950s the ‘boys’ were featured in an issue of the GWR magazine; their photo was taken at an annual cricket match and an article was written about their many years of service – which must by this point have totalled about 200 years, a small drop in the ocean of the joined families’ overall service. Five of June’s uncles were railway staff; so were both of Alec’s uncles, his father, his grandfather and a myriad of predecessors dating back to the earliest recorded member of the family in railway service who was a packer in the goods department at Weston-super-Mare.

Apart from Frank the ‘boy’ I have the clearest recollection of is Rob, who outlived all the others. He lived in a house in Ealing – very close to, and possibly later subsumed by, a large branch of Sainsbury’s – with his second wife, Rhoda, and an excitable little white poodle called Pepe. Rob was house-bound and in very poor health, and as result he bought the first colour television I ever saw in private hands – although I had seen a demonstration of colour TV in a department store a short time before that – in order to watch racing in the afternoons. Whether or not he ever had a flutter, I am not in a position to say.

I’m in intermittent contact with Rob’s grandson Christopher, who is one of the many cousins I’ve been in touch with during my family history researches. Chris’s father, Roy, very kindly sent me a whole batch of old family photos before his death a few years ago – some of which I will be reproducing here in due course.

Friday 5th August, 1960

On By Sue JenkinsIn 1960 letters, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Eva to the family [on reverse of Table 152: LONDON, OXFORD, BANBURY, LEAMINGTON SPA, STRATFORD-UPON-AVON, BIRMINGHAM, WOLVERHAMPTON, SHREWSBURY and CHESTER Mondays to Fridays – continued] –

Dear Alec June Susan and Carol

Many thanks for letter. We have been on the outing & had a good time. It was pouring when we left for Bristol to join Newmans but half way there it stopped & although dull most of the day was nice & dry.

It is lovely country all the way & we got there about 5.15. Starting at 2.40 p.m.* We lunched at Newmans.

Aunt Lydia & Joe had a nice time here. I told her you were enquiring about the bungalow & if you think any more about it she starts booking at Xmas. We are going down again in October for weekend when she finishes up the summer letting & has to go through the bungalow & prepare for the winter let.

Glad you are having a new job & with the old it might mean something later on.

Hope you are all feeling better & that Mr & Mrs Baker & Pauline & Peter are well.

Lots of love & kisses for girls from

Mum & Dad

*Even assuming they were in a coach of some sort, two and a half hours from Bristol to Symonds Yat is slow going; nowadays it would take about half that. They must have gone, as we used to say as children, ‘the wiggly-waggly way’.

200th post!

On By Sue JenkinsIn Fewings, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Crikey, this seems to have come round quickly – so quickly, in fact, that I hadn’t actually prepared anything for it. However when I was trying to sort out the mis-dating of the family photos recently I stumbled across a little snippet of family-related news which is definitely worth including here – no matter how distant the actual relationship may be.

So, let’s start with an explanation. You’ll have figured out by now that Leonard’s wife, Eva, had a brother named Joe. Joe, married to Lydia, lived in the fascinating house in Shelly Road, Exmouth, which fell a victim to the Council bulldozer in the 1970s.

Family at Tiverton, 1960

This picture, taken by either June or Eva*, shows Lydia in the centre with her grand-daughter Claire on her lap and Joe standing behind her. Joe is flanked by (left) his son-in-law Eric Shapland and (right) Eric’s father Harold Shapland. On either side of Lydia are her daughter Pat (left), and Alec (right), and on the front row are Susan, Kay Shapland, and Carol.

Harold Shapland was a bit of a minor celebrity and actually a good deal younger than he looks in this photo – he didn’t turn sixty until a few months later – and among his other achievements he was a commentator on bowls for both BBC radio and television.

Eric, although apparently not sharing his passion for bowls, certainly followed him in local politics. It was while attempting to verify the identification of the men in this photo as Harold and Eric that I stumbled across Eric’s recent obituary. Our families had lost touch over the years, but clearly Eric was a very popular man in the Tiverton area and his passing will leave a considerable gap.

I wrote a letter on 20 July which I hoped would reach a member of the family eventually, and by coincidence had a message via this page from one of Eric’s daughters a day or two later. I replied by e-mail but haven’t had any further response, although it would be nice to join up another loose end and exchange family news.

*Likely, I think, to be June, who is obviously missing from the photo. This was almost certainly a day trip from Clevedon, and if we left one adult behind everyone else would fit into Leonard’s car; Eva, therefore, despite the visit being to her brother, would no doubt have ‘stayed behind to get the dinner’. The only exception might have been if June was unwell and had opted out, allowing Eva to go instead, but Eva was not exactly a reliable hand with a camera and I honestly don’t think this is her work!

The Mystery of the Missing Pearls

On By Sue JenkinsIn UncategorizedLeave a comment
Sunday 20 June 1960: Poets’ Walk, Clevedon

So, although I’ve mentioned it before, this was how one dressed for a Sunday afternoon walk in Clevedon in 1960. In my collection of old photos this image is dated 1961, but we’ll come to that in a moment.

Loss of the pearls

It was not possible to go out walking on a Sunday afternoon in, say, shorts, tee-shirt and sandals; it was necessary to be ‘properly dressed’, because the object of the exercise was to look as if one had been to church that day, even if one had not. Nor was any music (other than of a sacred nature) allowed to be heard escaping from one’s home. Nor were children to be seen and heard playing out in the garden, and no housework was to be undertaken except cooking. (Think of the scandal if the neighbours heard the Hoover or the washing-machine; think how awful it would be if anyone was hammering or sawing on a Sunday!)

If you think those stultifying scenes of home life in ‘Pirate Radio’/’The Boat That Rocked’ are exaggerated, think again; not every household worked that way, but some certainly did.

Leonard, of course, as the son of a very religious mother, attended church every Sunday. He was captain of the bell-ringing team for many years, also in the choir, and was I believe a church warden as well. Eva was a stalwart of the flower-arranging rota, and the church was always full of chrysanthemums cut from the garden at Devonia. In short, they Had A Position To Maintain – which meant that their guests had to toe the line and dress up for a walk as if they were setting off to meet the Queen; men in suits, women in dresses, children in their best shoes and hair-ribbons. That was just the way they did things in those days.

So, this accounts for the whole family going out for a walk on Sunday dressed to the nines and June wearing her pearls, and as there were two Sundays during the holiday this clearly happened twice – on Sunday 20 and 27 June. The picture with this blogpost must have been taken on Sunday 20 June, because – devastatingly – June’s pearls vanished during a Sunday walk on that trip and were never seen again. She never felt them go – just, one moment they were there and the next they weren’t. That couldn’t have been the same day that the photo was taken, for reasons I’ll list below*, so the pearls must have been lost on Sunday 27 June. As soon as the loss was realised we all turned back – to the top of Church Hill, for those who know Clevedon – and searched; however I’m pretty sure we were all looking for an intact necklace, perhaps with a broken clasp, whereas in retrospect the more likely scenario is that the string broke and the pearls were scattered to the winds. Eventually we gave up and left – whether walking on or turning back I now can’t remember – and the loss would have been reported to the local police, probably by telephone, in the hopes that they might be handed in. They never were, though, and June’s lament ever afterwards was that ‘somebody’s had those’.

In any case, Leonard’s letter makes it clear that they started the ball rolling on an insurance claim when we got home. Whether the eventual payment came up short or not I can’t say – maybe the letters will give some indication – but the money was clearly used for something else; June never had another set of pearls, at any rate, which is a bit sad – but, as they wouldn’t have had any sentimental association if she’d bought them herself – maybe she just didn’t see the need.

And from that day to this, every time I embark on that walk over Church Hill, I’m half looking out for my mother’s pearl necklace; you never know, it might turn up. We recently found a gold ring that had been buried in our garden since the early 1950s, so stranger things have definitely happened! However we also live over 150 miles away now, which cuts down our searching activities a bit.

Photo dating

All the slides in Alec’s collection are dated, by Alec, in his own hand. He used to give slide shows, which we called ‘pictures on the wall’, and this dating would have occurred round about the time he bought the first projector. The date of that is undetermined at the moment, but 1963 or thereabouts might be a reasonable guess.

However, unfortunately, the picture shown – which was clearly taken in June 1960 because the pearls are present – was dated 1961 by Alec. This, in turn, is going to call into question all his other datings – particularly the early ones – which will now have to be re-examined in some detail.

It does, however, mean that the picture taken in Pinner Park, which I used in conjunction with a post about that, was also taken in 1960 rather than 1961. You will note all three of us are wearing virtually identical outfits in the two pictures, which reinforces the status of the park visit – best clothes and best behaviour. How exhausting!

*Reasons for dating this particular picture to the week before:

1. It was taken on a bench on the path between St Andrew’s Church and the clifftop which is known as Poets’ Walk. We would have set off from ‘Devonia’ (then at 8, Tennyson Avenue – later renumbered to 10, Tennyson Avenue) and walked out along Church Road and through the gate at the end, where a path branched up and around the headland. (We flew kites there sometimes, but not of course on Sundays.) We would then come down from Church Hill along Poets’ Walk and returned either through or around the churchyard or – if we had more energy and the weather was good – continued down to The Salthouse Inn and back along the road. (N.B. this probably had something to do with the old superstition about never walking around a church ‘widdershins’, i.e. anti-clockwise!)

In short, Poets’ Walk was after Church Hill where the pearls were lost – and if June is still wearing her pearls at Poets’ Walk then clearly this must have been a different occasion.

2. I have a vivid recollection of what June was wearing when she realised her pearls were missing, and it wasn’t the brown and white dress and cardigan shown in the picture. It was a pale yellow and cream dress which was very flattering on her and set off the pearls to perfection. The obvious inference to draw from this is that the weather was much better on 27 June than it was the Sunday before, but clearly the string the pearls were on was no longer up to the job. June was devastated, but for once she didn’t actually manage to find a way of blaming her children for the loss. There were very few occasions thereafter when that could truly be said to be the case.

A visiting hovercraft

On By Sue JenkinsIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

This is really out of sequence as no doubt we will be talking about the hovercraft again when we reach the letters for 1963; however this is perhaps as good a moment as any to introduce the subject.

As the linked video shows, briefly in 1963 there was a trial hovercraft ferry service from Weston-super-Mare across the channel to Penarth. It was the very epitome of a ‘nine days’ wonder’, briefly enjoyed and then never seen again (like Costa Coffee’s Giant Jaffa Cakes … ) and it must have appeared to some people at the time almost as an hallucination. Indeed, mention it to some people these days and they look at you as if you’d lost your mind; however it did exist, and here’s some footage and some photographs to prove it.

Breakfast in the Park

On By Sue JenkinsIn 1960 letters, UncategorizedLeave a comment

A few times in 1960/1961 Alec and June took the children to have breakfast in Pinner Memorial Park and feed the ducks – at a distance of just over three miles from home. Although described by Alec in his letters as ‘spontaneous’ or ‘spur of the moment’ these jaunts required a considerable amount of planning, in which he of course did not participate. The food had to be prepared and packed – without the use of plastic containers, which were not especially common then – and the children had to be dressed up smartly as if they were going to church. The following picture is from 1961, but will give a fairly clear idea of what was involved.

Tuesday 1st March, 1960

On By Sue JenkinsIn 1960 letters, UncategorizedLeave a comment

From Eva to the family:

Dear Alec, June, Susan and Carol

Many thanks for the letter of last week. Glad to hear the children are going on alright at last.

The weather has been so much warmer, I expect they play in the garden again. Dad has been busy digging his garden but the ground is still very wet.

I have finished going over to Miss Weekes now she is so much better & can get around on her own. Colds are very plentiful around this way. On Wednesday we hop to go to Bristol to Newmans the last time I went to Bristol shopping was November. The car came back today so we should be O.K.

Mrs Cornish & some of the Tickenham W.I. are going to London on Wednesday to see My Fair Lady*. They leave here 3.15 and get back again following morning at 2.30. They could not get in last year and have been booked up for twelve months.

Some of the T.G.** are going over Paxman’s Laundry on March 10th hope they will give us tea. I guess you were surprised at the Royal engagement***. We were listening to the gardening when they interrupted the programme.

We have a few crocuses up which makes a splash of colour & our cinerarias have been lovely all colours from white to pale pink rose mauve violet saxe blue & royal.

Old Aston’s eye is still a bit black guess he had that to last a lifetime.

The research station is closing down within the next twelve months & the powers that be have to find jobs for about 60 people. The Antibiotics are going to a place near Salisbury**** as being more central & they will only take a few employees with them. Kelly will be alright I suppose.

Hope Pauline’s cold is better. Pity she couldn’t be at the birthday party, how time flies. I hope the children won’t be shy of us when we see them.

The bureau bookcase seems to be what you needed there the children don’t get at the books now.

The people who have bought next door have had the gas taken out & a new grate put in one of the rooms so they have started at last.

We don’t see Norman these days he doesn’t take any orders now either for Clevedon or the office. I have been around the orchard & the plum blossoms seem to be plentiful again although a little too early to say definitely.

Pat***** is expecting her third this month I think.

Well I think this is all for now so will close with love from us both.

Mum & Dad

*The London production of My Fair Lady opened on 30 April 1958 with Rex Harrison and Julie Andrews in the leading roles, but by the time these ladies made the trip both the leading players had been replaced.

**Townswomen’s Guild – the urban counterpart of the W.I.

***The engagement between Princess Margaret and Anthony Armstrong Jones (as he was at the time) was announced on 26 February, but they had apparently been engaged since October.

****This is a bit of a mystery, but ‘near Salisbury’ seems to indicate Porton Down and it’s therefore not impossible that ‘antibiotics’ were a bit of a cover story. I need to look into this further.

*****Pat was a cousin of Alec’s, although I haven’t quite figured out where she fits into the family tree. More on this as and when I get it.

Thursday 25th February, 1960

On By Sue JenkinsIn 1960 letters, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Leonard to the family [on the reverse of Table 60, Southern Region via Reading]:

Dear Alec June Susan & Carol

Many thanks for your letter received on Tuesday with all the news. Apparently it was Carol’s turn to get into trouble this time by tipping over the milk – what a good job it was not hot. How nice of Mrs Grey to pass over the two dolls’ prams. To Susan & Carol they would be worth their weight in gold and I expect they are both delighted. They will have such a lot to show us and talk about when we see them. Easter Sunday is seven weeks from next Sunday the 28th inst.

Yes Ron Sprod’s father was parcels porter at Clevedon many years ago – has been dead now I should think for about ten years. No further information about Mr Trimmer and we really have no contact with anyone who might know how he is progressing. Will bear it in mind though. Miss Weeks told mum yesterday she thought she would be able to manage by herself starting next week. No more news of Mr Bishop but he is still in house. There has been some activity next door (Cummings old house) this week. The gas men were there one day disconnecting gas from main so it looks as if the next occupier will be ‘all electric’. Yesterday the Metal Agencies van from Bristol called there with – I think – a new fireplace – and a couple of men were on hand to receive it and take it inside.

We understand the old chap Soole is now in a hospital in Bristol – probably St Mary’s where he has been a patient before. The hospital incidentally is in his old parish of Clifton so he is well known there. Aston’s eye is still as black as ink – a real beauty. He came over yesterday and I gave him one of those large windows out of Marsh Jun. box* so that he could make a garden frame. He has just taken on a small piece of allotment behind Lionel Mogg’s house at bottom of avenue.

Note Carol better in car last weekend – let’s hope they both get over the car sickness soon or it will be no pleasure for you to take them out for a run.

Someone at Bristol sent me through the post a page torn from the Daily Telegraph of Thursday the 18th inst in which Soole’s engagement was announced. I don’t suppose it caught your eye.

Sorry to hear very little – if any – improvement in Miss Baker – this weather is enough to upset everybody. Yesterday was the limit. Rained most of day and with a bitterly cold wind. The previous day (Tuesday) was quite good and I was able to do some more rough digging. Today it is rain again but much milder and this afternoon we had one of those heavy mists come in from the sea – quite dark at times too. I put 106 shallots in last Saturday morning and now waiting opportunity to get in some peas but unless weather improves they will not go in this week.

Note no interviews for vacant posts in Work Study Section yet also that nothing in the offing any good to you. Expect the powers that be are now waiting for the Gillibaud report to come out.

Should like to have seen Susan & Carol with the cuckoo clock. Don’t expect Carol would have been shy for very long once she had got used to it. We like the sound of your acquisition of the bureau bookcase. Quite a useful piece of furniture but it was news to me that there was a broken spring in the arm of one of the chairs in front room. Cannot say I noticed it at any time.

The lorries are still bringing stone to the sea wall and have nearly reached the end of the same. Was told by Ted Caple who lives in St. Andrew’s Drive & who was off sick with lumbago last week that he was watching them through a pair of field glasses and saw one of the lorries tip over onto the field. Took Binding & Payne’s breakdown outfit most of day to get it back on bank again. I think the road on top of the bank is being made more for maintenance purposes (i.e. sea wall maintenance) and there is no thought of making a short cut to Weston-super-Mare.

Heels are about again but not on garden yet – he came over Tuesday morning and had a look in greenhouse etc. and this morning Cummings (convalescing after goitre operation) called round for a chat. He is getting on satisfactorily but Dr will not sign him off yet. Randle – who lived in corner house opposite to where Cummings lives now – moved out on Monday. Gone to Corsham as bank manager. The incoming people are from Sheffield but I cannot say if he is in business or coming here to retire – the house is empty at the moment.

Nothing much to report from garden this week but in the greenhouse I’ve taken some more chrysanth cutting and also sown some ten week stock seeds in a seed box. Some of the previous chrysanth cuttings have taken root and accordingly have been potted up separately in 3″ pots.

Shall soon have to think about the things we are going to bring up to you. So far can remember:

  • Window (out of Marsh Jun. Box
  • Buddleia (rooted cutting)
  • Dibber
  • Smallholders (twelve months)
  • Country Lifes (ex-Lyng)
  • ? plants of various kinds if ready in time

This is not complete I know but shall be glad if you will remind me of other items.

No more now – all the best and lost of kisses for Susan & Carol.

Mum & Dad

*Not absolutely certain but I think this may refer to Hallen Marsh Junction signal box. The thought that railway employees were able to take bits of old signal box home with them is an attractive one.

This blog is a year old!

On By Sue JenkinsIn 1960 letters, Fewings, UncategorizedLeave a comment

I’d just been looking at celebrating the 150th post in a couple of days’ time when to my astonishment I realised that it’s actually a year since I started posting!

For anyone who may not have been around then, the justification for this blog is as follows: I have inherited, as well as a lot of family history paperwork, ten years’ worth of letters between (mostly) my parents and my grandparents. I am posting the letters now on the 60th anniversary of the dates they were written, although in due course there will also be some other family history related articles on here. I’m acutely aware, for example, that I’ve pretty exclusively stuck to the Atkins family (as well as their Chinese associates) so far; I also have Baker, Fewings, Mullinger and Macord in my family tree – the last two of which I have researched myself and come up with some fascinating snippets.

I have newspaper clippings, theatre and concert programmes, photographs going back to the mid-nineteenth century, and goodness knows what else. The aim is gradually to reduce the amount of storage needed, which is why I’m posting all these letters online – and yes, destroying the originals. They are valuable not for themselves but for the information they contain, after all.

I’m sorry to have to report, however, that I got short shrift from the second cousin who had previously indicated that she had a lot of family history memorabilia in her loft. She now denies having said any such thing, and reminds me that her father died in 1986. (I knew that, actually.) That was not so much a door closing as a blast door slamming shut and a detonation taking place on the other side of it; there is no route, now, leading in that direction, and although I think that is a terrible shame I have no alternative but to accept it. Her loss, I feel, but clearly this stuff has more value to me than it has to her. I shall at least not feel obliged to consult her about any of this in the future, which is something of a relief.

And so we enter our second year; I know there are a few people reading this now, and I’m not just whistling into the void, so we’ll keep posting and just see what happens. I feel I have an obligation to the people who amassed all this information in the first place to make some attempt to preserve it and share it with anyone who may be interested. I can’t imagine who you may be, or why you’re here, but I know you’re out there somewhere – to quote the words of a song – and even if you weren’t I’d probably still be doing this because I Am Really Just That Sad. 😎