How we all loved Shudy Camps: the rambling house with its unusual
veranda, the large garden and outbuildings, the surrounding meadows and
farmland; the copse running along the roadside; the white-barred gate
we used to swing on; the empty country roads with the only buildings
nearby being the church next door and Tilbrook's farm opposite.
The family - Basil Doris Barbara Mum Gordon Hugh Betty Dad Phil
The Vicar of the parish was Canon Thornton who lived in his own large
property, the Hall. That was why the Vicarage could be rented out to
us. He allowed us to swim and paddle in his lake where we emerged
covered in filthy-smelling mud. When his plums were ripe Gordon wheeled
around to the vicarage a wheelbarrow full of them. Eating so many of
those made Phil ill. We were rarely ill and if we were we were just put
to bed till we recovered. I never remember seeing a doctor. I know he
lived about six miles away at Saffron Waldron because Mummy said he
came over when David was being born but that was when we were away at
school. Her panacea for practically everything external was Johnson's
ointment, lint and bandages. All very different from Derby days when I
remember several of us having English measles together; later, the
others had whooping cough while I was kept isolated in a bedroom by
myself with shingles round my middle. Our poor mother!
AUNTIE PEM
Auntie Pem with Auntie Nancy
She was Daddy's older sister and
before coming
to live with us had been Assistant Matron at Camberwell Infirmary in
London. Her large and generous Christmas presents we had all looked
forward to: I particularly remember a much loved and played with doll's
house she had given to Betty and me.
Soon after we arrived in Shudy she retired and
came to live with us. That must have been a great help to Mummy, having
another adult in the house, although it meant cooking an egg or bacon
for her breakfast. (We had our usual porridge and bread, butter and
marmalade). It particularly meant that Mummy could go out to Sierra
Leone and leave Auntie in charge during the occasional school holidays.
She would often lend us her gramophone - a
wind-up, portable H.M.V. - and we would play such favourites as 'The
laughing policeman', 'In a monastery garden' and so on. Gordon raised
the standard when he brought home such records as Donizetti's 'The
Bride of Lammermoor' and the first movement of Brahms’s first symphony.
She bought a tricycle soon after she arrived
which she would allow us to try and ride; we went mostly straight into
the hedge. It was a very unwieldy vehicle to steer.
Our real friends were our bicycles. How we enjoyed life on them. The
roads were almost devoid of traffic so we could ride around them to our
hearts' content. The boys had a race track round the garden shrubbery
which they pretended was Brooklands, the motor racing track near
Woking.
After two or three years Auntie Pem took over the
village store and Post Office, with its living quarters over the shop.
Of course our trips down there were as frequent as possible because she
was so generous, never letting us leave without a tuppenny bag of
crisps each or a tuppenny bar of milk chocolate. There was only one fly
in the ointment as far as that was concerned: she adored little Barbara
so much that she invariably gave her double of everything. The rest of
us naturally thought this very unfair, that the smallest should get
more than even the eldest, and tended to take it out on poor Barbara. I
have often thought since what a similar situation it was to Jacob and
his family - many older children and two spoilt younger ones.
Auntie Pem at the Post Office (with
Rip)
When we left Shudy Auntie Pem stayed on in the
Post Office.
KITTIE GLADYS
She was a niece of Uncle Lawson's (Auntie
Bessie's husband) and as she was old enough to have left school used to
come and stay with us and was a great help to mother, almost like a
'mother's help'. She was full of fun and we really enjoyed her company.
It was she who was the moving spirit behind the entertainment we gave
to the village. One of the items was 'Oh, No, John' with its unexpected
twist in the last verse, sung by Gordon and Betty, who had a beautiful
voice. (She used to sing solos in St Michael's chapel). This song so
delighted the older lads in the village that they cheered until an
encore was given. Another item was the Duchess scene from Alice in
Wonderland where the baby all wrapped in a shawl turns into a little
pig and runs off the stage - in the shape of our Manchester terrier,
Pippy. The audience loved that too. The Cheshire cat was Hugh because
he was at the seven year old stage when his front teeth were missing
and his toothless grin kept appearing and disappearing from behind a
curtain.
MR & MRS ANDREWS.
They, with their family, lived in the village
and were a great help to our family. Mr Andrews did many odd jobs for
mother in the garden such as putting up a chicken run and Mrs Andrews
helped in the house. She used to come up every Monday morning and do
all our
washing in the laundry. This was a room attached to the house but only
accessible from the yard. In one corner was the built-in brick boiler
with a fire below which, when well stoked could bring the water up to
the boil for all the dirty linen cloths and cotton clothes. After
washing, the white clothes had to be blued and the cloths starched;
then as many things as possible put through the wooden mangle,
carefully watching one's fingers in the process. Other clothes were
washed in a tub with the 'dolly' - a bronzed ‘bell’ with holes in and a
long wooden handle which one plunged up and down in the warm soapy
water. Sometimes the boys socks were so stiff with dirt (our clothes
were only changed once or twice a week) that they had to be rubbed by
hand as well. Sometimes Mrs Andrews took down extra washing to her own
home to do there. When Monday mornings were rainy all the clothes had
to dried in the kitchen on wooden 'horses' and the invaluable pulley
attached to the ceiling near the fire. All the washing was done with
bars of yellowish household soap.
Tuesday was ironing day which mother, Betty and I did. Large
tablecloths, etc., were ironed on the deal kitchen table on top of an
old blanket covered by a sheet; shirts, etc., were done on a plank of
wood, also covered and sewn over with blanket and sheet, one end
resting on the table and other end on the back of a chair.
For her cooking mother had the iron ‘range’ which sometimes smoked or
sulked, depending on the wind or how the 'dampers' were pulled out. She
also had a primus stove on a little table and, in the scullery, a three
burner oil stove with oven - far more dependable for cooking cakes,
etc. than the range. Both rooms were large and roomy, like all the
rooms in the house.
MISS BROWN (Auntie Mary as we called her)
She was a friend of Auntie Pem's who came to
help her during the first Christmas holidays when our mother was out in
Sierra Leone. My only recollections of her were that she was a very
pleasant lady.
THE WHITE GIRLS.
They were our cousins from Kings Langley whom
we saw quite a lot of during our Shudy days. Not Nora, the oldest,
because she was much older even than Betty. (There is a photo of her
with our family on the beach at Herne Bay) . We saw more of Theo. Even
she was older than Betty. She was the one we were most fond of.
Margaret was my contemporary and we shared a bedroom whenever she came
to stay. Their four older brothers never came. They were so much older,
I never even knew their names.
1. A Nancy and children at Kings
Langley, Hertfordshire. 2. The Whites (females) - A
Nancy Margaret Theo Norah. 3. A Nancy U Tom and children
Two older boys missing. 4.Three White boys.
1. 2. 3. 4.
Their mother, Auntie Nancy, was Daddy's
younger sister. Their father, Uncle Tom was an organist. (Not to be
confused with Daddy's younger brother, Uncle Tommy.)
1. Aunty Nancy with Auntie Denny (Uncle Tommy's wife, who married
another Uncle Tom when he died). 2. Uncle Tommy Wright,
1914-18 war, GGW's youger brother and A Denny's first husband.
1. 2.
RUTH.
This was our Clemont Bayard 1904 car. It was a
two-seater with a folding roof, a dicky seat behind, a sloping bonnet
in front and a running board with large outside hand brake and rubber
horn.
Daddy drove it up from the south, then, when
he had to return to Africa, left it to its fate with Mummy. Gordon and
Phil were a great help in getting it started with the winding handle,
which was often a hard, long task. One always had to wind it with the
thumb close to the fingers, not on the opposite side of the handle, in
case it swung back on itself and broke one's thumb.
The man who was supposed to teach Mum to drive
never put in an appearance so she decided to take it out on the road by
herself. The first thing she did was to tread on the accelerator
instead of the brake and went straight into the hedge! After a time she
and Gordon mastered it and we had some fun rides on it. Not far away
there was a steepish little hill which Ruth found difficult to climb.
The trick was to let her go down backwards and up the hill behind in
reverse then, with good momentum downwards, it would manage to make it
to the top of the hill in front. Basil's memories