Memories of a Twenties Childhood
by Celia Richardson
Rags and Bones
When I was a child, my father used to go out and shoot rabbits so that we children had a good meal. No-one had much money those days but we never went hungry. A Mr Lawson from Odell and Radwell was our Rag and Bone man. He came round the villages with his horse and trap. Us children would quickly run home when we saw him arrive and ask mum if there were any old rags for which he gave us windmills. If there was a rabbit skin we got 3d which we had to give to mother. With that she was able to buy either a loaf of bread or a bag of sugar. Mr Lawson only had one arm but made lovely windmills.
Sunday Dinners
Nearly all the Turvey Sunday Yorkshire puddings were cooked in a large coal fired oven belonging to Mr Alf Osborn at his bake house in Turvey High Street. As soon as church was over you would see members of families with a tray fetching their lovely cooked Sunday dinner, all ready to be served up at 12:30. The smell of so many roasts was delicious as we passed by. He charged 3d a pudding whether large or small. Sunday lunches were a great treat to us as our parents could only afford a small joint of meat once a week. Mother used to try and keep some back for Monday which was wash-day.
Wash Day
Washing day, when I was a girl, was an all day job - no washing machines or spin driers them days.
We had an old copper in our barn which we had to fill with water then get a fire underneath to boil the water, it was very hard work for our mothers, having to wash everything in an old tin bath, rubbing until their knuckles were sore, then boiling them up in the copper and finishing with rinsing them in water with a 'Dolly Blue Bag' which
every one said made the clothes clean. Then they all had to go through a large wooden mangle which was very hard to turn. It meant wash day was an all day job.
Whips and Tops and Marbles
In my young days one hardly ever saw a car on Turvey roads so we children were able to play outside. We used to colour our tops with coloured chalk, hoping to out beat each other. When they were spinning they looked lovely.
Marbles? We could buy marbles from "Osbome's" shop which was next to the Bake House. This also belonged to Alf but was run by his sister-in-law, Miss Baisly. Marbles were in coloured glass but there was a large one which was called a 'Bossy'. We used to play in twos, in the gutters, trying to hit the first marble of your friend's. If you did; you kept it. Sometimes they would roll in the drain and we tried to get them.
School Ways
There were two schools when I was young The 'Little School', which is now made into homes, and our teacher lived in a cottage in the School yard. She was Miss McLean who taught the youngest children. I had to go to school when I was three. Then there was the 'Big School' which is now the Village Hall. There was a head-
master, Mr Hopkins but I was too young to be taught by him. Our head-mistress was a Miss Williams who lived in the School House, still standing there. She had a club-foot and we were very naughty - we always called her 'Hoppy'. There were two other school teachers. I liked school very much but at times was very naughty.
There was a large elm tree in the front of the Big School with a wall all around it. This was our play area. We used to sit on the wall and eat our lunch. In the winter we could get a cup of cocoa for 2d which the teachers made by boiling the water on a large stove which heated the school room. Sometimes our teacher, Mrs Clark, from Stevington, would take us on a Nature Walk. Often some of us ran off and got back late to school. Then we got so many lines to write our. Once I was told to write 50 times 'I must not wander' so I just wrote 1 must not wander' 50 times on the paper - soon done. I only went to school at Turvey, no other school for us. We had to leave school at fourteen years.
The only jobs them days were boys on the farm and girls 'domestic work'. This was called 'Going in Service'. Iknow for sure the girls of today wouldn't do that. It was living in 'better class' houses, doing all their dirty work for five shillings a week. Up at six o'clock in the morning, cleaning black-leaded grates. I didn't do that for long and ended up cycling each day to 'Odell Leather Factory', getting there in all weathers by half-past-eleven in the morning. Often one of us cycled without a light on our bike.
We didn't have school uniform - our parents couldn't afford it. We all relied on second-hand clothes. Sometimes I would go in odd shoes, blacking one brown one to make a pair.
I never had anything new - always my sister's cast-offs - although mum knew someone better off who sold their daughters' clothes cheap. My dad used to mend our shoes in our barn, I've often knocked a few nails in myself. Wearing other peoples shoes ruined our feet, as well I now know!
But they were happy days and free of crime - we were never afraid to go out in the dark or stay indoors on our own.
Milk Man
When I was young we never had a milk man. Instead it had to be fetched in a can from the old Dairy in Mr Tongue's Farm. That was where now Turvey Court' and the old Granery stand. Us kiddies used to go in the cow sheds to watch them milked. Often having a try ourselves. There were two brothers, George Brown and Bill Brown. Bill Brown was a bit backward in mind and always worked with the cows. They would take the buckets of milk in the milk shed and pour it through a drainer to clean it up.
You always knew you had fresh milk except when us kiddies used to sup it on our way home and fill it up with water out of the pumps in the path, very wicked of us I know. However, one day I remember my mum saying she was going to tell the milkman off as there was never any cream on the milk. No? - cause I had drunk it all! So then I had to lie low for a time.
My father was very strict with us so we had to be careful. Them days parents were allowed to wallop you one - but it did us no harm.
Gleaning
Todays children wouldn't know what this was as today it is a thing of the past. When the farmers had cut all the com in the fields we children were allowed to go gleaning there, this was gathering up all the wheat that the machines had left behind. We would take our sandwiches and make a days outing of it. We'd gather as much as we could then take it home and rub all the com out. Then we would sell this to anyone who kept chickens. We made a real day of it and although we did have backache it was a very enjoyable day and we felt rich for a time.
Sundays.
Children in my young days were brought up to always attend Sunday School which was in the Big School, now the Village hall. We used to get a coloured Religious stamp for attending and when the album was filled the child that had attended most times got a prize. Then when Sunday school ended we were marched down to Church. We had lovely Sunday School outings - Sometimes at Turvey House and up Picts Hill House, we had a lovely tea then there was races for which we had prizes if we won.
Often we had to go back to Church on Sunday nights with our parents. My father was a 'sides-man' for years, taking the Collection Trays round. We had our best clothes for Sunday, never allowed to have them on in the week. After the Evening church often you would see families walking up the Station Pub. Us children had a penny ride back to the village on an open decker bus, this was a Sunday treat for us. If it rained those on top of the bus got quite wet, but we loved it. All the buses in my school days were open deckers.
There was also a village bus to Bedford, run by Frank and Charlie Bailey. It was only 6d return to Bedford and 6d to go to the pictures. This was our Saturday treat.
May Day
The first of May was a very exciting day for us girls. We used to go to the fields and break a nice shaped branch from a May bush, this we used to decorate with bows of flowers, ribbons an anything to make it look pretty. Over night we used to stand it in Mum's old water fat tub by her back door so that the flowers didn't die. Then my friend and I used to go round the houses with it on May Day and sing:
"The First of May
My dear I say,
Maying, Maying,
You and I."
We would then knock for coppers.
We also had a May Pole in our school field and dressed in our best clothes and danced around it. Everyone's mums and some dads would come to each.
I have now remembered the whole verse we used to sing: "Here we come a Maying, Through the meadows straying, Maying, Maying, You and I. A branch of May My dear I say, Before your door I stand. It is but a sprout But it is well budded out, By the work of God's own hand."
Turvey Schools
Turvey schools were owned by the Higgins of Turvey, as were most of the houses. There were two agencies, Turvey House and Turvey Abbey. We school children had to live up to these people.
A Miss Higgins who lived at the top of the Alley used to come to school every Friday morning for our early morning prayers. We all had to stand up and say "Good Morning Miss Higgins" to which she answered "Good Morning, Children". If we met her in the village we were supposed to curtsy to her. If we didn't remember we were severely reprimanded. She was a real old dragon, made you pick up paper off roads.
I well remember one boy, Bondy Sargeant, telling Miss Higgins he didn't put the paper there and wasn't going to pick it up. For that he got the cane.
If one of the Higgins family died we would be marched to the Churchyard to the family vault where they were all put in holes in the wall - a bit eerie for us youngsters. We were never called by our Christian names, always surnames - letting you know you weren't so good as them - wouldn't stand for that now!
