Date of interview: November 2002
Interviewers: Lesley and Gerry Bradshaw
Transcribed by: Carol Woodhead
Listen to the recording:
The full transcript of the interview with Mrs Goodrick follows, running to 20 or so printed pages. You can select below one of a number of topics if you would like to pick out discussion of that particular topic. Also below are lists of names and places which occur in the transcript so you can search for any you are interested in.
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The following names occur one or more times. To find occurrences of one of them, press Ctrl+F (Windows)/Command+F (Mac), type the name you want into the Search box which appears, and click the Down arrow or Next button.
Anderson, Bailey, Child, Doris, Duke of Kent, Goodrick, Goodwill, Hammond, Howard, Icelly, John, Lady Cecilia, Lilly, Lowe, Matt, Nelson, Parkin, Princess Mary, Queen, Queen Mother, Robinson, Rodwell, Sally, Sam, Tutton, Vester, Watt, Wilkinson, Willie, Wilson, Wimbush, Worsley
The following places occur one or more times. To find occurrences of one of them, press Ctrl+F (Windows)/Command+F (Mac), type the place name you want into the Search box which appears, and click Down arrow or Next button.
Bulmer, Castle Howard, Castlegate, Cliff House, Coneysthorpe, Durham, Ganthorpe, Harewood, Harrogate, London, Low Gaterley, Madeira, Malton, Manor Cottage, Manor Farm, Northumberland, Norton, Old Wells, Rectory, Red House, Scackleton, Scarborough, Shipton, Stittenham, Terrington, Thornton Dale, Welburn, York
… And when she was a hundred I said "Do you know, Sally, I'd like to go and see her". She was in a nursing home – and I didn't know what to expect. Whether she'd be in bed or what. And I said "I haven't seen her for several years. I would like to see her now she's a hundred. I've never seen anyone that's a hundred!". And Sally took me and we went to one nursing home. "Oh, she needed a bit more attention and a bit more care so she's moved to another one". So we went to the other one. It was at Shipton, and oh yes, she was there. I'd taken a bunch of flowers for her – I didn't know what else to take. And we enquired at the desk and oh yes, she was there. "Just go up the corridor and the door on the left". So we went up there. Oh! There was old people all sat round in chairs and there was flowers from the mantle piece to the middle of the room, that different people had taken, and they were all hers! (laughs). I thought "Oh, my goodness!". And there was somebody else there from Terrington and she knew me although she hadn't seen … She says "When I get all this over we'll go home and we'll have a nice chat!" And I said "I've brought Sally, John's wife". "Oh", she says, "I didn't come to your wedding because my daughter wouldn't bring me. I'm not social company now!". And she was very deaf and she shouted you see to make everybody hear – and not forgetting that she was shouting as well to make herself hear! And she said "When all this is over, we'll go home and we'll have a nice chat". "Oh", she says, "Bring Doris a glass of sherry!". They were having crisps. Crisps and a glass of sherry. But they'd made a cake for her and she says "It's a very good place to be in. I'm very well looked after". I said "Oh well, that's nice". And then after a bit she'd say "How's John getting on? Has he got married yet?" (laughs) And I said "Yes, this is John's wife". "Oh yes, I didn't come to your wedding because my daughter wouldn't bring me". And then she was talking a bit and then after a bit again she'd say "And how's John and has he got married yet?".
(Gerry) Yes, it becomes a stuck record, doesn't it? You were saying when we were just coming up the drive before that perhaps we should talk a bit about Terrington and what we knew about it. I don't know a lot about it – there's all kinds of things that I'd like to know! You lived in Ganthorpe, wasn't it?
Yes. And rather funnily I was at Malton Grammar School and typhoid was there. There was an article in the paper about it yesterday. About Dr Parkin. It was Mrs Parkin that came – there was two children actually – they only mentioned one. I couldn't for the life of me think of the names of the children but there was a boy and a girl and they had a collection …
(Lesley) Yes, well I was interested when it said there was the biggest outbreak of typhoid in Britain that century.
Yes. Oh, it was dreadful you know. I was going to the grammar school at the time and to keep the children off the street they kept it open you see, and I kept going and mother says "I don't like you going and mixing with all that lot and drinking the water" and I said "I never drink any water". You know, I could manage from going to coming home again. Unless it's boiled. Well they started to produce lemonade and boil it so that children could drink something. And I said "I never drink anything when I'm there" and I was keeping on with my schooling, and then she said "No, I don't think I want you to go any longer" and I was about fifteen at the time and "I want you to stop at home" so she sent a letter to Mr Watt, that was the headmaster then, and said she didn't feel she could send me any longer and he just wrote back and he said "I quite understand". It was very bad and there was a Bank Manager died and Mrs Lowe died. She was the doctor's wife. When I had John, things didn't go very well and I had to go to Westercroft Nursing Home and Dr Lowe was one of the doctors that attended to me. I had an operation and he was one of the doctors I can remember. Dr Parkin's wife came as matron to the Hall school and the two children were educated there, but it said Jeremy was only two. Well I think it was Anne, but I'm not quite sure, the little girl's name. She must just have been just a baby, if he was only two. I can't remember. But we were living at Ganthorpe but of course I heard all about it. We moved to … no, I was going to the grammar school. I was at Low Gateley then. We moved to Ganthorpe when I was about sixteen, but I missed a lot of schooling then.
(Gerry) Did you go back to school after the outbreak?
Yes I think I did, but not for long. Not for long. Oh, it was very bad, it was very bad. You see, they didn't put much on the wirelesses in those days. It wasn't considered news, but it gave Malton a terrible knocking, which it has never recovered since. You know, the shops and that just seemed to get going. They had the Duke of Kent come, I think, and open different things to try and get people back again but they never seemed to go back to Malton again. It had a tremendous effect – and it was all them trying to cut corners with the price, you see. And ?(indistinct) from the market place were washed and hosed down and the water got into the water system.
(Lesley) Yes, it said in the paper yesterday that it was one particular well, didn't it?
Yes. When people got old and incapable, they sent them to the workhouse. Well it was the old workhouse. They weren't very well cared for. That's where it started.
(Lesley) It was Castlegate, it said.
Yes, yes. Of course, they've knocked it all down and built houses along there now. It was the bottom of Castlegate, just as you turn round to go over the bridge.
(Lesley) Where did you go to school before you went to Malton?
Welburn school.
(Lesley) Oh, you went to Welburn?.
Yes. It was about a three mile walk.
(Gerry) So you had to walk every day to school?
Yes, and there was no school dinners or anything like that. We used to have packed lunches. And we were the only children with wellingtons in those days.
(Lesley – laughs). Is that because you were on a farm?
Yes. Although there were some children came from Stittenham to Welburn – but they had a road to walk on. We just had to walk across fields.
(Lesley) So did you do that on your own?
Oh yes, there was never anything to frighten us in those days. If we saw anybody, we usually knew them. Or the keeper, and we usually knew them. And it was a three mile walk – and if we loitered, if there was primroses and bluebells growing and I picked … We used to change our shoes at the first house at the top of the lane and she used to clean them all, ready for us to put on to go back again. And sometimes I would take her some primroses and bluebells that I'd picked on the way, and then perhaps we'd be late. And the headmaster, Mr Child in those days, he said "Stay in at playtime". (laughs). And when … I was the youngest one of the dinner pupils that stayed for their dinners and ooh, we used to eat our dinners in about five minutes! And we were the only ones with a flask or an apple or something like that. And they used to sit round and watch and they'd say "Give us the gork".
(Gerry) The gork?
That was the centre part of the apple. The core, yes. "Give us the gork!".
(Gerry). Oh, I didn't know that word! When you were there, is that where they had a travelling caravan that used to teach you cookery?
Yes.
(Gerry) What do you remember about that?
Well I was always top in that. I used to like cooking. It used to stand down near the chapel, and the girls when they got to a certain age – I don't know what age, perhaps eleven, I don't know – they used to be allowed to go down to be taught cooking. They would teach us how to look after the stove and how to keep it clean and so forth. You worked in pairs, you see, and there were two girls – different ones each day – had to look after the stove and keep it clean and such like. And she would demonstrate how to make something and then we'd do it you see and cook it and perhaps have it for our lunch. And in the afternoon we made biscuits, which was rather nice, cos the girls never had to cook. Never did any cooking in those days, but I always had to help. I knew a little bit about what went in and how to mix, and so on. It was no hardship to me but a lot of them had never done any cooking. And then we had to write down what we'd done, you see, and then the books were sent back to Mr Child, the headmaster, and he used to read them. And I got to the top of the class because I'd had practice and the others hadn't, you see. It was very nice really, we used to like it …
(Lesley) So the van was set out with a number of cookers in, was it?
It had this one big cooker at the end and there was tables all round. There was just so many girls could go, you see.
(Lesley) It's a bit like sending the computer bus these days, isn't it? Same thing!
Well, you see they didn't know how to cook in those days. And when they got married they still didn't know how to cook!
(Lesley) They don't now!
Well no, but they're keener to do it now, aren't they, with all these programmes on the telly! They're very good really. Even now, I've got one or two videos of Delia!
(Gerry) She's very good, isn't she!
Yes. She cooks similar to what I do, I did, but she always has an extra little wrinkle that I'm never too old to learn!
(Lesley) Sometimes you do a Delia recipe and you think "Well, I wouldn't have normally done it that way, but it is better!"
Yes. I think she's very good. Oh, I watch all these cookery programmes and all these gardening programmes. I used to like antiques. I used to watch those. But somehow the telly has palled a bit. I read or read the paper, but I never feel any the wiser after I've read the paper!
(Gerry) None of us do! When you left school, what did you do?
Well when I left school I took work at home. I was another bit of extra labour and the first job … there was an outside lav down the hill, which the men used, and then there was one in the garden which the ladies used. And so my first job was to go and clean the outside lavs. And when I got proficient at that, I had to clean one of the pantries out. I had to always keep it tidy you see, and if I had any spare time I had to go and feed the hens, feed the poultry. Well the poultry weren't handy. There were so many running about the yard. But there was a hen hut over there and a there as a hen hut over there and oh, it got such a bug bear to have to go and feed them and not long afterwards go and shut them up you see. We had a pony which we called Dandy, a grey dappled pony, so I got proficient to learn to ride that bare back and I used to manage to steer him to the hen huts and he did everything he could to trap my leg against the fence! But he knew exactly who was on his back. And we used to ride him to school, but I had a younger brother who was two years younger than I was, and he would go up to Dandy in the field and get hold of his tail and pull himself, climb up onto his back, but then he found he was sat wrong way round! (laughs). And he has to struggle … And the horse would wait until he'd got himself right, then off he'd go. Amazing. But oh, it was a great joy was the horse. And I never got a bicycle until I was going to the grammar school and I had a mile and a half to walk to catch the bus each morning and so they bought me a Raleigh bicycle, and that was great! I could ride a bicycle – my two elder brothers had bicycles each and when they were working in the fields, me and my sister used to get their bicycles and learn ourselves to ride a bike! My word, if they caught us! But we just used to run away.
(Gerry) But when you left school, you were working on the farm at home, doing things about the house and the farm?
And I vowed and declared then that I'd never work for anybody. I didn't mind doing it at home but I'd never work for anybody. If I worked for anybody, it would be myself. And I was determined … I wanted to be a nurse, but my father said "Nurses have to work at night time sometimes. You'd never manage that!" I'd had rheumatic fever when I was a child and it left me a sort of weakened heart and I used to faint at the least provocation. I was once mincing some meat. We had a mincer that we fixed to the table, and I was once mincing some meat, pushing it down with one hand, and I thought I'd caught my hand in the … and I fainted. And when I looked, I hadn't. I just thought I had! I used to faint quite often, and the doctor said "When you get married, you won't faint any longer". I said "Won't I?" He said "No, that'll all go". And it did! I never fainted after I'd got married. Isn't it funny!
(Gerry) How long did you work around the farm?
We never got any pay! Just half a crown sometimes, and you just spent it. "What have you spent it on?!"
Did you carry on working at the farm until you were married?
Yes, yes. And my father used to do his accounts on the back of the barn door. There were often lots of scribblings on there, but they never had to take it to an accountant, and then eventually he had to. And he didn't know how to keep books or anything and he got me to write down. I wasn't very proficient at keeping books. "Well", he says "they want to know what profit I've made and I've got to pay tax on me profit". So every time he bought anything or sold anything, I had to write it down, you see. And the accountant said he must pay me a wage. Well he said "She isn't worth one!" (laughs). He didn't believe in parting with his money unnecessarily! He said "She gets fed and kept, and her clothes" That was all I was worth.… "Oh, but ", he said "you must pay her a wage. And I don't mean write a cheque out and then get it back again". So about two years before I got married he paid me £50 a year and mother came with me to see that I put it into the bank. I hadn't to spend it. And that was what I was worth!
(Gerry) laughs – That's what they said you were worth!
Yes! But I happened to be the mainstay, and when I was going to get married they decided to move onto a smaller farm. We were living at that farm on the right hand side and I had two older brothers and one of them had got married and the other one had a very bad accident when he was 24 and he wasn't really capable of a lot of hard work, but he used to do it but he wasn't really as strong as the other one, and we always felt he was favoured but he couldn't have been you see. Mother used to think that he needed more help than the rest of us I suppose. They were going to move to the smaller farm so that he could manage it and I said "Don't count me in when you move to the smaller farm". I was going to look for a job. I wanted to get away from farming. It was nothing but work – all day and every day, and I wanted to get away from it, so I said "Don't count me in when you move to the other farm. You'll manage." (laughs) Well when I said I was going to get married, Willie decided that he would get married! When I decided that I was going to go away to work, he decided to get married you see.
(Gerry) So you'd known him for a bit at that time, then?
I'd known him for about five years.
(Lesley) The thought of losing you was a bit much!
Well I suppose so, but I didn't think of it in that way then! Well I kept looking up in the Gazette to see if there was anything that appealed to me and I thought "Well, I'm not trained for anything but I could look after children". You know, I was always fond of children. And I saw one, was it at Thornton Dale, and it just sounded me. And then however Willie decided to get married.
That was that, yes.
I didn't actually work for anybody else. I made up my mind quite early on never to work for anybody unless it was myself. I'd worked all my life at home. One thing I used to hate doing, when the boys went out. I still call them "the boys" – my elder brothers – when they went out, it was my job to brush their clothes and it away. Oh, I used to hate that! Why can't they do that themselves? Oh dear!
(Gerry) Yes! Well, being out at Ganthorpe. You were a teenager, a young woman …
Yes, and then the war came.
Then the war came. What difference did that make to you, to someone on a farm?
Well, there was a search light party arrived and put their search lights up in the grass field adjoining. There's a path goes down at the back of the orchard down to the dale, and then at the other side it was a grass field in those days and there was a search light party in the corner of that, you know, searching the skies for ….
Yes, yes.
Then, one day, my younger brother said "There's going to be some soldiers come to our farm". I said "There isn't". He said "They are. They're at Terrington now, and they're going to spread out and get installed all round about". So we shut the farm gate and me and my younger brothers climbed on the gate, and when they arrived … "You can't come in here. There's a farm next door! You can go round there. You can't come here!" (laughs). And he said "We are coming here". "Oh", I said "you can't. This is our farm. You can't come here". He said "We are coming here. We've got it all mapped out". There was great big hedges. They could hide their lorries and whatever underneath the hedges and they came and they got installed – so many – and they wanted the barn. The granary ??? to use. It was empty then you see and they wanted to use it to sleep the men in. They had it all mapped out. Someone had been round earlier to have a look.
(Lesley) So the house that's adjoining Ganthorpe Farm. Was that another farm, the one that's joined on? Or was it all one?
It was all one house.
Because it's a separate cottage, isn't it, now?
Oh possibly, possibly. It would make quite a nice cottage too, there would be a front room and a kitchen and two bedrooms. And then there was buildings at the back. An outdoor lav.
(Gerry) How long were the army there, then?
Well I can't remember. They were just sort of there for a little while, and they were teaching the men how to ride horses and ??? and in order to make them look stupid (they were down in the field, practising), they said – oh, somebody had to come with two or three children, you see, that had been used to horses from growing up. They would show the men how to ride and these children knew how to ride, you see, and they said "It's perfectly easy. See how these children manage it". So there was two men, two soldiers living in the house at that time and they slept up what we called the back stairs, which is another cottage now, and they were the early oncomers. What were they? West Yorkshire, I think, West Yorkshire Regiment, I've forgotten. I think they came from Lincolnshire. But anyway, they were installed and they had to learn how to ride. The horses were tethered in the cart shed. I suppose we had to move the carts out under the Dutch barn. The horses, some of them were tethered there and some in the stables. They weren't used to horses, you see. They daren't go up to feed them or put hay and stuff in the rack. The horses were short shrifted. They weren't looked after properly. And they had to take them each day and go down into the field to learn how to ride, and as soon as they got on, the horses began … some of them were hunters, you know. Some of them were highly strung horses! When they set off it wasn't long before they fell off, you see, and the officer used to shout "Lambert! Why did you dismount?" (laughs). He couldn't stop on! Oh dear, those poor fellas! And then they went out to the East. Somewhere in the Middle East. And the horses, I suppose some of them would die on the way, the horses, cos they weren't looked after.
(Gerry) Were there any other effects as to how the war got to you?
Well in the early days they said "Well there won't be anything going on. It'll be nothing but work until the war's over". And I went into York, the Hope's bus ran a bus to York every Thursday, and I went into York. I used to love dancing, and there was a shop selling dancing shoes off very cheaply, thinking same as everyone else there wouldn't be any entertainments, you see. 4 and 6 pence! Oh. I found 4 and 6 pence and I bought these dancing shoes. Oh, I even had them soled! (Laughs)
(Lesley) You'll have done some dancing in those!
Oh yes I did! When the war came – well, you see, the soldiers were stationed all round about. They had to have entertainment for them but I wasn't allowed to go further than Terrington.
(Lesley) So was that at the old village hall? Brindle Court?
No, no. The old school, which they've now turned into flats, on the right hand side of the pathway down to the old music … to the music room, you know. There's three or four houses there. There used to be a big assembly room and we used to have dances there, and the soldiers came and Mr and Mrs Robinson – Mr Robinson was an officer in the army and he'd got shell shocked I think and he was a little bit under the weather, and Mrs Robinson was a teacher at the Hall school and they came and used to run these dances. It was all very nice really. We used to have a few extra other soldiers come but usually they wanted to go off in their trucks to somewhere to drink, you see. We had Land Army girls as well and they were stationed in huts just below the Rectory, they built huts for them. The lady that looked after them was Miss Lilly and ….
(Lesley) So they worked on the land around here?
They were useless really! (laughs). My brothers thought they were marvellous!
(Gerry) Good for morale!
My father says "I don't know what to tell them to do". I said "You always used to know what to tell me to do!"
(Gerry) What was the music? Was it records or did someone play?
Oh, there was a lady in the village – Mrs Hammond. Mr Hammond used to work for my husband in those days. That was before I was married, but Mrs Hammond used to play the piano and she was very good. She had two sons, Reg and Don. They were twin sons. They were quite small, they were just babies, but she used to play the piano and somebody else from Scackleton used to play the fiddle, and we used to dance to that. Thought it was wonderful cos we'd never known anything different!
(Lesley) Presumably social life might have been better, because there were more young people around?
Yes! Yes, it was.
Presumably before the war, there weren't so many things for people of your age.
Yes. Actually, Willie used to come to dances, him and George Goodwill that lived here, used to cycle into York to learn how to dance, pre the war. What energy, after they'd finished work! They used to cycle into York to learn how to dance, to go to some dancing classes.
That's amazing
Oh they knew how to dance, but you see we just picked it up! Anyway, it was very interesting. The war took ten years out of our lives and it helped to pass the time. We were all young people. The lake got frozen over!
At Castle Howard?
Yes. And they were curling on the lake and lots of people came.
Was that during the war?
I can't remember. I suppose it was during the war. I suppose so. I don't know, I've forgotten, but anyway …
(Lesley) Or was it 1947? I mean 1947 was the year with all the snow, wasn't it?
It might have been after the war.
Until about that time, the lake at Castle Howard very often was. There are records of people playing cricket matches on it!
Someone said they were testing it at this side to see if it was bearable and Mr Howard came skating out of the … he'd read the temperatures, I suppose. There used to be a place for boats at this end. But now they've got a ship on it, haven't they?
It's an electric boat. It's quiet – there's no sound to it at all!
Oh. Cos a nephew of mine had his 40th birthday spent on there.
(Gerry) Yes, it's very nice. Very nice. (Lesley) Can you remember much about the village organisations?
No, I can't remember that much went on in those days. I suppose it did but I can't remember much of it. They used to have a teacher at the school then, Miss Anderson, and they didn't seem to have to pass tests same as what they have today, to be teachers. I presume anyone who was very good looking after children and teaching them … I think the children suffered, to what they do today, the things they learn so aptly, cos each generation, the children seem to be brighter than …
(Gerry) The thing I was going to ask about the farm was how did you do your shopping? Did you have to go to Malton or did shops come, or what?
When we lived at Low Gateley I had an uncle who was a chauffeur down in Surrey and he used to drive up to London with a gentleman that was on the Stock Market. He used to drive him to his office and he worked at quite a grand house, I would think, and he used to have to take the staff from the house up to London twice a week – once he would go with the Mr and Mrs and then he would go with the staff to the theatre or the hippodrome and he got that he was as funny as they were on the hippodrome. He quite enjoyed watching that and taking them off, you see. And the boss's sister was going abroad for the winter and she had a 23 horse power Vauxhall and so he wrote to my father and he said "I think it would just suit you. You could all get in, a 23 horse power Vauxhall. And he said "When you go to York market there'd be plenty of room to put your baskets in to take to the market". My father didn't know how to drive a car, but anyway he said "Well if you teach me how to drive, all right". He would buy it.
How old would you have been about this time?
I think … let me see. I would be about seven. I'd gone to school and the dentist was coming to the school that day and I'd had rheumatic fever and I'd had a lot of nasty medicine. I had a lot of bad teeth. So they sent dentist round, I suppose to learn the job, to look after the children's teeth and if they wanted any pulling out, they'd pull them out for sixpence. I had a lot that wanted pulling out. I didn't know what it meant, you know, going to have my teeth out. Well, all right, I'll have my teeth out. They gave me the injection – oh, that was terrible! Then I had to sit still for a little while until it froze my gums and then they pulled my teeth out. Oh, that was a most awful day and I cried all the time until they said I could go home. And I had three miles to walk home so I wrapped up, but I got cold in my gums with walking home, and that was the day my aunt and uncle were bringing the car and my father and mother were going into York. I don't know how they got there but they were going into York to meet them and they would pick them up in York. Oh, I was most miserable and my youngest brother had stayed away from school cos he wasn't very well – possible he didn't want to see the dentist! I got inside and I sat on the settee and I was just crying my heart out cos my face was hurting and my older sister and younger brother came downstairs. He was supposed to be in bed. They came running downstairs. They thought the pups had got in, they said, cos we had some little pups then, they thought the pups had got in, but it was me crying. My sister put me to bed and then dad and mother and my aunt and uncle came. I should only be about seven at the time, and that was our first car and my uncle taught him to drive and then he had to go back after a week.
So that was it! And after that your father could drive!
Yes. He said he never showed me how to drive. He said I had to keep asking "What is this for and what is that for?" and he said "I can steer it and change the gears but that's about all."
What about the brakes?
and put the brake on" but he wasn't very proficient. My mother wanted to go to York market, you see, when it got to the Saturday so they got it loaded up and off she went with him.
Previously, before you had the car, would they have taken a horse to the station and then gone in by train?
Yes, yes. Park at the station and then caught the train and went from there. And she said "Oh, you'll manage it. If we're going to be killed, we'll both be killed together!" So off they went. Now when they got to York, you know, the market is pretty central isn't it, so me dad used to say "They think I won't run over them but they don't know!" (laughs)
It must have been terrifying for new drivers!
Well it must have been. And then I suppose they thought they'd better teach people how to drive!
You know, there were more people killed on the road then than there are now and there were only a fraction of the cars!
And then when they came out, when auntie and uncle were here when he was being taught to drive, they kept going out on the road to different places so that he'd get a bit of practice, you see. They were coming back from York and there was the road man on York road. There wasn't many cars but there was the road man with his brush and shovel and he saw this car wavering about and he ran and left his barrow and set(?indistinct) round the road! But however he never happened anything. And my eldest brother then was very keen – he wanted to learn how to drive but my father was very wise and never taught any of us how to drive. He used to, on a Sunday morning, back the car out of the garage and wash it and drive it in again and that was how he learned to drive, by washing the car he could back it out and then drive it in again. And eventually he would drive a little bit further and a little bit further, you see, but that was how he learned to drive. He never passed any test. My other brother never was interested in cars and he didn't want to drive. But he did eventually when he got married, he learned to drive and both he and his wife drove.
It wasn't tractors, then? It was horses on the farm?
Well I think we got a tractor perhaps just previous to us coming to Ganthorpe. I'm not quite sure but we seemed to have a tractor. I've got a photograph of a tractor and one of my brothers said we didn't have one when we were at Gateley, that photograph was taken at Ganthorpe. But I couldn't remember whether it was Ganthorpe or Gateley. My two brothers were there and my father was there. I suppose that was to encourage them to …. If other people had tractors, it was to encourage them to drive tractors on the land, you see. I don't know. Oh, there was plenty of work for us. Then my sister got married. And she married Dennis Goodwill. Mr and Mrs Goodwill lived at where Mr and Mrs Barber live now. They never had a garden. There wasn't a garden there when … no, no, they never had a garden.
I've got a picture here. I think you must have seen this one. It's of your house.
Oh yes, yes. That is part of our house. It used to go to Castle Howard station and collect parcels.
Yes, it's the postman there. I think this is before your time!
Yes.
So was it actually a post office at one time?
Yes, it was. I don't know who the people are. They're two Postmen, aren't they?
So that was a post office and then Old Wells was a post office? So it was a post office before you lived there, presumably? A long time ago, I think.
Yes, let me see. Well they didn't convert it until after we were married and then he thought it would make a good garage. We used to call that the Low End and there was fourteen people lived there at one time, in that little place.
Good heavens! That was a family home, was it?
Yes. Oh, a tiny little place at the back for a kitchen and they … the fireside is still there, in the garage, at the side, the old kitchen fireside. Yes, it's still there. The children used to sleep – well, there was about fourteen of them – sleep in the … I don't know where the dad and mother slept – downstairs, I would think. But anyway they slept upstairs and they all did very well. They had nothing to lose but everything to gain, you see. They had nothing, and they all did very well for themselves.
What was the name of that family?
I can't remember. That was before my time. When they moved down to that house – I think they must have had it completely ….. and I remember, soon after I was married, you used to have to go down about half a dozen wood steps down into what was the Low End. It was an awful old spot, really. You know, no proper flooring. It was a red brick floor and mud in between. You know, it wasn't … I suppose that was how they were in those days. And they used to have a clothes horse down there with the tea towel on, drying. Mrs Goodrick, Willie's mother and I used to wash up in a …. it was a … part of the living room was boarded off and it made a little passageway down to the Low End and they used to have a sink in there – the most awful old sink – and we were washing up in there one day and she said "Go and get the tea towel from the Low End" and she'd had visitors and they'd been talking about ghosts at the Low End and I had to go down and grab the ghost! (Laughs) I always remember that. And I was half scared to death. But anyway, Willie decided after we'd been there a while to turn that into the Low End and he would keep his car there. I think they must have altered the pathway cos that almost leads up to the front door, doesn't it? And now the Low End, it comes down from the garage.
Yes
I don't remember …. Miss Wilson.
I would imagine that was a long time before you were there.
Yes, yes. Miss Wilkinson. Wait a minute. Did Miss Wilkinson used to look after a lady that lived somewhere there? I think she was a vicar's wife.
Oh, I've heard about this lady somewhere, yes.
I forget what they called her. That was before Sam went to live there. Oh, you see, their front door – they seem to have a porch over this end, don't they, now? You see, that's the front door now.
Yes, there was a double door there.
I think that's come down.
Yes, that's not there now.
Yes, it was all ivy on the front there and they pulled all the ivy off and discovered two windows!
Yes, well basically you've got a drive coming down here now and you haven't got that bit at all.
No, that goes I suppose up to the front door.
Yes, it says Post office – Miss Wilson.
I don't know.
Miss/Mrs Icelly?
Mrs Icely? Or Miss Icely. She used to live there.
Mr ….. Somebody beginning with W? WAR? I think that's probably going back to the turn of the century at least.
Smoke going up the chimney you see. They never had central heating in those days! There's trees growing there. You can't see the church, can you? Unless that's it. It's nice to have those old photographs, isn't it?
There's another one by the Marr troughs. It's not a very good print out, is it? Is that any better? Get a bit of light on it.
I wonder who the man is standing there? You see, this used to be Willie's workshop. Where they did all the … they sew everything by hand.
Yes, and there's the wall here … Obviously that must have come down when the cottage was built. Is that the end of Manor Cottage?
Well it used to be a lady's kitchen and that's where she used to teach children their schooling. A penny a week I think or something like that. That was the day school. And this is Jill Ellerton's [Hetherington?] house now. And a rather funny lady – what do they call it – at the end of the house when we did some alterations there - what do they call it when there's a tree grows up and that's the sort of ….
Built around the tree? Oooh!
Yes
Cruck
And of course people are looking for that sort of thing with history to it today. And when we did some alterations there they come across this tree. "Don't tell anybody, don't tell anybody. They'll stop work on it! We won't be able to do anything for a long time while they investigate this tree!" So they managed to take it down.
When did they actually take the troughs away?
Well, Malton Council came and took it away. They put water into the village, you see. Previous to that there was hydrants outside different houses and there was one outside our front door, just along … is it on there?
Is that from wells?
The hydrant was about here, I think.
Oh hang on, it's that there I think.
Yes, well they wanted to put water in for everybody's house. Well they couldn't do that. They couldn't do that unless everybody was agreeable, you see, so the Council came round and collected the hydrants!
So you didn't have much choice!
No, they said the water wasn't good.
Was that before or after the war?
I think it would be after the war. I think it would be after. And they were going to lay water into everybody's house. Well it was a bit difficult to lay it into our house. Funnily, after they'd taken the thing away! They'd no business to cos it belonged to us you see really! That was for the horses to drink out of, when they were passing through. They took that away at the same time.
Oh right, so it went quite early.
Yes. At one time they said this used to be a pond … in the middle of the village.
Yes.
Willie says he doesn't remember it but he remembers his father talking about some old lady getting ducked in the pond. Isn't that terrible?
Oh, yes. A witch?
Yes, well you see in those days they went a bit peculiar sometimes and they didn't know how to mend it so they dipped her in the pond!
That's homeopathic medicine for you!
Yes! We don't know how lucky we are, do we! He said he could remember ducks and beasts there and they ducked somebody. I don't know who it was but Willie knew the name of her. But that was before my time. Mrs Wilson. I always call that Mrs Wilson's cottage. She lived there for a long time, and Mr Hammond used to live there, and he worked at the shop for Willie. Mr and Mrs Hammond and the two twins.
I've heard something about Mrs Hammond but I can't place what it was.
Yes, well those two lads grew up and after the war there were celebrations. She was very good with a needle and she played the piano beautifully, and after the war there were celebrations and she dressed those two twins up as Grenadier Guards and they looked beautiful. You know, she'd made them black trousers and red coats and little fur hats. They were just little lads but they looked beautiful. She was very good with a needle. There's a duck there, isn't there?
Yes, there is a duck!!
Yes. And I've got another photograph
So perhaps this end of it was still pond quite a bit later on?
Oh, I don't know. There was houses. I've got an old photograph …. You see nobody cut the grass and the grass just grew. I've got an old photograph and there was Estils' hens and ducks running about up the street.
Oh, from Manor Farm, yes.
Yes. That was before they built the workshop wasn't it?
Was it that one? That was about 1920s, I think.
I think that was when they were all going to Scarborough. This is the lady who used to school the children.
That looks like a work yard. Can you see the large planks of wood outside?
Yes. They have a shop there … but it's somewhere there. I think that must have been pre that.
Yes, that looks like a work shop. You can see the big gate door open here and lots of wood piled outside.
Yes, well Willie had a saw bench in there.
Yes, and his father's there I suppose.
Yes – somebody said … she's still living I think. Gwen Vester is one of the … Not Gwen, Edi Vester is one of the people on this card and she's still living at Pickering now. She's 95, I think. I have a niece who went to see her quite recently and she said "Do you know, she's living there by herself and she's managing to look after herself still and she's 96." She was brought up on the ?(indistinct) Farm and ….. Oh, this is when they were getting loaded up and they would take them all away to Castle Howard station to go for the trip out for the day. Now, just look, that has dormer windows in. Oh yes it has … that's that isn't it … I was thinking it was Matt's but it isn't.
What was the Scarborough trip? Was it the Sunday School?
No, it was the day school. Now in my early days of going to Welburn School, the children from Bulmer, they closed their school down and the children had to walk from Bulmer to Welburn and they wouldn't mix, but it was probably the older people in Bulmer "Oh, we're not mixing with the Welburn lot" you know and the older people wouldn't mix with the Welburn lot. And they wouldn't go to Scarborough the same day. They would go another day. There was feuds between the villages, you see.
Oh well I think even today you've got to show your passport when you go to Bulmer or certainly to Welburn!
Oh, I don't know, I think Welburn and Bulmer have been rediscovered and a lot of new people live there. I used to know everybody who lived in Welburn at one time! And when I was about fifteen and a half or sixteen and left school, there used to be a lady at Welburn, a Miss Rodwell, and her brothers ran the village shop and she used to go and help in the village shop but she wouldn't go if one brother was in! So there was feuds even in the families, you see. But she would go if he wasn't there. She was very good at needlework and in those days taught eight or nine girls how to sew and embroider and quilt. I never forgot. And while I was there … she taught us how to make a cushion, you see, to begin with. So when I went home I said "She's teaching us how to quilt" and my father's mother was a quilter. They did that sort of thing – she lived in Durham – they did that sort of thing. Pre getting married, the young girls all had to make a quilt and a rug. That was part of their bottom drawer! And my father says "If you make a quilt, I'll buy you the material" and it was the year the Queen Mother got married.
Oh, right. That would be before the war. A long time before the war, wouldn't it?
No, I don't think so. No, I think it was after she got married because after the war … Oh no, they were married before the war, weren't they, cos they went round different ….
Do you mean the Queen or the Queen Mother?
I mean the Queen Mother.
You made a quilt in the colours, for the Queen Mother, didn't you?
It wasn't for the Queen Mother.
No, but in the fashionable colours …
When they got married, the Abbey was in blue and gold and when I went with mother to Leek and Thorpe's then, that was a nice shop in the front part, and I wouldn't look at any other colour but blue and gold! I hadn't anything to match up or anything and I said "Oh, I want it blue and gold". It was a nice silky material – I can always remember it. And I got the material – this was when I was going to quilting classes, you see. And I didn't tell any of them …
Was that in Malton?
No, at Welburn. A lady used to run the quilting classes to keep the girls off the streets at night! (laughs)
Must try that again in Liverpool!! (Lesley) I still don't know how you did the stitching as evenly as you did! Because presumably you didn't have particularly good light in the evenings. Did you actually sit and do it during the day?
Yes. It used to take me half an hour to do a needle full, but if I had any spare time … you hadn't to have any spare time.
Well that's why I can't understand, because the bit of quilting I've done – I found it so difficult to do it evenly.
Well you see, I was the only one that was interested in quilting and Grandma left me her quilting frames and I'd fix it all up and this Miss Rodwell said she knew an address in Northumberland where you could send quilts to, to get marked, and they would put a design on, so I got the address and I sent the material off to this lady and she put a design on and charged 4/6d.
Bet you thought that was expensive at the time!
Yes! But then that saved a lot of work – I got it stitched in. And she knew somebody in Wales that … she said what did grandma put in the quilts you see to raise the pattern and I said that they used wadding from funeral director – you know, the wadding that they used to line the coffins with. That's what they used for their quilts. They always did that up in Durham!
Oh really? Yes! You'd have some of that then!
Yes. So she said "Oh, I wouldn't do that. I know a place in Wales where you can send to and buy sheep's wool and spread it out and put it on, and then cover it up and stitch it down" and I thought "Oh, that sounded nice". And she said "It's much lighter than the wadding" and so I thought "Oh well, I'll try that" so I sent to Wales and great big bundles of this stuff came and I thought "Oooh, goodness me!" but I took it up – I used to do a lot of work by myself and I could spend time up there, arranging it all on the quilt and then tacking it down. Grandma came once to see me after I'd started it. I didn't tell anybody that I was making one, but Grandma came to stay and they told her that I was making one and "Oh, she would help me". Well her stitching – she used to do eight ….
Up and down and up and down …
And I did one stitch at a time, and so every time she'd finished I got the scissors and pulled it all out, and presently she said "I don't think Doris likes me helping". Well I didn't like to tell her, but I didn't! Because that wasn't my work, that was her work.
So what size frames were they? Were they big ones?
Oooh, about nine foot long! I had the whole bedroom to myself. It wasn't being used and I had it set on two chairs at the end and I used to sit on it and do a needle …
So you used to leave the whole quilt in it?
Yes, but it was stitched in and wrapped round. I could leave it while I went to feed the hens and do that, you see, and then go back and do another needle full but I was always keen to do another needle full.
It must have become addictive!
I got quite a bit done and I think we had two years down at Miss Rodwell's, teaching us embroidery and different things to do with needlework and she was very good …
How was this pattern drawn on by this place in Northumberland?
Well it was just like almost pencilled on. I couldn't tell you how they put it on.
Did they have a transfer or something?
She must have had some method or other, but it didn't show when you stitched on it. You know. The pattern was there and it gave me something to go by. And stupid me – I had a three quarter bed in those days and I just made it a three quarter size for my bed. I didn't make it a full size, which is stupid really.
Oh, so it's just short of a double bed?
Yes, but it looks alright on a three quarter bed.
Sounds wonderful. I saw it at the Open Day.
Well, I stitched away and then "Oh", she says "I think we're going to show the cushions that we've all made at somewhere at Malton or Norton". I said "I've made a quilt". She said "You've made a quilt? I've never ventured on a quilt in my life! I've done a pram cover but I've never ventured on a quilt". And I said "Well I've made one and finished it". She says "Bring it along and let me have a look at it". And when I took it along she says "I'm going to show it at the show at Norton", so she took it and she was one of the people who was organising it and she took it along and they were absolutely amazed. Nobody did much quilting around here, you see, but they do a lot up in Durham. And it was picked out to go to Harrogate, to a show at Harrogate, and she said "Would you like to show it at Harrogate?" and I said "Well I don't mind". She said "I'm on the committee so I'll keep an eye on it" and she says "It may not be shown" because the committee had to pick out things that they didn't think was quite up to standard and then she came back and she said "There' a room full of goods that weren't quite up to standard but your quilt has been picked out to be shown" and I thought "Oh!". So my father, in those days, if we wanted to go anywhere, he would take us. Well he never took us anywhere! That was just the difference – he never wanted to go! But my father enjoyed taking us and enjoyed what …
So you went to Harrogate to see it on show, did you?
Yes, well he was interested so he took us one day to Harrogate to see the show and there was my quilt, all set up, and …
I mean, there is still a Northern Quilting Show in Harrogate every year. I don't know whether it's the same thing.
Oh, I couldn't tell you. And it was picked out to go to London, to be shown in London, and Miss Rodwell said to me "You can please yourself, but if I was you I wouldn't take it, or I wouldn't send it to London, because if you lose it you'd never make another". I said "No, I don't suppose I ever will, but I might, but at the moment, no. I've had enough sewing at the moment for a little while!" So it didn't go to London, but I'd seen one …. I'd been to look round at Princess Mary when she was at the other side of Harrogate – Harewood House – there was one on one of the beds and I was looking round with an aunt of mine and I said "I've made one like that". She said "You've made one like that?" I said "Yes" and she said … I don't think she believed me, you see, and so when we got back again she said "Show me the quilt that you made like that" and I brought it down and she said "I've never seen anything like it!".
No, well it's amazing! Yes.
I said "Well I loved making it". I suppose the genes were in me, you see, from Grandma.
Yes, it was a work of love really.
And I enjoyed doing that. And then one day, after I was married – well, there was always such a lot to do. I never had time to do much craft or sewing or anything. There was always such a lot to do. And Willie said "I wonder if you can come and help me to put the net on the strawberries". I said "Yes" because it's a bit difficult with one, so I went to help him and I said "Do you know, I think that's my grandma's quilting frames!" He says "Well, that's put it to a better use!". And it was!! He'd cut it up to make the frame for the strawberries, and then he had the cheek to come and ask me to come and help him to put the strawberry net on!
That was the end of your quilting!
I thought "It's no good saying anything, because that was him!"
You were talking the other day about Mr Goodrick's work. He was joining and undertaking and everything. A joiner really, wasn't he?
Well you see, he was a joiner and he was an undertaker and when Robert Goodwill's grandfather died, he was living where Mr and Mrs Barber live now, when he died there was eight people died that week. Couldn't credit it. Every time he came in, he said somebody else had died. Good heavens. I always remember that. Mr Goodwill was the first one, and then there was eight people died that week. They were just run off their feet, trying to get another coffin made in time.
Was it an epidemic or was it just ….?
No, no. It was just old age. It just so happened. But there was eight people died. And Mr Robert Goodwill – they called him Robert – he lived right up to the end and he'd had a good meal that morning, which wasn't a good thing and my husband never talked about his undertaking business like really. He never brought any tales home, except once. He had to go to somebody at Scackleton and when he came back he'd got changed and he said to his mother "Take these and put them on the line cos they're alive!" and he'd had to make a coffin for someone who wasn't particularly clean and he was crawling. Now that must have been dreadful!
Weren't you saying that he did Mr Howard's funeral?
Yes. That was rather nice really, wasn't it? They took him to …. Mr and Mrs Howard were both buried in Coneysthorpe cemetery and they had a horse drawn wagon and the coffin was on the wagon, which I think was rather nice.
Yes. I remember seeing a picture of it. It was a farm cart, wasn't it?
Yes, it was. He'd had to borrow a cart from …. I don't know where it came from. Possibly there was a farmer at Coneysthorpe in those days. It would be one of the Nelsons. I couldn't swear that it was from that farm, but I would think it was.
Was that George Howard?
No, that was his father.
I remember George Howard's funeral was a very public thing, going to the mausoleum and everything.
Yes, he did. Him and Lady Cecilia were buried in the mausoleum. Well the mausoleum possibly wasn't in very good condition, and they said nobody ever came to the graves afterwards. They just grew. In fact, the family went swimming afterwards in the lake. Well they're brought up totally different, aren't they, and maids look after them, don't they. They have nannies. But the parents don't mean quite so much to them as what they do to ordinary people. I think you see more of your parents, don't you? The mausoleum used to be in a field that my father farmed, at one time. Oooh, there was rabbits there. I can always remember – if you went up to the mausoleum and you put one foot … you could get round onto the top of the wall and crawl in. I had a pair of field glasses in those times and I used to go up there and do my homework and it was lovely. Peaceful and quiet, and sit round at yon side and put my glasses on. You could see up to the gatehouse and see what was going on. You could see rabbits running about. It was lovely. And the new river was just down below. I was very much a loner.
You liked the peace and quiet?
Yes, and I've never forgotten the peace and quiet and I love it even now.
We haven't even got round to talking about Terrington, have we? (Lesley) Well presumably your husband has worked on a high proportion of the houses in Terrington at various times?
And he's worked on all the farms, putting …. He said furniture never interested him, and it didn't. It didn't matter if he had an old bacon box to sit on. He was quite happy! He had no interest in the furniture and I love nice things, but he had no interest whatsoever and he said "Well, you make more money out of putting a Dutch barn up than what you do spending a day making and mending a chair!" And you would. He said "There's more to see. You can charge more!". Well, I suppose you could! Oh, I love nice things. And he never seemed to think that I wanted any money to …. It was a totally different life, a totally different way of life and I thought, well he was hard up, you see. And it didn't worry me. I just thought "Well, he was hard up" and .. but he never spent. Well, he never got his books made out except once a year! Oh dear! So I had to take a little bit in hand and do what I would do. So after my parents died – they didn't leave much because farming wasn't very prosperous in those days and there was five of us at home, so it had to be shared between five – and I think we'd each get about 2,000 some hundred or something like that, each. But I couldn't waste it because they'd worked so hard for it.
No. So you had to save it for something special
They'd worked so hard for it and I didn't feel I could waste it, so I invested it. Willie was interested in the Stock Market but I didn't know anything much about it. I was very interested in the paper and he used to give me the Financial Times to read. I said "I can't possibly read that. It's far above me, is that". He said "Yes, you can". I said "No, I can't. I can't understand it". But every now and again he used to get these dividends, you see, from investments, and I thought "Oh perhaps that was a good way to invest one's money." But I didn't know what to invest in, so I went to York one day. Everybody was carrying Mark and Spencer's bags and I thought "Well, surely, that must be a good investment". Everybody seems to shop at Marks & Spencer's. And so I came home and I put so much money into Marks & Spencer's. He had another idea. He said "Meccano's would just suit you. It's a nice little firm". I said "I don't want a nice little firm. I want a big firm!" (laughs)
You're like me. I look to see who's going in and out of the shops and say "Not many people shopping in there …!
Well nobody's mind works the same does it?
We've just got rid of Boots this week!
Well they're not doing particularly well, are they. Well none of them are doing particularly well at the moment. But, anyway, I invested it and these little dividends kept coming and I thought "Oh, this is grand". I'm blowed if I'd work for anybody. I'd work for myself but I wouldn't work for anyone else. So I kept ploughing back my investments. You see, I never spent any of it, I kept ploughing it back. And gradually it improved and then John grew up and I had to help to pay for his education! But I didn't mind. I was thankful I had the money to help pay .
That was what your parent's money was for, to speak, wasn't it?
Yes, that's what I felt. And then, when he grew up, oh, he never parted with his money very much. He never thought it was necessary to spend on such - he'd been just a village boy and he didn't see why John should be anything any different. I said "He's the only one we have. I want him to be different. I want to give him his chance.". George and Nancy had two boys. They were a little bit older, and they sent their two boys to Red House Prep School and so I said "I think I would like John to go to Red House". I know I would part with him … it would be difficult, but I don't want him tied to my apron strings all his life. I want him to have his chance. We didn't say anything then for a little while. And then he came in one day and said "I've been thinking". He had to turn it over a great deal in his mind before he agreed to anything. And he'd turned it over and he said "I think it might be a good idea." You see, his parents wanted to send him away to school but he wouldn't go. And, of course, he didn't want to go and they never pushed him. They never pushed him so he wasn't educated but he used to get Pitmans, whatever, and he had to sit exams for that and he used to have to go down to the Rectory and the rector would sit with him - Mr Wimbush - would sit with him while he did his exams, then they would send them off. So he did educate himself a little bit.
And he did very well on it. He was a very good man.
Yes, he was. But he was another loner. We suited each other very well, really
Yes, you both understood the need for a bit of peace and quiet!
He went his way and I went mine!
Well we're a bit like that. Lesley has that little bit of space over there where you came in. I'm in a little bedroom upstairs and occasionally we speak to each other!
On the intercom! Yes, but you must have space. My husband used to go into the garden. Oh, I was very ill. I had an ulcerated stomach and I had to go and have an operation but it was with having to see to everything! (laughs). And I had an operation and when I came out … well, before I went for it, he was retiring and he was planning a holiday of a lifetime, you see. And he'd talked about it and I thought "Oh, it was just all talk" and I didn't think much to it. I didn't think much would ever come of it. He would like to go for a ride over the Wolds one day and we called at …What's the name of that place over the Wolds? I've forgotten now. A little town there, and he got some holiday brochures and I thought "Oh well, that'll interest him!" so I did a bit of shopping and we came home. And he never looked at them and then I looked at them. I said "Oh, this looks lovely!" and then he thought about it a bit and he said "I think I'll go and book for us to go" and I said "Well I have to go and see the consultant surgeon today. We'll both go in together." So he would go down town and book in for this holiday and I would go to see the consultant surgeon, you see. And he says "I would like you in hospital, Mrs Goodrick". And I said "Oh dear". He says "You look worried. Have you a young family?" I said "No, I just have one son and he's about twenty. My husband was just planning the holiday of a lifetime and I'm going to spoil it". He says "Go and have your holiday and it'll do you good. And then, when you come back", he says, "book in and have the operation". And funnily enough, I went, and I was never ill once.
Where did you go?
We went to Madeira. It was warm and beautiful and oh, it was lovely, and I was never ill once. Everybody was doing the work, you see! And I hadn't any hassle and it was lovely. I just had to sit back and enjoy it and I was never ill once. Then, when I came back, there was a whole pile of letters for us. We were running the holiday cottages then, cos Sally and John had been out from Burniston and they'd looked after them while we were away, and they'd forgotten to lock the back door and when I came, the back door was open and we'd just come back from Madeira! And so I rang them up and I said "Thank you very much for everything, but you forgot to lock the back door!" And John said "We were never out of the back door!" So I don't know whether I'd forgotten to lock it or they'd forgotten to lock it, but anyway it was open when we came back! But I couldn't see any …
So after that you recovered?
Well, when we were opening the letters, my husband said "There's one letter you haven't opened". I said "Oh, what's that?" and it was a brown envelope and I opened it and it said "We have a bed ready for you at the hospital". I hadn't unpacked! Well, I just packed another suitcase and Willie took me in the next day and I went in and I said to the nurse that was getting me ready "I don't think I shall have to have this operation because, since I've been away, I've never been ill once and I've never been sick once" and she says "Mrs Goodrick, it's my job to get you ready for this operation. Let me do that and then …" I said "Well, will the consultant surgeon be coming round to see me before I have the operation?" She said "Oh yes, he'll be coming round" and he came round with another man, with the anaesthetist, I suppose, and I said "I don't think I need to have this operation because I've never been ill once while I've been away" and he said "Let us be the judge of that" and Willie had gone with my clothes, so I just put myself into their hands and he said Did I drink or did I smoke? Well no, I didn't do either. And he said "Well that's a good thing" and I had the operation and everything went well and I got better from it soon.
Your holiday helped!
Well, yes, it did. And John came from Scarborough to see me and he and Willie came one night to see me in the hospital and there was a whole bevvy of nurses down at the bottom and John came in. He was quite a fine looking lad and he would be about twentyish, or something like that. All the nurses moved and went off to be noticed up the ward! (Laughs.) Oh, they took a great interest in me because I had a son that was eligible! O dear! So when they came next time I said "The nurses were very interested in you in the hospital". Sally said "Didn't you say he had a price tag on him!" (laughs)
I think we've covered a lot of stuff. One thing we might do if you're happy to have another day – one of the things I've got here is all those photographs of Terrington that were taken before the war – and you'll know a lot of the people and perhaps you'll be able to tell me a bit about them!
Well, rather funnily, I said I was at school when the typhoid was on and then that article was in the paper about Dr Parkin and there was two children I can remember and I thought I might write into the Gazette. Mrs Parkin married one of the school teachers. I think his name was Mr Tutton, but I can't remember, but they'll no doubt know about it down at the school. He said … I couldn't remember what the children's names were but I think it was Anne and Jeremy, but he would be 75 today if he still lived. But on the grave stone it's Dr Parkin and then his wife, his widow.
But she remarried?
Oh, she did remarry. Or led us all to believe that she was remarried!! But she may have lived with this school teacher. They didn't do that in those days!
They did but they kept very quiet about it!
You can't move in a village but what everybody knows what you're doing.
Oh, in a village you've got a real problem!
Yes. I think that was why we kept very much to ourselves, but even so, the rest of the village knew what we were doing.
Oh yes, it's like that, isn't it.
I said one half doesn't know how the other half live, what they used to have to put up with. No television and there was no electric light. No electric oven, just a side oven you put your hand in to see if it was hot enough. But I always say, people grew up during the war. They went away and saw how other people lived, and then they came back and they were determined not to live like that any more. In the big houses they used to employ about twenty in the gardens and twenty inside in the staff, and well, that way of life went, didn't it? They couldn't afford to do that any longer. Everybody wanted a proper pay. When Mrs Goodrick used to tell me about her life as a lady's maid in the Worsleys' home … you see, they didn't want them to grow up and start a business of their own! Because there wouldn't be anybody to employ. They could get them for next to nothing!
Did she work at Cliff House, then?
I think she must have done but I don't really know. You see, she knew Mr Goodrick, Willie's father, and she used to sledge down the street. So whether that was after they were married or …. But she came from London, you see. Her father was a groom in …. I've forgotten, but in some barracks. They lived quite near and he was a groom. They called them Baileys and she had a brother called Bill Bailey and he worked for a time …. He lived on a ship and Willie had a Prince of Wales 3 feathers on a tie pin and the Prince of Wales had given it to this young fella for keeping him out of sight when he was drunk and he was supposed to be viewing the Navy, you see. And he'd got a bit drunk and this Bill Bailey kept him out of sight and so when he was Prince of Wales he presented him with the Prince of Wales feathers. And I gave it to John. John said "What did they call him?" and I said "Well, funnily enough, they called him Bill Bailey". He said "Never!" I said "Yes, they did".
It's funny. All these gifts from royalty to servants and it's still going on!
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This page last updated: 21st December 2021