Dales
Memories Booklet
Reflections for the next generation
Photo courtesy of Paul Morgans
October 1st was National Older Person’s Day and at Dales Housing
Sheltered Schemes we celebrated this by holding coffee mornings and
inviting the tenants to share their memories with us. So many memories
and photographs are hidden away and can become lost, so we asked if we
could share in these stories and they became the centre piece of the day.
Many inspiring memories of living and working through the Second World
War years were collected, too many to print them all, but this booklet
shares some of these precious memories.
Ron Wilson fondly
remembered his junior
school teacher Mr Brodwell
who inspired him on
to further education,
university and a very
rewarding career.
Gwen Smith
Mary Geeson
Gwen Smith who now resides in
sheltered housing in Grindleford
will be 98 this year, she was a pilot
officer in the WAAF.
Mary was 13 years when she won first prize
at a large musical festival in Sheffield for her
singing. Mary says these musical festivals
were big classical music events which were
held in large town halls, picture houses
and the biggest halls in any city. There
were Tenors, Baritones, and big Choirs.
“All wonderful events”.
WAAFs did not serve as air
crew. The use of women pilots
was limited to the Air Transport
Auxiliary (ATA), which was civilian.
Neither did they participate in
active combat, though they were
exposed to the same dangers as
any on the “home front” working
at military installations.
They were active in parachute
packing and manning of
barrage balloons in addition to
performing catering, meteorology,
radar, transport, communications
duties including wireless telephonic
and telegraphic operation.
They worked with codes and
ciphers, analysed reconnaissance
photographs, and performed
intelligence operations. WAAFs were
a vital presence in the control of
aircraft, both in radar stations and
as plotters in operation rooms, most
notably during the Battle of Britain.
These operation rooms directed
fighter aircraft against the Luftwaffe,
mapping both home and enemy
aircraft positions.
Mary’s family were all musical and used to
travel around the country with Mary who won 8 first prizes for her classical
voice. Mary’s mum told Mary she had a lady sitting behind her who said
“There’s that little devil Mary Lax”. This lady knew her child who had
entered had no chance of winning.
As Mary grew up she used to conduct, produce and play piano for
children she trained in opera singing. She produced shows with the
children at their church and she used to encourage them to attend Sunday
School so they could join her shows. The first year she was not allowed to
put up a poster to advertise the show as that was reserved for the pastor
but by the second year they were asking Mary if she would like to put
up a poster!
When Mary was in Gilbert and Sullivan’s “Gondoliers” she was asked to
join the “Joysters”, there were 5 people in this party. It was hard work.
Mary was an Air Raid Warden when she was asked to do some war work
however, when they knew she was a “Joyster” she was told she would be
going to entertain the troops, “The Yorkshire Regiment”. Mary was sent all
over Yorkshire at night and never knew where she was at any time. Mary
was picked up at the Town Hall with her heavy case full of her dresses and
dropped off later just in time to get the last tram at midnight for home.
Mary recollects one show when she was wearing a grass skirt and they
were singing “Hitiddly Hiti lsland” and dancing around when she lost her
knickers! Mary says they were such lovely knickers too.
Mary also recollects going to the outside
toilets with her desperate friend and it
was a “2 seater” all done up with velvet
and gold.
Mary remembers being the leading lady
in “Rose Marie” and being asked to go to
London for an audition as Bebe Daniels
and Ben Lyons were coming over from
America to see her. However, Mary was
informed beforehand she would have to
sleep with the Producer. Mary did not go
to that audition.
Mary did meet Hughie Green when she
went to Leeds and auditioned for
“Opportunity Knocks”. She was asked to
go to another audition at Manchester but
the dates coincided with her holiday so
we never saw her on the television.
Mary at age 37 entered with 47 others for a soprano solo competition and
won. Mary has sung at Smedley’s Hydro, and Buxton Pavilion Gardens as
their weekend guest. Mary has also sung at Blackpool, Nottingham and
many cities.
Mary has kept all the ribbons from her many bouquets she received during
her long singing career.
Mary may be 101 years of age but still enjoys music and the occasional song.
I was born at the beginning of the war in 1939. I remember
gas masks and I had a red one which was the colour for
children. I think they were called Mickey Mouse.
Anonymous
Harry Simms
Harry now lives in Victoria Court.
Harry was brought up by a very strict
Victorian Grandma after losing his father
at a young age. There were 15 children
in the household and times were
extremely hard.
In 1926 Harry was 9 years old and
there were a general strike and
everyone was so hungry. Harry
remembers picking up orange peel in
the street and pinching from a sugar
beet factory nearby.
His first job was an errand boy at 14 and then went on to do
engineering. He was a reserve for the forces.
Harry can remember being at home and a bullet coming flying through the
living room window.
Harry’s first TV was around 1948-50, he said it was wonderful.
His first car was a three wheeled van in 1950 and then a Morris 10-4.
Harry’s best memory was going on a date with his future wife whom he
said changed his life. He married in 1942 and had 3 sons.
Lucy Humphreys
Lucy Jenner
In 1925 Lucy missed her last day at
school which did not please her teacher,
instead Lucy started her first day at work
aged 14 years.
Lucy was born at Matlock on a rural
farm and now lives back in Matlock at
Victoria Court.
Lucy tells me she got a little job
(working from 6am - 7pm) working for
Jessie Hayes at Hayes and Silverwood
Bakery in Two Dales, it was just a little
tin hut.
She wore an apron but no hat. Last
thing before finishing work for the day
Lucy had to scrub the lino floor.
Lucy mixed dough in a big steel drum with her bare hands, “It’s a wonder I
didn’t fall in”.
At first Lucy carried a big basket on each arm walking up Sydnope Hill
to deliver bread. Breads were made into plaits, cottage loaves and buns.
Deliveries were mainly to doctors and the like and as time went on and
more people wanted deliveries Jessie gave Lucy a box on wheels to push.
Lucy used to hide if she saw someone she knew when pushing this as she
was embarrassed. When Lucy was 17 Jessie bought an old Lipton’s Tea Van
and painted it over. Lucy laughs and says it was still a box on wheels.
Lucy was paid 15s a week which never changed in the ten years she
worked there.
Lucy was allowed to go to the dances at the Whitworth lnstitute when she
was 17 years old, her Dad would wait up for her. Lucy danced waltzes,
foxtrots and was partial to a polka.
When Lucy was 19 she saw a handsome lad when she was out with her
friend and turned to her friend and said “l am going to marry him”. Later
she discovered this same lad had moved 2 doors away from her family. A
year later Jessie Hayes made Rhyse and Lucy their wedding cake. Lucy told
me Jessie used to practise making delicate decorations for wedding cakes
on biscuit tin lids.
Lucy left school and joined the Army at
the age of 18 and served for 5 years in
the Royal Artillery. Lucy worked with
the guns on the Ack- Ack giving orders
to fire at the planes. Also Lucy worked
on a spotter watching the boats for
6 hours at a time, whilst doing that
Lucy spotted a submarine. It took a
week to cross the channel because
of the mines out at sea. It was a
mixed Battery and most of the men
were married but Lucy did meet her
husband whilst in the Army. Lucy remembers a sad memory whilst
working having to step over a young women’s body.
Lucy said she was always very happy to go home on leave to see
her parents.
Lucy and her husband lived with her
parents on a farm and then with an
aunt for years. They were one of the
first to have a TV.
Lucy remembers having to walk
miles across lonely fields as a young
girl in all weathers to school and
at the age of 6 a couple tried to
kidnap her.
Her triumphs have been to
conquer life’s ups and downs.
Edna Thorpe
Pam Crump
Edna now lives in Victoria
Court Matlock. She
was born in Hucknall
Nottinghamshire, the
youngest of three. Edna
grew up in a middle class
family with good hard
working parents. As a
child she loved to go to
ballet classes and was into
gymnastics.
When Paul Morgans, Mayor of Bakewell,
visited a coffee morning at our Hoyle
Court sheltered scheme recently, he
took this lovely photo of tenant Pam
Crump.
When she left school she started her working life in a hosiery factory and
then went on to do shop work which she enjoyed.
One day Edna went to the local ice skating ring and that’s where she
met her husband. Edna went onto work in a munitions factory operating
machines to make bullets and her husband worked in the Royal Ordinance
factory repairing the tanks when they had been damaged.
Edna vaguely remembers at the age of 5 the general strike in 1926 where
there used to be the soup kitchens.
Edna had her first home in 1957 prior to living with her sister whose
husband was a prisoner of war with the Japanese for 4 years.
In Edna’s words people these days take
it for granted by taking their children
to school in cars and using the mobile
phones as she had 3 children under 5
and used to have to walk for miles in all
weather conditions.
Edna states it was a triumph to get
through the war days and the hard
times they had with the rations etc.
Pam is a former Mayor of Bakewell
herself, so was only too happy to pose
for the photo, complete with the
current Mayor’s ceremonial chain!
During Pam’s tenure as Mayor, she
wore a ribbon, not a chain, so was
keen to try the chain on for size.
Paul Morgans is a photographer and
film maker, and his expertise behind
the lens is apparent in this great
shot of Pam.
Mr. Morgans said: “I spent a lovely time with
the residents round at the coffee morning in
Hoyle Court. It’s a super place with about
24 residents in sheltered housing and a very
cheery lot they are too.”
Arthur, aged 89 grew up in Darley Dale, was born at home
and was one of four children.
He lived in a 3 bedroom semi-detached house with an outside
toilet. Mum used a dolly tub to do the washing, and heated the
iron on the fire to iron clothes.
Clothes were dried on a ceiling rack or on the fireguard. Rent
was 12s 6d a week plus rates. Wages were £2.10s a week.
June - Wirksworth
Before coming back to live in
Wirksworth in 1936, June can
remember sleeping with her sister
Monica in the front bedroom
and can remember her brother,
Michael, being born.
When she came back to
Wirksworth, the family lived in
one of five cottages on the Mill
Yard at Millers Green.
There were no lights upstairs so they used candles and no heating and just
gas lights downstairs. No bathroom so they used a tin bath in front of the
fire once a week, usually Friday night. The toilet was across the yard at the
back of the house near an old woodshed. They hated going in the dark.
The fireplace had a side oven and the floor covering was lino, coconut
matting or rag rugs.
Wash day – mum would get the fire going under the copper in the scullery
and the white clothes would go in for a boil, taken out and put in the dolly
tub and the clothes would be agitated by the dolly peg. The clothes would
be rinsed then put through the mangle to get the water out.
During the war everything changed. When the siren sounded everyone
went down into the cellar and waited for the all clear. We had evacuees
from Birmingham living next door for the duration of the war. My sister
worked at Rolls Royce in Derby on munitions and she sadly died in
1944 of TB.
Christmas time – Christmas trees were scarce so dad decorated a piece of
holly tree. It looked nice with the red berries and some baubles and our
parents made our presents out of wood; farmyards and forts for the boys
and doll’s cots for the girls and if possible bought a doll, a few sweets,
sugar pigs and sugar mice.
We had ration books, petrol ration books, clothing coupons and Identity
Cards – writing paper was scarce. There were no bananas and no oranges.
Food ration per person was 2oz of tea, bacon, lard, butter, sweets and 4oz
of margarine and cheese per week and one bar of chocolate per month.
We had powdered egg and Spam. Jam and
marmalade were on ration. We fetched milk
from the farm at the end of Mill Yard taking
our own jug. Mum would make jam if she
could save some sugar and get some fruit
– plums, damsons or blackberries. We also
had rabbit stew which made a good meal
with plenty of vegetables.
There was no television but they had a wireless which had a large glass
battery that needed re-charging once a week.
Dad used to mend the shoes and would make a paper pattern and go to
the shop in Wirksworth and have the leather cut to match.
Des recounted living in Dragon House, Brassington,
where he and all of the school children sheltered in the cellar
whenever a siren sounded, warning of potential bombing. It
was very cold in the cellar but they all treated it as an adventure
and there they remained until the all clear sounded. A few of them tried to run with the Home Guard and Des was
unfortunate enough to be given punishment by his mother
using the razor strap when he stayed out late doing this! Being
his gran’s favourite, she would protest, but to no avail.
In 1969 my husband and I decided to foster a little girl. Foster children don’t come in ‘ones’. It was usually two or
sometimes three for weeks at a time while mother was in
hospital. Father’s couldn’t get time off work like they can today. One boy 2 and girl 1 stayed for a year. Through social Services
we had known a little boy since birth and at two he came to
us long term. He became our third son and at 42 he is still
my son.
Audrey Greatorex
Having left school aged 14 in 1944 I started work at Hall
& Co on Dale Road, Matlock as an apprentice plumber. My first
job was with a plumber called Harry Taylor at Bakewell Army
Camp which was located at Burton Close, maintaining the
plumbing on the camp. After about two months I was moved
to Chesterfield. This time I was with a plumber called Archie
Smith. This was more interesting as there were a lot more
locations and billets to see to in Chesterfield and one of the
main locations was the drill Hall in Queens Park.
Between working in Chesterfield we also spent some time at
Clay Cross Drill Hall and after the war ended we came back to
work in Matlock.
Mr B Taylor
When an old man died
in the geriatric ward of
a nursing home in an
Australian country town,
it was believed that he had
nothing left of any value.
When the nurses were
going through his meagre
possessions, they found the
following poem.
lts quality and content so
impressed the staff, that
copies were made and
distributed to every nurse
in the hospital. The poem
has since appeared in many
magazines, and has gone
viral on the lnternet. We
hope the memories shared
in this booklet and his poem
will make you think about
how you view older people.
Cranky Old Man
What do you see people? What do you see?
What are you thinking when you’re looking at me?
A cranky old man not very wise,
Uncertain of habit with faraway eyes?
Who dribbles his food and makes no reply.
When you say in a loud voice ‘l do wish you’d try!’
Who seems not to notice the things that you do.
And forever is losing a sock or shoe?
Who, resisting or not lets you do as you will,
With bathing and feeding the long day to fill?
Is that what you’re thinking? Is that what you see?
Then open your eyes, you’re not looking at me.
I’ll tell you who I am as I sit here so still,
As I do at your bidding, as I eat at your will.
I’m a small child of ten with a father and mother,
Brothers and sisters who love one another.
A young boy of sixteen with wings on his feet.
Dreaming that soon now a lover he’ll meet.
A groom soon at twenty my heart gives a leap.
Remembering, the vows that I promised to keep.
At twenty-five, now I have young of my own.
Who need me to guide, and a secure happy home.
A man of thirty, my young now grown fast,
Bound to each other with ties that should last.
At forty, my young sons have grown and are gone,
But my woman is beside me to see I don’t mourn.
At fifty, once more, babies play ‘round my knee.
Again, we know children my loved one and me.
Dark days are upon me. My wife is now dead.
I look at the future. I shudder with dread.
For my young are all rearing young of their own.
And I think of the years, and the love that I’ve known.
I’m now an old man and nature is cruel.
It’s jest to make old age look like a fool.
The body, it crumbles, grace and vigour, depart.
There is now a stone where I once had a heart.
But inside this old carcass a young man still dwells,
And now and again my battered heart swells.
I remember the joys. I remember the pain.
And I’m loving and living life over again.
I think of the years, all too few gone too fast.
And accept the stark fact that nothing can last.
So open your eyes, people open and see.
Not a cranky old man. Look closer, see ME!
I was 19 years old when I left service at Wootton Lodge –
I was in service at 14 years old.
I went to work at Froghall, the aircraft components department.
I was responsible for calibration of pieces of equipment which
went to Derby to build the aircraft. We made sure the boys
were safe.
I lived in Denstone Village with mum, dad and my brothers.
At the weekend, usually Saturday, I got on my bike and went
to Uttoxeter to dance until midnight. My younger brother Ted
went with me to keep an eye on me until he was called up.
Ted was in the Navy for two years and he was bombed in
Malta where he was buried.
Mary Smith, Ashbourne
With thanks to all those residents
who shared their memories. All
details correct as of October 2012.
Dimple Mill
Dimple Road
Matlock DE4 3JX
01629 593200
www.daleshousing.co.uk