My
early childhood was spent in a suburb of
Luton
called Leagrave. Many years earlier Leagrave was known as The Blockers’
Seaside
.
Luton
had always been famous for the manufacture of hats and both of my parents were
born in the area. My father’s family farmed there and all five of my
mother’s sisters worked in the hat factories in the town. Blocks were the
names of the moulds on which the felt hoods were steamed into shape before being
sent to the machine and trimming rooms. The river Lea ran through Leagrave and
there was a large marshy area around it. The children from
Luton
would come down to the marsh and play and fish for tadpoles. It was the closest
some of them would ever come to visiting a proper seaside resort hence it was
named at that time The Blockers’
Seaside
.
We
lived at 65, The Avenue, Leagrave. My
father, who was a local builder, built the small three-bedroomed detached
chalet bungalow in 1936, the year he and my mother were married, and they
started their married life there together. Mum was the only one of her five
sisters who did not go to the hat factories to work. She was employed by an
accountancy firm in
Luton
as a short-hand typist. Before that, on leaving school, she worked as office
junior at The Luton News Office.
When war was declared in 1939 Mum and Dad had two evacuee children living with
them. Their names were Freddie and Peter. Mum went down to
Oakley
Road
School
where the children were assembled waiting to be allocated billets. Freddie and
Peter were the last two left standing in the school classroom and very lost and
pathetic they looked too. The first thing Mum and Dad did was to give them a
good bath which they badly needed. They were not with them for very long just
while the Phoney War lasted but the two little waifs from Hoxton grew quite fond
of my parents and the free and easy life style. They would play on the marsh and
would refer to the trees there as the wild wood. When their parents arrived to
collect them at the end of their stay they both disappeared to the marsh. My
dad had to go and find them: neither of them wanted to go back to
London
.
Dad
was called up into the army in 1942, three months after my older brother Anthony
was born. My mother’s younger sister Gwen came to live with her and stayed
throughout the war. Dad was demobbed in 1945 and Gwen and her husband Ron who
had just left the RAF continued to live there. My cousin Sally was born in 1946
and I joined the family in 1949. The house then was not large enough for two
young families so Gwen and Ron and their small daughter moved to a new house in
nearby
Humberstone Road
.
I have many happy memories of 65 The Avenue. Everyone knew each other and there
was a marvellous communal spirit of camaraderie due possibly to the difficult
and dangerous times lived through during the war.
Luton
, being an industrial town had had its fair share of bombs. One fell on The
Vauxhall Motors Factory and my mother’s older sister Aunt Eva spent an anxious
day waiting at her front door for her husband Harold to come home safely (which
thankfully he did). After this happened my uncle and aunt with their small
daughter Pat moved to the
Shropshire
countryside and Mum and Gwen used to take Anthony there for long holidays while
the war lasted.
So everyone in The Avenue watched out for one another, doors were always open,
and if there was a problem and my parents were not there, which rarely happened,
there would always be a willing neighbour to turn to.
Our
best friends were the Bushby family at number 37.Uncle
Lawrence
, as I used to call him, was a block maker and had his own factory in the town.
His wife Auntie Dot was a very kind hearted lady who loved children and used to
spoil me if she got the chance. They had one daughter Anne who was three years
older than me, I used to love to play with her and being a kind natured girl she
used to think up lots of original and exciting games.
One
Christmas I received a lovely unexpected present. Auntie Dot knowing of my early
passion for teddy bears had bought me a blue
Chad
Valley
bear. He had the most endearingly naughty face and I christened him Sooty after
the famous TV bear popular at the time. That same Christmas mum and dad gave me
Ming a panda named after the recent new arrival at London Zoo.
My other friend Libby, who was the same age as me, preferred dolls to bears ,and
would hold tea parties for them in her garden shed. She was a rather serious
little girl and was made to go to the local chapel three times a day on Sunday.
I used to go as well more for the social side of it. My parents were not very
strict about religion and left us free to choose. My brother Anthony never did
want to go, nor did Anne Bushby!
Ming
and Sooty used to be invited along to Libby’s tea parties but only if they
promised to behave! Libby’s mum was a good needle woman and made dolls clothes
on her sewing machine. At this time I was the proud owner of Trixie a battered
toy terrier dog on wheels that I had fought and won from my cousin Sally. He was
to be the fore runner of the many real dogs I have owned since. Trixie
accompanied me everywhere but from years of cuddling had become quite bald so
Libby’s mother made him a red quilted jacket to cover his bald patches. It
wouldn’t be considered hygienic for a child today to own such an ancient toy
and poor Trixie would be abandoned to the dustbin or car boot sale!
Many
of my toys, which I still own today, were handed down to me by older cousins and
friends as was the custom in the uncomplicated days of the fifties. Family aunts
and friends would knit beautiful woollen animals and we were taught to treasure
them. It is so sad to see so many of these hand crafted items consigned to
charity shops when so much love, care and attention to detail had been put into
them.
I
learned to read before I started school and my favourite books were the Little
Grey Rabbit series by Alison Uttley charmingly illustrated by Margaret Tempest.
All of the little animal characters were amusingly depicted and each one
different. My favourites were the pompous Hare, the vain Squirrel, droll Milkman
Hedgehog and his naughty son Fuzzypeg, and the motherly Little Grey Rabbit
herself.
Every
Christmas I was always given a Rupert Annual and I would pester Anthony do make
the paper objects on the activities page. They were always too complicated for
my small fingers to cope with1
Enid
Blyton used to publish a weekly magazine and Anne Bushby and I used to take it.
There was a charity connected to the publication and we both belonged to the
Busy Bee Cub. Anne being older had lots of ideas, energy and enthusiasm and she
used to organize jumble sales and bazaars in her back garden. I was always a
willing helper and the money we raised went to the PDSA.
Later
on I moved on to The Famous Five series. The Secret Seven, The Five Findouters,
and The Mystery Of Series, all by Enid Blyton. They were so well written with
plenty of action and you could identify with the young characters. Anne had a
great imagination for drama and together with other friends would act out the
stories and adventures. In the long summer holidays there was never a shortage
of things to do and we were never bored.
Leagrave Library was another favourite haunt. You were allowed two books out on
your ticket and during the school holidays I would read about ten books a week.
I used to love The Billy Bunter books. I thought he was hilarious and think how
strange that they were banned from libraries some years ago for encouraging
obesity in children. Today children are far more likely to have a weight problem
through being driven a hundred yards to school each day and for sitting for
endless hours watching computer games and consuming junk food out of a carton!
Norman
Wisdom was the popular box office draw at the time, and as a special treat Mum
and Dot Bushby would collect Anne and me from school and take us to the local
Odeon cinema in
Dunstable Road
if one of his films were showing. They would never tell us before we left for
school that morning so the surprise was all the more appreciated.
I
am glad I was born at the beginning of the fifties when life was simple and
uncomplicated. Pleasures and treats may have lacked the sophistication of
today’s computer-crazed days but children’s values were different. My
brother and I were fortunate to have good parents and a secure home and family
environment. Money may have been scarce at times but we were content with what
we had. The dark days of the war were over and people like Mum and Dad, who had
lived through those tense anxious days, were only too happy to be able to relax
and enjoy the simple pleasures in life and count their blessings.
Return to Jenny's homepage