Memories are made of this

I still see the following lady, but now only in my minds eye, as I walk past her house on Thrapston Road. I smile as I think of her, sat on her chair, looking out of her bay window. She'd wave as I walked by her home and usually still be there when I returned from the post box.

Mrs. Wordingham 11th May 1912 We lived in Minneys Yard. There was a tap at the bottom of the yard where we drew our water. Every Friday our tin tub was filled with kettles of water and we washed in front of the fire. I remember Mr. and Mrs. Law’s door was at the entry as you went through then there was Mrs. Blissett, Mr. and Mrs. Boddington and the Drage's.

We had three bedrooms. The Coopers lived at the bottom of the yard. We had one living room and the stairs went up from the front door. I remember that we had no carpet on the stairs but they were scrubbed weekly until they shone. My mum used to get up early every morning in order to sweep the big beetles and cockroaches off of the kitchen floor. My mum was particular always scrubbing every day. I remember that we used to have a homemade peg rug on the floor. We had a little pantry that overlooked Manning’s Yard. The rent when we lived at Minney's Yard was four shillings and a penny-halfpenny which was collected every Friday by Mr. Minney. Next to Manning’s yard was Renfrew’s Yard where the Harrison’s lived then Min Neville then her sister Mrs. Neville then the Haines family. The barns, used for washing etc, were in the middle of the yard. Mr. and Mrs. York’s window overlooked the grove as did Mr. and Mrs. Minney’s. I remember that Mrs. Manning had a sweet shop down the yard and there were four houses. Mrs. Ashby lived in the first then Mrs. Pettit who lived on the other side of the entry.

During the Second World War a lot of people from London lived in the houses in Manning’s yard. We moved from Minneys Yard to go to Hawthorne Road when I was about thirteen and the houses at the yard were demolished a couple of years later. . Years ago you could leave your doors open without fear.

My mother never lost her temper, she was a real lady. If we did anything that we ought not to have done she would give us a certain look and we knew to just behave. My mother used to do washing and ironing for a local shop owner and it would be my task to take them carefully back. My mother was ninety when she died from a stroke; she hardly had any grey hairs at all. She always used to make the milkman a cup of coffee and it was he who found her collapsed.

There were nine children in our family but a little sister died when she was only eighteen months old. The Infant School and Junior School, which I attended was at the side of Dr Spencer’s house. I am afraid that I hated every minute of school but there were some nice teachers. I remember Miss Dawson who was lovely. I went to the Mulso School just after it had been built; I must have been eleven at the time and Mr. Sutton was the Headmaster .I left school at fourteen and went to work at the Ideal Clothiers on the A6 and earned eight shillings.

I remember that my dad always used to make our shoes in his free time. He used to cut out the shoes and they were then taken to be skived at the Co-op shoe factory on the corner of Mulso Road. After the uppers had been machined he would put them on the last and then attach the soles. I was still wearing shoes made by dad up until I was sixteen. He worked at a shoe factory in Raunds and walked in all sorts of weather. After a wash in the evening he would go up to his garden field to gather his crop of home grown vegetables and it would be my job later on to go round the village selling carrots and onions.

I remember that there was a pot stall where Finedon Health Centre is. Every Friday night china etc would be all set out in the square. Anyone wanting a new pot would go and get one from there we all used to love to go there. Mr. Cox also had a shop selling everything; this was also down on the Square. We used to take a jam jar down and get it filled with black treacle. We could buy anything there from a packet of pins to settler’s powder at Cox’s shop. I remember then how everyone was friendly and we would take care of each other. At eight years old I got infantile paralysis and for four days I was really ill. There were three other local boys ill at the time and they were all left with lasting disabilities.

I later married and only took a short while off of work before returning. I then went to work at the Ideal Clothiers in Wellingborough where we were involved in making Army and Navy Uniforms .My oldest brother worked at Minney's shoe factory, which was on the corner of Rock Road. Then he went to work on the buses. My eldest sister worked at Kettering and walked both ways. She later got TB and had to spend six months at Rushden Sanatorium followed by another six months recovering. I had to leave home at the time and live with an older brother.

I remember the Tainty at the back of the cricket pitch and men working there. One of my brothers worked at Robinson’s farm where the Mulso Pub is now and I remember that there were fruit trees where the car park now is.

My husband Bert volunteered for the Merchant Navy and joined up in January the following year; sadly he was away when Robert was born; he was a Quartermaster in the navy. He was in a convoy of ships zigzagging across the Atlantic out of twenty eight ten got through. I now attend the Stroke Club.