Memories are made of this

Mrs. Garley I was born 11th September 1933. As a child I lived at number four and my grandparents Mr. Mrs. Drage lived at Number one Lime Tree end next door to Ted Stanley the postman; he was a postman here for over fifty years.

I went to the Infant’s School here in 1937 when I was four, then the Girls Junior School in Church Street followed by the Senior’ s on Wellingborough Road. I left school at fourteen.

Employment

I first worked for Weetabix then Loakes for twenty five years. My father worked for Loake’s for fifty years.
My grandmother had to walk to Wellingborough where she worked as washerwomen and for some time she was the main breadwinner whilst her husband was in hospital. My maternal grandfather was in the First World War and later captured by the Germans.
When he returned home he weighed five stone. He had to spend three years in hospital in order to get his strength back. When he was fit and able to return to work he was not able to cope with confined spaces such as a factory so instead he took a job at the sewerage farm working alone.

I wrote an essay at school all about where I went on my holidays and I said the sewerage farm. The teacher read my essay and did not believe me and I just escaped having the cane. The sewerage farm ran parallel with Holly Walks for quite a long way down.
He used to get the tennis balls and marbles, which had gone down the drains, and he used to scrub and clean them up for kids who did not have much. I remember that wild flowers like periwinkles, cowslips as well as hundreds and hundreds of tomatoes. He eventually had a wooden hut there and that was where he used to eat his lunch. Grandfather had a son who was in the airborne Division flying gliders in the First World War. He was wounded on D day and it took two days to pick him up; a sniper shot him in the back. Eventually he was brought home to a Newcastle hospital where he died soon after from his wounds.

He had been a member of the bible class from a very young age. He was only twenty four when he died and he left a young wife and two year old daughter. He is now buried in Finedon cemetery. One of my main memories from my childhood years is of my dad going off to war and telling me that he would not be back for sometime. We didn't see him for months at a time. He later volunteered for services on the front line with his friend. He had several jobs in the army. I think I was twelve or thirteen when he came home.

I remember things being rationed during the year. Lotty Goodman kept the sweetshop in Church Street (she belonged to the bottom chapel) we gave her our coupons for sweets but when our sweet ration ran out she would sometimes give us one or two sweets.
I would sometimes need new clothes but not have the coupons left to buy them; a way round this was found by buying coupons off of people who had coupons but were not able to afford to get any clothes themselves. I also remember Miss Young who lived at the old maids cottage- she was a dear old soul and I used to visit her and take her Sunday dinner. She was a machinist and was able to make clothes.

I also remember Father Scorer, Father Mathews who was still a bachelor then and was responsible for starting the boys club. I think he did more for the boys of Finedon than any vicar I know. All the boys who got into trouble he got into the boys club. There were seventy boys going to the boys club, which was then held at the Star Hall. A lot of the boys were later confirmed, including my own brother, due to his influence on their lives. He seemed to care about each individual boy. Another precious teenage memory is of Mrs. Morris and her daughter who lived in a cottage down at the mill. Mrs. Morris was a lovely quiet, generous lady who would give you her last halfpenny. She had Victor, Herbert, Bill Elsie and Eileen who was my friend. Prior to the Morris’s living in the cottage there used to be people living there who sold pop and crisps etc to people I think that there is still someone related to them living in Finedon today.

I got married to a Harrowden man in 1955 when I was twenty one. I recall that we were having heavy snow at the time so snow ploughs had to be brought in to clear Stocks Hill. As it was my best friend Eileen was getting married in the morning at the same church and my husband was best man for them. In the afternoon her husband was best man for us. We all then went to London for our honeymoon- though we did go to different hotels! We kept our reception at the Gladstone everyone seemed to keep their reception at the Gladstone.

We later went on to have two children.
We used to often have our Sunday dinner cooked at the Co-op bake house in Church Street it was a real treat and we used to pay five pence. Before the Bake House and Co-op Groceries there was an alley and through the alley and up some iron stairs we would reach the Co-op Offices where once a year divvy would be paid.
Other areas I remember down Church Street were:

 Box Edge Place,
 Lime Tree End
 Widows Row,
 Stocks Hill (where the stocks used to be)
 Manning’s Yard
 Alexander Terrace.

I love Finedon; we lived in Little Harrowden for ten years but I did not settle and wanted to come back here. I was also told that there was not room for my daughter at the school in Harrowden. I now have four grandchildren.

Jimmy Saville Stoke Mandeville appeal disco and presentation of cheques for one thousand one hundred pounds at Dolben Cricket Club 1980 Nov 5th

L-R Maude Wood, Eileen Garley,Chris Horn,Mrs Haines, Val Holland,Mrs Mellows,Mrs Marshall at front presenting cheque June Miller.