Memories are made of this

Mr Harold Mitchell

I was born at number ten Albion Yard in 1930 and was the youngest of four boys and one girl. Father was employed by Trolleys who made leather gaiters which were worn by farmers, ironstone workers and labourers. Mother remained at home until I was ten then she went to work as a closer at Baileys and Nutt’s shoe factories making army boots. My maternal grandmother Emily Walker came from Corby and my grandfather came from Wellingborough. His parents were reputed to have been wheelwrights in Wellingborough. My paternal grandfather was John Henry Mitchell and he worked in a leather tannery opposite Issitts shop. My grandmother was called Mary Ward and I believe that she originated from Earls Barton.

Schools I attended Finedon Infants then Junior Schools. My first memories of the Infant School were of having friends such as Cliff Brown and George York, Derek Stanley and Geoff Cunnington. I moved to the Junior School in 1937 and Jack Wells was the headmaster. I was in Mrs. Howard’s class and Phil Addis was also a teacher. His brother Brian was in my class. Phil later went into the army. Pap Hinton and Mr. Jefferies were the teachers.
Senior Mulso School 1941 1944 Aggie Parry was the Cookery Teacher and when we did cookery we used to take our own ingredients but sometimes we used to take currants from the school pots. It was a basic education which we received there which included science, woodwork and cookery. I discovered at this time that I had a leaning towards sporting activities and I played football, cricket and baseball. I really enjoyed my time there and felt that it was a good school. We used to go home for dinner. We also used to have a third of a pint of milk free which started in 1934; this was drunk at school. SLANG The youngsters of Finedon before the war would gather together and chant this slang.

School Memories After the war started if the siren went off before midnight then we did not have to go to school until ten the next morning so we could make up for any lost sleep.

Other Memories We used to put our hands over the ball valve of the toilet system to make the system fill to the
top level then put our fingers over the outlet pipe. When someone came to the toilet system we would release it and then soak them. We were reported to Mr. Wells the Headmaster who came to the toilet and not knowing who it was we soaked him. I had six canes on each hand and twenty-four on the backside.

SUNDAY SCHOOL We went to the Wesleyan Bible School which was run by Will Patterson sometimes as many as two hundred people were there. It was taken by Horace Warner and Arthur Hearn. I recall that I used to win quite a bit at snooker. I was blessed with good hand and eye co-ordination.

BOYS BRIGADE I also belonged to the Boy’s Brigade and George York and I went out into the snow and took snowballs into the wooden hut in Summerlee Road which was heated by an old stove in the middle of the room. We placed snowballs on the heater and they melted of course and caused an awful smell consequently we were thrown out permanently by Fred Mallard and Mr. Wilmer.
Essential War Effort Employment During this time father worked in the mines. He worked as a Rope Runner, which entailed changing the points, on the electric train underground to the workings which were then brought back to Finedon Pocket Park where the ironstone was crushed and it was then taken to Wellingborough Iron Stone works in Patterson Road. It would then be smelted. After the war these works became British Steel. Before the war started dad worked for J.T. Hawthorne Gas Works as a Stoker generating gas. Each gas light in Finedon was lit by Dick Shadbolt and there would be between two to three lamps per street; these had to be partially blacked out during the war.

Banks Park My Father also laid the paths in the Banks Park in 1935 helped by Brock Nichols who was the foreman and it took about a year to do. Once the war ended dad worked as a Ground Worker on the buildings for R.C. Tann.
During the war I have vivid memories of my father on a milk float, owned by Mr. Twelvetree. The milk float horse bolted and kicked the front of the cart out scattering all of the milk churns. It ran up Church Hill with all the children wondering what all the commotion was. My father was shouting woo woo-it stopped quite some time later at Finedon Station when it eventually winded itself.
We were also allowed to have three weeks off to pick potatoes for Mr Chamberlain, the farmer, for the war effort. Potatoes of course were rationed; everything was rationed. We had dockets and we collected points for furniture, sweets, meat even beer was on ration. We kept two hundred rabbits in our back garden and gave or sold them to friends and relatives. My mother made blackberry wine and coltsfoot which was seed picked from the wild flower. She also made dandelion wine. We also picked rosehips for the war effort.

Evacuees Came from London and they started to bully local children. I stood against the toughest and we all eventually became the best of friends. They were brought to Wellingborough Station and then bussed here. They were then collected from the Infant’s School and they were chosen randomly. It must have been really traumatic for them. We had to carry gas masks and were given the stick if we forgot. Some of those who came here and remained included Jimmy Richardson, the builder, Charlie Harvey who later became a train driver and John Douglas who went on to become a mechanic.

When I was about twelve I started playing for the cricket club in the men’s team. They were sadly short of men because of the war which meant that I continued to play in the same team. During this period we won the main Wellingborough, Kettering and Rushden area Cricket league three times. Later on, when I was about sixteen, I was approached by Bob Clarke of the County Cricket Club as well as three football clubs including Leicester City, Derby County and Nott’s County. I declined because of the low wage structure which at the time was only seven pounds a week. Instead I went to play for Rushden Town part time and we won the South Midlands League as well as the KO Cup.

I then went onto Wellingborough Technical College. After qualifying as a bricklayer I became a Fellow of the Institute of Clerk of Works which was in 1963. I studied in evening class for this from 7pm to 9pm. and this was in the years 1950 to 1955.

MarriageI met my future wife Anne at the Drill Hall
Wellingborough in 1949. I was nineteen and she was sixteen. We were married at All Hallows Wellingborough in 1954. We had a Ron Tann house in Hayden Avenue number 44. Two children were born there. Stephen and then Jane who attended local schools until I self built a bungalow on the Queensway in 1967 and it took six months to build it. At this time Steven was eleven and Jane was eight then our youngest son Paul was born in 1967. Steven had already passed the Eleven Plus and went to Wellingborough Grammar School and Jane went to Breezehill. I supervised as the Clerk of Works the building of this school. Paul went to Wren then after “A” levels at Tresham he attended Cardiff University and Stephen went to Durham University.
Despite not having the education that today’s children have and leaving school at fourteen I became in the end a Resident Engineer which would now require a First Class Degree and I held this position for thirty two years and constructed some of the largest projects in the country.