Page 2
Small
Beginnings – Summer 2003
Memories
Betty
was born in Southchurch during 1932 although within a few months had moved to
‘Vera’ cottage Little Wakering. Vera Cottage (although these days carries a
house number) is located in Little Wakering Road about 150 metres (that is, 162
yards approx.) from the Castle Inn towards the Run corner. She started school at
Barling in January 1938 and remained there until 1946 when she was 14 years of
age. Throughout this time, Betty continued to live at Vera Cottage until 1955
when she married. From an early age Betty has been connected with church
activities, irrespective of the denomination, ranging from the established
Church of England, Scripture Union, and Methodist
Churches. Even after Betty left Barling School she remained friends with Miss
Riley until she died (just a few years ago) and was instrumental in getting both
Miss Brown (another teacher) and Miss Riley to attend the first Reunion that was
held in 1996. Indeed, Betty has always been a strong supporter (and sometimes an
organiser) of Barling School Reunions. Currently, Betty lives in Great Wakering.
The Second World War took place during the largest part of my childhood
and my memories and experiences of that time are dominated by this sad event.
Initially, at home my father made us an air raid shelter in the back
garden out of bales of straw. Many nights were spent in this shelter with my
brother and I lying on makeshift beds, grandmother in a chair and dad watching
the planes come and go. As a little girl, unlike most of the boys of my age, I
knew next to nothing about those airplanes except the deafening noise that they
made. (Even today if an an aeroplane flies overhead at a low altitude I say ‘
its alright its one of ours !’). Anyway back to the dark days of the late
nineteen thirties and early forties, it wasn’t long before we were the proud
owners of a Morrison shelter that was designed to be erected inside the house on
the ground floor, the advantage of being situated inside saved us having to go
outside during the cold and wet weather. On
Saturday 19th April 1941 when I was just 8 years old and while
staying with my other grandmother in Great Wakering the war touched me
personally. During an air raid I had been brought downstairs (from bed) to sit
on a little seat next to the big open top black lead fireplace when at 10
o’clock there were two huge explosions making the entire house shudder which
caused the windows to shatter. While, at the same time, clouds of soot shot out
from the mouth of the fireplace near to where I was sitting and covered me and
my yellow flannelette nightie from head to toe !!!!!
Apparently two land mines had been dropped in the nearby field and we
counted ourselves extremely lucky that they missed the houses. I also remember
the times that two bombs were dropped in the field at the back of us and also
bombs that were dropped near the School. However, irrespective of the war going
on around us, life still went on as usual with, for example, having a may queen
and dancing around the maypole. (Indeed, I can’t remember dancing round the
maypole and ever getting it right !) There
were village concerts and socials to raise money for the ‘welcome home fund’
for those who had gone off to fight in the war. In fact, my dad used to play in
the local band called ‘The Jolly Millers’ which raised money for the same
cause. We were often reminded of the continuing war by the presence of Italian
prisoners of war who worked at the, now demolished, Dam Farm, who seemed a
friendly and happy bunch of men but, however, we weren’t supposed to talk to
them.
Immediately
after the war, for just one term only, us Barling ‘top’ girls travelled (via
two buses) to the Congregational Hall in Chapel Lane (Great Wakering) for
cookery lessons. Obviously, these
classes were limited by the fact that most foodstuffs and ingredients were not
available owing to continued rationing and, anyway, being in short supply.
However, the subject of cooking was the only one in which I ever came top
of the class. While in the top class, I used to help the school dinner ladies to
layout and dish-up the cooked food that was delivered to the School from Great
Wakering. Co-incidentally, some years later I myself ended up as a school cook
for about fifteen years. Anyway,
its not all true what they used to say about school meals – honest !!
