Transcript Detail
| Transcript Title | Perry, Enid (O2012.13) |
| Interviewee | Enid Perry (EP) |
| Interviewer | Marilyn Taylor (MT) |
| Date | 14/04/2012 |
| Transcriber by | Mark Green (using Otter.Ai for initial transcript) |
Transcript
Hertford Oral History Group
Recording No: O2012.13
Interviewee: Enid Perry (EP)
Date: 14th April 2012
Venue: The Drive, Bengeo, Hertford
Interviewer: Marilyn Taylor (MT)
Transcriber: Mark Green (using Otter.Ai for initial transcript)
Typed by: Mark Green,
************** unclear recording
[discussion] untranscribed material
italics editor’s notes
There was a follow-up recording made on 15th April, about the walnut tree, and then an additional brief recording and it is not clear whether this was also on the 15th or at a later date. All three recordings are gathered here into a single transcript.
MT: This is Marilyn Taylor. I'm at the home of Mrs. Enid Perry, number 32 The Drive, Bengeo and it's the 14th of April 2012. Right, so if we start you weren't born in Hertford were you?
EP: No, I was born in Bampton in Oxfordshire um...
MT: How old were you when you moved to Stansted Abbotts?
EP: About three I would think, um when my father was demobbed from the army,
MT: Ah right, so you came because he left the army? And where, where did he go to work? When he left the army?
EP: Yeah. He went to work in London for the Royal Exchange Insurance Company. And he worked there until he retired, which was during the war, the Second World War,
MT: why did you come to Stansted Abbotts? Do you know?
EP: Because that was his, his home. He came from, he was born in the Lodge at Hillside Great Amwell. And so, um, you know, that area was his home.
MT: So, he came... That was his home. So, he came back home.
EP: Yeah.
MT: So the reason you were in Oxford you were, you were born in…
EP: …was my grandmother's house.
MT: So your mother came from Oxfordshire?
EP: My mother came from Oxfordshire
MT: So they met while he was…
EP: They met because his younger brother had married my mother's younger sister.
MT: Oh, yeah, that's right. You told me that. Yeah.
EP: That's how they met. And then they were married in 1918. And that was in February 1918 and I was born in March 1919. My father was demobbed. About, somewhere in I think about in 20, 1922, somewhere about that.
MT: Yeah, because he was a career soldier, wasn't he?
EP: Yes, he'd been in the army for over 20 years.
MT: He didn't just join up because of the first world war he was already, serving.
And now the schools you went to?
EP: No, no. I went to Great Amhurst school until I was 11 plus. And then I went to what was called Ware Central School, which is right...right at the top of Musley Hill until a new Central School was built at the bottom of the hill, by Christ Church church.
MT: Oh right. So is that that the building at the top that is now derelict?
EP: Yes, that was that was a became an infant school?
MT: Yes, Musley, Musley, Musley School So that was the first
EP: that was Ware Central School. I was there for I don't know, two years, perhaps before they moved down to the new school at the bottom of the hill, which I presume is still there.
MT: It's dreadful. I don't know.
EP: Ware
MT: Must have been past there a few times.
EP: Um well, it...
MT: Christchurch is in New Road, isn't it?
EP: Yeah. And we've we had we walked along the path by the side of, by the side of the churchyard,
MT: It probably is still there, I don't know Ware that well, to know. But Great Amwell school now that's the one that's still there behind, it's sort of behind the church.
EP: Well, I haven't been back for many years. But if you if you go to the George IV...
MT: Yes.
EP: And you take a, you sort of cross the lane and go. There's a path by the side of the churchyard that goes up the side the church. And that, and then you turn right and the school was there.
MT: Yeah. Is it the same place? I'm not sure if it's the same building, but…
EP: I understood that the present Amwell school was in French's lane, but I don't know.
MT: It's in, yes it's in the next lane up.
EP: Yeah.
MT: You can still get to it. Across from...
EP: but that wasn't where I went to school.
MT: Oh, right. Well, they have moved it, then.
EP: Yeah. Oh, yeah.
MT: I know it's sort of at the back of the church because when they …, they can have a wedding there and have a reception in the marquee on the grounds of the school, which is kind of behind the church. Whether you can walk right across I'm not sure.
EP: I don't know. Um...what do they call it? Is it Chauncey Lane? No,
MT: Cautherley. Isn't it Cautherley Lane. One of them
EP: Some Courterley Lane, something lane, isn't it?
MT: I get a bit lost up there. Those little lanes.
EP: There's a lane which goes opposite Van Hages goes off almost opposite Van Hages on the left hand...
MT: That's it, Yeah.
EP: Cautherley...
MT: Yes, I think it's called Cautherley [It is]
EP: Does that go down to George IV? [It does] Oh well then a path would go off on the right and um the school should be there.
MT: Yes. Yeah, yeah so basically the same place they probably rebuilt probably feel, I've got a feeling the school that is there now is a slightly more modern building. So
EP: yeah, we think it must be.
MT: Yeah. Right. So what age were you when you left school?
EP: Nearly, nearly 17.
MT: Oh, [surprised]
EP: I stayed on, I mean I were there. Well, we didn't have 'O' levels and 'A' levels and that, but I think I stayed on until until 16 and then did typing and bookkeeping lessons or something.
MT: Oh, right. That's unusual in those I mean, in those days you didn't have to stay at school
EP: No, you didn't.
MT: From school, where did you, what was your first job?
EP: With French's the flour mills in Ware,
MT: Oh, right. Yeah, Frenlite.
EP: Frenlite flour.
MT: Yes [laughs]
EP: And because, they, they were the employers of my grandfather, who was a gardener. And that was why my father was brought...born at the Lodge to Hillside because they lived in Hillside and he was the gardener there.
MT: Oh, so it was French's, where they called, was the family French?
EP: Yeah. That would be French. Um...when I went it there was um... an old Mr. French. I say old he was probably about 60 ish. And he [pauses] he died. And he… he'd married twice. And his, the son of his second wife took over the firm Mr John, Major John French he was because he had been in the army. But he had two step-sisters from, from Mr French's first wife, Miss Annie and Miss Edith they used to have a little input in the into the firm, not sure what it was. But they had this sort of welfare of the employees at heart. And um I remember they told me that they remembered my father as a little boy, because he was [indistinct] born in the Lodge.
MT: Yes, yes ah. So how long were you there?
EP: Um, let me think.
MT: You worked in the office there?
EP: I worked in the office as book, bookkeeping. Um. Well, I sort, I joined. I moved from there to Addis's in March 1938. So 1919, I suppose, well I was twenty when war broke out so, so I was about 18. I don't I was there about two years roughly I suppose. And the only reason that I left really was because French's always took their office staff from a central school, they always applied to central schools.
MT: Keep it local. And, yeah.
EP: And, and so that a friend that had who was older than I was, but I'd known at school, was also working at French's, and if we wanted to go on a holiday together, um we couldn't be away at the same time. So I decided to move and that's when I joined Addis.
MT: And that's when you joined Addis.
EP: And I worked with Addis until, I married in 1946 and I've left in May 1947.
MT: Now tell, tell me about this interview you had at Addis's
EP: What with old Miss...?
MT: Yeah,
EP: Old Miss, Miss Caroline Mary Maud Addis. Yeah.
MT: Yeah. And you had gloves on, didn't you?
EP: I wore my gloves as all young ladies should in those days. And I took them off. And she gave me a list of figures I'd applied for a book-keeping job you see, and I, she gave me a list of a column of figures to add up. And I didn't get it right. And I was twist, twisting the fingers of my gloves. And she said, if we don't stop twisting those fingers, [indistinct], you'll twist them off. And apparently they were up advertising for a typist as well as a bookkeeper, I'd applied for the bookkeeping job but because she gave me an envelope to type for my, put my name and address on it and I just sat and typed it, she gave me the typist job.
MT: Right. So you went for the bookkeeper and got the typist
EP: The typist job. But I didn't last there very long because Mr. Robert Addis, who had known my father, through am I allowed to say political parties?
MT: Yes, of course you can.
EP: Who was a fellow conservative and they've been on the local committee, um he used to say, I thought you applied for the accountancy job. And if, if they were a bit short, in the accounts department, he'd move me back there. And as soon as Mrs Addis saw me there, she'd find some invoices to type like the other end. Anyway, I ended up in the accounts department, and um, and sort of, eventually ended up in charge of the accounts department.
MT: And that was where you met John.
EP: And then John came to work, as a resident accountant in on the first of January 1940. And he subsequently passed his company secretary exams and became company secretary. I don't know what the date was with that. And eventually we married in December 1946.
He worked for the firm’s accountants,
MT: the firm of accountants that Addis used.
EP: Yes. And that was in London Shipley, Blackburn and Sutton. Um...and and they put him into there. And as I say there's so that to start with, he was employed by them. Shipley, Blackburn. But when he passed his company secretary exams, he then became um, left them and became an Addis employee.
MT: And that was in London, Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Now Addis's didn't really approve, did they?
EP: Mr Addis didn't like office friendships. But they didn't know about it until we actually, I used to wear my engagement ring on a, on a cord round my neck in the office, put it on when I left. But um, but he, but they came to our wedding and they were supportive after that.
MT: Yeah.
EP: But um, no,
MT: They wouldn't have encouraged it.
EP: They wouldn't have encouraged it. They thought it, you'd be detracted from your work.
MT: That's right. Yes.
EP: And things were a little different in those days.
MT: Well exactly, yes.
EP: When you went to work your mind was on your work, not on...
MT: Yes, that's right.
EP: ...private affairs.
MT: Yes, yes. Now you were when you were first married, you were, where were you going to live?
EP: Well, we were going to have two rooms in a friend's mother's house with a cooker on the landing and the shared use of the bathroom and toilet. And Mr. Addis said can't do that, your marriage will be doomed before it starts. And they had acquired land which was at the back of the factory, although it, the factory was in, faced Ware Road this land was in, what's it called London Road, and...um...it had an entrance halfway up London Road by...um...a field gate.
MT: Well it was round the back, I suppose it was around the back of what then was known as the jail I mean it was...um...[indistinct]
EP: No, no, no it wouldn't have been [indistinct] I don't think so. I mean, you've got if you went up London Road you got...which came first Park Road and Davis...and dav, dav, davis. Something
MT: Park Road, first
EP: There are two roads, aren't there?
MT: Yes. Yeah, but they sort of had a sort of I suppose the land then must have been a bit L-shaped
EP: Well I suppose, yes, it must have been.
MT: must have come, because I mean the main factory was on Ware Road, wasn't it? I mean, where it always was.
EP: Yes.
MT: Went right up the back and then came out must have come out onto...London Road from London Road.
EP: Yes, it must have been L-shaped, yes. And...um...and in, in the, in the grounds, there, on this piece of land up there, which was approached through...um... well a sort of copse, wooded bit either side, From London Road. A driveway was what, best part of 100 yards in, I suppose. And there was a cottage there. And that was empty. And so Mr. Addis said that we could rent the cottage. And so we rented that cottage, which we understood to be the, Lady Faudel-Phillips, who had bought her own Balls Park was, um, bred Chow. The dog, Chows.
MT: Oh, yes. Chow dogs. Yeah.
EP: And that was where her kennel man lived.
MT: We should just ..for the recording, we should say that this is called Rookery Wood.
EP: Oh, yeah. It's called...
MT: and I believe it's still there, isn't it?
EP: Yes, I understand, so, I know...
MT: It's sort of where it's in.
EP: Chris went in and had a look.
MT: Whether we get to it now or from Brookside? Certainly there's still a gate on London Road, but you can't drive in that way.
EP: I don't know.
MT: Anyway, sorry. That was just …just for the tape so that in 50 years’ time if somebody is listening to this.
EP: It was called Rookery Wood and we had rooks in the trees there. But it went, I mean, many times, I've been hanging out washing on the line which we put up. And I had a black spaniel called Kim. And he always followed me everywhere and he would stand, sit while I hung my washing on the line, if I saw his ears to twitch up, I would look to see what he was looking at, and I'd see a fox sitting there looking at me, and...um...I mean the land beyond it was called Foxholes, wasn't it.
MT: Yep. It's still known as Foxholes.
EP: It's still known as Foxholes.
MT: Still known as Foxholes and it is now all built on and all houses but, so that then would have been the kennel maid’s cottage that.
EP: That was the kennel man's cottage.
MT: Two Balls Park.
EP: Yes. I suppose originally it was owned by Balls Park I don't know.
MT: I suppose it would have been because I mean, there's another Lodge there almost opposite the other side of what is now the dual carriageway.
EP: That's right, yeah, yeah...
MT: there is another lodge too.
EP: and in fact, when we lived there, there was...um...a small shed to one side not away from the house but to one side and some sort of fencing round it and, and iron gate with sort of bars in it. Which move moved and is still part is now part of my compost heap. [Laughs]
MT: Brought it with you.
EP:
We brought it with us. And that was some of the kennels at….
MT: The kennels are [indistinct] where the dogs.
EP: Where, where the dogs were kept, you see. Anyway, being a country person I wanted… It was just a cottage there. You went through this wood and then, or little copse and then you got an open space. But I needed a garden didn't I. And of course it was just after the war. And we were always told to dig for victory. So we tried to make a little garden, a little flower garden in the front and a bit of lawn and the vegetable patch at the back. When we started digging. We kept digging up German gin bottles They were about a foot high, just over a foot high. I don't know what do you, what what they were some sort of pottery with a German German Eagle.
MT: Oh they were pottery and they weren't glass?
EP: Oh no, no, they were pottery, brown, brown pottery and they had a Germ- a, a circular...um...design on them with the German Eagles. So we assumed they were German gin bottles and in fact we dug up quite a collection of these jars and we had purchased a secondhand sideboard...um...when we were married, which had a sideboard with a mirror canopied mirror over the top and we used to keep these gin bottles on top of that canopy because at that time that the there was no gas laid on at Rookery Wood it was only I was able to have an electric cooker because it was electricity there and in the living room I had an open fire with an oven over the top, which was an absolute godsend because we were getting frequent electricity cuts.
MT: Yes. Yeah. So with an open fire you got...
EP: And so we put candles in the in the tops of these gin bottles. And then we'd always got candles.
MT: Food got heated like even if you...[indistinct]
EP: And, and an oven part [indistinct] I could cook as well through electricity cuts you see.
MT: Yes, yeah.
EP: And I can always remember the open fire. It was raised. And it had two, two little...um...shelves each side, which I suppose was so that one could cook on it. Um...and...um...my father came for high tea one Saturday afternoon, and I've got kippers and I put these kippers headfirst in this in a big blue and white jug, which I still have, um...and pour boiling water in and put them on the side of the hob. To, to and left them for 10 minutes. And my father looked at me he said, How did you how did you come to know how to cook kippers like that? [laughs] I said I don't know, I think it was an old Mrs. Beeton's recipe. And...um...but....anyway, we had kipp-. It was an absolute godsend that...um...because I could cook. And that, theres these gin bottles I'd always got candles in, so we always had light.
MT: So you were there, you were at Rookery Wood quite a long time weren't you?
EP: We were at Rookery Wood for almost seven years
MT: Yeah. Both the boys were born while you lived there?
EP: Yes, they were both born there. Both born in County, in the County Hospital. Partly, the first one, they were encouraging people to have home births at that time. But, husband was worried and so he insisted I went to hospital about this when Chris was born. And they found out afterwards that I had an unusual blood group, rhesus negative, so they made no bones about it that Jeff should be born in hospital because there was …was a chance that he might be a blue baby.
MT: Ah. Yes, yeah. And so just for safety.
EP: Just for or safety I was allowed to have him in in hospital as well.
MT: And he wasn't was he?
EP: He wasn't, he wasn't even jaundiced. Which they expected him to be but it wasn't. But apparently there's no bother but the first child but subsequent children, that's why I was decided to call it a day on two [both laugh] not to risk it.
MT: Not going for a big brood. So what what why did you sort of leave Rookery Wood, and by [indistinct]?
EP: Well, when we became engaged in May 1946. My husband bought this piece of land. It was the last piece going in the Drive. And he bought this land in the hope that we would build a house but you building was very restricted after the war, and you had to prove a need. And we hadn't a need because we had a three-bedroom cottage which we were living in, you see. And eventually it wasn't until 1952 that we were granted a licence to build, and then eventually we moved in, in into this house on the 31st of October 1953.
MT: Yes, because I got that wrong. I thought you were here before Mum, but you weren't, were you?
EP: No. No. You moved in in September and we moved in....and the [indistinct] has been there since 1947.
MT: Yes, because their's was the first one
EP: Their's was the first license issued in Hertford.
MT: It was the first one built after the war.
EP: Yeah. Yeah. And, and so until she died last year, we all lived here for all those years.
MT: Yeah, yes and Hilda over the road.
EP: And Hilda over the road.
MT: Had been there since 38 and Mrs. Downes up the road at 39. And it's still there.
EP: It's still there. Yeah. But what amazes me is the house over the road, you tell them I mean, I thought that was that colour was simply a roofing felt. But you tell, it's a slate roof.
MT: No, that's the slate.
EP: How, how on earth did they manage, did the Council pass a slate roof? I mean, [indistinct] of?
MT: I don't know,
EP: It is not like… it doesn't conform with any of the other houses, does it?
MT: I don't know. No idea. I don't. I don't even remember noticing that on the plans. I have to admit, I know they're going to render it.
EP: What do you mean, render it?
MT: Well, like number 27 is. So you won't see the bricks, it will all be covered
EP: Ah yes, but that is not the roof, is it. I wonder why a slate roof?
MT: No, no, not the roof. No, the, but the walls will be rendered but um.... I don't know. But I mean, when you think that house hasn't been touched since, since 1938, and now it's, completely changed. But now when you came when you came up here, I mean, I can remember as a little girl that you used to keep chickens, didn't you.
EP: Oh, we kept chickens. Yes. Yes, the family has always had chickens. Well, well I mean, during the war when, when my husband first came to high tea on the Sunday, we I mean, we'd had a roast dinner at Sunday lunch. And it was high always high tea on a Saturday and Sunday in my mother's home, and she said to my husband, would you like one, one egg or two? And he looked at...I beg your pardon? She said, Well, it's boiled eggs for tea, John. Would you like one or two? He said my mother gets one a week on the ration book. We, we'd always had chickens.
MT: Yes, yeah. So, did you have chickens at Rookery Wood?
EP: Yes. We've kept them in the kennel where the kennel was you see.
MT: Oh, yes.
EP: We'd got the hut already there. And we kept candles were kept the chickens in… in that the sort of enclosure that was there.
MT: So that was something that a lot of people did in those days. And then it went out of fashion keeping chickens, now it's coming back in again [laughs]
EP: Well, everybody is sort of doing their own thing.
MT: Now, the other thing I wanted to, to just talk about was you said, when you were Addis's, you mentioned the other day about them having to use some of that land during the war.
EP: The factory covered some of the land, but that was spare land behind the, the factory. And during the war, any spare land that could possibly I mean even front gardens and village greens and things were dug up and...um…vegetables, potatoes particularly and you had to...um...and we'd grow potatoes on that on the plot behind behind Addis factory and but they had to be sold there was always a local person appointed by the I suppose Ministry of Food to, you had to sell them to that one person. And I know they used to ring in, ring through from the reception to me and say that the potato man is here. He's been to collect the potatoes that...
MT: Well, that was my grandfather.
EP: That was your Grand…, I didn't know at the time.
MT: Well, no. Of course you didn't.
EP: I was going to end up neighbours. And I didn't even as far as I know, I didn't even know his name. I don't know. I can't remember what happened whether I had paid him I can't remember what I did.
MT: I wouldn't know.
EP: I wouldn't, no...
MT: No, but I mean, he he he had the licence.
EP: The franchise, I suppose you'd call it.
MT: Well, they were licensed. They were always, I mean he was,, Dad was always known as a licenced potato merchant. I mean, I can always remember when I was little that was on all the paperwork. But apparently I mean he was he was the one for the Hertford, Hertford and that area. Then the next one I think Dad said was, one way it was Bishop Stortford and then the other way it was Hatfield. So that I suppose it was a way of controlling what people were growing and knowing…
EP: Knowing how much...
MT: because I don't think potatoes were rationed, were they?
EP: No, I don't think they were...
MT: But they had to keep some control of what, you know, people were getting. Yeah, no, that was yes, right. Well, I think that's kind of covered everything that…
EP: I think so.
MT: all these different things that you keep telling me and I said, we must get this on tape or…
EP: Somebody at um, somebody at Balls Park must have been keen on German gin because we, I rather wish I'd kept those those um gin bottles. Looking at some of the stuff they, they have on Flog It [A BBC antiques show]. I've been worse [?].
MT: Yeah, you probably, did you bring them up here? Or did you leave them at Rookery Wood?
EP: I don't, I can't remember. I think we bought, well I think we bought some up here. But I can't really remember.
MT: [Laughs] Was Balls Park when you were there being lived in as a private residence?
EP: I think so. Yes.
MT: So that would have been Faudel-Phillips?
EP: Yeah.
MT: Yeah. They was living there then.
EP: Yeah, exactly.
MT: No, I don't know much about Balls Park. But um...
EP: no, it was much later when it became what it became the teacher training college didn't it?
MT: Well, that's what I remember it as, yes.
EP: Because I think Janet was Janet Coneen [?] was there. That's how she met Robert.
MT: Really. I wondered how they met. Jean, my grandmother had somebody...um...who lodged with her who was up there and her name was Jean Barnicoat [?]. And she came from oh I can't remember.
EP: um...where did, where did, I think Janet came from Luton some way, somewhere,
MT: Yes. I think she did, because they got married in Luton.
EP: Did they, yeah?
MT: And Jean Barnicoat came from West Country somewhere. But yeah, I think that's what…
EP: ...became a teacher training college and then and then, and I think part of Hertford University....[indistinct]
MT: Yeah, yes, it was. But I don't know. So that was Faudel...yeah, that was the Faudel-Phillips family was still living there.
EP: In that time, I presume they were... To Addis' they must have done on that side of the road.
MT: they obviously sold some of the land to Addis'. Yes, because London Road always went up there, yes.
EP: Mr. Addis trying to get planning permission to build houses because houses were in short supply after the war. And if he could advertise an engineering job, we had a very good engineering shop, workshop in Addis', where they used to have apprentices. And they were very good. And if he could advertise them a job with a house, he could get, you know, all over the country. But no, he couldn't. They wouldn't give him permission to build. So eventually, he sold the land.
MT: Right. And it became Brookside and…
EP: that became Brookside. Well, I don't know how far. I mean, I only know how far Rookery Wood would land extended. I don't know.
MT: Brookside goes around the back of it. So...
EP: yes, I know it does.
MT: I'll have to take you up there one day. But you said you mentioned the other day that Addis' owned some of the cottages in Bengeo?
EP: they own the little cottages at the top of the twitchell. And they own...
MT: So are they're the ones next to the on the opposite side of The Yews. The twichell divides them from The Yews.
EP: That's right.
MT: Yeah.
EP: They owned the whole row.
MT: That block of ...
EP: and they also owned one, one in Trinity Grove...um...and they, they owned various property around as I say...
MT: So, they could offer somebody a job with, with a house.
EP: Yeah, yeah
MT: Fascinating, isn't it? How things were?
EP: Well, that's right, I mean,
MT: Where did the Addis family live?
EP: In the Old Rectory at Hertingfordbury
MT: Oh right. Yes, of course. Yes. Down the side of the church.
EP: I mean, they originated from Hackney.
MT: Oh, I'm, sure. Yes. I don't doubt it. It's just that I don't know much about it personally, that's all. Yeah, oh did they?
EP: Yeah, I got the book down there. Hundred years of, oh, the Museum got it? Yeah, yeah they came, I mean what I call old man Addis who I never knew. I can't remember whether his name was Henry or what it was but he, he bought the factory down here, I am not sure when, quite honestly, but he bought the factory down here. I don't know. I don't know where, where Robert was born, but I know that the family lived in when I knew them. They lived in the Old Rectory at Hertingfordbury. And they had the three children. Mary, Robin and Oliver. Oliver eventually went out to man Addis Australia, Robin worked in the factory at one time. He was a good athlete, he was a pole vaulter. And he was hoping to be part of the English British English team. But I don't know what he didn't have. He went into the engineering shop and he didn't have time to train
MT: Put all the training in, right
EP: Put all the training in. So, Mary went to Cambridge University, and there met her husband Bill Purver, Richard Purver. But William Purver, I suppose he is [Richard Purver, known as Bill]. And they married and Mr. Purver came to work at Addis'for a time. And then because he'd, Mary died when she was in her 50's or something. And he eventually married again.
MT: Oh, right. Yeah. Now I'm sure yeah, the… the museum do have quite a lot on Addis' because they've got a whole on it. You probably haven't been in there. They've got a whole display of toothbrushes.
EP: Yes. Well, no, I haven't actually seen it. But actually, I have been down there because they had a sort of well, I don't know what you call it sort of reunion I know, down there at the Museum.
MT: Oh, right. Yeah, yeah
EP: But, no Don Crate [?] took over from John. And he.
MT: Oh, right, yes. Okay, right. Oh, that's brilliant. Thank you very much.
EP: Well, you're welcome
MT: I've got down everything that you keep telling me over various times and I said I must get it on tape. So now we've got it on tape.
EP: well, I hope you can edit it.
MT: Well, I can but those No, no, we haven't been rude to anybody. I just need to get you to fill in the form to say that we can use it if we if they want to in a few years’ time, and people can use it.
EP: Anything derogatory.
MT: No, well exactly.
EP: I mean I could go into, launch into Mrs. Addis' background, but I won't,
MT: No, perhaps it is not necessary, is it
EP: Perhaps not. No, no.
MT: Thank you very much. Well, we'll fill in this form and then that's sorted.
The recording made on the 14th April ends here. A follow-up recording, transcribed below, was made on 15th April.
MT: This is Marilyn Taylor. I'm back at the home of Mrs. Enid Perry as she's remembered a couple of things that she didn't tell us yesterday. So we're just going to add these on as a second part of the recording. Right so the walnut tree...
EP: We have a walnut tree at the bottom of the garden which was given to us by Robert Addis when we moved in. He grew the sapling he gave us from a walnut that was taken from a tree in the...paddock, next door to the Old Rectory at Hertingfordbury, which his father had planted a walnut tree when Robert was 21. And Robert grew walnut trees from there and planted more when his two sons were born. And he gave us one that was a housewarming gift. And it's still there, and it's still there,
MT: producing walnuts.
EP: But it's amazing because I can remember back when my husband was alive, giving carrybags full of green walnuts around to anyone who would take them. But now I only get an odd walnut which the squirrels [indistinct]
MT: drop.
EP: um...you know...while, because, because they seem to clear the tree before.
MT: Yeah. I'm still finding walnut shells now. So, I don't know where they …where they put them. And the other thing that you were telling me about was this, um, netball at, um, Ware
EP: Oh, well. When I was in school, I was in the school netball team. And we won a local school shield. Now I don't know whether it was a district or what it was. But we played other schools. And we won well, I suppose I was about 14 at the time. And we had a studio photograph taken of the girls in the team plus our sports mistress a Miss Ferguson. And um,
MT: So, this was Ware central schools where you
EP: Ware Central School, and I went there and
MT: so it's gonna be the early 1930s.
EP: Yeah, I reckon so.
MT: And that photo you've now given it to Ware Museum.
EP: Yes. Yeah.
MT: So if anybody wants to see it, they can see it at Ware Museum. Yeah, I don't remember where that competition took place.
EP: No, no, I don't and I can't read what it says on the shield.
MT: No.
EP: I mean the shield is there. I can't. I can't. I don't know whether, you know, whether you could blow it up. Whether you could see it or not? I don't know.
MT: Probably not. Photographs. weren't that clear in those days, were they. Oh, that's brilliant. Thank you very much. I can add that on to yesterday's recording. That's all we wanted, thank you.
EP: Are you going to leave me that? [Recording ends]
A further short, undated, recording was also made and transcribed below.
EP: When Mary Addis married, she moved into the gardener's cottage, which was in the grounds of the Old Rectory, which is next door to the [indistinct] for Hertingfordbury Church, which was there. And then Mr. Addis eventually sold the Old Rectory. But he built a bungalow at the, at the entrance to the drive. And he lived there after he retired until he died. And Robin Addis lives across the road from the Old Rectory in well, now the old place is just as you turned into St. Mary's lane.
MT: Yes. Yeah,
EP: there is a house on the right, which lays right back. Very modern looking house.
MT: Yes, I'm sure. I don't know it that well but, yeah Oh, you are on Hertingfordbury Road before you turn into, before you turn into St Mary's Lane. Yes, yes. Yes. I know. I know where you are now. Yeah.
EP: Before just before you get to the White Horse is it at Hertingfordbury? The pub? The pub? There is a house that lays back, a very modern house. Robin Addis house, had that building, lived there. Presumably still does? I don't know.
MT: No, I don't know. No, I don't know.
EP: He does, did do a lot of sailing. I'll tell you who can tell you, and that would be Pam Craig.
MT: Yes. I don't know whether we've recorded Pam Craig but that would be another interesting one to get. I'm going to have to make a list.
EP: Pam can tell you quite a bit.
MT: Yeah. I have to make a list of all the people we can...
EP: [Don's?], Rotary, I think? Yes, I think he is. And Pam, Pam was in a wheelchair. Yeah.
MT: Yeah Right. Okay. [Recording ends]