Surname
|
King
|
Forename
|
Mary
|
Date of recording
|
Oct 2010
|
Year of birth
|
1922
|
Place of Birth
|
Aldeburgh
|
Occupation
|
Admin clerk
|
Fathers occupation
|
Butcher
|
Present Address
|
Leiston
|
Location Interview
|
Leiston
|
Interviewer
Summary |
Colin Fletcher
|
Duration
|
104 Mins
|
No of tracks: 11
|
Detailed Contents (times in minutes and seconds)
This recording consists of 11 tracks. Track 1. (10secs) Introduction Track 2 (10mins) Born 11th July 1922 in Aldeburgh Cottage Hospital. Living at White Lion Cottages and then at 25 Park Lane. The Barley's butchers shop in the High Street. Description of 25 Park Lane in the 1920's. The scullery. Gas lights. Oil lamps. Coal fires. Coal-fired copper. The wringer. Bedrooms. Bathing in front of the fire. Washing at the kitchen sink. The outside toilet. The garden. Their own vegetables. Mr Jeffrey's vegetable garden. Mary's siblings. Death of her sister Lillian. Mary's favourite doll and her doll's house. Track 3 (10mins) Mary's childhood: her toys; her childhood neighbours, the Parrs; playing with friends in Aldeburgh; the King's Field; on the beach; rowing on the River Alde; the school holidays: lovely summer weather; visitors to Aldeburgh; swimming lessons in the sea; learning to swim; the bathing huts. Aldeburgh Primary School. Mary's time at The Convent School. Learning office work. Mary's first job as a teleprinter operator at Aldeburgh post office. The nuns at the convent. Her Catholic family upbringing. Her mother's emigration from Ireland. Her mother's job as a cook in Lee Road. How her parents met. Three times to church every Sunday. Mary's faith. Church on Christmas Day. Track 4 (10mins) Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve. Christmas Day as a child. Father Christmas. Christmas presents. Her Christmas stocking. Mary's grandparents. Her lovely granddad and father. Mary was close to her father, 'Pop Barley'. Her grandparents' house in Neptune Alley. Her grandparents' eight children. Her grandfather, a captain on a fishing smack. Fishing off Iceland. Boats on Aldeburgh beach in the 1930's. The death of her grandparents. 'Pop' Barley, her father, opening his butcher's shop in the High Street. After her father's death. Living in Brudenell Street. Mary's work in the butcher's shop in the 1930's. Track 5 (10mins) The 1930's butcher's shop in Aldeburgh High Street. Customers buying meat. Suet pudding. The good old days. Enjoying life. Playing with a skipping rope and a ball. Better days. How Aldeburgh has changed. The local population used to be all related to each other and friendly. Good neighbours. Newcomers to Aldeburgh. Young Aldeburgh couples have problems finding a house in the town. Young people moving out of Aldeburgh. Mary's children. Proud of being an Aldeburgh woman. Mary's birth in the old Cottage Hospital in the High Street. Her mother's lost baby. Getting meat from Snape for her father's shop. Her father killing his own meat. One of the first cars in Aldeburgh. Her father's horse and cart. The horse, Honey, kept at Slaughden. The cart for work and the nice trap for the family. Killing pigs at Snape. Aldridge the butcher. Her father starting up his own business. Mary's clerical work in the butcher's shop. Aldeburgh butcher's shops: Harcourt's, Aldridge's, Salter's and Dalby's. Mary's schooling - the Convent School. Track 6 (10mins) Learning shorthand and typing at the Convent School. Mary's first job at Aldeburgh Post Office as a teleprinter operator. Dealing with telegrams and ticker-tape. A secrecy pact at the post office in the war. Telegrams from the armed forces. Sad telegrams. The staff at the old post office. The telephone switchboard and night staff. Outbreak of the Second World War. Evacuees from London come to Aldeburgh. The King's broadcast to the nation in 1939. Soldiers arrive in Aldeburgh and find girlfriends. Mary meets her husband, Bill King, a soldier. Bill walks her home - their first date. Their three-month courtship. A long marriage. Taking Bill home to meet her parents. Dances in war-time Aldeburgh. Cuddling in the shelters. On dates at the Jubilee Hall. At dances behind the Brudenell Hotel. Bill, a good dancer. Walsh's dance band. The Aldeburgh Town Band. Jimmy Walsh the band leader. Track 7 (10mins) Her father's cornet. Wesley Barley. Pat Barley, her brother. The town band - concerts and carols. Aldeburgh Lodge Gardens. The Royal Artillery. Bill a bombardier, then a corporal, then a sergeant. Bill posted to Scotland and then abroad. Birth of their daughter. Bill's compassionate leave. Aldeburgh Cinema in the war. The soldiers' barracks. A bomb hits the Post Office, 15th December 1942. Mary's story of that day: appointment at Ipswich Hospital; a lucky escape; hearing the news; the killed and injured; seeing the ruins; finding her jacket and her damaged brooch in the ruins. A direct hit on the sorting office. Another lucky escape. Someone's clothes all blown off. The Penny family next door to the Post Office. Maintaining the postal service after the bomb. Rescuing books of stamps. Track 8 (10mins) Using a mini-switchboard in an air-raid shelter after the bombing. Mary and Bill's wartime wedding. Wedding reception in the butcher's shop. Mary's wedding dress. Their honeymoon. Bill's family in Tewksbury. Finally settling in Aldeburgh. Bombs dropped on Lee Road. Sheltering from a bomb with Mr Watt at the chemist's. Bombs near the Brudenell Hotel. Their family home bombed - Mary's premonition - the ceiling collapses -another lucky escape. Track 9 (10mins) The air raid shelter in the White Hart yard. Mr and Mrs Doy the landlord and landlady at the pub. Rationing and the butcher's shop. Her father a very fair butcher during rationing. Wild rabbits to supplement rationed meat. Mary's mother a professional cook. The end of the war. Dancing in the street. Mary's family survive the war. Their cottage behind the White Hart pub. Living in Brudenell Street. The birth of her daughter and son. Moving up to Saxmundham Road. AT peace after the war. A happy life. Bill's death from cancer. Their first black-and-white television. Jack and Jimmy Knights. Track 10 (10mins) Mary's work after the war. Part-time at the Post Office. Night-shifts. Working in Freddy Wharton's shop in Leiston Road. Working at the Brudenell Hotel for sixteen years and then at Flicks Estate Agents. The 1953 flood. Babysitting in the family. Water up to the windowsill at 3 Brudenell Street. Her mother's house flooded. Drowning of Tommy Mann. Sudden death of Mary's father. Close relationship with her father. Mary looks back on her life - reflection. Track 11 ( ) Mary reflects on a good life. Her happiest days. Life since Bill died. Moving from Aldeburgh to Charles Miller Court, Leiston. Thoughts about Charles Miller Court. Final reflection - 'think happy'. |