CHAPTER 4
Moving On
My brothers, sisters and I never had any money for ourselves. Our parents kept and clothed us. Fortunately Mother had two cousins who were head-teachers and from time to time they sent us their old clothes. Mother had always been good at dress-making and she altered them making very nice dresses for us.
I stayed at home and helped Mother but we never really got on together. She seemed to be irritated by me and I would often be frightened by her outbursts of temper. She had managed to get my sister, Dorothy, a position with a school-master at Fulford near York. My sister was very happy there and one day she came home and told me that there was a position as a nanny for friends of her employer. I went on and on about going for this job but Mother was angry saying that if I went I need not go home again.
However, I did go and it was sheer luxury. I had a large room of my own with a wireless on which I listened to Jack Hilton and his wonderful band which was on at 5 o'clock in the afternoon.
I was paid a princely sum of 10/- per week. Each Saturday my sister and I would cycle home from York to Hemingborough, to take our wages to Mother. We had to pay Mother back for the bicycles which she had paid for.
It was at this time that we both met the men we would later marry. My sister's boyfriend lived at York but I met someone who lived nearer home and who I had known most of my life. Leslie Holman lived at Menthorpe Hall which was a large Grass Farm with lots of cattle, horses, sheep and two ponies.
His Grandad had two farms at Cliffe, the next village to my home at Hemingborough. These farms were arable and Leslie worked on them two or three days each week. He used to visit my Father each week with a horse and cart to collect a load of Mangolds.
Our two villages were in the same Parish and each year we had shared in the British Legion Festivities. He was the eldest of a large family and would bring his sisters to the celebrations. There were lots of races which they would always win being good athletes.
By the time we began 'courting' we already knew each other quite well. Being away from home working, on our time off we would go to the many dances at North Duffield which would start at 10 pm and go on until 2 am. By the time Leslie had cycled back with me to Poppleton near York and returned to Menthorpe it would be 4 am. and after less than two hours sleep he would have to be up milking the cows at 6 am. This couldn't go on so some other arrangement had to be made. His mother suggested I sleep with Jean, Leslie's sister who always came dancing with us. As long as I was back by 7.30 am the following morning my employer was quite happy with this new arrangement.
When I first started going to the dances I had no suitable dresses or shoes as I had had to leave them at home when I left. Leslie knew of the difficulties I had been experiencing with my Mother so we devised a plan whereby I could get my clothes without her finding out. Leslie's father needed people to pick potatoes and two of my sisters were looking for work. He would collect them in the horse and trap each morning and take them back after work. My sisters managed to smuggle a dress and a pair of shoes out of the house and passed them onto Leslie. Of course I wanted to wear them straight away but I had nowhere to change. I cycled from Poppleton and met Leslie at Skipwith where the dance was to be held. We found an empty stable next door to The Drover's Arms and like Cinderella I was transformed from the down-at-heel scullery maid to the beautiful princess. Life was really good at this time, Leslie and I were enjoying each other's company and everything seemed to be well with the world. However, my good fortune was not to last for very much longer.
