Irene Preston's Historical Writing
IRENE BY HERSELF
CHILDHOOD MEMORIES
My earliest memories of childhood start at the age of four. I used to
go out walking with my parents and I remember wearing leather gaiters.
They had several straps on them and covered my legs up to my knees.
There was an Ice Cream Parlour at the corner of the main road and many
girls were stood around. I distinctly remember the girls pointing at my
legs and I suddenly felt self-conscious. My mother told me, many years
later, that I flatly refused to wear them again. My parents were a lot
older than most people with a young child and they were rather old
fashioned. My mother was born in 1900, my father was born in 1905 and I
was born in 1937. My parents had witnessed the First World War and my
father had been in the Air Force Cadets. Time passed more slowly in
those days no one was in a hurry. I think my parents still lived by
Edwardian standards. I was in fact to find out in later years that I had
been adopted at the age of six weeks.
I started school before I was five as I was lonely. All the children in
my street were at school so I had no one to play with. I went to St.
Margaret's Church School for three years and then changed schools. I
then went to Princess Road Elementary School in Moss Side, Manchester. I
was almost eight by then and started in the juniors. The boys went into
a separate half from the girls. Even the playground was divided by a
railing and we used to shout to each other. I don't remember having any
problems with the boys. I always liked them. The school was a
three-storied building with four small flights of stone steps to each
floor. The infants were on the ground floor. The juniors were on the
second floor and the senior girls had their classrooms on the top floor.
It was quite a climb when you had to go to the top floor.
Our house was a three-bedroom terrace on a cobbled street. I used to pop
the pitch round the cobbles on hot summer days. We had an outside toilet
and a back yard that led into a long back entry. There was a black
lean-to shed that held the coal. The coal man used to walk down the back
entry with sacks on his back. The dustbin man also collected our bin
from the back door. There were rows and rows of streets with terraced
houses all lined up like soldiers. I lived near Alexandra Park and
Whalley Range. It was very handy as I only had to climb over a low wall
and I was in the park. There used to be railings on the wall but they
were taken away for the war effort. I don't remember very much of the
war as I was too young. We had a brick shelter in the back yard. I
remember my mother getting me out of bed and taking me into the shelter.
I was wearing my green siren suit with a zip up the front. The sound of
dropping bombs was deafening but I didn't realise the danger. Many
surrounding houses were bombed. When we went out the next day all that
was left was a pile of rubble.
Our house had a parlour but it was only used occasionally. My father had
a large mahogany desk in it where he kept all his letters and bills.
There was a leather three-piece suite and an old wind-up gramophone. I
used to play a lot of records made of a hard brittle wax. I had to put a
new needle in after playing a couple of records. I remember my father
making a desk for me out of old wood. He put a lifting-lid on it and
finished it with a coat of varnish stain. My father was very handy at
household jobs. He had a last that cobblers use and he mended all our
shoes with leather and steel tips. He used to hammer metal studs into
his work boots. What a noise he made walking down the cobbled streets.
I went with my parents to visit my aunt and uncle's house every two
weeks. The other week they visited us. I used to love those visits. My
aunt was a good cook and baked lots of different cakes. We used to have
cold meat, salad and thin slices of brown bread. The condiments
consisted of cucumber and onion soaked in vinegar. For afters we had a
choice of seed cake, cherry cake, almond cake or apple pie and custard.
My mother was also a good cook. She made a lovely Yorkshire pudding in a
big tin. At weekends we always had a joint of lamb or beef, roast
potatoes and a variety of vegetables. I remember going with my mother to
the butchers and waiting in a long queue for our meat ration.
Considering that the war was still on our family ate reasonably well.
When my mother had cooked the meat she poured the fat into a basin. When
it was set we called it dripping. I loved it on bread sprinkled with
salt. There was more goodness and taste in the meat in those days.
Everyone used to make ‘dripping butties’. Alexandra Road was a very busy
shopping area. There was a Maypole shop selling butter, cheese and eggs.
Redman’s used to sell biscuits from large tins with glass fronts.
Assorted dried fruit and sugar were always wrapped in blue paper shaped
like a cone. I remember walking to Boot's Chemist in the snow wearing
black Wellingtons. My mother used to buy large bottles of cod liver oil
and malt. I had a tablespoon every morning and enjoyed it, I still do.
The games I used to play with the children in the street were skipping,
whip and top, and hide and seek. We used to throw a long rope round the
gas-lamp post sit on it and swing. Sometimes we stretched a long rope
across the street and played higher and higher. During school hours we
did PE in the hall. In later years we all played netball. We had a good
team and played matches against other schools. Another interesting
activity involved a weekly visit to the Manchester Museum for a year. We
studied ancient man for six months and then natural history. By this
time I was twelve and had started a paper round. I received eleven
shillings a week for delivering mornings, evenings and Sundays. This
amount is equivalent to fifty-five pence.
We had many interesting lessons. Every week we were taken to the
swimming baths and taught to swim. I enjoyed swimming and learned to
dive in. Another time there was a dance festival held in Platt Fields.
It used to be a large country estate but was used as a public park.
There were many other schools involved and I remember it well. We called
it a Folk Dancing Festival and all the schools wore a different coloured
sash. When I moved upstairs to the senior classes we started cookery
lessons. In the first senior year we learned household cleaning, then
washing and ironing. The remaining years we spent learning most aspects
of cooking.
When I was not in school I enjoyed roller-skating. I used to go to Birch
Park Skating Rink on Dickenson Road. I don't know if it is still there.
It had a milk bar and we could buy soft drinks, milk shakes, ice cream
or tea and cakes. We had a choice of roller skates. Either white or
brown boots, or just the ordinary strap-on type. There was always a rush
for white boots, as they looked posh. One Christmas I had a pair of
roller-skates with straps for a present. I used to skate along three
streets to get to a special one with a smooth tarmac surface. I spent
hours skating there, it was fantastic. My mother had a friend who lived
on the same street, she had a daughter called Yvonne. I used to call and
get a drink and talk to Yvonne even though she was two years older than
I was. My mother's friend, called Polly, used to pass on Yvonne's
outgrown clothes. I even remember wearing a pair of clogs. I hated them
but I used to wear them when I played out. My parents were careful with
their money and saved up for anything they wanted. I think my mother
impressed upon me the need to be frugal and even today I’m not too proud
to accept articles from other people. I was always reading books and my
parents encouraged me. I remember one Christmas I received several
books. Grimm's Fairy Tales, Hans Anderson's Tales and Gulliver's
Travels. They have always stuck in my mind. I suppose I was so thrilled
with them. Another interesting activity was singing with the Manchester
School's Choir at the Free Trade Hall. Our Headmistress was a keen
singer and encouraged us all to sing. From the time I went into the
juniors I was very impressed with the singing of the top classes. I
couldn't wait to be in the seniors and add my voice to such a beautiful
sound. When we sang at the Free Trade Hall we were part of about twenty
schools. Our group stood at the back. We all wore navy skirts and white
blouses with a large blue bow pinned at the front. Our headmistress was
very proud of us. She said we looked like a large blue cloud at the back
of the stage.
There are a lot of things I remember about our headmistress. She was a
Miss and rather old but very agile. Her word was law and we all lived in
awe of her. In retrospect she was a very good headmistress and loved all
her girls.
When I was in the second-year seniors she came into our classroom one
day and decided to give us a talk on table manners. We learned how to
stir our tea slowly and place our napkin. How to hold our knife and fork
and the correct way to place them on the plate after the meal was
finished. She was very keen on deportment and clear speech. Those
lessons had a lot of influence on me. They have been very helpful
throughout my life. When I look back I often think that she made up for
our lack of higher education. Lessons of correct social behaviour should
still be taught. They help to carry you through life with confidence.
My mother was very house-proud. She had a routine for all the housework.
I had slept in my own room since I was six. When I became a teenager I
had to keep it tidy and polish the furniture. I had a mahogany dressing
table and wardrobe. On the dressing table there was a glass tray with a
glass powder bowl and a glass candleholder. My mother's room also had a
mahogany bedroom suite and glass dressing table set. I would assume they
were made of crystal as my parents did have several expensive items
inherited from my grandparents. They had owned a greengrocery shop so
were not short of money. My mother always did the washing on a Monday.
She had a large copper boiler and a huge mangle with wooden rollers and
cast iron legs. The washing and cooking were all done in the kitchen. It
had a stone-flagged floor that was brown-stoned after wash day. My
mother always made potato hash on Mondays using the meat and vegetables
left over from Sunday dinner. I had to take my turn brown- stoning the
floor and the outside toilet every Saturday morning. I didn't like doing
it as there were spiders in the corners and I couldn't kill them.
Another place I did not like was the ‘glory hole’. This was a cupboard
under the stairs that hid all kinds of junk. It was a place that I never
ventured into.
In 1951 I went to the Festival of Britain with my school. There were
fifteen girls and two teachers. We travelled to London by train with
many other Manchester school children. When we arrived we were taken on
a tour round London. We then had tea in Lyons Corner House cafe. After
tea we all piled onto London buses and went to Hampton Court Gardens.
Everything had been organised and all seemed to run smoothly. We slept
in the old air-raid shelters on Clapham Common. I remember using thick
paper sheets and pillow cases on the bunk beds. The following morning we
had breakfast and again we all piled onto another bus and were taken to
the Festival. I am glad my parents allowed me to go to London. It was a
wonderful opportunity for young children in those days. Very few
children had been away from home because of the war.
I used to read a lot of science fiction so I enjoyed the Dome of
Discovery. Anything to do with the future appealed to me, especially
space subjects. I remember the day was very hot so it must have been
during the summer. We all bought lots of ice-cream cornets and fruit
drinks.
Many years later I was to take part in a television programme about the
Festival of Britain.
My interest in science fiction novels came about because I was
delivering newspapers. I was in the newspaper shop twice a day so I saw
all the latest books. Small paper-backed books had just come onto the
market. I remember one book I bought was called Flight Into Space. It
was a factual book about all the planets in our Solar System. I found it
fascinating and began to study astronomy. Of course I didn't want to
take any of these subjects up as a career. I was not that academic but I
was very interested. My father had no knowledge of space and planets and
asked me: ‘Why do you want to know about planets, how do people know
what's up there?’ I just replied: ‘Because I am interested in future
science and find it all very fascinating.’
My parents always went to Blackpool for a week during the summer. We
went with my aunt, uncle and my cousin Harry. We used to walk the full
length of the Golden Mile and look at all the shops. I used to like the
Pleasure Beach with the funfair and penny arcades. We stayed in the same
boarding house every year. I don't think people liked changes in my
parent's day. Perhaps they felt safe in familiar places having
experienced the anxiety of war.
Our house had a spare bedroom, we called it the box room. Like all spare
rooms it was full of junk. I didn't think it was junk it was an
Aladdin's Cave to me. There was a huge tin trunk with a large rusty
padlock attached to it. It wasn't locked, the key had been lost for
years. Inside the trunk were several old handbags and a few books. I
found the books interesting as they were all about prehistoric animals
including dinosaurs. I was so excited and begged my mother to let me
have them. I think the books had belonged to my grandfather, as my
parents didn't read any books, they only read the newspapers. I kept
them in my desk and wrote notes in exercise books. This episode
eventually led me to study geology and in later years to pass my GCSE
exam at a day college. I spent many years collecting mineral samples and
fossils.
When I started to deliver newspapers I had to go to the education
offices in Manchester for a medical. I also had to show my birth
certificate. Unfortunately mine had ‘Certificate of Adoption’ on it.
This caused my parents the anxiety of telling me I was adopted. In fact
I had overheard one of my aunts talking one day so I had known for
several years. I was very mature for my age and seemed to accept life
easily. My parents seemed happy with their life and had certainly made
my life happy and contented. I will always be grateful for their love
and care.
As I mentioned earlier, my parents were born in the late Victorian and
Edwardian eras. They were steadfast, honest and loving but very much out
of date with the modern trends of the fifties. I must have been quite a
handful. I was out every night with the girls and boys and thoroughly
enjoying myself. We all used to go to the local milk bar and played
records on a large jukebox. One record cost an old three ¬penny piece or
two for an old silver sixpence. I suppose it was a cafe really but all
the gang used to meet there. There was a penny arcade next door with
pinball games and slot machines. My father once caught me smoking
outside this arcade and told me to get home. He gave me a telling off
and told me not to waste my money. It didn't make any difference I still
smoked. I wanted to feel grown up.
My parents took me to the pictures several times a week we didn't call
it the cinema. We didn't go to the ‘town pictures’ in the centre of
Manchester either. All local picture houses put on a different picture
every week so we had no need to. I used to see the courting couples on
the back rows and in shop doorways when I came home with my parents.
Being a curious type of young girl I didn't forget all this as I was
growing up. We always had sweets and ice cream in the pictures. I
remember the Wall's Ice Cream slabs wrapped in a soft grease-proofed
paper. It was always wet as it melted. There were also cardboard tubs
with a lid that we used like a spoon to eat the ice cream with. There
were a few drinks but not many iced lollies. When we came out of the
pictures we used to buy chips with salt and vinegar on and eat them on
the way home. The chips were put into small white paper bags then
wrapped up in newspaper. Sometimes I went to the ‘chippie’ with a large
basin for our tea. The man put the peas in the bottom and then a few
battered scallops on top. Then came the chips and lastly a huge battered
fish. I always asked for scrapings of batter left over from the fish.
The man usually gave you these free, sometimes he gave you a battered
scallop.
Most picture houses used to have a matinee on Saturday morning for a
three-penny bit and in the afternoons for sixpence. They used to show
all the serials to encourage the children to go the following week. I
enjoyed going to the pictures as there wasn't much else to do in those
days. My favourites were Superman, Tarzan and Flash Gordon, and all the
musicals and romances, but I wasn't too keen on gangster films. The
forties and fifties were certainly the hay-day of the movie. I suppose,
once again, the war had a lot to do with it. Many films were made to
keep up the morale of the people and servicemen. After the war many more
were made showing how the war was won. There were several Music Halls
near where I lived and sometimes we went to see comedians and singers.
At Christmas we all went to the pantomime.
I think I should mention a bit more about our house. The hall was
covered in linoleum, the old non-slip kind, with a carpet runner up to
the foot of the stairs. The stair carpet and runner were red and hand
woven by Axminster in a bold floral design. There were two more
identical runners on the upper landings between the other bedrooms. The
stair carpet was held down with flat brass rods that slid into two
brackets screwed into the wood on either side of the carpet. My mother
used to clean the brass rods with Brasso polish. A large mahogany coat
stand stood in the hall. It had a centre drawer with a mirror above it,
very handy for last minute checks. There were two sets of iron hooks on
both sides and a square tray underneath to catch water from wet
umbrellas. It was very ornate with fancy carving at the top.
The living room had a huge black grate with an oven. There was a large
brass fender in front of the hearth also cleaned with Brasso. It had a
coal box at either end with a padded lid to sit on. I used to sit on
them sometimes but it was very hot near the fire. We used to make toast
in front of the fire using a long fork. Sometimes it burnt but my father
liked burnt toast. We would put lots of butter or margarine on it. My
father was called a blacksmith as he worked with iron and steel. At work
he used a small furnace to heat iron bars and shape them. He made an
iron grid that he attached to the front of the fire. This helped to
build up a larger fire and stopped the coal falling out onto the rug.
Nearly everyone had a rug in front of the hearth with a burn-hole in it.
There was a long high mantelpiece above the fireplace. On each corner
there was a white china horse with a gentleman rider on one and a lady
rider on the other. In the centre was an eight-day Westminster chime
clock. My father used to wind it up every Sunday. There were two easy
chairs in front of the fire. A large Axminster carpet was on the floor
with linoleum around the edges. All our carpets were of good quality.
The dining table was made of oak and it had two draw-out leaves. It
nearly filled the room when it was fully extended but this only happened
when we had a lot of visitors. There were eight dining chairs, four in
the living room and four in the parlour. We had a sideboard under the
window with three drawers and two cupboards. My mother kept her best tea
set and glassware in one cupboard and her secret store of fine foods in
the other. Both cupboards had a key so they were kept locked. The wooden
furniture always looked good as she polished it with a Beeswax polish.
She even polished the banister rail.
Upstairs there was a front and back bedroom. My parents slept in the
front one and I slept in the back. Both rooms had linoleum on the floor
and a small bedside rug. There was a small fireplace in each bedroom.
Sometimes they were used in bad winters. The winters were much colder
and of longer duration than they are today.
I remember my parents decided to pull out the old fireplace in the
living room and install a tiled one. They were very fashionable at the
time. Unfortunately the pair of white horses were too large for the new
mantelpiece. My mother gave them to the rag and bone man for a few brown
stones. I know now they were of good quality and would be valuable
today. It saddens me to think about it. Another new item in our
household was a television. My parents bought it in time for the
Coronation of Elizabeth II. We were all very excited at such a modern
invention. My mother used to wear a clean piny to watch it. I don't
think she could understand that the people on the television couldn't
see you at home. How times have changed.
I had one special friend called Jean. We first met in the juniors when
we were eight. We got on well together and have remained friends ever
since those early school days. We have of course gone our separate ways
but we still meet up several times a year. Over the last few years I
have seen several other old school friends around my local area. We seem
to bump into each other now and again.
I left school when I was fifteen in 1952. Most school-leavers went to
the Youth Employment Offices in the centre of Manchester. My first job
was in a small office as a junior clerk and trainee typist. I had to
type envelopes and short letters on a large black typewriter. The
manager suggested I attend evening classes to learn shorthand. So, there
I was back at the same school I had been glad to leave. I took shorthand
and English. I was good at English but I couldn't master shorthand. My
office job only lasted for three months. It was only a small office and
I wasn't very happy. I thought I would try a larger concern and started
work at the John Noble Mail Order Company on Brook Street in Manchester.
It was a very large building and had at one time been a large cotton
mill. The building was eventually pulled down to provide space for a
science building called Umist.
I enjoyed working as I had a lot of money to spend on clothes. I loved
dressing up in the latest styles. I always went to the C&A clothes shop
on Oldham Street just off Piccadilly. All the sales started in the first
week of January and were very genuine. Everything was reduced to make
way for the new designs. I remember the first outfit I bought after I
had started work. It was a calf-length plum-coloured coat with a
tie-belt. It had a large luxurious black fur collar. I bought a pair of
black leather boots lined with lamb's wool, a black fur hat and a pair
of black fur gloves. My coat came over my boots and I felt like a
Russian Countess. I always did have a vivid imagination. Long pencil-
slim skirts with a split up the back were fashionable. I think I had
several in different colours and lots of pretty lacy blouses to mix and
match. I also bought coloured platform shoes with a high heel. I dressed
older than most of the girls of my age. I also think I acted older as
all my boyfriends were four or five years older than I was.
When the boys reached eighteen years of age they had to do National
Service for two years. Consequently I had boyfriends in the Army and Air
Force, even when I was fourteen. Of course my parents didn't know about
this. It wasn't the sort of thing one told parents. I made a lot of new
friends at work and went to pubs for a lunch time snack and a shandy.
There used to be a shop on every corner in the old days. There were
grocery and greengrocery shops, fish and chip shops, hardware’ and off
licence shops. The latter sold spirits and beer to take out. It was a
regular sight to see neighbours carrying their large jugs to the
‘outdoor’ as we called it. My parents very rarely drank beer or spirits.
They had a little at Christmas or at a party. My father enjoyed a jug of
beer in the summer. I was allowed to drink a shandy now and then. When I
went out with a boyfriend I asked for a Green Goddess. It was a green
liqueur with a taste of mint. I didn't like it very much but I suppose I
felt grown up. I didn't go to the pubs very often as they didn't
interest me. We all used to go dancing at the Ritz or the Plaza in
Manchester. I remember seeing the Americans there but I was too young
for them. I learnt to ballroom dance when I was fourteen at a local
dance club. There were many dancing schools over local shops. Especially
the Manchester & Salford Co-operative shops as they were quite large.
My father bought me new bicycle as a leaving present when I left school.
I used to go for cycle rides with my friends. There was one special boy
I had known since I was about ten. He lived in a street near one of my
friends. He was very good looking and all the girls fancied him. I went
out with him quite often up my sixteenth birthday. I thought I would
eventually marry him but I realised I was too young.