Date of interview: 2014
Interviewer: Lesley Bradshaw
Transcribed by: Susie Wildey
The transcript of the interview with Janet follows, running to 20 or so printed pages. You can select below one of a number of topics if you would like to pick out discussion of that particular topic. Also below are lists of names and places which occur in the transcript so you can search for any you are interested in.
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Atkinson, Bradshaw, Coe, Estill, Fletcher, Goldsmith, Goodwill, Hope, Hutchinson, Kay, Mullinger, Rank, Rhodes, Rowntrees, Skelton, Walker
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Easingwold, Huby, Malton, Sheriff Hutton, Thornton-le-Clay
First of all can you tell me your full name please.
It’s Janet Margaret Cragg.
And your maiden name was Scaling.
Scaling, yes.
And when were you born?
1953.
Right, thank you very much. So can you tell me something about what your father and mother did?
Well Mum and Dad moved here about 1948, before I was born, Dad started up the little blacksmith’s shop.
What the one that’s called The Forge?
That’s right, yes and they lived in Sunnyside and when I was 5 we moved into The Garth and Dad put the workshop behind the house, he was an agricultural engineer, and Mum was a housewife.
And so was that the point when The Forge became a private house?
No, he kept that as more for storage.
Oh right.
I think a Mr Cairns bought it and converted it.
Yes he was there when we came.
Oh was he?
I don’t know, there was a chap called Cairns though, because he built a bit of fence for us. So your father built the house?
No, he bought it, there was some people called Goodwill lived there, I think it was 2 sisters and a brother, and he bought it off them. So it was just a field at the back and a big vegetable garden at the front, as I remember it.
Yes, and so you put up those sheds which are now still Scaling Trailers?
Yes, that’s right.
And your Mum, did she work?
No, she never worked, as far as I know anyway, she was a housewife.
With a husband working right next door, presumably he was coming in for meals and so forth, anyway?
That’s right.
And your brother is still living in that house?
Yes.
So, we’re talking now about the 1950’s aren’t we? So can you say something about what Terrington was like in the ‘50’s ….. how it looked, what people were doing here?
It didn’t look a lot different really, the houses that have appeared since have been slotted into little gaps so the Main Street, doesn't look an awful lot different. The Plump was always there, the village shop – we had two then – there was one, I don’t know what it’s called, it might be called Cliffe House, next to the old hall at the top of the village.
Oh right, yes.
Where Mrs Buckle lived. That was the village shop and then we had a Co-op and that was where Colonel Stonor lived.
That’s High Dene isn’t it?
That’s right yes.
So there wasn’t a shop where the current shop is?
No, and I can’t remember what was there, it might have been just old cottages, but I really can’t remember, and then Rhodes’ retired, I can’t remember what year they retired and went to live in New Earswick.
So what did the Rhodes’ sell?
Everything, it was a little grocers, a general store.
And was there a Post Office then?
Yes.
Yes, to the one with the topiary?
That’s right yes, and by some people called Goldsmith. And she used to teach piano lessons. Mr Goldsmith was have the Post Master. The old CO-OP was left empty for a long time and it became the Youth Club, and yeah, I think Stonor’s bought it, I think they were the first people to live in it.
Yes I think you’re right, yes.
They altered it all.
I think Malc Walker talked about there being a basement and having chairs in the basement of the Youth Club when it was there?
There was a big sort of garage at the back, I wonder if that’s what he’s thinking, I don’t remember there being a basement in it.
There is still a big garage at the back
Well it’s their kitchen now isn’t it. I remember we had a big table tennis table up in there.
And so it didn’t function as a Youth Club for very long then?
No, not long. Before that I believe it was down at the Old Vicarage.
Oh right! So did they have a Youth Leader or ?
I think when it was in the Old Vicarage I think the vicar ran it, but who…. I can’t remember who ran it when it was across the road.
And so they did things like playing table tennis obviously?
It was really nice actually, they had the table tennis at the back and then they had a billiard table in the front room.
Yup
That was all one big room, ‘cos that had been the shop.
Right …. you mean where the sitting room and yes and the dining room?
Yes, yes, one end had a like a pool table, billiard table, the other end we had a record player and we danced to that. And then through that was a little room with a television and through that, what was Mrs Stonor’s kitchen …
Because presumably a lot of people didn’t have television at home in the ‘50’s?
Probably not, yeah, probably not. I might be talking early ‘60’s by now. ..
So it was a Youth Club for a good few years then?
It must have been.
Do you think it still belonged to the Co-op at that stage?
I don't know.
Am I right in thinking that at that time there were lots of dances in the Village Hall, so did you graduate from there to the Village Hall dances?
By the time I was old enough to go there they’d finished,
Oh right!
But Mr & Mrs Kay were the caretakers. She would help upstairs with the suppers and he would be doorman.
Oh right ! Because when we came to Terrington in 1989 lots of people said "oh yes, Terrington that’s where they have the dances!" So they were obviously very famous.
I think they were every Friday night, they seemed to be. There was a lot of villages had them – Sheriff Hutton, Huby, I remember. And there was lots of sort like a competition who could get the most people you know. And they had live music on.
So people must have come here in cars?
Oh they did, yes, yes.
So it’s interesting there was a social life for the village but also it brought in other people?
Yes.
So we started on shops there, but interesting to talk about that, I mean that Co-op, we have a picture of High Dene as the Co-op in the very early years of the century so it must have been a very long time.
It must have been, yes.
Presumably there was quite a lot of competition between the Co-op and the Rhodes’ shop.
Well you either shopped at one, in one or the other. You didn’t shop in both!
Oh right (laughs!)
Well from what I can remember, my Mum didn’t shop there, she shopped at the one at the top of the village.
It's also suggesting whether the farms were different, I mean obviously Manor Farm was at the centre of the village, but did you ….. presumably you knew people who lived in the outlying farms?
Well yeah because they were me Dad’s customers. Yes so we knew most of them, yeah. Seen a few changes there really over the years.
Oh right yes. It’s a Castle Howard farm presumably was it?
It might have been at the time.
That’s true, mmmm.
I’m really not sure about that. And then of course there was 2 farms at the bottom of Cliffe Hill, past the old Village Hall?
Prospect?
Yes, Prospect that was Atkinson’s that lived there and Ranks
Is it called Thorne House, something. Oh the Ranks lived down there did they?
Yeah that was Ranks when I was little yes.
We have a picture of Granny Rank with her chickens.
Oh right.
I remember when we did the Banners somebody produced a photograph of Granny Rank surrounded by chickens (laughs!). I don’t know what date that would be?
No, I’ve no idea
So presumably people who were working in the village then, most of the people who lived here perhaps were working around here were they? Not so many commuters?
I would imagine so, to be honest I was a little bit young then to know where people worked, but I do know people we were friendly with, like Mr Kay, he originally worked on Vesters Farm, which is where Claire Robinson lives now.
Yes, Rough Hills.
That’s it yes, he worked there for a long time.
Now this does say, describe the house you lived in, now you said your father was in The Forge, did you ever live in The Forge.
Oh no, we never lived in it, no, it was just a blacksmith shop, I think it was a blacksmith shop before my Dad bought it, and he took the business over.
So you lived where you …..
We lived in Sunnyside to start with, which is next door and then I think I’d just about started school when we moved into The Garth and it was, you can imagine it was a lot bigger.
The Garth was built post war, was it? Was it quite a new house?
Errmmmm, it would be post war I would think. It was built at the same time as yours.
Oohhhh well ours was finished in 1930, but I’ve always thought ‘cos The Garth is brick I’ve always thought perhaps it was later.
Well yours and Dad’s and where Kathy Hill lives.
Yes,
Were all built, I think, by the same people, which will be Goodwills.
Yes,
And they were all built originally on similar lines, even though that’s brick.
Oh ! Well why did he build that one in brick then?
Don’t know.
Yes, that’s interesting. I’ve always thought that it must have been …..
No I’m sure I’m right in thinking that, or maybe they built that just slightly after the other two, but I know they’ve always, sort of, had something in common.
Is the layout similar then?
Not now, no it’s completely different and Mum and Dad altered it as well.
Right.
I think yours is different as well from what it was originally isn’t it? I think Lorraine altered it quite a bit before you moved in?
Yes I think it’s always had 2 main rooms and the kitchen at the back, yes?
Yes, that’s right, well this did, yeah. But I mean one of their sitting rooms is the kitchen now.
Oh that’s interesting I didn’t realise that George Goodwill built that one.
I believe they were all about the same era, I believe so. Well I’m saying George Goodwill, was he working at the time with Sam Goodwill.
Sam was his son, yes.
Was he, not his brother? I thought he was his brother.
Wait a minute, yes he could have been, but Sam certainly did some things on our house.
Yes, well yes then.
And they had their yard at the bottom of our garden.
That’s right, yes
Where Mansel House now is, yes. They built such a lot of houses in the village.
They did, yes.
Did they build Sideways as well, ‘cos that I think was just post War? Did they squeeze it in, because that’s right beside The Forge isn’t it?
I don’t know, I know Nigel owns it now, so very likely, yeah. When I was little there was some people called Robinsons lived there, he was a teacher at the prep school and, as far as I knew they owned it.
Yes. So there was you and Pete and your parents in the house, your grandparents didn’t live in Terrington?
No, my Dad’s family was from Great Edstone and my Mum’s family was from Sinnington.
Right, so it was the …. accessing the stuff at The Forge and the metalwork and so forth that brought your father here?
Well when Mum and Dad first got married they lived at Wigginton, my uncle had a similar sort of place at Wigginton, in fact it’s a bit of an industrial estate now if you go past, on the main Wigginton to York road.
Oh yes, yes
Used to be Claas Combines.
Mmmm, and it’s a long time living here. Right, this seems to be a strange move, but anyway what sort of food did you eat and where did it come from? (Laughs!)
Oh well, me Mum used to shop in the village shop at the top of the street but she also used to get an order, as she called it, from a shop in York. It was called Rowntrees, and it was on ….
Oh yes I remember it!
Do you …. on ?
It was opposite Marks & Spencer.
That’s right, yes. Real old fashioned "provisions", and they used to come out once a week with them, I think it was once a week, or once a fortnight, with an order. She would ring in or write or even post an order and they would deliver it.
Yes, well I didn’t realise that they would’ve delivered right out here!
Yes and then we had bread vans that used to come round, butchers. We even had a mobile shop that came round selling clothes.
Really?!
And he was from Easingwold, can’t remember his name. He must have had a shop in Easingwold and he maybe came round about once a month and I know I used to get "very excited" because Mum always bought me something, you know. I remember it was like walking into an outfitters, he had little drawers and things, with all sorts of things in and yes she’d get quite a lot of stuff off him.
These days he might be on a market somewhere mightn’t he? Interesting.
And we also had a car that used to come round every Sunday selling newspapers.
There weren’t any papers during the week then?
No there can’t have been ….
That’s interesting, just Sunday papers?
I don’t know, I know my brother when he was younger used to deliver. The Evening Press, so there would be that. I don’t know how people got The Gazette, but I do know this big car used to come on a Sunday afternoon and we would get comics and my Dad would get his paper. And we also had another one that used to come through every week that sold lemonade.
Oh !
Mmmm, that was probably from Tate Smiths.
Yes, mmm, Sundella.
Yes that’s it.
And presumably if you had that front garden was vegetables?
Not when Mum and Dad moved in, no he had it lawned, he wasn’t interested in that, he was too busy to be honest anyway. So they altered it all into a garden.
So, you didn’t grow a lot of vegetables to eat?
No.
But I’m fascinated that Rowntrees would deliver out here?
Mmmm, fancy you remembering ‘em.
Yes, well, because Gerry worked for Rowntrees, somehow.
Was it do with Rowntrees then? I often wondered.
Well I think there were different branches of the family but I do remember it being there when we first came to York in the ‘60’s.
I think it was still there in the early ‘70’s when I started work.
Yes, because we were married in ’65, when we came to live in York, so I remember it.
Well I started work in 1970 and it was still there.
It was a lovely shop.
It was, yes, bit of a deli. So you asked what sort of food we ate didn’t you? Well that’s where she got it from, so obviously it would all be sort of fairly fresh and she didn’t, I don’t remember her, we did have a freezer because they used to buy meat in bulk, but there was very little ready made stuff.
Freezers came in quite late really didn’t they? I mean I think I remember in the ‘50’s I remember when my mother first got a fridge, if you’re remembering freezers you must have had a fridge.
Well I remember a friend of my Dad’s as being a butcher, he was also a farmer, and I remember him coming and carving up the joints in the kitchen, you know he would bring half a bullock with him, or a sheep or whatever, and it would all go in the freezer.
And presumably did … I think a lot of families had sort of certain things that they ate through the week, you know like a joint on Sunday?
Well we would have a joint on a Sunday, it would be cold on a Monday, if there was any left she’d mince it up and make it into a pie.
Shepherd’s pie, yes (laughs!)
I think we all did it didn’t we, yeah? On a Wednesday I think it was the fish man came, so we would have fish, I don’t know whether we had it that day, I don’t know what sort of time he came he might have come too late for lunch, so we would maybe have it the day after, I can’t remember really. And we always had a meat pie one day, and we always had a stew and that would be warmed up on a Saturday for lunch for. She always had a big baking day, because she used to take a cup of tea up to the men every mid-morning and mid-afternoon and there was always something to eat with it.
Yes, and so did you come home from school for lunch?
I did when I was at the village school, well I was only next door.
I think Terrington School’s been very lucky over the years to have very good cooks actually.
They have.
They’ve got a good one now as well.
Have they?
Yes, Helen Hutchinson.
Oh, I could imagine so, yes.
So what type of clothes did you wear? Can you remember much about clothes?
Cotton dresses, ankle socks.
Yes (laughs!)
We didn’t wear trousers, I didn’t wear trousers very much when I was little.
No I don’t think girls did wear trousers did they?
I know I did have some, because I remember when I was about 4 or 5 we went to Scotland for a holiday and I got some "tartan ones", but no I just remember cotton dresses (laughs!) and ankle socks.
Yes (laughs!) obviously you remember the summer rather than the winter (laughs!).
(Laughs!) yes, must be
Because winters must have been just as cold then?
I’m sure, yeah.
Did the house have central heating?
No, oh gosh no!
You must have had some warm clothes?
Must have done yes, we had coal fire in the living room that Mum would light before dinner, late morning for when me Dad came in, and then she had some sort of stove type thing in the kitchen, not for cooking on to begin with, just for heating. Didn’t even have a back boiler I remember, so that was all immersion heater.
Was that solid fuel?
Yes, coke. And then eventually she got an AGA put in, well before that she would just cook on an electric cooker. So no, no central heating. Eventually they put storage heaters in, but that must have been late ‘60’s.
Yes I don’t think there was much heat upstairs was there until quite late on?
No, no, you’d wake up to frozen windows , and single glazing.
I remember John Goodwill talking about main drainage not coming to Terrington until after the War as well.
Oh wow!
But that wouldn’t have come through to you at all, would it?
No, no. I used to go to work with John Goodwill.
Did you?
Yeah, when I first started work, ’cos I was too young to drive, and he worked at the Electricity Board down Stonebow, and so he used to take me into work.
Yeah well he’s full of all sorts of, he’s done several interviews.
He will be, he’ll know a lot more than I do.
But it’s good because it gets different views on things. Right what games did you play? And who did you play with and where did you play?
I played mostly with Diane Walker, remember Joyce - Joyce Walker? Her daughter – we were the same age and Joy Hutchinson from Ganthorpe, who is now Joy Mullinger, yes, the 3 of us were the same age.
Yeah, out in the street and around?
Yes, up by the old water tower, that was one of the places, yeah. I remember playing Hula Hoop a lot and skipping. And then just don’t know just playing …..
And were there certain games you played in the playground at school?
Oh yes, yes there was. There was a lady used to come and supervise us, Mrs Hope, and she lived at The Summit – Gladys Hope – and she had us playing games. We were, I can’t remember what they were called, used to have like, there was one where somebody was a fox or a wolf or something, and you all had to get past him to get to the other side of the playground, but she had us doing all sorts of things and skipping games and yes, she kept us entertained the whole hour.
And she was a mid-day supervisor was she?
Yes, I would imagine she came to help serve the meal, then supervised us, and then I think she went back into the kitchen afterwards to help clear up, I think! She also, I remember later on, when I went to Malton school, we used to get the bus, it was Hope’s bus then, and she used to supervise the school bus as well. She used to sit on.
Gosh, so it was in the family?
Yeah, yeah, and she would watch everybody and made sure everybody behaved and everybody got on when we came home, which they don’t have nowadays.
No, well there are very few children going on the bus now, there’s only 3.
You see Tommy does school runs and they don’t have any supervisors on any of them. No.
Have to learn to behave don’t they?
Yes.
Presumably you played games at school, later on, you know like tennis and netball and so forth?
At Malton yes, but here….. We played rounders, we did gardening. Just opposite the school we had little allotments in there, we used to, oh the cricket field was up here then and we used to come over and play on that field, cricket or rounders. I don’t remember ever playing tennis at school, ‘til we got to Malton, and then I do remember occasionally we’d go through to Malton Baths, they would organise a bus.
So you learnt to swim, did you through school?
Yes, well maybe not through school, ‘cos my Dad used to take us. There was 4 or 5 of us used to go every week and Dad took us one week, Mr Rhodes took us another week, you know, and we went to Yearsley Baths in the winter and St George’s Baths in the summer.
Yes.
So it wasn’t school that taught me anyway.
So from school if you had PE at all you came across to the cricket field?
Yes, for anything that we needed space for, yeah.
Celebrations – what sorts of things did your family celebrate? Christmas, birthdays etc? Was there anything ….?
Nothing any different no. There was Christmas, there was Sunday School anniversary, that was around about May if I remember rightly, that was for the Chapel. I went to the Chapel Sunday School.
The little one – the Music Room?
Yes, so we always had the Sunday School anniversary. And do you know I think that actually we did that in an afternoon and in an evening, I’m sure we did it twice on the same day, so there must have been plenty of people going.
Did you do a sort of performance or …
Oh yes, you had to say your piece. You had to learn a poem or something beforehand, and then there would be a presentation at the end, we all got a book, which I’ve still got some of me books. Yeah it was quite a highlight was that, yeah, but I don’t remember anything else, I mean, there was Christmas, Easter, birthdays and I don’t remember anything else really.
Were there quite a lot of people who went to the Chapel?
Yeah there was, the Minister didn’t live here and I don’t even know if it was the same Minister every week, but there was an elderly couple lived down the bottom of the village and they sort of caretook it, and she played the organ and he lit the fires and looked after the building, you know, and they helped to run Sunday School. When I went it was a young couple from Hovingham, called Skelton, they ran it then, they used to come every week. But I believe there was a Sunday School at church.
As well?
Well, might have been before the Chapel one I can’t remember really. But we never went to that one ‘cos we were "Chapel", you see. You were either Chapel or you were church.
Do you know when they stopped using the Chapel?
No, I would imagine it was in my early teens, because I remember being one of the older ones at Sunday School, yes but I really can’t remember what year it was.
Can you remember anything about the sorts of things you had, say, for Christmas presents and so forth? As a small child?
Ermmmm, do you know I can’t, other than bikes and things. I think dolls were my thing.
Yes (laughs!)
Do you know …. and clothes. I remember me brother getting a, like a little steam engine thing. It ran off meths, can’t remember what they were called. But you always got something main, you know. I mean I do sort of remember in my teens, more like, hair driers and that sort of thing, but no, but I probably got a doll every time as I was really keen on me dolls, and my doll’s pram. We used to play cards quite a bit at home, so but not on a Sunday! So yeah, we probably got cards and maybe Ludo and that sort of thing.
What sorts of things were your parents strict about?
Not much, they were pretty good going really. Me brother always said that I had it easy, ‘cos he paved the way, he’s 6 years older than me, you see.
Oh right, yes
No they weren’t bad at all really. If I went out they more or less knew what time I was coming in, it was never any different, you know.
Were you allowed to go out of the village to socialise, or was really all your life within the village?
Well I had a friend down at Thornton-le-Clay, so I would either go down there or she would come up here, and at that time I think the Youth Club was still going but we went into Malton a lot. Malton on a Saturday night, Saturday tea-time, there was a bus every week to the pictures. So that would be the main thing.
And you had to get the bus back?
Oh yes, yeah and I think it left Malton about half past nine, you had a bit of a rush to get out the cinema to get the bus back. And Mum always met me down at the bus stop, it used to stop outside, I was going to say Estill’s, Marnie’s you know.
So let’s go on to school itself now. So first of all you went to Terrington didn’t you, and then eventually to Malton. So if we talk about Terrington first. It says how did you get there (laughing!)? It was next door, wasn’t it?
Yes.
That was easy
It was Mrs Fletcher, well I think there was another lady there, I think there was a Mrs Coe when I first started, but I don’t really remember much about her and then it was Mrs Fletcher and I had her for the rest of the time.
She was Head Teacher?
Yes she was and she lived next door to us, in School House.
Oh right, in the School House?
Yes. Her husband ran, what was Anderson’s in Malton, it was a gun shop.
Oh yes,
Where …. somewhere near where Hoppers’ is now. And she ran the school and they had a son who went to boarding school, I think he went to Pocklington, but she was great was Mrs Fletcher. She used to do all sorts with us, it wasn’t just normal school things – she had us sewing, and, oh and the video I’ll lend you the video. Yes she used to … she was quite keen she’d been, like when she went to Holland or somewhere like that, she would show us that you know.
So did she teach the juniors?
She taught the whole school.
Oh did she? Do you remember roughly how many children there were in the school then?
Well the year I left, 5 of us left at one go and I think there had only been about 12 of us there.
(Gasp!) Gosh!
Yeah, it got to the point where I know they were talking about closing it because there were so few. And so 5 going in one year was a big, big drop. But in one year was a big, big drop.
Yes. So it was all one class?
Oh yes,
From 5-11?
Yeah, there was always 2 rooms, but …
And did she have any other help then?
Well like as I say, I think when I first started Mrs Coe would taught the infants and that was in the little, the smaller room of the two, but I don’t think there was enough children you see to keep two on. So when she left.
Mrs Fletcher stayed?
Mrs Fletcher taught the whole school.
Gosh!
Yeah, and no, there was no helpers that I remember.
So you’d got a cook in the kitchen? Cooking you nice dinners (laughs!) and then people like you were going home because you lived next door, and a teacher
And I actually liked staying at school for dinner when I was allowed.
The question were there any teachers you didn’t like is irrelevant really? So can you think about what you particularly liked about school?
I just loved school in general, I wanted to be a teacher. I don’t remember anything really that I didn’t like.
Oh that’s interesting, yes.
She must have made it very interesting, I mean she actually started teaching us French which was unheard of in primary schools, not very much just the basic stuff, you know. But it was quite exciting and the thing that really does stick in my mind is that we did all about the universe and the planets and things and we had ‘em all set out on the floor and you know things like that. I think she was a good teacher.
And presumably if the numbers were that small there wasn’t really much opportunity to misbehave?
No not really. I do remember we had to drink milk. Do you remember they had the crates of milk delivered, oh it was horrible! But we had to have it and we had 2 big stoves in the room, that was the only heating, it wasn’t very warm. And I remember standing round those at breaks.
And the loos were outside, weren’t they?
They weren’t as nice as they are now. They were sort of, I don’t know whether you would have ever seen them, they were…. when you came out the door, they were completely different, you went round the side.
Yes
They were down the side there.
Oh right!
There was 3 toilets, there was one for the boys, one for the girls, and one for the teacher. And one wash-basin.
And really cold?
Oh gosh yeah.
Was there a stove then, was there?
Two stoves, yeah coke stoves.
So they had the two rooms presumably and so she went between the two.
No, we didn’t use the back room, when there was only a few of us we just stayed in one big room and I don’t think the stove was lit in the back room. There was 2 stoves in the main room, yeah.
Gosh. She had a job didn’t she, to teach you all?
She did.
And we’ve talked about the games you played in the playground haven’t we? And you then went on to Malton and did you leave at 16 or did you go on to 18?
I stayed on to do A levels and then left, I think after the first Christmas I thought it wasn’t for me, and I started working for Scholl’s – Scholl’s Sandals – trained as a chiropodist with them.
Oh right. Are you still a chiropodist?
No.
Oh right. We’ve talked about your friendship and what you did in your spare time.
It was quite funny actually because then Malton School were 2 schools, it was the secondary modern and the Grammar school.
So of the 5 of you who left ..?
Three went to the Secondary Modern and 2 of us went to the Grammar.
Oh gosh, yes, that must have been quite difficult.
It was Colin (Bradshaw) and me, we went to the Grammar and the other 3 went to the Secondary Modern.
So these ones who went to the Secondary Modern where did they go in the evening?
I don’t know.
That’s interesting, perhaps they just hung around …
Well I know Joy lived up at Ganthorpe on the farm and she would have her jobs to do. I don’t know about Diane, to be honest. I suppose they made friends with other people.
They made friends with people at their own school?
That’s right. And I made friends, particular one girl down at Thornton-le-Clay, and so like I say I would be either down there or she would be up here, particularly at weekends.
That’s interesting actually. I hadn’t thought about the fact, I was thinking of people talking about "I went to school in Malton". But it was one bus and you all went on that same bus. It must have been a relief when it went comprehensive?
It must have been, it was the year after I left.
Was it?
Yeah.
Now there’s questions about remembering the war, which you obviously don’t because you weren’t here. So really do you think that growing up in Terrington’s better or worse now than when you were a child?
I don’t know that it’s any better, it’s different. I think there’s more for children now, they’re catered for more with the clubs and things, especially the infants, you know. I do like to see children out playing, but so many children don’t do that now anyway, there’s too much electronic stuff going on at home isn’t there? No I don’t know. What was nice when I was little was you knew everybody because obviously the population wasn’t quite as big and you didn’t knock, you know, when you went to people’s houses you just walked in.
That’s interesting.
Never knocked, you just would walk in and shout if you couldn’t see anyone. It was very very friendly and everybody knew everybody’s business, which some people don’t like.
They still do (laughs!)
Well they do, some people don’t like it, some people don’t mind. I don’t mind.
So you think people actually looked out for each other a lot more?
Oh yes, definitely.
No, but you’re out at work?
Well, that’s true and they will be, you see. Well people didn’t go out, a lot of women didn’t go out to work then.
Yes. Now there are more people who go out of the village to work?
That’s right, yes, living is very different isn’t it, because when you get home you have things at home to do and so you tend not to go out.
Yes I would imagine you have.
Anything else that you’ve thought aobut that you would like to say on this, about growing up here or have we covered most of it.
I think we’ve covered most of it, I know.
Sounds as if it was really very nice (laughs)
Yeah, I think I was very lucky.
That’s good. Well thanks very much, I’d better say that this interview was done by Lesley Bradshaw on 18 April 2014. Thank you very much
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This page last updated: 21st December 2021