THIS TAPE HAS BEEN RECORDED ON THE 18th of JULY 1978 AT EMMA JANE CLARK’S HOUSE ON MANCHESTER ROAD BARNOLDSWICK. THE INTERVIEWER IS STANLEY GRAHAM.
(This tape has been recorded mono because Mrs Clark is very deaf. The
interviewer had to sit very close and shout the questions. In these conditions stereo
was not an advantage.)
We'll start now, and then as I say, don’t worry about this thing. It's running now but it doesn’t matter. It means nothing. Now, what’s your full name Mrs Clark?
R- Emma Jane Clark.
Aye. It’s a lovely name is that. Vera says if ever she has another child she is going to call it Emma Jane. Well, I keep telling her I want to have another one but I think she thinks she’s passed it. So, when were you born Mrs Clark?
R- July 26th 1895.
Yes 1895, so that makes you 83.
R- I’ll be 83 next week, next Wednesday.
Oh well, that’s a real do. We’ll know when to send the birthday card now won’t we! It's right.
R- No ... my friends are taking me down to… so will this be on?
It doesn’t matter.
(50)
R- My friends are taking me down to, my bridge friends are taking me down to Sawley for lunch.
Oh, down to the Spreadeagle?
R- Yes, and then we are coming back here and they are bringing the sandwiches for tea and I haven’t to make any tea. And then we are going to play bridge and then have sherry and cake at night. That’s my 83rd birthday and this is the third time they have taken me. They took me when I was eighty, they took me when I was 82, and they are going to be taking me next week and I said “You haven't to do. I says I couldn’t be here when any of you are eighty!” But they insist so it’s very nice of them.
Well I mean, it just shows they think a bit about you doesn’t it? That’s all it is.
R- Yes, it's very nice of them.
That’s friends isn’t it?
R- Yes.
Now then, where were you born?
R – Weir, near Bacup, Lancashire.
Aye. Weir, That’s it aye. So your parents lived in Weir then?
R- Yes.
And how many, how long did you live in Weir?
R- I wasn’t 11 months old when I came here to Barlick. So I have lived here 81 years in June, last June.
(100)
That’s it aye. So where was your father born?
R- Weir.
He was born in Weir?
R- Yes.
And your mother?
R- Yes, my mother too.
And what did your father do for a living?
(5 min)
R- Well, they were farmers, they were farmers. There were four brothers. And my grandfather was called Tom Greenwood, Thomas Greenwood and these four brothers were always called Jim o’Tom’s [Mrs Clark’s father], Joe o’Tom’s, Jess o'Tom’s and Tom o’Tom’s. You know, those were the names and they were always known as that.
That's it, aye.
R- And my father was the choir master of the church, my uncle Joe was the Treasurer, my uncle Tom was the Secretary.
Yes.
R- And my uncle Jess was the Deacon, a Deacon.
Aye.
R- And my cousin was the choir master. No, my cousin was the organist and my mother and my two eldest sisters were in the choir. In the village church.
Aye. And that was the church, not the chapel?
R- The chapel.
Chapel. Aye, that's it. Aye.
R- Baptist Chapel.
(150)
Baptist, yes. So your father got married over there obviously.
R- Oh yes!
And you said they'd be farming and there were four brothers. Now unless it was a large farm there wouldn't be enough work for them would there?
R- No. Well my father went round the country selling drapery.
Aye.
R- My uncle Tom had a painting and decorating business, uncle Jess had a farm of his own after he was married and uncle Joe learned dentistry in Colne. And he came to Colne and he was a dentist. And he also learnt my eldest sister’s husband and they went into partnership and he was Greenwood and Petty.
Aye, that’s it. So, when your father got married he must have, he evidently must have thought that it was, you know, it was time he made a move.
R- Yes. And my father was married twice. His first wife died. His first wife died and left two daughters, and then he married my mother and she had nine children. My youngest brother died when he was twelve years old. He had appendicitis and he went into a nursing home in Burnley and it was Dr Sinclair the specialist and it was before
(200)
there was anaesthetics you know, and it was cut out and it never healed. It just sapped his life away, never healed, and he died when he was twelve, and he was just ill for three year.
What year would that be, roughly?
R- Well I was 17.
If you were 17 that’d be 1912 wouldn’t it?
R- Yes it would be 1912, yes.
So your father …
R- Learned to weave when we came to Barnoldswick,
Oh, he learned to weave did he?
R- When we came to Barnoldswick. And we all went into the mills.
Were you the oldest child? How many children were …
R- No, I had three younger than me. My sister, my youngest sister next to me is now 80 and my next younger one is 77, Jessie. Jessie, and then my youngest brother, he died when he was 12.
So there’d be five older than you.
R- Yes, and then there were two step sisters, but we are like sisters.
Yes, that’s it. So all told, in the family there’d be 11 of you.
R- Yes, but I mean, the two eldest was married before, you know
(10 min)
Aye, yes, that's it. Before the second family started. That’s it. Have you any idea what your father's first wife died of?
R- No idea.
(250)
No, I was just wondering if she died in childbirth because a lot of women did.
R- No, because there were two. There were two girls. Perhaps just eight or nine, or something like that. Not that I know of, I don t know.
Yes, that’s it, I was just wondering because like, Ernie Roberts was saying that his mother actually had 11 children but only four of them survived. And he said it was, it was common he says, very very common then. He said it was terrible.
R- Yes. My youngest brother died of appendicitis.
Yes. So your father had moved across here with six children because you’d been born…
R- Yes.
And he came to Barnoldswick. Now, whereabouts did you live in Barnoldswick when you came?
R- In Forester’s Buildings. In Forester's Buildings, and we loved it.
Yes, that’s it. So, you would move into Forester’s Buildings in 1896 sometime.
R- Yes, June.
June 1896. Yes, and you say your father started weaving. Where did he weave?
R- Slater Edmondson at Long Ing. Yes he did, and two eldest, three eldest children, perhaps the four eldest. Yes I think there’d be the four eldest.
(300)
Yes, they were weaving as well. Oh no. The four eldest, that’s it I see it now. I see what you mean. Did any of the, were any of the children old enough to work when they came to Barnoldswick?
R- All the two, yes, there’d be three I should think. I should think there’d be three. There’d be my father’s, the two that my father had to his first wife.
Yes,
R- And my oldest brother, and my eldest sister, I think they'd all be, they’d all …
Oh, so your step sisters came with you.
R- Oh yes. [But they were married?]
So you’d be a big family when you came across here,
R- Yes, yes.
And what age could you start working in the mills then? Can you remember?
R- Twelve.
Twelve?
R- Twelve, yes. And you went half time, yes.
That’s it yes. That’d be half time. Yes. So there you are, you are in Barnoldswick, there's seven of you and your mother and father. Now did your mother weave as well?
R- Well, no, she couldn't when she'd a family.
That’s it, she'd have that many to look after. That’s it. And when you were a child can you remember any relations ever living with you? Or lodgers?
R- No, no. Oh, but we were happy at Forester’s Buildings. We loved it. We didn’t want to go down Gisburn Road, we went into a new and a bigger houses but no, we children didn't want to go. We thought it was lovely [at Forester’s Buildings] and that was the last row of houses in Barlick then.
So below Forester’s Buildings it’d just be fields?
R- They were all fields, yes. There were just four cottages by the Catholic Church [Damside Cottages]
Yes, that’s it.
(350)
R- There’s four cottages, and then there were the Crow Nest Cottages, that's all apart from Henhouse Farm which is, you know, Henhouse Farm
Yes, Henhouse, aye. And so your mother was looking after the children. How old was your father when he died?
R- 69.
And when did he die?
R- well, I was married and Dorothy wasn’t born, I wasn’t expecting Dorothy and she is 52. It’ll be about 54 years since I should think, about 54 years.
About 1924 roughly then.
R- Probably, yes. Oh no… it was after that. No, it would be because I was married in 1920. Yes, it would be about 1924.
Yes. About 1924. How about your mother, how old was she when she died?
R- Mother was 73.
And when did she die?
R- Well, Shirley [One of Emma’s two daughters, Shirley and Dorothy] was about three and she is now 45 so it’ll be 42 years since she died.
So that’s about 1936. It is, it’s when I was born.
R- Yes, and Shirley was born in 1933.
Did any of your family leave Barnoldswick as they grew up? I mean, your brothers and sisters, did they leave Barnoldswick as they grew up or did they all stay in the town?
(15 Min)
R- Well, next to my oldest sister, my half sister she was, she lost her husband in the First World War and he died in the trenches only a month or two before the Armistice. She was so upset that she felt she couldn’t live in the same house so she lived in Denton Street. And we had an aunt and an uncle who lived in Bispham and he had a business so she went there to recover. She lived with her eldest
(400)
sister in Barnoldswick, her husband was a dentist, Bracewell Petty [In Denton Street]. And she lived with them till she recovered, after the shock of losing her husband. And then she went to an uncle and aunt in Bispham and stayed with them oh a few months and they were just building some new houses, and she decided she'd take one and take visitors in. She says “I can’t come back to Barlick.” And that’s what she did, and she lived there until she was 80 and then she was losing her memory, so we brought her back to Barnoldswick. We got her a bungalow by the Congregational Church in that .., and she lived there until she was 85.
So the house that you remember best then is Forester's Buildings. You know, out of the houses you lived in when you were a child.
R- Yes, and then when I was 11, in 1906, we went down into Ribblesdale Terrace in Gisburn Road and that was the first row of houses built down Gisburn Road.
Yes, Ribblesdale Terrace.
R- Yes, opposite the Catholic Church.
That’s it yes.
R- And Jessie my sister still lives there, my younger sister Jessie.
(450)
She does, doesn't she. Well, Forester’s Buildings, now I’ll ask you some questions about Forester's Buildings. This is where, as I say, some of these questions might seem a bit funny but it's things that people, nowadays you, they…
R- We were very happy as children there because there were a lot of families there.
That’s it yes. And now, this house, Forester's Buildings, how many bedrooms did it have?
R- It had two bedrooms and a very large attic.
Yes. And what other rooms were there?
R- Pardon?
What other rooms were there?
R- Well we had a living, a front room, a big room, oh it’d be as big as this, and the kitchen and then an outhouse you know?
Yes.
R- Like built up to it, it was.
And can you remember any of the furniture?
R- Oh, we had a beautiful mahogany dresser, we called them dressers in those days. Oh I can’t remember anything else really. Chairs and tables, and …
It’s all right, It’ll all come back you know, it's funny how things'll come back to you.
R- Yes and we had a, you went in at the front door and you went straight into the house, and then there was a door into the, it was like an open square place and there was a door into the kitchen and a wide, you know, staircase and then a door into what we called the pantry but you went down steps to it.
(20 min)
Yes, an old fashioned pantry. Aye.
R- Stone floor in the kitchen.
Yes. How often did the parlour get used, you know the best room?
R- Oh, we lived in that!
You lived in that?
R- Yes.
And so you had your meals in there did you?
R- Yes.
(500)
And where did your mother do the cooking?
R- In the kitchen.
Yes, and where did she do the washing?
R- In the kitchen.
And did it have a bathroom that house?
R- No. no, we had tin bath, we had to be bathed with a tin bath.
In front of the fire?
R- Yes.
That’s it, aye. Did you have a special bath night?
R- Oh, Friday night.
Do you know, it’s a funny thing that everybody's bath night was Friday night. No I often laugh about it while I am doing these tapes because everybody got bathed on Friday night. I should think the sewage works were overloaded on Friday night because everybody were having a bath.
R- Yes.
That’s it.
R- And then on, when we went down on Gisburn Road of course we had a big bathroom and we could have a bath anytime we wanted then.
Aye, that’s it. Now, was the lavatory inside or outside?
R- Outside.
Outside?
R- Yes.
And was it a water closet or a tippler?
R- No a tip…
Dry?
R- They used to come out, you know, empty them.
They were emptied, what, once a week, the council come round.
R- Yes, that’s right.
That’s it, yes. And, did the house have piped water?
R- Oh yes. We had taps.
Now, did you have hot water?
R- No, not at Forester's Buildings. No, we had a [side] boiler, and an oven. That was in the living room, and also we had one in the kitchen.
(20 Min)
Yes, was that the old fashioned range with a set boiler at one side and the oven at the other?
R- Yes.
And you'd burn coal of course, Yes, that's it. Did you, did the house have a stair carpet?
R- Yes.
Well, they'd be stone stairs would they or were they wood?
R- No, they were wood stairs, yes. As far as I can remember they were.
Do you remember. Was it fairly common? I mean, a stair carpet. Did the neighbours have a stair carpet?
R- I should think so. Yes.
And how about …
R- And brass, thin brass rods you know? Right thin brass rods.
Yes. Polished?
R- Yes.
Yes, that's right. What sort of floor coverings were there in the rest of the house?
R- Well I think we had a coconut matting in the kitchen, and we had linoleum in the living room. And it was, I always remember when we got the last lot, it was that sort that was stamped through you know? You know, the pattern didn't wear off. We thought it was fine was that, it's more expensive you know?
Yes.
R- And then, as we got older, we had a carpet square but it had to go down at weekends and it would come up on Sunday night.
I wonder, I wonder how many young folk nowadays take the carpet up on Sunday nights? How about peg rugs?
R- Oh yes we had pegged rugs.
Who made the rugs?
R- We had to do, you know, when we got older.
That’s it, everyone had a pegged rug or two. How about curtains?
R- Lace curtains? White lace curtains? Yes. And I can remember the first incandescent light. We were only children. Mantles, they were just ordinary gas before.
That’s it, just a fantail.
R- I remember me father putting this one up and we all stood round the table watching you know. And then, when he set it alight and it went black, they did you know, we said “You’ve gone and spoiled it!” And then of course it came white and brilliant. Oh it was lovely! I can remember that quite well and I wouldn’t be very old, I wouldn’t be above six or seven if I was that old.
Did you have gas in all the rooms?
R- Yes I think we had gas upstairs but not in the attic.
So you’d use candles?
R- For the attic they would, yes.
Can you remember going to bed with a candle?
R- No. We slept in the front bedroom, with two beds. Yes.
How about, so your mother would have gas in the house? Your mother would have a gas cooker would she? A gas stove?
R- No, I don’t think so, not at Forester’s Buildings, we had when we went down Gisburn. Road.
That’s it, yes. And did the neighbours have curtains as well? Did they have lace curtains as well?
R- Yes, they had lace curtains. And there were a manufacturer lived on Forester's Buildings - and it was Dugdales and they had a big family, like us. And there were a few families you know with children, that’s why we didn't want to move and
go down Gisburn Road because there were nobody there we knew, you see.
And we used to have such good times, play games you know. All the children
used to play together and we were really happy there. [Johnson Dugdale, 2 Forester’s Buildings. Barrett Directory 1902]
What sort of games did you play?
R- Oh, shuttlecock and rounders, battledore and shuttlecock and rounders and ball, any kind of games. And there was always some children to play with apart from our own family,
(25 min)
Were there any children that your mother didn't like you to play with?
R- No, they were all nice. They were all nice decent people.
That's it. And did the women down there donkey stone the door step?
R- Oh yes, just edged it you know, just edged it. They didn’t do it all over.
Yes. How about sand on the floor?
R- I think I can just remember having sand on the kitchen floors. I told Jessie sometime and she said “I’m sure you can’t” I said I can just remember having sand on the kitchen floor.
Ernie can remember it in 1920.
R- Could he?
Yes, he even told me where he used to go and buy it. Mrs Walsh’s, and they were a greengrocers shop. Mrs Walsh’s they used to buy it, they used to, he said they used to change the sand once a week.
R- Yes. I think I can just remember its but only just. I wouldn’t be very old. I don't think I’d be above four or five.
Yes, so that’d be 1900, 1901.
R- Yes, because I know, and when I told Jessie she said “Well, I can never remember us having a sanded floor.” I said well I can just remember it, I'd be four or five, six or seven or so.
And when your dad first went modern and went on to the gas mantles? Can you ever remember moths coming and flying round them and breaking them ?
R- No, I can't remember that.
No, I have heard people talk about shutting the door in summer because you know, at night you know, if they had the door open, because if a big bomber came in you know, it’d break the gas mantle.
R- No, I don’t remember that.
How about the household rubbish, what happened to that?
R- Oh well, you had ash pit, and they came round and emptied them.
Now, when you say an ash pit, that’s not a dustbin.
R- It's a building next to the coal place. You know, the closets they were called in those days.
(700)
That’s it, yes.
R- And they used to come round emptying them.
So they'd empty ‘em, shovel them out.
R- No, there is a grate at the bottom. You know you went and put them in, it was open and you put it in. And at the outside in the street, there was an iron door and they lifted that out and scraped all the rubbish out.
And a fair bit’d get burned on the fire wouldn't it? So, a lot of rubbish that could be…
R- Oh yes. Yes a lot of rubbish that could be burned, but ashes and things like that went into ... it's called the ash pits.
Yes, that’s it. So really there’d very little thrown into the ash pit that could start to go bad and start smelling or anything like that.
R- Yes. Only things that you couldn't burn.
That's it, yes. And anything else 'd go on the fire.
R- Yes.
How often did your mother do the washing?
R- The weekly washing was done once a week but there’d be lots of bits done in between I should think.
That’s its yes. How long did it take her?
R- Oh, all morning.
You'd say what, three or four hours?
R- Yes, and I know when we got bigger we used to get off our work to help to wash. Have, you know, a day off.
It was a big job then, washing.
R- Oh it was a big job, yes.
And how did she do the wash?
R- Oh well, with a dolly tub and posser and rubbing the clothes. You know, rubbing, when they were anything really dirty you had to rub them. And I know, as children we used to have to go on t’posser a hundred times. I always remember that.
Was it a wooden posser or a copper one?
R- A wooden one, yes, with legs on.
Yes, that's it, with legs on. Aye that’s it. What sort of soap did she use?
R- Oh I should think Sunlight. As long as I can remember it was Sunlight soap. Compo washing powder. That was blue powder, I can remember that.
Aye Compo and Dolly Blue?
R- Oh yes, Dolly Blue and starch.
And starch, yes. And can you remember her using blanket soap?
R- No.
Have you ever come across that? That were soft soap, with camphor in it.
R- Yes, I have, I remember soft soap.
(750)
You’ll have seen it, won't you? In tins and it had little flecks of camphor. When they did the blankets once a year they very often used this blanket soap because it left them smelling a bit like moth balls you know?
R- Yes.
They used to think it were ... It's funny, I used to sell that when I was down at Sough, when I had that shop at Sough. It was good soap was that, good for your hair.
R- Yes, yes.
And ... how did she dry the clothes?
R- Well, outside if it was fine, but round the fire with, you know, about this height. You know, clothes right ... about four feet high.
And what did you call that? Did you call it a maiden?
R- Clothes horse.
Yes, clothes horse.
R- Clothes horse when we were children.
Have you ever heard one called the maiden?
R- Yes.
And did you have a, you know, the rack on pulleys above the fire?
R- Oh yes. But we had that in the kitchen.
That was in the kitchen? How did she iron it? The washing? You know…
R- Well with heaters you know? You put them in the fire you know? And then you put them in your iron. Yes.
So it was a box iron.
R- Yes, a box iron.
Like little blocks of cast iron.
R- Yes that’s right.
Yes, that's it aye. Did she ever have a gas iron?
R- Oh yes, later. Yes.
Did she like it?
R- Yes.
And what can you remember most clearly about washing day. You know, is there anything that sticks out in your mind about washing days?
R- Yes, having to poss.
How about the wringer?
R- Oh well, it was an old fashioned wooden one you know, wooden rollers, and a big handle and we’d to help to turn that as well. In our turns.
Can you remember anybody getting their fingers caught in the mangle?
R- I don't think so. I caught mine in me electric washer. My hand.
Is that right?
R- Yes ... and I can still feel it just there, and I got it up to, you know it went right up to there and I screamed murder, knocked it off. I’d, you know the presence of mind to knock it off. But a friend of mine, she did it and she tried to pull her handout, and she brought all the skin off her hand. You know. Oh she'd an awful hand.
(800)
Yes, now that's something that wouldn't happen with the old mangle isn’t it. Because you’d give up turning once you got in. Aye. Can you remember how your mother cleaned the house? You know, what she, when she was cleaning the house what did she use to clean?
R- We used to have to polish the furniture you know.
What did you polish it with?
R- Oh, furniture cream. It was in a bottle and it was like, like cream nearly. And black-lead the fire place, you know, black lead? And then there was brass fittings that was done with emery paper.
Yes. Now, there's a lot of people won't know what black leading is now. Black lead you see, you’d have black lead in a tin.
R- Yes.
What did you put it on with?
R- You put it on with the brush, and then you polished it with a brush and then you did it with a piece of velvet to make it shine.
That's it yes. You see that is something nowadays that people just don't know anything about. Was there, did your mother have a Ewbank? You know, carpet cleaner?
(35 Min)
R- Yes you know, but there was nothing like that when we were young, you used to go down on your hands and knees with a brush and a shovel if you’d a carpet.
That's it, yes. Or else a damp rag. Wiping it over with a damp rag.
R- Yes, but we had, we had a carpet sweeper when we went down Gisburn Road, when they came in, when they were made. But there weren’t any when we were little children, you know? No carpet sweepers.
And can you remember, was there anything that your mother paid special attention to when she was cleaning the house? You know, had she one piece of furniture that she really thought something of or anything like that?
R- Well I don't know. I know we always had to polish that sideboard and it was like glass, and it was mahogany. I always remember the top drawer, it was about so deep, and it was like bowed and it was lovely. It’d be worth something if we had it today would that.
Oh yes. And what sort of jobs did you and your brothers and sisters have to do, you know you’d have certain jobs that you did wouldn’t you?
R- Well, when we went down Gisburn Road I’d be about twelve. And when I was about fourteen my job was to clean the gas oven every week and clean the bathroom. And I did that till I was married.
While you were at Forester's Buildings was there anything...?
R- Well, we were too young really. Then you see, I'd be about eleven. We’d to run errands and do odd jobs, wash up, you know and things like that.
How about looking after the younger children. You know, like helping them to eat and what not, did you ... ?
R- Well, you see, Jessie’s seven years younger than me and Joe was only thirteen months younger. No, I can’t ever remember having to look after them.
Anyway, you’d run errands and what else…
R- Oh yes.
Did your father ever do any work in the house, you know, like mending
and decorating.
R- No. He was very musical was my father. He was. He was a choir conductor when he came to Barlick. At the Baptist Chapel down here and he’d taught me my first violin lesson when I was fourteen. And my younger brother, my youngest brother he taught him. And he used to play in the little orchestra in the Sunday School, about three or four of them. Jenny Hacking, do you remember? You know Sally Hacking don't you? Her younger sister, she played the violin and they were
Only, they wouldn't be above eight or nine. Just the hymns you know?
So what musical instruments were there in the house?
R- There were violins, violins. And he taught me at the same time, I was about fourteen, he taught me my first violin lessons. And then you see, I was growing up, I wanted to be going out, and I gave up. And then when, I was 20 I started with Mr Peckover taking violin lessons and he said I can tell you have played before. I says “Yes, but it's a good few years since” and I was playing in the orchestra in three months. Barnoldswick Orchestra.
(40 Min)
Was there an orchestra in Barnoldswick?
R- Yes. A very good orchestra. They used to have one concert a year and they always used to have a tip top star you know? And they used to have players to come to help with the ...
Right. Did, your family own their house?
R- Yes.
And have you any idea how much they paid for that house? In those days?
R- We didn't own the one in Forester’s Buildings we paid rent for that. I think it was
Four and six a week.
Four and six a week, aye.
R- And it belonged to Dugdale and he was a manufacturer in Barlick then.
Where were they, where was he manufacturing, Dugdale?
R- Wellhouse.
(900)
That’s it, yes. Wellhouse. That's Calf Hall Shed company.
R- It's this side. Not where Rolls Royce is. There were two down this side, up to the dam.
That's it, yes.
R- It were Dugdale and Dewhurst.
Yes, and was he a good landlord?
R- Very good. We were very good friends.
Oh that makes all the difference doesn't it. And did your mother ever do any work in the house to make a bit of money for herself?
R- No, I don’t think so. No, she'd enough to do with a big family.
That’s it, yes. Can you remember anybody in the neighbourhood doing anything like that? You know, like child minding or taking washing in or doing a bit of sewing or ...
R- Well, not on Forester's Buildings, no. There was a lady who lived at the end, a maiden lady, and she was a dressmaker and she had a shop window and that and there was no causeway then you know.
Which end was that. The end the greengrocer’s at now or the other end?
R- Up to the road which is the end of Forester’s Buildings you know. It’s two flats now, it’s been altered you know into two flats. Don't you know?
Yes, that’s it. So that’s the end that faces what's now the new church.
R- That was on the main road and the road was right up to the houses, there was no causeway and those three shops, the china shop, well it was one house was that and there was no door, you’d to go through a gate at the side and the door was round at the
front. But it was an old cottage then, and then there was a blacksmith shop round the back of Skipton Road. You know where the sweet shop is in Skipton Road?
Yes
R- Well, on there and round the back was a blacksmith shop and we used to spend hours and hours.
What was the name of the blacksmith? Do you remember?
R- Jenny, Jenny, wait a minute, I know her well enough.
It’s right, it’ll come back to you, it’ll come back to you. Don't worry. And that house of course, is still standing.
R- Oh yes. And then it was made into one little shop at the end at first and then of course it was made into that big china shop later on, but I was going to school I should think when there was just a little shop at the end and they sold homemade toffee.
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So on Forester's Buildings, which was actually your house?
R- Four, number four.
Number four. Now what’s that now, number four. Is that part of, you know, what's the china shop now?
R- No.
No. No, that's it, Forester’s Building’s on the front.
R- It's that row ...
Yes that's it.
R- And there was also two cottages behind you see, but they knocked' the rows down and also they knocked two of the houses down at the end of Forester’s Buildings to make the new road.
That's it, when they did away with the railway.
R- They did away with four houses there.
Yes.
R- They shouldn't have done.
No, and good houses and all.
R- Because they'd have all that room, there was all that room further on.
And so your mother’d have her first gas stove after you'd moved out of Forester’s Buildings, when you'd moved out ...
R- She’d have what?
Her first gas stove.
R- Yes.
Yes when you moved to Gisburn Road. Did she make her own bread?
R- Yes, up to her last illness.
And how much did she make at a time?
R- Oh she'd bake at least twice a week. I couldn't tell you how much but she baked even when Jessie, my younger sister lived with her. You know, she always lived with her, she never had a home of her own. She lived with mother because she was left on her own. And she baked right up to her last illness, baked her own bread and it was delicious.
Oh, it’s an art.
R- She used to bring me a loaf up, she came up here for her tea every Wednesday and she always brought me a a cob of home baked bread, it were lovely.
She’d bake cakes as well?
R- Oh yes but she didn't do a lot of baking in her later years because Jessie used to bake, ‘cause Jessie lived with her.
Yes. But when you were children she’d bake all the cakes and pies then?
R- Oh yes.
Any particular sort of cake?
R- Mostly pastry. you know, and fruit tarts and currant pasties. Sometimes a sandwich for Sunday tea.
And how about jam and marmalade?
R- No I don’t think she ever did, made jam and marmalade.
Pickles?
R- Oh yes we used to make pickles. Pickled onions.
Who topped and tailed them?
R- Oh, I expect we had to do that!
Did she ever make homemade wine and beer?
R- No.
Did she ever make any of her own medicine?
R- No. I don't think we ever needed any.
Aye, that’ll be right.
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SCG/10 January 2003
6,125 words