Interesting Stories and Notes

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 'A Life of Lily' 

Chapter 1 

Our Home and Family

My name is Lily Bond and I was born in 1911 at Livingstone Road, Battersea, but we moved into a small house in Latchmere Grove when I was about 3 years old.

My Mum had nine children, one every two years, apart from the four year gap during the war.  People always had large families in those days.  We were a very happy and united family  -  'had nought, and didn't expect more.' We were better off than a lot of children in those days, as my Dad had regular work, because he worked on the railway.

Our house was a two up and two down, gas light only, no hot running water.  You went in from the street into the front parlour, then into the kitchen/living room.    A door led upstairs to the two bedrooms. Under the stairs was the 'coal hole'.  Two steps down from the kitchen/living   room was the scullery, where a back door led to a yard. The toilet was in the yard and had a wooden seat and the toilet paper was a magazine cut through and pierced with a meat-skewer and hung up with string from a nail.  You used to sit there and read the magazine and very likely it said 'Continued next week'. What a disappointment.   The floor was concrete and had to be hearth-stoned every day. This was a white block, which was rubbed on the floor, and when it had dried the floor was lovely and white.  The windowsills were  also hearth-stoned weekly.

The girls used to sleep in the smaller back bedroom, and the boys in the larger front one. Mum and Dad used to sleep in the front parlour on a sofa.

My two sisters and I had to share a double bed so the one who got in last had to sleep at the bottom.  I can honestly say that if you were unlucky, you got a good kick in the bum in the night.

There was no lino or carpet in the house, just plain scrubbed boards.

My poor old mum worked very hard for us all. The water had to be boiled in the copper and the washing rubbed on a scrubbing board and then hung on the line in the yard.    The copper was in the corner of the scullery; it was a huge copper tub built into a brick surround.  It had a wooden lid on top and a small fire hole (about 1 foot square) at floor level. The fire under the copper was used to boil the water and was kept going with anything that would burn - tarry blocks, planks of wood, old boots, socks or stockings that were unwearable.   Best of all was a railway sleeper, which we scrounged from the railway workers working on the track.  

The end of the sleeper was pushed through the fire hole into the fire, and remained stretched across the scullery floor.  Every so often my Mum would kick the far end of the sleeper and push it further into the fire.

The hot water was used to bath in and for washing clothes, pots and pans etc.  At bath times Mum would ladle the water out of the copper with a large saucepan, and pour it into the galvanised bathtub in front of the fire in the living room.  When not in use the bath hung from a hook in the yard.

We never went hungry, even if we only had a stew, which consisted of bacon bones, potherbs, pearl barley and a penny packet of Edwards's soup powder. We could always have a bowl of that at night. Also Mum boiled big spotted dicks in a cloth, rice, sago and tapioca puddings all made with condensed milk except on Sundays when we might have the pudding made with fresh milk.

We were always sent to school clean. Every day the class was asked to show their hands, backs and fronts, to make sure they were clean. We had a piece of clean rag for a handkerchief.  We would put our finger up the chimney and use the soot and our fingers to clean our teeth. (Toothbrushes were very expensive). We would bath in turn in a tin tub in front of the fire and then all help to empty it, for the next one.

When the girls grew too large to fit into the bath tub in front of the fire Mum would give us a penny to go to the Latchmere Baths around the corner.   It was fantastic to be able to lie down full length with as much hot water as you liked, Sometimes you had to wait a long time because of the queue.

Also we had bugs, they looked like ladybirds.  But did they bite you! To get rid of them we all had to help strip the paper off the walls and my Dad painted all the bedroom walls with gloss paint, which was very cheap then.

My six brothers, two sisters and I, had our meals round a large scrubbed white table. The boys sat on a plank round the back of the table.  We also had 4 chairs, one for each of the girls and one for Mum who sat at one side and Dad at the other side in an old Rocking armchair.  In between was the highchair, which was always in use to seat the latest arrival, who Mum tied firmly in place with an old scarf.    All of us had the same place every day.

We always had a nice big fire in the winter where we used to gather, doing knitting or telling a tale.   We had to be in bed quite   early but went up in our turn, getting a little later as we got older.

There was a gaslight in all the rooms but the toilet out in the back yard had no lights at all. 

Our   front   room was full of prized possessions.  A pair of stuffed birds in a glass case had pride of place on top of a low cupboard on one side of the fireplace and on the other side were ornaments, which we had to dust.  There was an old fashioned sideboard and a red velvet Victorian Sofa used as a bed by Mum and Dad.    There was also a large round table, which always had a goldfish on it.  We never had a real bowl for it so we kept it in an enamel pie dish. It was often found on the floor, the poor thing, but it survived for many a year.

Next to the goldfish bowl Mum sometimes put another big dish with tapioca soaking in water.   I think that the goldfish thought that he had a mate there and that was why we found him on the floor so often.

Our back yard was only about 9 foot by 18 foot in size and was separated from our neighbours by a rotting wooden fence.  As our neighbour also had a lot of children it was agreed that the fence should be taken down and shared between us. The wood was used as firewood for the copper.  The result was that we all had a much bigger place to play in.

Running along the back of all the houses was a large narrow yard.   The owners used the yard to store old wood, which they chopped into firewood.  When they weren't there we used to climb over the fence and have a good game of rounders with our gang; or sometimes a game called 'catch me if you can'.

The trains ran along the elevated railway arches at the back of our house, on the far side of the wood yard, to Battersea Station near Battersea High Street. During the war the trains were always full of soldiers; some of them had bandages round their heads. As kids we were fortunate since there used to be quite a few trains going by and the trains used to stop because of the signals.  Us kids used to shout out, "Throw out your Mouldies." (Tins of corned beef).  They used to laugh at us but would often throw some things to us. All the kids had to share out anything that was thrown to us by the soldiers

Monday was always cold meat day. Mum used to send us to the corner shop with the largest basin for two-penny worth of pickles, which was enough to feed the whole family. (Pickles included red cabbage, mustard pickles).  The poor shopkeeper used to weigh the basin, and then the basin plus pickles. Sometimes we went for two pennyworth of jam.

He used to have this in a large stone jar and ladle it out with a big wooden spoon.

For a treat we would go and get a pound of broken biscuits for four pence. Biscuits were sold loose and if they had even a small corner broken off they were sold as broken biscuits.  If we were lucky these included custard creams.   Lovely grub.   Also we used to go to the bakeries for bread and cakes that they fetched back after they had done their deliveries.  We got a big Hessian sack full of bread for sixpence. They used to weigh the bread out and if was under weight another chunk was put on the top. This 'top knot' was always eaten on the way home.

I only ever remember having fresh dairy milk on Sundays.  Mum used to send us with a jug and we would put a penny in the slot and wait till the last drop had finished dripping.  A lot of people never waited for the drops so we would put our jug under to collect their remaining drips. We used to go home with more than we paid for and we always had a nice rice pudding with it.

Another thing we had was a parrot.  My Dad loved it, but Mum hated it.  When Dad was at work my Mum used to put it in the coalhole, to stop it screeching. At night the parrot was always taken upstairs to the bedroom as we had a little dog, which also disliked the parrot. One night the dog got upstairs and pulled the parrot down. It was in a sorry state and did not recover.   My Mum was glad, as she never liked it.

One day as I was coming out of the outside closet my next-door girl friend threw a stone.  Unfortunately it hit me on the head, so my Mum took me to the Chelsea Children's Hospital where they cut my hair and stitched my head up. I've still  got a dent to this day; ( that's why I'm barmy, only joking ). On the way home we had to come over Battersea Bridge.  It was in the 1914 War and whistles were blowing and people were telling us to get off the street, so we put our best foot forward as we were nearly home.  Suddenly we saw this great big Zeppelin.   It looked like a huge Air Balloon, as far as I remember.  It was very frightening.

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