Pauline Ellis (nee Littleton) – my life

Grandparents

Three of my grandparents died before I was born. We lived with my father’s father at Church Farm, Elmore until his death just before my first birthday.

Father

My father was William Francis Littleton, known as Frank (the same name as his father). My grandfather on dad’s side was Frank Littleton 30/07/1871 – 11/03/1945. He married Annie Jenner 1871 – 17/06/1930 (who was a twin with Herbert). They lived at Duni Farm, Minsterworth. They had 5 children:

William Frances (my father known as Frank) born 6/10/1906 - died 1/03/1980

Mary 27/09/1907 – 10/03/2001 married John Thomas Camm (known as Jack) no children

Elizabeth (Lizzie) 1909 – 17/05/1925

Reginald 10/11/1910 – 30/09/1975 married Vera Camm (Jacks sister) They had 2

children Graham and Diana.

Edna 1917 – 1917 (died aged 10 weeks)

Frank and Annie moved in 1908 across the River Severn to Farleighs End Farm, Elmore with Frank and Mary. They were tenants of Elmore Court Estate. Their other children were born in Elmore. The farm was later renamed Church Farm, Elmore as the farm next door was also called Farleighs End (later spelt Farleys End).

Dad went to Elmore School until he was 11 years old, then followed on to Sir Thomas Riches School in Gloucester. He cycled there every day. Dad was a good and conscientious scholar. His brother Reg went to the same school and was more of an entrepreneur. The Maths teacher taught the identical syllabus every year, so Reg acquired Frank’s homework book and sold his older brothers answers to other pupils four years later. Reg always had money in his pocket.

Dad was in Gloucester Royal Infirmary (hospital) when the First World War ended. He had Appendicitis and Peritonitis and was ill for some time. He was very frightened when war ended as there were many happy, drunken people milling round the streets and hospital. He was only a 12 year old boy and wanted to escape to home, peace and quiet.

Being the elder son, dad left school at fourteen to look after the mixed farm. When Reg and Frank wanted to get married, Reg bought Pleasure Farm, Elmore and dad stayed at Church Farm. Mary stayed at home looking after her parents until she married to Jack Camm and moved to the next farm – Farleighs End Farm.

On the farm were many orchards and cider apple trees. Father made about 800 gallons of cider each year. This was given away to all who called including the road sweeper, postman, farm workers and anyone who wanted a free drink.

Dad grew most of our vegetables in the very large garden, plus he grew potatoes and Swedes in the field. We also had orchards, so we had a lot of seasonal fruit. Most of the plums, pears and apples were picked and sold in the fruit market in Gloucester. Uncle Jack (dads brother-in-law) and Uncle Harold (mums brother-in-law) both had flat-bed Lorries to transport our fruit, with their own, to market in Gloucester.

My father bought his first car from Uncle Jack in about 1955, a Vauxhall Wyvern HFH101. In about 1958 he had an accident and wrote the car off. He had no car for 6 – 12 months. Hence we had to rely on the buses which ran about every 2 hours. We did not dare miss the bus or if we did we had a 3 mile walk on unlit country lanes from the Bristol Road, Quedgeley to home.

My father retired from Church Farm in September 1974 and had a farm sale. My parents then rented Pike Cottage, 27 Elmore which was previously a cottage on Church Farm.

Dad died of lung cancer. He had smoked unfiltered Players or Senior Service cigarettes most of his life. He gave up smoking about 10 years before he died on 1st March 1980.

Mother

My mother was Ida Mary Watts. She was the youngest of 10 children (4 boys and 6 girls), who were all born at Weir House, Weir Lane, Elmore. Her parents were William Watts (1867 - 1937) who married Mary Elizabeth Green(1870 - 1933). Her family consisted:

Number of children

Ethel 1890 – 1973 (married George Bates) 3 Eileen, Ron and Joan(who were twins)

William Ray 1892 – 1960 (married Violet Newman) 2 Ray, Marion

Hilda Serena 1894 – 1967 (married Arthur Smith) 2 Eric, Audrey

Fredrick Elias 1897 – 1950 (married Elsie Smith) 3 Douglas, Jean, (Fredrick) Michael

Horace James (Jim) 1899 – 1960 (emigrated to 6 (the eldest died at birth) Bill,

(Australia1921 and married Ivy Bennett) Dorothy, Valmai, Dulcie, Muriel

Dennis George 1901 – 13/11/1959 (married Freda Vick) 4 John, Josephine, Christopher, Margaret

Dora 1903 -1977 (married Harry Ward, 1 Barbara

Bill Meadows, Bill Brown)

Lena 1905 – 1923 -

Florence Evangeline Annie 1906 – 1987 (married 3 Gordon, Kenneth, Nigel

Harold Meek)

Ida Mary 1907 - 1992 (married Frank Littleton) 2 Jennifer, Pauline

TOTAL 25

Weir House was a small holding of about 37 acres mostly on the river bank and consisted mostly of orchards. It was rented from Elmore Court Estate. (The house is now a farm workers cottage on Elm Farm.) My grandfather was a fruiterer.

Mum also went to Elmore School presumably until she was 14. She then became an Assistant Teacher at Hardwicke and Elmore Schools. She took teaching exams but failed them. As her parents got older and the rest of her siblings were married and left home she had to stop work and look after her parents. This she did until they had both died . The tenancy of Weir House was given up and she went to live with her sister Florrie at New Farm, Elmore Back.

Ida Mary married William Francis Littleton on 16.11.1938 at Elmore Church. They lived at Church Farm, Elmore, with Frank’s father. They had 2 children:

Jennifer Mary born 14.04.1940 at Elm Farm, Elmore

Pauline Frances born 15.03.1944 at Church Farm, Elmore

I was the youngest of 25 cousins on my mother’s side. There were 2 cousins on father’s side - Graham 8 months older than me and Diana 3 years younger than me. Mum was 37 when I was born but she always seemed old to me. When I was in my teens she was taking pills for High Blood Pressure and quite a lot for anxiety/depression and sleeping tablets.

Mum lived alone at Pike Cottage after dad died until 1989. Something happened which affected her memory – she could not find he way around the house. I was working full time but called 4 times a day to look after her. A week or so later it started to snow, I brought her to live with me at Elmgrove Road West, Hardwicke. After a few days she got out of bed in the early morning and fell pulling the radiator off the wall. It landed on her back and burnt her badly. She then moved into Great Western Court, a residential home in Gloucester. She later moved to Woolstrop House, Quedgeley where she stayed until her death in 1992.

My sister - Jennifer

Jennifer was 4 years older than me. Until I was 10 years old we had to share a double bed. We did not get on well with each other. One night I moved to another bedroom – I could not sleep because the bed was so cold and damp – it was winter and we had no heating in the bedrooms. The main reason we did not like each other was because I was frightened of my teacher and was sick almost every day at school. Jennifer was made to clear up the mess!

Jennifer went to Elmore School and had extra private tuition because the teacher was so bad. This enabled her to go to Ribston Hall High School for Girls until she was 16. When she left school she worked in the Inland Revenue, Tax Inspectors Office in Gloucester. At the age of 21 she was transferred to the tax Office in Brixton, where she met Derek. She went to lodge with Mrs Tripp in Tooting, London. In May 1970 she married Derek Frederick Sullivan who worked at the same office. He had the same birthday as Jennifer, 14 April, but was 5 years older than her. They married in Elmore Church.

They lived in flat over a shoe shop in Streatham High Road, Streatham with Derek’s mother. She later moved in with Derek’s sister, June, because Derek paid his sister to take her. There they had 2 girls, Julie Elizabeth born 3 March 1972 and Christine Jane born 26 September 1974. Jennifer had to carry 2 children up a flight of outside steps then up another flight inside. In 1975 bought a House in Hastings where Jennifer still lives, 67 Braybrooke Road.

Derek became difficult and did not get on with Jennifer and his daughters as they grew up. He died of a heart attack on February 26 February 2002 .

Church Farm – the house

The house is 150 – 200 years old and is built on clay. This means that the house moves according to the weather. Sometimes the doors fitted, sometimes they had to have bits shaved off the side or bottom so they would close.

All the time we lived at Church Farm the only heating in the whole house was an open fire in the kitchen. The floor was red tiles with a mat in front of the fire and a strip of coconut matting to the back door. It was very cold in the winter because there was a big gap under the back door, but we did not know anything different. There were fire places in every room but these were seldom used.

We lived in the Kitchen – ate, cooked, washed etc. The only reason we moved to another room for was to sleep. In the kitchen were two easy chairs with wooden arms – one each for our parents. Jennifer and I, or any visitors had to sit on hard wooden kitchen chairs all the time.

We had a room upstairs used for a bathroom which had a china bowl for hot water to be carried to and a white enamel bucket with a lid to use for a toilet. The bucket and bowl had to be emptied daily by my mother. Our proper toilet was a brick building about 1.5metres square at the bottom of the garden behind a privet hedge. It had a wooden bench with 2 holes in. It had a stepped seat with a high seat with a large hole for adults and a low one with a small hole for children. We also had china pots under the bed which were emptied every morning by mother.

When I was 6 years old the mains water pipes were laid through the village. We then had taps , Indoor sink and drain installed instead having to go outside to the pump to get water and carrying it into the kitchen to wash ourselves, drink or do the washing up in a bowl on the table. Until this all dirty water had to be carried outside to the drain.

Laundry was done in a very cold outhouse with three wooden walls which did not reach the ground. This allowed the buckets of water to be used to scrub the floor and the water to flow out to the drain. Monday, washday was hard work for my mother. Water had to be hand pumped, heated, by lighting a fire under the copper, put into large tin baths, one of hot and one of cold water on an old wooden bench where she did all the washing. She then put it through a mangle which had 2 wooded rollers, turned by hand, to squeeze the water out before putting it on the line. Sheets, towels, overalls, clothes had to be washed by hand then rinsed in cold water and hung out. Also, white washing was put into a blue bath and all collars and tablecloths were starched. My father had to ensure that there were no animals in the paddock with the washing lines. When it was dry then the ironing was done on the kitchen table which was covered by several blankets topped with a sheet. Cast Iron flat irons were heated over the kitchen fire and the marathon ironing process started. Clothes were then put in an oven at the side of the grate to air or on a wooden clothes horse round the fire. We did not see the fire on a Monday evening.

The copper was also filled and a fire lit underneath to heat the water for bathing once a week on a Saturday night. Then the hot the water was carried to the kitchen where a tin bath was put in front of the fire. I bathed first as I was youngest, I was then sent to bed. My sister was next, then my mother and father.

For the first 8 years of my life we had no electricity. My mother cooked on a paraffin stove which had 3 burners and an oven. Our light was a single paraffin lamp in the middle of the kitchen table. To go to another room or to bed we carried small paraffin lamps or candles which were put out immediately I was in bed. Dad used to take paraffin hurricane lamps round the farm.

Our entertainment was a big radio on the kitchen cupboard. We could get the Light Programme (now Radio 2) and the Home Service (now Radio 4). Our parents chose the programme. The radio was powered by a large battery called an accumulator. This was swapped fortnightly by a man who came in a van, swopped and recharged the battery. We had our first television in 1961 when I was 17 – after I had left school. It was thought it would distract me from my homework! Three houses in the village had the first black and white TVs installed for the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in June 1953.

Electricity transformed our life. We had centre lights in every room, an electric cooker, kitchen water heater fitted on the wall over the sink, a washing machine which also heated the water and had an electrically powered ringer over it. Upstairs, the room was changed into a proper bathroom with a flush toilet, a plumbed in bath, a wash basin and large airing cupboard housing a tank and emersion heater!

On the wall of the kitchen, near the back door my father kept a 12 bore shot gun. I’ve always hated guns.

Church Farm – the farm

The farm was a 200 acre rented farm on the Elmore Court Estate. Half the land was behind the house and the other half behind the church, stretching to Velthouse Lane. My grandfather rented the farm from 1908 then my father took over when he married 1938. It was a mixed farm with about 15– 20 cows which were milked by hand until 1953 (when the electricity was installed).

I was born during the Second World War. At that time there were a lot of German prisoners of war held in Gloucester Gaol. They were brought out daily by bus to work on the farms. I do not remember them but I do remember the toy they made for me. They brought their own lunch and sat in an outhouse which we called the “Wood House”. In here my parents stored all the logs for the fire and my father stored all his tools and work bench. The two prisoners made me a wooden disc with a handle, like a table tennis bat, with pecking hens on it and they made a goose with wheels on and its wings flapped when pushed for my sister. I don’t know how these toys were coloured but somehow they coloured the wood without any paints. These toys were treasured as we had very few toys as most things were either rationed or just not available after the war.