CD2

(64 mins)
 

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CAREER CHOICES / LUTON / VILLAGE WAITRESS

AI would have liked to have become a teacher, but couldn't afford it for one thing. She has always been termed  'bossy '. She didn't have a favourite subject,  'Jack of all trades, master of none '. Everything she has done has been possibly mediocre.

As war came along, she would have liked to have gone into the WAF. She didn't particularly care for the ATS. Father wouldn't hear of them having anything to do with the Forces. Father was rather Victorian in his ways. Her mother was more flexible. Her husband at that time was her boyfriend, not engaged; he was in the Royal Army Service Corps stationed in Luton. When he had his first little car, she was always tinkering about with him. He was very knowledgeable of cars and engines and so he suggested she would maybe like to go to Luton and work for the Vauxhall Motors.

She left school at 14 and stayed with her mother and father on the farm until the year she was 15, not really settling into anything. Her eldest sister went into the village to George Creek's shop, the draper's outfitters establishment. She was training there. Mrs Venn in the village bakery wanted a waitress for morning coffee, afternoon teas and suggested AI might like to go. Joyce was in at the Ilfracombe Grammar School, but father said they could manage without AI if she wanted to go. [Back to top]
 

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WAITRESSING / HOLIDAY SEASON / CYCLING TO WORK

She went for the summer season. Mrs Venn was very kind and a very good trainer. She really did enjoy it. She wasn't overworked, just did the waiting, set the tables up. Mrs Venn preferred to call her Aimie. When they weren't busy, Mrs Venn told her to sit in the restaurant and read a book and have coffee to entice the people in. She loved that!

Holidaymakers went in. Combe Martin was very popular in those days. Several hotels there, nearly every other house was B&B. It was very well known and extremely busy in the height of the season. She didn't wear anything on her head. She just wore a frilly white apron and Mrs Venn liked her to dress with a blue dress. She didn't always have blue. AI was the only waitress. Only 5 tables set up. She was paid about 7s and 6d a week and tips. She talked to the people who went in, maybe chattered a little too much.

She went in by their one bicycle. She would take Joyce down for the bus, Joyce on the seat, AI on the pedals. Going down the road one day, they smacked in to a chappy zigzagging up the hill. His front wheel just went like a 'V'. Joyce went over AI's head; she came off as well. It was the first day Joyce had worn her new gold watch. It broke. She had been instructed never to wear it to school.  The heel came off AI's shoe, she cut her hand. Her bicycle was all right; Paul Withers threw his in the hedge. She cycled in to Mrs Venn's. [Back to top]
 

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EDUCATION / GRAMMAR SCHOOL / CYCLING ACCIDENT

AI was doing very well at the Berrynarbor School. Because of her age, she was only able sit the once for the entrance exam to Ilfracombe Secondary School. She failed by 4 marks. Mrs Simpson wrote to the Devon Education people in Exeter. The chappy went down about it. Some years they allotted more places than others, not so many places her year. The gentleman that went down set her another test, which she did in the school. They said they would make her a little grant if her father could supply the balance for the fees. Father said if she couldn't get there on her own merit, plus he was rather pushed for money, then she had to continue at the village school.

Joyce was a plodder; she took the exam the next year and she passed. She didn't wish to go, but she went. AI thinks life has a pattern for you. She would have liked a better education, but she has had a very happy life. Only Joyce went to grammar school. She didn't use that education a lot. She went to Luton with AI. In after years, she is a business person.

After cycling to the cafe, they had to confess to their mother that Joyce's watch was no more. AI took it into the jeweller in the village that morning, Mr Begree, but there was nothing he could do. AI told them they had come off the bicycle. She had taken her shoe to the cobbler to have it repaired; Mrs Venn lent her a pair of slippers 2 sizes too big. They told Mum all this. Next morning, early in the dairy, AI told mummy about the watch. She was a brick and eventually Joyce had another watch. [Back to top]
 

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BENJAMIN / MILK ROUNDS / CHORES AT HOME / WORKING FOR DELVES

Ben was idolised. As children, they didn't know what it was to have regular pocket money. In Benjamin's growing up day, her father would go down to the village and they would go into the newsagents, Meakins shop, with the milk. There were about 7 milk rounds. Huxtable's Dairy, Norman's Dairy, Tom Charley's Dairy did milk rounds as well as the farmers that went in. The business people felt they had to trade with them all. When they went in to the newsagents, they never collected money for the milk. They always had a small block of chocolate for Benjamin.

When sheI finished the waitress' job, she was back on the farm and spent the winter at home. Mrs Delve ran the grocery shop and Delve's Hotel, in those days it was Delve's Steam Bakery (ovens heated by steam). Mrs Delve asked she if she would like to work in the shop. Her father said yes. She lived in.

On the farm, she didn't do a lot of work, everyday chores. She sometimes milked the cow, helped Mummy cooking and cleaning. They all had to do a share. Before she returned home, her mother had people to look after the children for her. She had a lady who helped with the laundry, ironing, bedrooms and cleaning. Apart from that, the girls all had their jobs.

She enjoyed the life in the shop; she was living in the hotel. She was 16. Mrs Delve had 1 son and treated her like a daughter. She got along with the rest of the staff. The hours were long, started at 8 o'clock. In the winter, closed about 7, in the summer, kept open much later. They had Wednesday afternoons off and Sundays. She went home sometimes. [Husband Maurice comes in]

[BREAK FOR LUNCH] [Back to top]
 

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DELVE'S GROCERY AND BAKERY / LIVING IN

In those days, the various businesses went out into the villages selling. People would send their orders for groceries. Bread and groceries went out in the same van. The shop sold groceries, practically everything you can mention. Real village store. They had to slice the bacon on a bacon machine. AI hated taking the cheesecloths off the cheeses. The sides of bacon had to be boned. AI was taught to do it and made an awful mess of it on many occasion. Bacon machine was worked by hand.

The shop was a hotel as well so lots of holidaymakers in the summer. At Easter time, trays of hot cross buns were sold on a Good Friday. People would order their buns and collect them or they had some lads who would go out with a little handbarrow and deliver them. They worked on the bank holidays. Bread rolls for the various hotels and boarding houses were a good selling commodity from the bakehouse. Mr Delve Senior did not have a lot to do with the bakehouse by the time AI got there, but his son and 2 other employed people helped with the baking. Another 3 were mostly the roundsmen. The cakes were made mostly by the son. They baked quite a few different types of bread. Mince pies at Christmas. They had to work on Christmas Eve. Over the weekend, everything was more or less cleared out of the window.

Mr Venn at the other village bakery would tell her of the numerous meals he would cook for people on a Sunday. At Delve's, there was a very large range in the kitchen. The staff all ate in the kitchen with Mr and Mrs Delve. In the season, there were 3 waitresses and 2 other people. There was no one particular cook, but the cooking was supervised by Mrs Delve herself.

One person other than AI lived in for the whole of the year but in the season, there were 2 of them. One was Maurice's (her husband) cousin. The cousin and AI shared a bedroom for the summer season. In the winter, AI was in the front in a single bedroom. It was just like family life. She was there until Mr Delve Senior died. Soon after, his son got married in 1939. The son and his wife took over and Mrs Delve Senior moved out. AI was with them for 12 months and then left there and went away to Luton. [Back to top]
 

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COMBE MARTIN / STRAWBERRIES / VILLAGE CARNIVAL

They never thought Combe Martin with its one long street would spread as it has done. Very, very little change. The majority of people got their living through market gardening. The strawberries, that was a great feature. They had strawberry tea each year for the people to come from Barnstaple workhouse given by the strawberry growers and various other people.

Another very exciting day was the carnival. Nearly everyone in the village in those days took part. It was run by the village. The floats were numerous. They congregated at the London Inn. The parade went right through the village street. At the London Inn for quite a while for judging and prizes awarded. The preparation took a fair amount of time. Always held on a Wednesday because the shops closed Wednesday afternoons. The floats were mostly the lorries and walking. The parade always started with a section of horses. A wonderful horsewoman oft times led the carnival; she was Frances Wyborn, now married to AI's cousin. In later years the tractors and trailers came along. The floats would be of all sorts of things. The queen's float was always done with hydrangeas and the junior queen's. There were 3 queens. The fairy queen's float was not hydrangeas, not so severe. When she was at Delve's, even the holidaymakers went down at that time and entered the carnival, always something comical. [Back to top]
 

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AMERICAN SUPPERS / LIBERAL ASSOCIATION / JEREMY THORPE / MOTHER'S POLITICS

There was a very nice dance hall at the Kingston. They had the usual dances. They had American suppers at any of the halls. 6 or 8 people at a table and 1 hostess. They had the supper and various local people would recite, sing and sometimes finished up with a little country-dance. She recited once or twice, but she is no singer!

Suppers at the Liberal Association had larger tables, 2 hostesses at each end. They had a committee. Prepared the whole of the day for that supper. Normally cold ham and turkey, sometimes mashed potatoes, the usual trifles, Devonshire cream. Charged very little for it. Had a dance afterwards. That was held in the town hall.

She was the treasurer of the Liberal Association for quite a few years. She is not really a committee person, but her mother was very involved with the Liberal Party. For her sake, AI became a member of the Combe Martin committee. Her mother was Kentisbury. Theirs was always a New Year supper. AI was able to drive her mother round to other coffee evenings in the homes, Liberal suppers. People were very involved with politics in those days. Tempers got a bit frayed sometimes [laughs].

Jeremy Thorpe was their local MP. She met him after she came back to Combe Martin. Met him first at Bell's Hotel, they were very involved with him as well. He was a very nice gentleman and did a lot of good in the area. He would remember names and personality. When her mother died, he didn't write to AI for about 3 months. In his letter he described Mummy to a T; he knew that when she walked into a room she'd make everyone feel at ease. He was the first Liberal MP they'd had for some considerable time. She is not politically minded but was very elated when the Liberals got in because of the way her mother felt. Her father could take it or leave it, mother very staunch. It was her way of life, always for the underdog. She gave of herself and that went along with her idea of the Liberal party. [Back to top]
 

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CLAUDE / ACTIVITIES IN COMBE MARTIN / MEN'S INSTITUTE / BRIDGE

A very nice lad living in Combe Martin, dead now, used to take people out in his boat. He got to know the holidaymakers. He took some out and when they came in, Claude went in with them for a drink. The gentleman asked Claude what he did in the winter . Christmas parties! That was Combe Martin!

In wintertime, the Christmas whist drives were very popular. There was a very nice Men's Institute where her husband first learnt to play bridge and snooker. They had to be 16 before they were allowed in and then their name had to be on the notice board and be recommended. When he first went in, all the men were called  'Mr', no Christian names. The younger people were upstairs.

Maurice's mother was a great whist player. They were always a card playing family. He started playing bridge and did enjoy it. When AI started playing she was out so much, one day she apologised. Maurice would go without a meal rather than miss having a game so he quite understood how the bug would bite you. She and Maurice never played together. When she started an elderly gentleman went to her home with 2 other people and proceeded to give her a few lessons. Mostly they met in the afternoons. Should they go of an evening, Maurice would give her little tips afterwards. She had to learn it the hard way, not a natural flair. Since she has been going to bridge clubs, there are not many husbands and wives that play together because you take it home with you. [Back to top]