My mother Mavis Robertshaw Booth

Mavis aged 14

 My mother was born in November 1920.  When she was little, she remembered going to the doctor, who said she was under-nourished. 'You're all jelly and no bones.'   Their father was accused of not providing enough money to buy meat.

Mavis in late teens

     Mum went to the local secondary school until she was 14, then she left to go to work.  Her first job was in a large department store, H E Closs & Co., who sold materials and patterns.  Apparently, the manageress used to stand in the middle of the shop floor every morning, wearing a long black gown, waiting for the staff to arrive and checking who arrived late.  My mother's oldest sister also worked there, partly the reason why she was able to get the job.  Irene had a highly respected position as a material cutter.

Mavis, Ethel her mother and Melvyn,
her youngest brother.

         One incident, while my mother worked there, included her receiving permanent damage to the middle finger on her right hand.  She had to carry a bag, which fell open, pulling her finger back and breaking it.  For days she walked about with her finger dangling loose, until her mother said to her that she wished she would 'do something about it'.  She visited a doctor, and after various problems, including it going septic, and following her refusal to have it cut off, my mother was pleased that the doctor was able to set it in a permanently bent position. Not ideal, but it didn't prevent her from playing the piano, which she loved to do, as all the sisters used to like singing Yorkshire folk songs from a large black book. I still remember that book now and the songs from it, even though I was a small child when I last heard them sing together.

Irene, Mavis and Joyce

     Another medical memory was when her sister Joyce caught Diphtheria.  The house was cordoned off with large signs warning people to stay clear.

     Mum doesn't remember how long she worked at Closs's but she longed to get a job in the Cooperative.  She eventually achieved her ambition (she guessed about two years' later) and obtained a position in the Cooperative Tobacconists.  She became Manager and looked after eight shops in the area. 

     This came to an end at the beginning of the war.  Fortunately, because of her finger, she was not sent to work in Barnoldswick making ammunitions, so it was acceptable that she could  work at the Cooperative GROCERS as an alternative wartime occupation.  

Mavis (18) and Norman (aged 19)

     One of her memories of late teen life during the war was her 'promenading' with her friend, Dorothy.  They used to go to Brighouse (Rastrick was far too small for them!) and walked around the park, looking out for eligible boys.  She doesn't remember meeting my dad but it must have been on one of these trips to Brighouse when she was 18. 

Norman sitting on Nelly's lap, with
Nelly's children, Jean and David.

     One of her older sisters, Nelly, also worked for the Cooperative for a short time.  But it was while working at the mill that she met her husband, Dick, who was several years older than her.  They got married quite quickly while she was still only 18.  She said she wanted to get out of working at the mill!  Her other older sister, Cora, taught herself to be a hairdresser: she had a hairpiece she used to practise on.  During this 'training', it is not clear where she was working.  She used to borrow Irene's clothes, though, to go out.  She would smuggle herself out, buttoning up her coat so that the dress would not be seen.

Mavis and Norman getting married
in 1943.  Bridesmaids include
Norman's niece Mavis, cousin Elsie (2nd
left and Mavis' sister Joyce (right).

     What all the sisters did in the war is as yet unclear.

     My mother's older brother, Douglas, also worked for the Cooperative - the bakers, though.  When the war started, he joined the army and was a highly regarded army officer.  Her younger brother, Keith, was 16 at the beginning of the war but when he was old enough, he took up active service in the RAF.

Joyce and Mavis with
Ethel their mum (early 1940s)

My grandfather died in 1943, the same year that my mum and dad got married.  Their mother died in 1945, at the end of the war. As a minor still, Joyce went to live with my parents. Not long after, Melvyn, their youngest son, joined the merchant navy and jumped ship in Australia at the age of 17.  He never returned for a visit to see his brothers and sisters until he was 50.

Charles Booth, my grandfather and Susan Copeland, my grandmother, on my father's side

Charles Booth was born in 1880 and had one sister and 13 brothers, one of whom was Henry, five years younger than him, who was a successful taylor.  I have yet to discover more about this large family.  It is very difficult without my father's help; my auntie Edie and Uncle Wilfred have also both died now.
Charles joint owned a brass foundary in Brighouse (Woodcock and Booth).  As the company was founded in 1872, I assume it was founded by Charles' dad, whose name I have not discovered
yet.   I remember, though, that our family home was full of brass ornaments, ornaments which are
now with my dad's second wife, Joan Booth (nee Booty).

Susie Booth (nee Copeland) sitting on the left, with sister
 Edith  and her husband Harry next to her.

  My grandmother, Susan Harriet (Copeland), was a year older than Charlie (but this date is uncertain - it may have been a bigger age gap than this).  Susan had four younger sisters and two younger brothers: Ethel, Edith (who married Harry and settled in Blackburn), Daisy (who married Herbert - a real larger-than-life character who fancied himself as a comedian), John (who married Cissy and adopted Irene, an evacuee), William (who married Ada and had girls Ivy, Nora and Audrey), and finally Liza, who married Lawrence and had two sons, Lawrence and Eric.  I remember visiting Great Uncle Willie at Scarborough, as well as his daughter (whose husband was a chef at Castle Howard, where they lived), and Audrey.  That was a long time ago and the last time I saw them.  I was only a teenager.

I have been unable to trace my granddad, Charles in order to find out more  information.  All I know is that he was born in 1880.  But he had died before I was born and my grandmother, Susan, was only alive for a year of my life, dying in 1950-51 at the age of 71.  She bought my teddy for my first birthday, which still sits in my bedroom, slightly battered after its many journeys and house moves, as well as frequent baths when he was younger!
Mr and Mrs Charles and Susie Booth and family had a reasonably comfortable life in a modest terraced house in Hay Street, Brighouse.

   Charles and Susie had three children: Edith (born 1916?), Norman (born 1919) and Wilfred (born ?).

    Norman, my dad, had polio when he was a young boy, so one of his legs stopped growing as a result.  He always walked with a limp, which didn't seem to inhibit him as a teenager.  He loved cycling and would go on 50 mile rides to Scarborough, a place he loved all his life.  He also played cricket.  He passed his entry exam to go to Brighouse Grammar School, along with his best friends, Harold Brook and Harold Denham.  When he left school, he became an engineering draughtsman.  He was a very romantic teenager, from what my mum told me, and would write poems to her.  A couple of his poems survive to this day.  Mavis was still able to quote one of them towards the end of her life: she carried it with her to her grave.  He was also very flamboyant and loved amateur dramatics.  He got Mavis involved in acting, appearing in the local amateur dramatics club shows.  He was a great showman and was very interested in magic, which led him to join the Magic Circle.  He loved to be the comedian and as an amateur actor, delighted in the role of comedian in a reviews and pantomimes.  

  He was very fond of his elder sister, Edith, who had a similar vibrant personality.  I only got to know her for a brief time in the early eighties, after Norman died, and I'm only sorry that I did not continue to keep in touch with her: a few exchange of letters until they petered out.  I met her son David about a year before my dad died and was struck by his physical likeness to my dad.  In fact, my dad left his beloved walking stick to him in his will, and expressed the wish that I saw more of his side of the family, whom I had never come to know all the time when I was growing up.  (Whenever we visited Yorkshire, dad used to go off on his own and visit his relatives.  I only ever knew Herbert and Daisy, who we visited  quite a few times, and Uncle Willie, Audrey and Ivy, who we visited just once.)  Edith was unknown to us because she had had a son 'out of wedlock' I presume so we were never introduced to her or her family, apart from Gordon, her eldest son (born 1932), who came to stay with us unexpectedly in Kent.  I know nothing of Edith's teenage years.  All I know is that she married 'Parker' and had seven more children: Mavis, Pat, Billy, Bunty, Iris, David and Angela .  Nor do I know anything of Wilfred his brother who married Elsie, and had one son, Malcolm who was born the same year as Michael in 1952.  I'd welcome any information at all from their families.

  I will leave this space for her family to include a passage about Ethel.  Maybe I will also be able to catch up with Malcolm and their story.

 

Ethel Cartwright, my grandmother

My grandmother, Ethel Cartwright, was born in 1888 to William and Hannah Cartwright.
She had two sisters and two brothers: Gertrude, Rhoda, Abel and Dyson.  Sadly, Dyson died in 1918, having fought and survived the First World War, by drowning in a whirlpool at the age of 29.  He never married.  Brother Abel married Eveline and they had a daughter, Sylvia.  Rhoda married Joe and they adopted a daughter Jessie, who was born in 1905.   Gertrude, born in 1879 married Jim Hannon, but Jim died at an early age and they had no children.  Gertrude was quite wealthy, though, compared to her sister, Ethel, my grandmother, and she was very influential with a strong personality.  She did not get on with Rhoda and they did not speak to each other.  She died in her eighties, gassing herself having turned her gas cooker on without igniting it properly and presumably forgetting about it as she sat in her living room.  The house was full of the smell of gas when she was discovered.

Ethel at 18 with her 18 inch waist.

Back to Ethel, my grandmother.  When she was 18, she had a tiny figure, boasting an 18inch waist!  She married my grandfather, Ernest, and had eight children, as mentioned in my previous entry.  She must have been a very strong person who had to endure a lot, with a very drunken husband and eight children to care for, living in their tiny two up-two down house.  When my mother was still very young, she was persuaded by her sister, Gertrude, to leave Ernest because of his extremely drunken behaviour.  She took her advice and left home for about 9-12 months.  In the end, she returned to Ernest, not before she had become friends with Harold Lockwood, the blacksmith.  It is a mystery why she returned to Ernest.  Joyce put it down to the fact that she still loved Ernest, despite all.  But with Harold, she had her youngest daughter, Joyce.
Sadly, Ethel died one year after Ernest, from cancer of the womb.  In that last year, she was in great pain before the cancer was discovered.  Unfortunately, there was no National Health then and she could not afford to go to the doctor's.  Eventually, however, the family paid for her to see a doctor but by then it was too late.  Joyce, her youngest daughter, went to live with my parents and Melvyn went to live with another of the siblings.

Ernest Robertshaw p2

Ernest Robertshaw was born in 1887 to parents Dan and Eva.  He had three sisters: Beatrice, Amy and Lottie, all younger than him.  Lottie had two daughters, Peggy and Madge, who lived very near to my mother's family home.
Ernest Robertshaw, my grandfather, was notorious in the area because of his drinking.  He used to get drunk so badly that other people used to have to return him to his home as he was incapable of walking.  On occasions, he would even 'mess his pants'.  He would have rows with landlords of the local pubs so would have to keep changing his port of call!  When he arrived home, he managed to wake all his family and Ethel, my grandmother, would have to clean him up.  My mother said she used to start shaking at night in her bed, dreading the hour of his return.  She promised herself that she would never get married to a drinker.  I can quite understand where she was coming from. (Throughout my life, I have always been lectured on the evils of drinking and going into pubs.  Consequently, I never used to drink in pubs until I moved to Wales.)
       Unfortunately, as so much of his income went to the local hostelries, the family was short of money.  My mother remembers her aunt, Gertie, who used to help out for money.  She remembers that her mum used to do all the decorating in the house, as well as the general housework, and she struggled to make ends meet.   Another source of income was through selling cigarettes from the window of the barber's shop: a packet of Capstan cost 6 old pence!  My mother was sent out to the shops to buy cigarettes to resell on from their window.  I don't understand how the money was made from this!  It sounds as though, from all accounts, Ernest made his wife's life a living hell and it was no surprise that she escaped him for a while.  The mystery remains how he won her back.  Was it because she became pregnant?  Was Harold Lockwood married?  I suppose these questions will never be answered.  Joyce, their love child, did not even know that she Ernest was not her father, yet all her siblings did.  She only discovered this in the late 1970s or early 1980s.

Grandparents Ethel Cartwright and Ernest Robertshaw part 1

My grandparents on my mother's side were Ethel Cartwright and Ernest Robertshaw.  My mother lived at the family house in Hays Street, Rastrick along with her seven siblings: Irene, Cora, Nelly, Douglas, Keith, Joyce and Melvyn (in order of age).  My mother, Mavis, was the 4th child to be born into the family.  The living accommodation was two up and two down, so eight children used to sleep in one bedroom.
Ernest Booth was born in 1887 and died in 1943 at the age of 56.  During the war he was gas-poisoned and had one lung removed.  His trade was a barber, whose business premises was on the ground floor of their home.  He was a bit of a character, by all accounts, and liked a drink.  He spent a lot of time in the Greyhound, opposite their home.  My mother used to work in the shop when she was young, cutting up pieces of newspaper strips for her father to wipe his knife on.  She used to stand on a stool and collect the soiled paper from him when used.  The newspaper cuttings were counted so as to check how many customers visited the shop.
Each of the daughters had their turn as 'the lather girl', work experience before they went out to earn a living.  The sisters had to stand on the stool next to the customer and lather the customer up ready for hia shave.  At Christmas, their dad published a big sign on the mirror in the shop saying "look after our lather girl" with a box next to the mirror for contributions.  Sadly, the lather girl never received any Christmas box!  It all went to the pub.  This tradition continued right up until Joyce took up the batton as lather girl!

Introduction

It is important to collect memories from our family members so that they can be passed on and remembered through the generations.  I want my grandchildren to know about my grandparents and how life was lived in the 20th century.  I don't know much about my own grandparents so I'm going to try and collect as much information about them as I can, as well as memories my mother has of her childhood.  I will start to build up memories of my own childhood and what life was like growing up in the 50s and 60s.  Any snippet, no matter how small, will be collected here, along with archive photographs.   I hope all the family will contribute to this valuable collection of memories so that our lives live on through our children, grandchildren and future generations.  Hilary Booth