Nellie's Notebook

Nellie was born one hundred years ago, on 26^th September 1913, so the anniversary seemed an appropriate time to let family and friends read these reminiscences. When she was in her late 70s I gave her a notebook and asked her to write down memories of her childhood and the time she spent “in service” before she was married.  I found the notebook again when I was sorting out her things.

She didn’t write a great deal because, as she told me, she soon became bored when writing, and preferred to be asked questions and talk about her early life.

However, I have typed up what she wrote, exactly in her own words, and added a few notes of things that might need explaining and some photographs.  Due to the combined effects of The Great War, lack of money, the General Strike and going “into service” at the age of fourteen, there are no photographs at all of my mother as a child, the earliest is the photo taken of her and my Dad on the day they were engaged. 

I hope that you will enjoy reading Nellie’s Notebook. If it triggers any memories of your own, please pass them on.

Anne Amison, 2013.

Jane Ellen Amison. 1991.

Born Sept 26^th 1913.

Mother Jane Ann Evans.

Father (William James Evans)   ?

            ( James Evan Williams)

[His birth certificate, of which I have a copy, records “Evan James” a boy born on 17^th January 1893 to “Annie Williams, a domestic servant”.  In the space for “Name and surname of father” there is a line.  However, he was always known as William James Evans].

Nellie's birthplace: The Blue Pump, Uxbridge Street: Hednesford.

Nellie's father always claimed that Dick Turpin hid in the cellar on his ride from London to York (he must have gone a very funny way!)

I remember my Dad coming back from War.  We had lived with my Mother’s parents during the War but moved into 26 Uxbridge Street Hed.[ Hednesford.] to live with an Aunt of my Dad’s when he came home.  She went to America in the 20s and we took over the house where we stayed until 1927.  My brother Bill was born Oct 1914 while my Dad was away.

My first school was run by a Miss Gripton and we paid one penny a day, we wrote on slate with chalk, about 30 of us in one classroom.  I went to West Hill Infants at 6 years.  I stayed at West Hill until 13 years and went to Belt Rd for the last year. 

[Until decimal currency was introduced in 1971 there were 12 pennies in a shilling.  A shilling was the equivalent of 5 modern pence.  So my mother’s “penny” was worth less than half of a modern 1p.  However, given the low wages earned by miners at the time, one penny a day was a considerable weekly outlay.]

I was given the cane many times for being late, for taking my sister Gwen to school (15-05-20) and making me late.  I’ve had to queue for cheap milk (2d a pint) before going to school.  That made me late. [Probably during the miners’ strikes of 1921 (when Churchill wanted the army to shoot at the miners: the reason my mother never had any time for the man and always referred to him as “that bloody old warmonger”, an antipathy she successfully passed on to me) and 1926.]

Pal. Clarice Jenny (18-6-22).

When my mother was in bed with Dennis (16-6-24) I remember taking Gwen, 4, and Pal, 2, a walk and we got paddling in the brook.  Pal was in a push chair and it slid down the bank and she fell in the water, we had to take all her clothes off and wrap her in our coats, didn’t we get it when we got home. 

[At that time women were expected to lie in bed for 9 days after giving birth: my mother always said this is why so many new mothers died!  Once allowed out of bed a woman was expected to go to church for the ritual of “churching” to take away all the impurities of giving birth.  After my mother was born, my Nan walked from Hednesford to her own parents’ house in Heath Hayes to show them her baby.  They refused to let her in as she hadn’t been churched and she had to sit on the step!]

This is about Bill. 

[My mother’s brother Bill, not her husband or son of the same name.]

From a baby he was spoiled rotten.  Aunt Hannah gave him everything he wanted.  She brought him a horse on wheels which peddled like a bike.

We were playing one day in the rain water tub, we had two pegs for boats and he kept sinking mine because he had to win at everything, so I pushed him in head first.  He screamed of course and everyone came running out, and this Aunt caught hold of my long hair and pulled me into the house with it, gave me a smacking and threatened what she would do if I touched him again.

He grew up into a rotten sod, he would stay out late when only 11-12 yrs.  Dad would lock him out but the roof was very sloping so he would climb up it and through the bedroom window.

Bill ("Knocker") Evans, on the left, Bill Amison on the right, in the early 1930s

When I was 10 or 11 years I remember having a blue velvet dress.  I must have had it for a Christmas present.

We were in the front room and there was a lovely fire and my brother Bill put the poker in the fire and got it red hot, pulled it out and swung it round and said he would burn us, he pushed it through my dress and straight on to my leg, I had a great burn, it was blistered for weeks.

1921.

The miners came out on strike, so that means no money.

[All the coal mines were in the hands of private owners until the end of World War II.  Conditions below ground were unsafe: there were frequent roof collapses and gas explosions.  Miners often had to work on their hands and knees, or waist deep in water to reach a coal seam.  Once underground, a miner might have to walk up to a mile to reach the coal seam on which he was working, but was not paid until he actually began to dig coal.  The miners, recently back from a war after which they had been promised “a land fit for heroes” came out on strike in pursuit of better wages and fairer working conditions.  There was no strike pay at that time.]

We had to go to the Cross Keys Pub twice a week for soup, a jug each and half a loaf.  This was for Mom, Dad, three children.  I don’t know how long this lasted.  [The 1921 miner’s strike began on 31^st March 1921 and lasted for three months.]

1926.

The miners came out again.

I was nearly 13 years.

Children were being sent to families in B.Ham who were willing to look after them, so I went to people in Witton where I stayed until the strike was over.  They were good to me but it wasn’t like home, but it was good grounding when I had to leave home to go to work. 

[The 1926 miner’s strike grew into a General Strike and lasted from May-November 1926.  A group of philanthropic, better-off ladies in Birmingham offered to take children of striking miners and provide for them whilst the strike lasted.  Although my mother knew she should have been grateful  for the chance of being well-fed and cared-for, she was always aware of being the only one of (at that time) 5 children to be sent away.  Two of her stories illustrated this: “They sent me away, but your granddad fed the street with jam and rice from Russia.”  (Food parcels sent to show solidarity with the striking miners from the Soviet Union); and “When I came back the lady I was staying with brought me a beautiful winter coat.  Your Nan pawned it.”]

I left school end of July when we had a month’s holiday.  We moved to 11 Forrest Ave Cannock in Sept, a brand new Council House.  Oct I went to work for a Mrs Stanley (leather merchants) at Gorway Rd Walsall.  I earned 5/- a week (25p) up at 6 o’clock went to bed at ten, but I was only there until the Christmas, she sent me home thought I was going to be ill.  All my fingers festered with using too much soap and bleaches and I went anaemic so I was at home till the Feb.  [Throughout her time in service my mother was expected to send half of her wage home to help her parents and the other 5 children.  However, she was “all found”, ie: her uniform, bed and board were provided.  She had a half day off on Sunday when she was expected to go to church, and a full day off every other week when she could catch the train back to Cannock and see her family.  Her youngest brother, Dick, born in 1928, believed for many years that she was not his sister, but a visitor.]

Then I went to Dr Knowles Stoke-on-Trent.  It was a large old grey house.  I was supposed to be looking after 2 boys, 4 and 6 years old, but I had other jobs as well.  Up at 6 o’c, scrubbed front steps, cleaned brass plate, dressed children, breakfast, help wash up, clean bedrooms, help generally, looked after children, in afternoon gave them tea, much the same day after day.

June we moved house up to Trentham Rd Oakhill to a much bigger house and a very large garden, a lot more work to do.  I had been there 12 months when Kitty the cook had to go home, her mother was ill so with the parlour maid’s help I had to do the cooking, bit much.  But when the older boy started day school they had a governess in so I was asked to be cook and I was given 12/6 [62 ½] pence a week, big money.

I stopped there for 3 1/2 years. I was earning 15 shillings a week  when I left. [15 shillings = 75 pence.  For comparison, when my parents were married in 1936 my father, a miner, earned £2]

I had one friend while I was there, Hilda Ryder, she trained as a nurse but she died soon after the war from cancer.

Nellie (on the right) and Hilda: autumn 1935. Nellie is pregnant with George in this photo.

My Dad was a good man.

He was really good looking, a good worker, but he had a temper, he didn’t show it much with us children (my mother dished the punishment out).

Nellie's parents in the 1950s

He always worked afternoon shift at the pit, got home about 11 o’clock every night, so we didn’t see much of him, we were at school when he went and in bed when he got home.  So it was only weekends we saw him.  I remember once he came home with a long cut on his back.  The Dr put 12 stitches in it and a large plaster on it and he went to work the next day.

He was ill for 10 years, he suffered a lot and for a while his pay was 10/- a week so we all had to help and it was like that until NH came in and the money went to about £2.  My Dad died from miner’s chest complaint. 

[The National Health Service was introduced by the Labour Government of 1944.  Until then all visits to the doctor had to be paid for.  The Labour Government also introduced statutory sick pay, which is what my mother is referring to here. My grandfather died in 1956 from pneumoconiosis, a lung disease caused by inhaling coal dust whilst working down the coal mine.]

My mother was a very good looking woman, the one thing I remember about when I was young was her hair.  She had lovely waist length jet black hair down to her waist, and she did it up in a bun with a big black bow in it and I thought it was awful when she had it cut. 

Nellie's mother in 1914: the photograph was taken to send to Nellie's father when he was serving in the trenches in The Great War

When we moved to Cannock she joined a Pub bowling club and became quite a good bowler winning the Rosa Cup a few times. 

[The Rosa Cup was a ladies’ bowling trophy donated by Peter Rosa, an Italian who owned an ice-cream parlour in High Green, Cannock.  Legend has it that, when Mussolini invaded Abyssinia in 1936, my granddad wanted to throw the Cup through Rosa’s window as a mark of solidarity with the people he called “the little black lads.” 
I've just learned from Terry Flanagan that the Rosa Cup still exists and has been presented back to Cannock Bowling Club, where it sits in their trophy cabinet: complete with a dent: caused, according to Dick Evans, by granddad throwing it up the garden in temper at Mussolin's actions.
When I was growing up my Nan often told me that I was just like my granddad, as he had been a Bolshevik.  When he was given a medal for fighting in World War I ( he was a farrier, looking after horses: he also looked after the horses that hauled the coal trucks down the pit) he put it on his dog’s collar as a fit place for it to be.  A policeman threatened to arrest him for defacing the King’s head!]

The Cannock Ladies Bowling Club. Peter Rosa is at the front. Nelllie's mother is back row, third from the left.

After Dad died she went to live with Pal and Harry at Cross Street, Bridgtown and went with them to Gt Yarmouth didn’t stay long, came back to live with Gwen, short stay at Dick’s and then with me at Wellington Dr, and then she got the flat in Avon Rd.  She died Oct 1982. 

[For part of my childhood I remember my Nan doing a sort of Elizabethan “Royal Progress” where she would stay with each child (except Bill) for 3 months at a time.  When we lived at New Street her impending arrival always flustered my mother.  Once she asked my dad, “What shall I give her to eat?”  He replied “Give her a bread poultice”.  When she said “Oh Bill, my mother’s bed isn’t aired, he told her “Stick it on the back yard!”]

My sister Gwen (Gwendoline May) was born May 15^th 1920.  Pal (Clarice Jenny) was born June 8^th 1922.  Dennis was born June 16^th 1924.  It was a full time job helping with them but they were not too bad. 

[My granddad favoured elaborate names for his daughters (Nellie was Jane Ellen) but his three sons only had one name each.  My mother always told me that he saw the name “Clarice” on a barge, though Aunty Pal preferred to think that she was named after the Art Deco potter, Clarice Clift.]

Left to right:: Dennis, Grandad Evans, Gwen, Ada (my Dad's sister), Pal and ??

St Luke's Church, Cannock, 18th June 1935.

Things got a bit bad when there was a miners’ strike, the worst was 1926 for 26 weeks.  We had free soup twice a week from the Cross Keys.

I remember when I was 13 yrs I started cleaning at King’s fish and chip shop, floor and cleaning the fryers down.  I got 2/6. [12 ½ pence]

 Mother had 2/- I had to take Gwen and Pal to the pictures with the rest, see 2 westerns at the old Rink. 

[The word my mother has written looks like “Rink”, but I may be wrong]

I was 18 years old when I started going out with your Dad. 

[He would ride on his bike from Cannock to Stoke-on-Trent to see her on her afternoon off.  Mrs Knowles, whom she worked for, took a shine to him and called him “Sweet William”.]

Nellie & Bill's engagement photo, 1934

We got married June 18^th 1935.

George was born Feb 11^th 1936.

Bill was born April 29^th 1940.

We managed all through the war.  Dad got a job at the Lamp Black so he didn’t go away. [Columbia Carbon, at Four Ashes.  [They made carbon for car tyres. My dad was declared unfit for military service due to his appalling eyesight, which he passed on to me: thanks dad!]

Columbia Carbon Works, early 1960s: Bill Amison & Jack Ward

I worked for a while in a factory canteen. [It was a munitions factory, making ammunition for the war.]

Bill had Diphtheria when he was two, George had Scarlet Fever when he was fifteen.

Anne was born July 19^th 1957. 

I have had some wonderful comments about Nellie on my Facebook page, so I want to add some of them here:

Kirstie

Remembered a story that Nellie tld her of when Nellie and Bill were going to be married, Bill's Auntie Floss (who he had lived with from the age of 14; Bill left home when his mother died:another story there) told her: "He has a pork chop for his dinner every day, followed by rice pudding." Nellie wondered how the hell she was supposed to do this on a miner's wage of just over £2 a week! (Although I remember he always had something very similar when I was a girl, his tastes didn't change!)

Atul

Who was one of Nellie's carers in her final years, remembers that even then she was teaching us how to do things in her own special way. He says " People like your mother (Nellie) don't die they live in others who they love in the form of their teaching. There is always something a person can learn from someone. I have learned a lot from Nellie e.g. spread love, always smile in any situation and so on... I can not remember a moment when she complained of anything."

Bekki

Was also one of Nellie's carers. She says: "I feel so lucky and blessed to have met Nellie I loved her so much and cared for her loads and not because I had to but because she was and always will be an amazing woman