|
a.
|
Note: «i»Bettie's recollection«/i»
Martha Mariah (pronounced as in black Maria); Bob called her 'Marth'. Norah seems to have thought of her as Mariah. [Is there a poetic sense of order in Martha's daughters being named Norah, Myra and Bertha?] 'Mam' 'was the dominant person in the marriage. She was well known at Barry since she performed at [chapel] concerts recitatations, usually ones with a moral attached. This was before radio was popular.
she seemed (to me) to be always suffering in some way she had rheumatism a lot. I remember her going to Droitwich for spa treatment I don't think it did her much good. She was born in Pembroke and lived on a farm [Primrose Farm, Bettie thinks] but by the time I came along I never heard much about their early lives.'
Before her marriage she was a live-in maid for the Rev. Christmas Lewis of Barry, who kept in touch with Martha when she had her own family; Bertha knew him as an old man.
Much of her life was occupied with housework; she wore a pinafore a lot of the time. Bettie recalls her doing a lot of jam making, and her going out at 6.00 in the morning to gather blackberries on the sea cliffs.
During the summer season she accommodated visitors in the 3-bedroom family home.
Martha died of breast cancer in ?1936, aged 55 [Bettie and David say Norah reported seeing this age on her coffin].
The family
The Langford family lived at 5 Park Crescent, Barry, in a terrace which also included shops. Next door was a newsagents etc. On the other side was a residence, then more shops, including the faggots and peas shop where one could, and they did, buy hot faggots and peas to take away.
The family belonged to the Presbyterian chapel, which was a big part of their life. Bertha was a Sunday School teacher. Ralph, Norah and Myra signed the [Temperance Society] Pledge in childhood, but for some reason Bertha, the youngest, didn't so she couldn't go to the Temperance Society Christmas parties that her brother and sisters went to.
Bob and Martha used to read the papers («i»The Western Mail«/i» and a more local paper) but Bettie doesn't remember them reading much else. She thinks they probably left school aged 14. When Ralph had a problem with his maths homework Bob would go to work with the problem on his mind, then come home with the answer but couldn't remember how he had got to it.
David reports that Martha sent Norah to elocution classes; unlike Myra and Bettie [and Ralph], she lost her Welsh accent.
Ralph and Norah, the older siblings, both went to university.
Ralph went to Cardiff University where he gained a First Class Honours degree in Maths. That was what he taught during his teaching career. Before then he spent some time working in London as a reader for Harraps, the publishers; then he was a Youth Hostel warden at Holmebury St Mary in Surrey (it was the first purpose-built Youth Hostel, and Gwen's brother was the architect); then he was in the army during the war, ?in Palestine. Only after that did he go into teaching.
Norah went to Cardiff University where she gained an Upper Second Class Honours degree in Biology. She was supply teaching in East London when she met Walter, and until she married. For some time she shared a flat with Ralph in Torrington Place, WC1. Ralph was one of Walter's early friends.
While Myra and Bertha were still at school Martha died, which made a big difference to the household. Myra then did a lot of the housework. Both Myra and Bertha left school aged 17 after sitting the equivalent of modern GCSE examinations. They went to different secretarial colleges in Cardiff: Ralph paid for Myra to go to her college, Robert for Bertha to go to hers.
By the time Bertha was going to college Myra was working in London. She worked in the Air Ministry. When war broke out she and Walter, both Pacificists and both working in the Air Ministry, resigned. [Bettie's recollection, but David says Walter had moved to the Inland Revenue by the time war broke out, and was evacuated to Llandudno.] She then went to work for the Forestry Commission, which is where she met Harry. It was during the war that Myra and Harry ran the Youth Hostel in which David and Deirdre lived at the time: at that time 'Norah was not at all herself her father had died which left her very bereft and her much-loved brother Ralph was in the army, in Palestine I think.
Walter was in Cardiff teaching and only came home at weekends' (David Birmingham).
Bertha would finish her college classes at 4.00 in the afternoon. That just gave her time to run for the 4.15 train back to Barry, where she arrived just in time to run to the shop to buy food for supper before the shop closed. Then she made supper.
The family didn't travel much. Bettie doesn't know how Bob came to move from Gloucester to Barry. She remembers going to Gloucester, and visiting relatives in South Cerney and going to a wedding in Gloucester. She recalls that when visitors were accommodated in their house in Barry, Ralph and Norah used to disappear. Martha went to Droitwich for spa treatment for her rheumatism. Bob visited Norah and Walter and David, at Fredley Lodge, their home in Surrey, in 1939 and Bettie remembers his being amazed at being there, saying 'Here I am, walking in Surrey.' He was there when war was declared.
|
|
b.
|
Note: HI288
Note: (Research):HOLE, William & Mary, 1901, Barry,GLA.
"RG 13 / 4993
Barry, Cadoxton, South Glamorgan
29 Thompson St
William R Hole Head M 33 Greengrocer Glam Cardiff
Mary Hole Wife M 28 Devon Ottry St Mary
Florence B Hole daur S 2 Glam Barry
«b»Martha M Slocombe Servant S 20 domestic servant Pem Pembroke«/b».".
|
