Part 21

A Memory of Middle Rainton.

The others in the house then would be, in order of age: Aunt Annie, married to Joe Smiles, who also lived with us. He worked in the local pit as a collier. Also Uncle Tommy, a complete gentleman, always neat and tidy. He never married, worked in the same pit as Joe, funny thing with miners, there were no baths at the pits, so they came home black, and had to bath in front of the fire in a tin bath. But they would never wash their backs, which as you can imagine got quite dirty. They said it weakened it to wash it. So clean all over with a black back. Uncle Peter, who would do anything for children, really kind, who worked selling fish from a horse and cart, and Ralph the youngest, but after Margaret died looked after the businessman who also sold fish. Joe Smiles came from Hetton and his relations had a shop. During the war there were no fireworks to be had, but Uncle Joe got me some from old stock in the shop, they were old and dry and went off really well.

After Margaret died the house started to degenerate. Joe had died about 1949 and aunt Annie was in her 70s. When Annie died, about 1953, it just left Ralph, Peter, Tommy and me. We had to do the housework, (not very well) and it was left to me to do the cooking (and I am not good). There was no hot water, an open fire for heating and cooking, an outside toilet that did not have water or flush (you put the ashes in when you went), and the tin bath had worn out, so if you wanted a bath, then you had to heat he water on the fire, and fill a bucket the horses drank out of, and bath in that.
Ralph was very good with horses. He washed and groomed them constantly, the harnesses had brass or silver fittings, and the leather had to be polished and the metal shone. He entered them in all the shows, and won local, county, and the Royal show. The stables were covered with rosettes. He had about 5 horses, most of which he bought at Appably Fair. This is held annually, and is frequented mainly by the travelling community. It was Ralphs only holiday he took.
All of these horses had to be fed, water carried to them, stables cleaned out daily, this was besides the pigs, and hens which we still kept. The horses not used that day had to be exercised, my job. I could either walk them miles, or ride them. To ride them, we had no saddles so it was bareback with a halter and reins each day. I think now the horses were better off than us.
Peter took me to see my family twice that I remember, and the family, with the girls now, would come to Gran's in East Rainton village about every two years, so I was not familiar with any of the family, but brought up as a Wilson, same as Granddad, same as Mam.

After the war ended Dad came home, what a surprise, I did not know who he was - I was 6 then. Also I had slept with mam till then, so another shock. Who was this strange man who had appeared and took over from me?
Well there was no work apart from the pits, and I don’t think dad fancied that. So we came down south about late 1946, to live with his mam in Wokingham. This lasted about a week, the girls were not born then. I remember it was winter. Snow on the ground, we came downstairs one morning, Grandma Harvey was out and all the pictures and ornaments were either turned to face the wall, or upside down. Of course I wanted to know why, was told to shut up, and Dad said we had to leave. Went to stay with Uncle George, Dad's brother in Abingdon.
George let us stay for a couple of nights, but he had a small bungalow, and a family so there was no room. Gorden gave me a large box of marbles, then time to go, back to Durham. Dad rented a cottage, Boyd’s Lodge, and we moved in there, but there was no work to suit dad, and we were living off mum’s savings, so after about 6 month of this, mam and dad moved back down south, and I went back to my home in Rainton. I did not see mam or dad for some time. As the girls were born, Mam would come back to my gran's, Kitty, at Rainton Village. I saw little of her as I was in school by then and after a short stay she would have to go home to Dad. They had found an old disused nissan hut that the army had left in the woods at Burnt Hill, near Attendant, and had broken into and were squatting. They lived there for about 3 years, I visited them once. And then they were given a council house in Bourne Rd, Pangbourne. Dad had got a job driving milk tankers in Reading, and then paint spraying the buses. He had to pushbike from Burnt Hill to Reading daily, about 15 miles each way. Mam then bought him a motor bike, which he still had when they came to Pangbourne. The family grew up in Bourne Road, Dad started his own business, moved to Upton, then to Upper Basildon and finally to Horseshoe Rd, Pangbourne.
I stayed at Rainton and grew up there with the Wilsons. Came to live with mam and dad again in 1957, just as Wal was born. It was a big shock to me, a completely different way of life, a family I did not know, new people, new friends to make, me with a very broad accent, hot water, baths, a flushing toilet, and a new job. I found it hard.
I have three sisters Eunice the eldest, Brenda and Linda all born after the war, and a late arrival, my brother Walter. I seem to recall mum coming home to East Rainton for the birth of the three girls, and Wal was born in Berkshire. I got on with the family ok, mam and dad made me welcome, but I never really got to know dad, and we rowed constantly, I was not happy. I lived with them for only 3 years. Met Eileen on a hols in Wales, got married and moved into a caravan, then to a flat. Ian and Tania were born, moved to Kennedy Drive, Pangbourne, then to our house in Horseshoe Rd.

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