Schooldays In The 40s And 50s

A Memory of Matching Green.

I was born during the Second World War in 1942, the 8th child to my parents at Goose Bridge, Matching Green. My parents were Scottish and people thought they were foreign. My dad worked for Mr Gemmill's farm and drove a lorry for him so he was exempt from call-up for the army till they were so short of drivers that he was called up and went to war when I was six months old, I was three when he returned so I was scared of this strange man who brought this big doll home for me. When I went to the local school, there were just two classes. Major and Mrs Elders were the teachers and if you were very naughty you either got the slipper across youir backside or the ruler across your knuckles or back of your legs. There was an open fire in the winter and also a big boiler to warm us. I remember Mrs Reddington the school cook who cooked lovely dinners and every Shrove Tuesday she would make pancakes and toss them in the classroom. Every May Day we would gather wild flowers and decorate a high chair for the May Queen to sit on, then carry it and the maypole on to the village green, where we danced round it, weaving the rbbons in and out, watched by our parents. We didn't live right on the green, it was about a mile or so towards High Laver. I used to cycle or walk to school, having gone to Mr Gemmills Farm to collect a can of milk to drop of to the Houching family on the way. We often went to watch Horace the local blacksmith shoe the horses and warm ourselves by the furnace in our lunch time. I remember the Fair coming every autumn which we all loved. There is a gravel pit and in the winter this would freeze over and we used to slide on this, we saw no reason to fear and used to roam for miles over fields, collecting wild berries and mushrooms. We lived in a farm cottage and the threshing machine would come at harvest time to thresh the sheaves of wheat, we used to take a jug of fresh tea to the workers and in return we got a few coppers for pocket money. We would set a table at our gateway and sell bunches of primroses to people out for a drive in the country in the springtime, which they were delighted with. I remember there being several shops on the green, a post office-cum-general store, Jim Owers would deliver our weekly groceries to us, he ran the shop with his sister Nellie, also there was a cobblers owned by the Silcock family. A little sweet shop on the corner run by the Hoxley family and of course there was the Chequers pub, it also had a little place at the side to sell ice-cream, a real treat. There was another pub called the Leather Bottle, we used walk across the fields to this and get some lemonade, taking our empty bottles to get our money back on them. There was the annual Point to Point races, again we used walk across the fields to them. My dad owned a motorcycle with a sidecar and he would pile us younger children in and take us for drive. He used to do grass-track racing in the field opposite and the village people would come and watch.
I used to attend Sunday School at St Edmund's Church next to the school and on Mothering Sunday we were given bunches of wild flowers to take home to our mothers. When I eight we got another addition to the family, a baby brother which I was very surprised at, and on the way to school I was telling everyone about it. There were so many chores to do living with a big family and we didn't have the mod cons like today, I often wondered how my parents managed, we didn't always have the best of clothes but we never went hungry. Mother would make jam, bottle fruit, cure bacon and we kept chickens so we always had eggs and there was always a pot of soup going and her famous scones and pancakes. When I was ten we moved to Little Laver but I still came to Matching school, a coach would drop me off then carried on to take the older children to Ongar school, where I eventually went. I have many more memories to tell, as when you start remembering things there not always in the right order. I would be pleased to hear from anyone from these times.