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>Chapter 2
Chapter 2
The Prewar Years
In April 1934 we arrived at 178 Maldon Road,
Great Baddow. Strangely the Police House was not in the village centre
but right on the edge of the built up area, overlooking the Chelmer Valley
and with a clear view of Chelmsford some two miles away. The house was
a conventional semi-detached with a long garden. There were three bedrooms,
two double and one single room, eight feet by six. Guess which was my
room. My sister Iris, two and a half years younger than me had the front
bedroom with a magnificent view across the Chelmer valley to Chelmsford.
I soon started at Great Baddow Infants School. The headmistress was Miss
Ellis but my class teacher was Miss Stark. I was quickly in trouble. I
was given an exercise book and told to write my name on it. Naturally
I wrote "Bertie Collis". Miss Stark was horrified. "Your
name is Hertbert" she thundered. It was the first time I had heard
that! A note was sent home to my father. However my reading ability quickly
restored my reputation and at reading time I was one of a select group
allowed to sit around the Fire Guard which protected us from the coal
fire. I devoured dozens of volumes of Enid Blyton's Sunny Stories. Only
one of them made a lasting impression.
"The town elf went to visit his country cousin in the elf village
but on the way he fell and tore his best britches at the knee. He tucked
a large leaf into the hole and continued on his way. He soon met an elf
from the village who greeted him but quickly ran back to the village to
warn the other elves, When town elf got to the village he was met by all
the country elves every one of them wearing a large leaf tucked into a
hole at the knee of their britches. "
In 1935 I went up to the 'Boys' school and Mr.Jones class. My work was
reasonable but spoilt by my very untidy writing. Once I spilt ink on another
boy's book and was sent to the headmaster, Mr. Amos. He was not in a good
mood, having just caned several older boys and broken a cane, so I got
one stroke across my hand. Mr. Amos had a married son who lived near my
home so I was allowed to go home early for Friday dinner times so that
I could deliver fish dinners to the Amos house. The school was about three
quarters of a mile from home but I walked to and from school twice a day.
My first form of personal transport was a red scooter which I think I
had for my seventh birthday. I was not allowed to take it to school but
I rode it ferociously along the footpaths after school. When I was about
nine it was replaced by a black bicycle. Like the early Ford , bicycles
came in any colour as long as it was black. With this I road errands for
my mother and sometimes her friends. Once her friend Mrs Chandler asked
me to go to Mr.Hurrells shop for some vegetable. She gave me a suede shopping
bag to carry the vegetables in but it had a four inch fringe on the bottom.
As I road along the Maldon Road I swerved to avoid a milk float but the
fringe was caught in the front fork and my bicycle ploughed into the float.
I fell off and so did several bottles of milk. Fortunately the milkman
was sympathetic.
In 1937 I moved up a class to Mr. Preston. He was probably the worst teacher
I can recall. The slightest mistake from a pupil brought a sharp clip
across the ear. I remember one boy being hit so hard he staggered across
the room. I was spared this , partly because I could cope easily with
the work but mostly because my father was the policeman. One day Mr.Amos
came into the classroom with a strange man and called me to the front.
The stranger showed me a letter and asked me if the signature was my mother's.
I looked at it carefully, quickly reading the letter at the same time.
The letter purported to be a complaint, about Mr.Preston, from my mother.
It was not from her. I said it was not my mothers writing and the stranger
and Mr.Amos took me outside to the cloakroom where I was asked if Mr.Preston
ever hit me. I could only say no. A few months later Mr.Preston left his
wife and child and 'ran off with another woman'.
Mr.Amos also had a terrible temper. He took us for geography which consisted
mainly of learning the names of all the coastal counties in order. We
had small blackboards , about twelve inches by eight, on which we had
to copy maps of Great Britain. One day the boy behind me was playing about
and Mr.Amos skimmed a blackboard over my head to land on the miscreant's
hands. I was grateful for his good aim. I was quite good at most subjects
but my handwriting was awful.
Our house was quite small with two living rooms each about ten feet square
with a coal fire. The 'front' room was hardly ever used. It had heavily
upholstered armchairs with hand painted velvet cushions, the shining black
piano and a bookshelf. This held a six volume encyclopedia which we were
allowed to look at occasionally, a set of Charles Dickens novels, unopened
since they had been obtained by collecting cigarette coupons and a copy
of 'Home Doctor'. On the top of the upright piano was a glass dome containing
the white decoration from the top of my parents' wedding cake. On the
walls were large reproductions of two paintings, "Mare and Foal"
and "The Boyhood of Raleigh".
The 'back' room had french windows looking out to a small lawn and a long
garden.A square table with pull out leaves dominated the centre of the
room. There was a bureau desk with the 'candlestick' telephone and a calendar
from Jacksons Garage. Against the opposite wall was a cheap sideboard
and in the window stood a treadle Singer sowing machine. This machine
caused many of my parents 'rows'. My mother was a talented dressmaker
and she supplemented the family income by making dresses for anyone who
would pay. This often meant her working at the machine until after midnight,
much to my father's annoyance. On one occasion he broke the treadle driving
cord but next day he carefully repaired it. In the hall, at the foot of
the stairs , were the coat hooks where my father hung his cape, helmet
and truncheon. Iris kept her doll's pram just below this and one day there
was a fatal accident. The truncheon slipped from its hook and fell straight
down into the pram, smashing the head of Iris's Princess Elizabeth doll.
The family was in deep mourning until its head was replaced.
The back garden was only about eight feet wider than the house but quite
long. Nearest to the house was a lawn about twelve feet long with a flower
border. Beyond that was the vegetable garden where my father grew potatoes
, tomatoes and other vegetables. He was proud of his loganberries which
climbed up the wire fence on the east side of the garden. At the far end
were about three small apple trees but I don't remember any apples! Half
way down the path was a linen line and the frame for the swing on which
I flew in my imagination. There was also a septic tank which became redundant
when we got main drainage and became a convenient place to tip lawn mowings.
It must be full of rich compost by now.
The front garden was about thirty feet long and also had a rectangular
lawn with a border which in 1936 was resplendent with red , white and
blue flowers to celebrate the coronation of George VI. About then it was
embellished by a dozen rose bushes which a tramp found in the road (fell
off the back of a lorry, guv!) and never claimed. We looked after them
for him for years but he had no address and didn't return.
My father's parents lived at South Ockendon where my father had been born
and we visited them every twelfth weekend. This was because Dad had a
weekend off duty every sixth week and the alternate weekend was spent
in Plaistow where my mother's parents lived. My dad's father died in 1908,
when dad was only five, and gran had married Arthur Sach who I always
knew as Grandad Ockendon. My real grandfather had died from the effects
of a pitchfork wound in the arm and ironically Arthur Sach had only one
arm. He had been a gamekeeper and was a very good shot although he had
to rest the gun on his wooden stump.
My main memories of staying at Ockendon were of the food. Gran cooked
mostly on an old blackleaded range in the living room although they did
have a gas stove in the kitchen. The staple diet was pin pudding. This
was a suet pudding wrapped in a cloth and secured with a safety pin before
being boiled. It was either filled with minced beef or mutton, or with
jam. With potatoes, peas, cabbage and carrots it was very filling.
The oven was also used in winter to heat a number of bricks which, wrapped
in cloth, served to warm the beds. My dad was the eldest son. He had two
brothers, John and Alec, and two step brothers, Ernie and Roy, as well
as a step sister Betty. All were living at home. It was quite crowded
and I usually shared a bed with at least one uncle.
The living room had a photograph on the wall of my grandfather and a large
(3ft by 2ft) decorative certificate commemorating a Grand Master of the
Oddfellows. I think it referred to my great grandfather but I can't confirm
that. There was also, on the wall opposite the windows, a mirror. My grandfather
(Sach) would sit with his back to the window and, in the mirror, watch
people walking up the road.
Mostly we travelled by Eastern National bus from Chelmsford and I passed
the time on the journey looking out of the window watching an imaginary
escort of a dozen cavalrymen on jet black horses. When we passed through
built up residential areas they had great difficulty in keeping up, having
to jump a succession of garden fences and avoid garden ponds. A little
before W.W.II. Dad bought an Austin Seven car. It was very small and struggled
up the hills in Brentwood and North Ockendon which modern cars hardly
notice. The military escort was withdrawn!
About 1937 Uncle Alec left Ockendon to join the Palestine Police, a force
raised to try to keep the peace between the Arabs and Jews. It caused
a stir in the family as he was engaged to a very pretty blond girl who
waited until he came back and then handed him his ring. A lady of rare
dignity. He wrote to us from Palestine and sent me some of the illegal
stamps issued by the Arabs which had printed on them, "Palestine
for the Arabs".
The journey to Plaistow was also by bus to Stratford and thence by tram
or trolleybus to Plaistow. My mother had three brothers, Henry (known
as Son) , Albert and George. Mum was the eldest. My gran and grandad were
both rather short and fat. Grandad (John J.Hough, known as Jack) had served
in the Machine Gun Corps in W.W.I and had a wound in one arm which made
his bicep quite big. He smoked heavily and coughed a lot, though this
was partly the effect of gas in the war. He worked as a lorry driver for
West Ham Corporation and was fond a drink or two or..... He often said
that his car had a fault. Whenever he tried to drive past a pub the car
turned in .
My grandmother (Lizzie) was very short sighted and I was told that on
one occasion , during one of their regular visits to the Lord Gough public
house she was persuaded to play darts. Her partner a cousin, said "You
need a double ten". Gran asked "Where is that?" her partner
pointed at the place on the board and his finger was promptly pinned to
the dartboard. She was very generous and when I was about eight years
old she asked what I would like for my birthday. I said I would like a
dog and sure enough she arrived at our house with a dog. A Pekingese called
Toddie. It was difficult to look pleased! It couldn't walk far and when
I took it out I usually had to carry it home. It was a ferocious little
beast though and would snap at the heels of visitors, but only as they
were leaving.
My uncles were intelligent and inventive. Albert was keen on radio and
showed me how to make a "cat's whisker" wireless. Uncle Son
was a natural engineer and could make things from bits and pieces. In
his seventies he converted a push mower to power with a vacuum cleaner
motor. Albert encouraged me to draw and especially to observe things carefully.
In August 1938 we were staying one weekend in Plaistow when a political
crisis arose and policemen were told to report to the nearest Police Station.
Dad reported to the West Ham station but the crisis passed.
Sometimes I stayed with my grandparents in South Ockendon by myself during
the summer holidays. On one visit I went to play in the Recreation Ground
which was behind my grandmother's house. As I approached the gates a local
boy about my age stopped me and said "You don't live here so you
can't come in." I tried to walk past him but he pushed me back. My
father had taught me to punch straight from the shoulder and had said,
"Never hit anyone. But if you have to, hit them so hard they don't
hit you back!" My left fist seemed to shoot out by itself and hit
the other boy in the mouth. His grin disappeared and he ran off. The other
locals kept their distance. When I got back to my grandmother she was
smiling. " Missus Scares says you knocked her Freddie's tooth out."she
said. " I told her to keep him out of your way if he didn't want
to lose another one!" I gathered that Mrs.Scraggs was not Gran's
favourite neighbour. I also gathered that there was a long tradition in
Ockendon that you didn't mess about with the Collis's.
Soon after that I was entered for the Scholarship exam for entry to Chelmsford
Grammar School. This meant having homework every day and soon this began
to affect my vision. I was sent for eye tests which showed that I had
a stationary cataract in my right eye. This was a small spot of opaque
tissue in the centre of the lens which meant that I was effectively one
eyed! Vision in the right eye was, and still is, blurred. The compensation
is that my peripheral vision is very good.
I passed the exam and had a new grey uniform with a black cap with the
arms of Edward VI for a badge. My father, who had left school at about
thirteen and missed a lot of school through bad health, was very proud
of my success. A friend of my father gave me a secondhand sports blazer
in the red and black broad stripes of the Grammar School. A new era began.