Looking Back

The story of a Yorkshire girl looking back on her life

By Vera Margaret Powell

It was a lovely morning and all the hustle and bustle in the kitchen was terrible we had a newspaper shop and my hubby Harold and my daughter Julia  ran the business with the help of me my son who  was still at school so he was up and running around doing his homework which should have been done the night before this was the first morning we had slept in and what a morning this was turning out to be I got hubby and daughter of down stairs as we did live above the shop and got my son on the school bus so now it was my time to have my drink In peace.

I sat there in the kitchen and thought back to my childhood it was so different.

I was born on the march 1943 in a small village in Yorkshire the village was called Flock ton and was near Wakefield it was mostly a mining and farming village and not a lot of houses as I remember there was a few pubs and churches so whatever religion you was you could take your pick I was church of England so it was St James church that I attended, but there was the Zion chapel further up the road and 2 small chapels so plenty of every kind to choose from.

My mother Grace Lillian Caroline Brewer /Powell was born in November  1910 in Essex and married my dad Sidney Daniel William Michael Powell dad was born in  June 1908 they married and then in 1936 my sister Anne Grace Patricia was born in London I suppose they had a wonderful life in London and a nice house until the war broke out and then that was that Mum and my sister was sent to live in Yorkshire while dad was helping out in London he was a joiner by trade and so he was there to help to mend the roofs that’s if there was anything left to mend so he stayed on in London .

My mother and sister were met at the station by a lady called Mrs Schofield who announced that they would be staying with her and her family Mum did say that there wasn’t a nicer family to live with but she did feel alone having no husband there with her just her and her young daughter who was only 4 years old  but she lived through that bit and was offered a little cottage down near the church it wasn’t much she told me but it was a home for when dad came from London  to Yorkshire.

Dad was sent home to live in Yorkshire where mum had settled with her young daughter and made friends as well so felt it better to stay put.

The cottage was a middle one of 3 in a yard and behind those was a couple more cottages , leading up to the cottage was 2 large stone steps and the biggest wooden door you had ever seen the key was a big one  it must have been so heavy to carry around you entered the sitting /kitchen room with a big black leaded fire place it nearly touched the ceiling it was so tall with a large mantel on top there was no electric lights only some gas mantles on a few walls ,in the corner where the stone sink was and no hot water just a cold tap was a set pot mum used to call it which you would make a fire under it and fill with water and that was the hot water for use for all things but mum used to just fill it on wash days and boil the kettle on the fire we did have a gas ring at the side of the sink but mum did a lot of her cooking over the fire .

I was born on  1943 and weighed in at a massive 11 pounds that must have been a problem for mum having me as she was not a big woman at all The lady next door delivered me they called her Mrs Lambert The things I am writing is what I have been told through the years as up to the age of 4 I do not remember a lot.

After I was born my dad had a lot of trouble with his back and was sent to Oswestry in Wales and was in an iron lung He did have TB and also a diseased spine so he was away for a few years Mum was finding it very hard to cope what with bringing me and my sister up and having to work scrubbing floors for nearly all the people in the village it used to get her down My sister Anne was 7 years older than me and was a good help to mum looking after me and running errands for the neighbours to earn a few pennies which she gave to mum for her purse.

Washday well it was like we had everyone’s clothes in the neighbourhood mum used to take in all the well to do people in the village and wash and iron their clothes mum would say well that’s a few more shillings and food on the table for us, poor woman it was hard work for her and My sister had to help out as well turning the mangle and that was every Monday, when dry mum would iron it all and put into piles which clothes was for who and then next day it was her job to hand out to Mrs Whittle in the big house and the Vicar at the vicarage and the school master at the school house and this carried on for months and months .

Until mum was offered a better job with a colonel Wright in Kirkburton but the trouble was she would have to walk there through the lanes and fields but she took the job as it was good money some morning the farmer would pass on his tractor and give her a lift to lane ends and then she walked the rest of the way.

I started school at 5 it was the school in the village St James Infant School it was right next to St James Church which I attended at 5 as well That was one thing I did not like Sundays going to church and also Sunday school in an afternoon School I did not mind at all as I had a few friends not many but a few all the posh children kept to themselves and the children who was less fortunate like me we all played together My Sister Anne went to what we called big school which was on a bus ride it was a free bus and the school was at Skelmanthorpe which was a long way away from where we lived  .

The school days I did not care for at all when I was small ,wit my parents being what you called hard up we used to have our clothes given to us by the Salvation army I ofton Wonder later in life why my mum always put a bit of money in there collecting tins now I know why it was a way I think of saying thank you , The salvation army used to come to the school every now and then to  what Yorkshire people say rig you out it was some thing I hated we used to be taken into a empty classroom me and my sister and they would measure the clothes near us and say you will look a bobby dazzler in that , we was fitted out with vests ,liberty bodice , those used to go on top of the vest to keep you warm , we also was given 2 skirts and  blouses and 2 jumpers if it was winter and socks and shoes these was all wrapped up in brown Paper tied up with string and given to mum when she collected me from school .

The big highlight of the day was trying them on when we got home they was either to big or to small and mum had to alter them and then wash them all My mum would then with what we called last years clothes UN pick the cardigans or jumpers and  we would have to sit there with our hands out to wind it into skeins so she could wash it and knit it up into some thing else but then we did have extra garments .

Our winter coats would be passed down from a lady who my mother used to clean for twice a week as her daughter was my age and went to the same school as me we called them money folk as they had a big house and owned the public house in Flockton so yes they was well off , so we well i had her daughters passed down coats they was very well made and very fashionable but I hated it as she used to tell all her friends that vera Powell was wearing her old coats which was not nice but mum said never you mind girl you do look very smart yes I may have looked smart but hurt inside terrible .

Time went by and we was happy living in the little cottage Mum my sister Anne and Me  as dad was still in Hospital as a child it seems strange not have a father around to play with you but I got used to that idea. Mum was always working to earn that bit extra and it was my sister Anne who played with me and took me for walks she was 7 years older than me and she never complained of having to drag her little sister around with her every where she went ,we would go for walks in the corn fields and go and pick blackberries mum would always say now dont eat them they have grubs in them we would shake our heads and say no we wont mummy but always did ,she did know when we got home as it would be black all round our mouth or on our clothes she was ok about it but mum could always put a stern face on at times .

sarah jane estall / Brewer
b 1836

My Mother had a hard life she was one of 16 not all of  her brothers and sisters survived but I think she ended up with about 13 brothers and sisters they lived in Plaistow in Essex in two up and 2 down terrace property her mother was called Sarah Jane Estall before she married and was born in 1872 in old ford London she was the daughter of Henry Estall b 1838 and sarah Jane Rice b1836  my grand mother married Frederich Charles Brewer I never knew any  of my grand parents which was a shame but a lot of people did not either as I was saying My mothers mother had a hard life as well all those children to cloth and feed I dont know how she did that her husband Frederick Brewer used to work on the docks in London as  a Builder and used to only come home on a weekend a friday night so grandma brewer would have to look after all those children day and night ,which she used to be a match lady for Bryant and May a home worker they called them ,.
They would deliver the match sticks to her home and the sulpher and she would put the sulpher on the end ( that is the bit which you strike ) and she would do that all day .

When we was small my mother used to tell us some lovely tales , we would take our bath in front of a lovely fire and we would play a game of what we saw in the flames in the fire the bath time seemed to pass a bit quicker when we did that then when we was settled in our nightdresses and a cup of cocoa mum would tell us the stories we thought she was making them all up and thought how good mum was at doing that but later on we relized that it was all true .

Mum told us how all her brothers and sister would fight for the top of the bed there was 3 in a bed and then she told us how her mum would take her fathers best suit to the pawn shop as soon as he had left for work on the monday morning and then friday morning would go and get it back out of the pawn shop hang it up in the cupboard for when he came home , and he never knew about that at all it made me and my sister laugh .

It was so much fun in the days when I was young we had not a lot but we made fun out of a small thing not like today .

Sidney Powell and
Annie elizabeth Starkey

My Father
Sidney D W M Powell
b 1908

My Father who i did not know a lot about as he was always in hospital he was born Sidney Daniel William Michael Powell my goodnes what a mouthful the vicar would have had when he was christened he was born in 1908 in London he was the first child to Sydney Powell b 1882 chelmsford essex and annie elizabeth Starkey b 1882 essex his father who I never met was a Joiner by trade and my father followed him by doing the same work , my father had five sisters and one brother but some died early in life , My mother told us how dad got his illness it was when the  war was on in London and he was staying with his mother and father as I have said at the beginning my mum and sister was evacuated to Yorkshire .

He was working with his father and was called out during the night as one of the goverment buildings had been hit by a bomb he was on a roof trying to fix it and it gave way and he fell and hurt his back he was there for quite a while until someone found him and took him to hospital he was wet through as it had rained heavy that night  after that he was in hospital in a iron lung .
I do remember going to see my dad in hospital I think I may have been about 4 Mum took me on a train to Oswestry which was paid for by the salvation army it was a long way and mum had packed some sandwiches for the journey she told me we was going to have a picnic on a train it was the first time i had done any thing as exciting as this I dont remember a great deal about it all just a few things that stay in my mind but I do remember looking at my daddy in a called a tin hut he was laid there on his back in a tin box , he had a big red apple the biggest I have ever seen waiting for me I never let go of that apple when it was time for us to leave we was late getting to the railway station and had missed the only train we could catch for home we sat on the station and mum was crying the station master asked what was wrong and mum explained it all to him I was not a bit concerned with all what was happening but a child at that age wouldnt be .

to cut a story short we spent the night in a police cell and that was exciting as well , all this excitement in one day I wont forget that ever .


My Father came home when I was eight it seemed strange having to get to know my dad and having a man in the house , he could not get upstairs to sleep so had a bed settee in the living room mind you the cottage we lived in was only a one up and one down the bedroom upstairs was curtained of mums bed at one end and my sisters and mine at the other so he would have felt a bit awkward with us all .

The down stairs living room was a large room in the centre of one wall was a very large black leaded fre place that is where mum used to cook from the oven and boil her water at the other side my mum and sister used to black lead that once a week I am glad I was only small and not able to do it , Near the window was a stone sink with cold water tap and a large set pot mum called it where you made a fire under it and you did your clothes in it ,She then had a mangle and a poss tub and posser ,Wasnt it a way to do work in those years it seemed a full days job just washing , Here is some simulair things that mother used to use ,

There was the dolly blue bag that she used to put in to water to make the clothes all white and they was white as well  also the mangle with its heavy rollers