Daughter of James Perry and Susan of Great Dunmow
Reminiscences of an Old Lady (Constance Agnes Jones) Extract from an article written by Valerie Allen and dictated to her by Constance Agnes Jones (her mother) I was born on 28th December 1902, the first child of Agnes Selina and Edward Herbert Jones and in due course christened Constance Agnes at the parish church of St Peter and St Paul in Chingford. The church was situated very close to the village green. At that time Edward and Agnes were living in a small house in Willow Street. The house had been given to Agnes as a wedding present from her father, Philemon Lodge and his wife Mary (nee Scott).
On 18th April 1905 Eric Edward (always called Ted) was born. In due course he was christened in St Peter and St Paul church. By that time our family was living in the old Jones family home, two cottages having been made into one house. Adjoining the two cottages was another cottage, in this lived my fathers brother Jack and his wife Auntie Florrie and their daughter Marjorie Florence who was also christened in St Peter and St Paul church in May or June 1905. On 18th February 1907 Phyllis Edith was born and she was also christened in St Peter and St Paul church. Mother was very ill and the midwife lived with us for six weeks. The doctor told dad that mother must not have any more children.
My paternal grandparents were Thomas and Maria (nee Osborne), who were married in the parish church in Greenwich in December 1855. Some years later they moved to the village of Chingford in Essex. At that time Chingford was a very small village and grandfather, with a growing family thought it would be healthier for all of them. There were eight children, but most of them I never knew. Thomas, the eldest, remained a bachelor. Maria and her young husband were killed when their pony and trap overturned into a ditch one foggy night. Harry married Minnie and had one son, Bert. After she was widowed Minnie kept house for Thomas. Alice married Frank Coxshall and had three children Harold; Margaret who was also called Sis and Bob. Alice had lived on a farm in the Chingford area, but by the time I knew her was living in Willow Street in the house that Uncle Jack had previously lived in, her husband lying on a couch - perhaps he had had a stroke. Some Sunday's Sis and I went for a walk. Then there was Edith who married Charles Wells and had two children Don and Cathy. Edith died of pneumonia when her children were still young. Cathy trained as a nurse and after she retired she lived with her stepmother. Jack I have already mentioned. Fanny died tragically as a young woman, and finally there was Edward my father. When grandfather moved to Chingford it was to the three adjoining cottages, two of them made into one house that I have already mentioned. Grandfather took over the adjoining premises, which consisted of a blacksmith's shop, a shoeing forge and a wheelwright's business. Possible he had worked at Woolwich Arsenal. When I was a child my father did a lot of shoeing of horses, metal work and putting iron rings round large farm cartwheels etc. In those days two large entry gates had been built at each end of the property. Over the years, stables and a number of sheds to house broughams, brakes and carriages were built. There was also a place to clean harness and metal bins for storing oats. I remember too a chaff cutter and a large manure pit. Edward and Jack, who took over the business from their father, owned carriages that were licensed to stand for hire in the forecourt of the new Chingford station. Two horse drawn brakes took people during the summer months to High Beech. This was a beautiful spot in those days and we always went one day during the summer. On the wall in my parents bedroom was a large bell - a fire alarm. If it rang, dad had to get up and get the horses ready to pull the fire engine. A large field at the back of Jones Bros supplied enough grass to make some haystacks every summer. This field was rented from the Wakely Family. I well remember going with Ted in the pony and trap to buy a sack of oats from the Mill at Ponders End. Our life in comparison with these days was hard for the mothers. We lived much more primitively. For instance on bath nights, mother had to fill the copper and light a fire under it to get hot water. In the winter we used a large zinc bath in front of the fire in the sitting room. A wooden clotheshorse was draped with a thick tablecloth to give a little privacy and to keep draughts off. Later we had a full size bath installed in one of the small bedrooms. Every Saturday, as before the copper was lit for hot water. This then had to be carried upstairs in pails; the cold-water tap was connected to the mains supply. Mother always got up first on winter mornings in order to have a good fire going before breakfast. We had gaslight in the kitchen and living room, a standard, a standard lamp with a container for paraffin in the parlour, and only candles in the bedrooms. The parlour was usually only used at Christmas and party times. Spring-cleaning each year involved having the chimney swept and lots of hard work. Taking up and beating carpets and polishing furniture. A small kitchen range was still in the small room between the glass-house and the parlour when that room was used as the firm's office. Charlie Wells put a large range into the kitchen. It was ridiculous, needing so much coal that it was never used - just a cumbersome ornament! Mother cooked with a gas stove, also in the kitchen was the copper, a small safe on the wall and a shallow sink. Mother used the large bathtub on a stand to do the washing - the same tub in which we were bathed when we were young. Mother had to carry all the washing - heavy in those days before synthetic fibres and washing machines to spin the water out - and peg it up on a line in part of the meadow. The kitchen had quite a large dresser in it with cupboards underneath where flour, sugar, dried fruits, jams and marmalade were stored. On the shelves above plates were kept and cups hung on hooks. Also of course there was a table and two chairs in the kitchen. Opposite the back door was a dairy; it had another larger meat safe and a crock in which the bread was kept. There was also a mangle there and a bench on which we cleaned our shoes. No doubt vegetables and fruit were kept there. A boxed staircase led form the kitchen to the bathroom and the two bedrooms. My sister Phyl and I shared quite a large bedroom. Phyl had a single bed along one wall; I had a small double bed along another wall. There was a washstand, a dressing table and a wardrobe with a long mirror and draw beneath. When Phyl and I had the measles, chickenpox and mumps mother used to come into our bedroom and read to us. She read beautifully and we looked forward eagerly to those precious moments. We had an outside toilet and there was one for Uncle Jack, Auntie Florrie and Marjorie and one for the workmen and the cabbies. These three flush toilets were connected to the main sewer, we had to have chamber pots in the bedrooms and these had to be emptied each morning when the beds were made. I remember on one occasion when mother was not too well, I did this job - how I hated it. The living room had a door that opened in two halves, like a stable door. It had very heavy velour-type curtains hanging over it in winter to keep draughts out. I remember one evening someone knocking on the door. I was terrified, but mother did not seem at all perturbed. It was a man who had lost his way and needed help. The living room faced onto the garden, to flower beds and then fruit trees. The vegetable plot was beyond. Mother gave us all a lot of love. As well as caring for dad and her three children she was the kingpin of Jones Bros. We had one of the first telephones - Chingford 42. On wet mornings clients were ringing up ordering cabs to take them to Chingford Station to catch early trains to London. This meant mother having to run up the yard to give orders to the cabbies while also getting breakfast and the children ready for school. Every morning she took the cabbies takings, she made out the monthly accounts and did all the banking. When I was young the Lords of the Manor were the Heathcote family. They lived in a very large house with extensive grounds. When King George V married Queen Mary, most of the people living in Chingford went to the manor for the jollifications. Every child received a mug with a painting of the King and Queen on it. Years later the Manor house was pulled down and a large housing estate built over the entire area. At the age of five I started school. It was a private school run by Miss Snell and Miss Amschel, who was the kindergarten mistress. The building was also the original Congregational Church. It was here that I made a wonderful friend two years older than me, Hilda Hart. We also had a Miss Schmit who came once a week to teach the piano to some of the pupils including Hilda and me. A teacher also came to the school to give lessons in art. At the end of the road there was a large area of grass where we played netball. Eventually a new Congregational Church was built on the site. I can still remember some of the girls who went to that school. Some of them walked miles every day to get to school. One family of one son and three daughters were the children of a dairy farmer and his wife Mr and Mrs Soper. Their farm was in Sewardstone Road. Mr and Mrs Soper also had a dairy in Station Road. I never knew the name of the son, but the girls were Dorothy, Mable and Phyllis. When Tony Soper the naturalist gives talks on the television he looks very like Mable as I remeber her. I wonder if he is a nephew of the girls I knew so well many years ago. Hilda Hart was my oldest and best friend. She and her parents lived in a large three-storied old farmhouse opposite our home. It was set in a large area of land comprising lawns with a flagpole, Used to fly the Union Jack on special days, many flowerbeds, and fruit of all kinds and a beautiful lilac tree by the house. Behind the gardens was the orchard with a number of fruit trees and a gate, which lead into Mornington Road. A swing hung from one of the apple trees and there was a wooden hut, which became the playhouse for Hilda and me. At the back of the farmhouse was the old dairy. This had slate shelves, useful for storing and keeping food cool. Outside the back door was a flush toilet and opposite it a chicken house and run. The entrance to Green Farm was through a large farm gate. I always spent the day with Hilda on Bank Holidays taking my lunch with me. We ate our lunch under a huge horse chestnut tree. In those days the main road between Jones Bros. and the Hart's home was fascinating. The London cockneys walked all the way from the slums of East London on their way to the fair on Chingford Plain. They would be singing and dancing, the women wearing very large hats and many of the men wearing suits covered with pearly buttons. Now and then we would see a donkey cart among the people. Hilda and I always went to church together. In due course we were both confirmed, I two years later than Hilda, by the then Bishop of Chelmsford. We were prepared by our rector, Canon Russell, at the rectory. The rectory was large and had extensive grounds. Every year the Flower Show and the Sports Day were held in the rectory grounds. When the Canon Russell retired the rectory was sold and a boarding school for boys was established there. The church authorities bought a smaller house in the Ridgeway for the new rector. For several years after this the annual Flower Show and Sports Day was held in the large field behind the property of Jones Bros. Hilda and I used to go to tea with each other from time to time. After tea we had to practice our piano duets in readiness for the school concert. After that we enjoyed playing cards with Hilda's parents. Mr Hart was the agent for the Chingford Rise Estate. This company built a lot of houses in Chingford after the 1914 - 1918 war. Mr Hart was responsible for the upkeep of the houses and for collecting the rents. In a yard adjoining their property he kept roofing tiles, paint, etc. In one small building rolls and rolls of wallpaper were stored and also a small machine which trimmed the edges off a roll of wallpaper. Occasionally Hilda and I enjoyed doing this. After Mr Hart died, his widow and Hilda sold all the land. They brought a house in Park Hill Road, near the church. It was sold later and they occupied a house they had owned for years in Mornington Road. Chingford Council brought their original property. Everything was pulled down and a public library was built with access to Station Road and to Mornington Road. As children we did not have many toys. Boys used to play marbles in the street, and they also had iron hoops with a special iron rod curved at one end with which to guide the hoop. Girls had wooden hoops and skipping ropes. Hilda had a diablo which I never managed to keep going. Hilda was splendid and could keep it going for ages. She also had a marvelous dolls house made by her father. It had a number of rooms all furnished in the correct way - a school room with desks and a blackboard, a playroom, a Japanese room, bedrooms and a kitchen with pots and pans on the range and dolls dressed as the mistress and the maids. I have just remembered that I did have doll and a small dolls pram. It seems I had quite a lot of toys after all. When I was six years old I was the youngest bridesmaid at the marriage of Wynn and Harold Greenwood. I do not remember anything of the wedding, other than I had a straw hat with forget-me-nots around the crown. Also when I was six years old, I went with dad to visit two of his aunts, Tabitha and Sarah, in Norwich. They lived in a double fronted house in Unthank Road. Later half the house was converted into a chemists shop. Years later all the houses were pulled down and a large shopping centre was established in Unthank Road. Before the 1941 - 1918 war, my sister Phyl and I went to stay with Harriet and William Page who were cousins of my mother. They lived in Wallington; Phyl must have been about seven years old and I about twelve. One day we walked to an aerodrome and saw planes taking off and landing. We had never seen planes before. We were also taken to the vicarage garden and played knocking a tennis ball over the court. When mother came to take us home Harriet and William kept saying what a lot we ate. Mother gave them more money than had been previously arranged. When I was twelve years old I went to the School for Girls In Walthamstow. A number of girls from Chingford were educated there. We wore green tunics and white blouses. The tunics were made of a thinner material for summer wear. We also wore green blazers and small green hats in winter. In summer we wore Panama hats with a band having the school badge on it. The large staff were all Oxford and Cambridge graduates. All the classrooms had thirty desks. We had a gymnasium. A platform at one end of the hall was used for morning assembly, concerts, plays etc. The school had tennis courts, netball courts and a plot of land where some of the pupils gardened. For swimming we had to go to the Public Baths. The school also had central heating, physics, chemistry and natural science laboratories, an art room and a cookery room. Miss Blanch Hewitt was our Head Mistress. Soon after becoming a pupil at Walthamstow High School, dad brought me a second hand bicycle. I was thrilled. Many days in summer I used to cycle to and from school - quite a long distance. Other terms I had a season ticket to Hoe Street Station and then walked along Hoe Street and up Church Hill to school. While at school I made a number of friends - Millicent Braddon, Mabel Fuller, Christine Cuthbertson, Sybil Dale and others. Sybil dale lived with her parents and sister Muriel, who later trained as a schoolteacher. Mr and Mrs dale owned three shops fairly near the High School. One was a hat shop run by Mrs Dale. Another was the schools outfitter and the third was a gentlemen's outfitters. All the staff lived in; sometimes I would stay at the weekend. Every Sunday morning Mr Dale took Sybil for a long walk in Epping Forest and sometimes I went with them. Usually we got back at 2 o'clock ready for a hot roast dinner. In the afternoon Sybil and I used to paint pictures using the staff dining room table for all the things we needed. Each year Mr and Mrs Dale took all their staff for a days outing to Yardley Hill, a beauty spot about five miles from Chingford Station. We crossed part of Chingford Plain to get there, carrying hampers, a large container for boiling water and in fact everything needed for a happy day out, even bats and balls for rounders. I can only remember going on one occasion. On Saturdays Sybil and I used to go to the cinema. This was exciting for me for we had no cinema at Chingford at that time. Sybil left school before me and went to work for Kodak. I often think of Sybil and wonder what she did with her life. We had enjoyed many happy time together. The parents of my mother, Philemon and Mary Lodge (nee Scott), I knew very well. They originally came from High Easter in Essex. Mary Scott left school and went into service at the age of eight years old, eventually she became a cook. When she married Philemon they left High Easter and opened one of the first coffee shops in London. Later Philemon became a publican and he ran several public houses during his lifetime. Their children were William, who never married and lived at home with his parents, Annie, Charlie, Walter, Fred, Edith, Alfred my mother's favorite brother and Agnes Selina my mother. Later there were twins but they died young. When granddad first retired he brought a house in Woodford Essex and it was from this house that mother was married. Once he was retired Granddad went once every year to Lords and to the Oval. When I knew my grandparents they were living in a semi-detached house, 11 Warren Road Chingford. They had a large plot of landed joining their garden. Granddad was an enthusiastic gardener. He had many flowerbeds, a vegetable plot, a number of apple, pear and plum trees and lots of soft fruit. He also had two greenhouses in which he grew large bunches of purple grapes. Mother, Phyl and I went to tea with Gran and Granddad every Sunday and so did Uncle Alf, Auntie Addie (Wyn Greenwood's sister to whom I was a bridesmaid) and their son Jack. One Sunday we would have grapes for tea and the next Sunday delicious pears cooked very slowly in brown stew pots - these were super. Before leaving in the evening the adults had a glass of home made wine and we all had cracknel biscuits. The smallest of their four bedrooms was fitted with slatted shelves for storing the apples and pears. In the cupboard under the stairs were stored bottles of home made wine, jars of homemade jam, chutney and pickles. When Uncle Alf and Aunt Addies second son, Victor was born eight after Jack their Sunday visits became less frequent. When we reached home on Sunday evenings, Mother played the piano and Dad led the singing of hymns. As a boy Dad had sung in the choir of the old Chingford Parish Church. As a man he had a fine baritone voice. The church was in ruins when I was a girl and a new parish church had been built near the green - St Peter & Paul. Sometimes after Granddad died, I would walk to the cemetery with Gran to put flowers on the family grave. Gran lived long enough to see my daughter at a few weeks old. Finally she and Uncle Bill and Mother were buried in the same grave as Granddad.
During the 1914 - 1918 war, I remember three young Australian soldiers coming to visit us. Many years before a brother of Granddad's from High Easter had emigrated to Australia with his wife and children. The family had a tough time at first for there was an outbreak of yellow fever or cholera on board their ship and consequently the ship was not allowed into harbour until the quarantine period was over. By the time they landed they had very little money left, I know very little of their struggles. However the Lodge families made good, gradually becoming well known in Adelaide. During his lifetime Uncle Alf kept in touch with our Australian relatives
My mother was small and slim, with a tiny waist 17 or 18 inches before she married. She had large brown eyes, but so she told me, her parents had never noticed that she was short sighted, until her Australian cousin Walter, came over to England on a visit his 21st birthday present from his parents. He used to jump up and down in front of my mother saying, "Can you see me kid?" Once mother had spectacles she was fascinated by the designs on wallpapers, leaves on trees and all the beautiful flowers, which she had never seen clearly before.
When mother and Uncle Alf took Walter to High Easter, they enjoyed a great time of fun and laughter. Frank and Violet Warder, a brother and sister whose mother was a cousin of Grans, farmed at High Easter. Nearby lived their sister Julia, she wore a high boot and fancied Uncle Alf who was a cripple. Can you imagine it? There was also William a brother of theirs.
Gran also had a brother at Abridge Essex and granddad also had a sister in High Easter, Keziah. I went to stay with her when she was an elderly widow, being looked after by her son Stephen's daughter. When Walter returned to Australia, Gran went with him for six months, and Hester who was probably a cousin of hers, helped Philemon run his public house in her absence. All through the war, every week Uncle Bill came along with a sack of vegetables and fruit. Although he had a large garden granddad took an allotment during the First World War. He was a wonderful old man. I cannot remember much about rationing in the First World War. We only had a very small ration of meat. Sometimes mother cooked half a sheep's head. There was not much meat on it - just a little from the cheek, the tongue and the brains, but cooked with a variety of vegetables it made good stock for soup. Bread was made from a mixture of flours - there was no white bread. During the war I do remember going to the Maypole shop in Hoe Street (on my way from school to station) to buy margarine. I also remember picking nettles and having them as a vegetable - they were similar to Spinach. When I was a child a milkman came once or twice a day. He carried a fairly large container and hanging on the side were a pint measure and a half pint measure. One took a jug to the door and I believe paid for the milk on the spot. Bakers too called daily. We always had fish for breakfast on Sundays. Usually it was Scotch smoked haddock - this was the real thing - delicious! The owner of the fish shop in Station Road had his own smoke hole. We also had boiled Hake with parsley sauce and vegetables one day each week. We always kept chickens so had plenty of eggs for ourselves, and I think for two or three customers as well. We occasionally had a roast chicken. I do not know who plucked it but mother had to take out the innards a horrible smelly job. I do not remember how the war affected the Jones Bros. My cousin Harold Coxshall had to join up, but we still had the cabbies; I think they were to old to be called up. The best of the horses were commandeered for the Army and dad had to buy poor specimens from Ireland to replace them. This must have put a strain on the business finances. I suppose the war did affect the business, for I remember money being scarce. Not that we children suffered. An aerodrome was built fairly near us, and many Air Force men used to bring their cars into the yard to work on them. This I feel sure gave Dad the idea of giving up horse-drawn cabs and going in for cars after the war. Uncle Jack was a partner with Dad in Jones Bros. He always drove a cab. After the war when dad wanted to sell the horses, cabs, broughams and brakes and go in for motorcars, Jack did not agree, so Dad brought him out. Uncle Jack and Auntie Florrie brought a house in Buxton Road where their daughter Marjorie still lives. One night during the 1914 - 1918 war I can remember seeing from our bedroom window a German Zeppelin coming down in flames over Cuffley. When I was fifteen or sixteen years old Mother and I spent a week at a G.F.S. Holiday Home in St Leonard's. There we met a Mrs Curry her daughter Winnie and a friend who later became Winnie's sister-in-law. Winnie's brother was killed in the war. Winnies and I have been friends ever since, although we have not met for many years.
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