Children
Martin, Geoff and Anne at the farm at
Huxley in 1934
The experiences of children in our
family story
This webpage
needs more work.
Victorian
children
Good
manners prevailed. The children were given their share of the food, there was
no picking and choosing, and they were expected to eat it in silence. 'Please'
and 'Thank you' were permitted, but nothing more. Father and Mother might talk
if they wanted to; but usually they were content to concentrate upon their
enjoyment of the meal. Father might shovel green peas into his mouth with his
knife, Mother might drink her tea from her saucer, and some of the children
might lick their plates when the food was devoured; but who could eat peas with
a two-pronged fork, or wait for tea to cool after the heat and flurry of
cooking, and licking the plates passed as a graceful compliment to Mother's
good dinner. 'Thank God for my good dinner. Thank Father and Mother. Amen' was
the grace used in one family, and it certainly had the merit of giving credit
where credit was due.
(Lark Rise, Flora Thomson, Chapter I, Poor
People's Houses)
Twentieth
century
Martin
Farndale recalled I remember my sister Anne falling down the cellar
steps, and, on another occasion, while visiting Aunt Grace and Uncle Howard,
throwing his best spanner down his well. I also remember learning to ride our
horse, Chubb and I remember our Colley dog, Scot, who slept beside my bed.
… I
became aware of the world situation and listening to the BBC radio news became
a feature. There were press pictures of a man called Adolf Hitler and another
called Mussolini. My father talked about his army days and our games in the
woods were always as soldiers fighting the Germans. Once, it must have been in
about 1938, I remember seeing a colour film about Rogers Rangers in Caada and
for months afterwards we were Roger Rogers in all our games. About this time I
was given a bicycle. We used a cycle everywhere with Betty and it was all
exiting.
On
Sundays we went to the village Sunday School and on Saturdays we each had 6d
(sixpence) and spent it at the village shop seeing how many different items we
could get. One stick of liquorice and a small paper sachet of sherbet were
about ¼ d each, a small packet of sugar cigarettes a penny and a bar of
chocolate 2d. I was pretty bossy at that time and I had the advantages of
‘supervising’ the expenditure of all our money, which together was 1s 6d. I
collected tin soldiers at 1d or 2d each. This normally meant going to
Northallerton or exceptionally to Woolworths at Darlington. I also collected
Meccano and Hornby trains, but had to rely on Father Christmas for these more
expensive items.