Mum remembers: moving to Three Holes
“We moved to the house at the top of Mumby’s Drove, Three Holes, when I was 3 or 4. This was a step up for us as Mum and Dad were buying the property and when I look back I find it hard to believe they were able to do that or even that they had the courage. Dad worked in the drains all winter and spring. He and Uncle Tom (his older brother) formed a team in summer and thatched almost all the stacks in the area.
At home, we now had three rooms downstairs, a back kitchen where the was a Dutch type oven in the corner, many, many years later replaced by a sink, a pantry led from it, where all the kitchen equipment was kept. The was a deal table, covered by an oil tablecloth.
When I was 9, and had a piano, it was out in the front room. There were 2 bedrooms, Mum and Dad’s room and my bedroom was reached by going through theirs.
We had oil lamps, open fire and candles. Mum cooked some of the food, particularly in summer, on a primus stove. It was many years later when we had calor gas to light the lamps and fuel a gas cooker.
We never read in bed as we only had candles. Anyway, bed was for sleeping in, and sleepwalking, which I did on occasions.
Water came from the brick built cistern in the back yard. It was very deep, and had a metal top. The water was collected from the roof of the house and was beautifully soft and surprisingly clean. We used the water for washing and clothes washing. Every night I had a ‘strip’ wash, usually in front of the fire, in winter. On Fridays, Mum boiled the copper and we had a bath. We also had a tap outside, and we always called this Marram or Marham water (as opposed to cistern water). I was quite old before I realised that water was water and tap water was only so-called because of its origin.”
School
I went to Upwell Primary School, the same as my mum
“I went to Upwell primary school when I was 4 and my cousin Leslie carried me on his cross bar. I carried a black silky bag with red beading on it and a round wooden handle. All the cousins were there and I do not remember any unhappiness. The girls were taught on what is now the infant side and the boys on the other. We amalgamated when I was about 10. I was always in the top three of the class – I just enjoyed doing it. When I was about 11, I had to help the head master to add up the registers on Friday afternoons. I should imagine I was really popular with the others in the room!
My best friend was Olive Wool (Susan Wenn’s mother) and Muriel Warren, who is Mim Williams along the road in Three Holes.
In the winter when we had milk for our break, the milk froze and the ice in the cream pushed the lids off the milk, as it was so cold. We were allowed to eat our lunch in a room with an old-fashioned metal stove, which burned coal. We used to take bread to toast on it.
I am still envious of Edna Forth’s lunch! I was green with envy. Her bread was wrapped in greaseproof paper (mine was in a brown bag). She had butter wrapped and her spread was – salmon and shrimp paste. Mine was jam. How longed for it. And I still like it but never have it.
Audrey Carnson, Three Holes, 2002.
