Date: 20th March

As there is no diary scheduled for a week, here is another chance to read the extracts of childhood memories KPD left:

Aunt Pamela – Childhood memories (Part 1)

[KPD left – as well as her diaries – an old exercise book, falling apart, and not by any means full, but containing some family history information. Inside the front cover she has written: ‘I meant to rewrite this book…I hope I have not repeated myself too much”. I have tried to remove such repetition, and to have reordered the contents to make more sense, giving headings, leaving out simply genealogical material etc. I have also added some explanatory footnotes. But the text is all her own.]

1. About her parents:

• “Daddy & Mother met at Fishbourne. He was sketching & Gran-Gran¹ saw him & took him home to tea. Mother had a loom & wove the material for her wedding dress & going away. She bought another loom at Berkhamsted & we were allowed to make scarfs (sic), after she set it up, which was a big job. She did lovely patterns”.
• “Honeymoon on bikes to N.Wales, Betws-y-coed”.
• “At Chithurst² our parents had a donkey & carriage which they tied up at the station (Midhurst) when they went to Chichester by train. They kept a cook general at £20 a year & nurse housemaid £16 a year at Iping³”

2. Memories of early family life:

• “At Midhurst (Summersbury⁴) We went to a party at Dr Bailey’s to celebrate Gerald⁵ being so good when he had his eye removed. We fished for presents in the hall, from landing. Ducks in the pond. Peacocks in the woods near Greengate – now built over. Close Walks (sic). A swing in the doorway of the shed. We went for a holiday at Selsey in a fisherman’s cottage. Had fleas in the beds. A man with no legs came in a cart to collect rent for the hut. Soon after we went to Berkhamsted⁶ our parents went to Bruges, just before the war 1914 & Muriel Stevens⁷ looked after us. We probably had a living in maid there. The house had three floors & two staircases (one to only the first floor), good for hide & seek. 2 cellars – one for coal with chute from outside. A long garden with 4 apple trees, a pear [tree], fruit bushes & Daddy’s studio near the bottom”.
• “The Cubitts lived next door, Stephen & Roger, both copper heads⁸. They had a conker tree at the bottom of their garden. The boys⁹ climbed over the fence & threw conkers back at their boys. They had a croquet lawn & quarrelled, especially when Aunt Kate (?) stayed there. We watched over the fence with a periscope.
• “On the other side – attached to ours – several people¹⁰– probably because of our noise. One occupant asked if the boys always jumped the last six stairs.
• First the MacLeans, with daughters Milly, spoilt & low I.Q¹¹, a year younger than me. Aunt Edie¹² lived with them, she knitted long scarves, then undid them & knitted it up again. They were good to me, took me to the cinema with Milly & even to Madame Tussauds. Milly loved whipped cream walnuts & there was always one for me. She had a craze for beetroot & stuffed some down Christopher’s¹³ throat – putting him off for life. The last people were the Simpsons, he was a master at the boys’ school (Simmy¹⁴) retired. Mr & Mrs used to have rows & he walked up & down outside on these occasions. They had two sons, not living at home, & a daughter Enid – four years older than me. We used to take their dog along the canal tow path a lot. They had an old retainer called Ginger (?). She used to sing at the top of her voice “Onward Christian Soldiers”, changing to “I’m an airman in the middle. She made gorgeous choc éclairs.

[More to come from Aunt Pamela’s memories of childhood soon!]

1 I always believed this to have been her Grandfather, Arthur Evershed, who met the young artist Henry Dell whilst out sketching.

2 Having been married in 1903 at Fishbourne, the Farm at Chithurst was one of the first places they lived.

3 Bradninch, Iping was the second house they lived in, during the first decade of the 20^th Century.

4 The Dells lived there 1910-14, so it was KPD’s first home; it still exists & can be identified today.

5 Arthur Gerald Dell (1905-1985) known by his second name, was the second son born to Henry and Nellie Dell. He emigrated to South America in the 1920s, settling in Chile, and only returned to the UK once (in 1970) before his death in 1985.

6 They lived in Berkhamsted 1914-26, at 276 High Street. The building (along with next door) is now a charity shop for The Hospice of St Francis.

7 Muriel Stevens seems to have remained a friend to KPD for many years, well into her adulthood.

8 I presume ‘copper heads’ means they had red or ginger hair – not a phrase I’ve heard before!

9 Meaning KPD’s brothers, Martin, Gerald and Anthony.

10 Presumably the house was, like KPD’s, rented out.

11KPD always spoke her mind, and this was especially pronounced towards the end of her life. As later comments show, KPD was actually fond of the MacLeans and appreciative of their kindnesses towards her.

12This is an honorific title, of course, she was not a relative.

13 Christopher Dell (1915-85) was KPD’s younger brother.

14 Presumably his nickname

KPD in 1923, when she was 13.