As part of our My Letchworth series, Marlene Gray charts her family ties with Letchworth, from its first taxi firm through to volunteering at the hospice.
It was circa 1926, when Letchworth Garden City was still in its infancy, that my paternal grandparents Lillian Georgina and Charles Walter Gifford joined the community. They moved here from Reading into 168 Icknield Way and started the taxi firm called “41 Taxis” soon afterwards. It was still quite rare for people to have cars in those days and the service was well used. The 41 was the phone number to call, presumably as it was the 41st telephone in the town. Of course you didn’t dial this; you lifted the receiver and the operator would ask “number please?” and then you would be connected.
Lillian and Charles had six children, four boys and two girls. Doug, Lloyd, Jack (my father) and Paul and the girls were Barbara and Joan. Joan is my Godmother and has lived in Hatch End in London for many years. She is in her 102nd year and only gave up driving 7 years ago; she was devastated when the DVLA took her licence! She is wonderful.
My mum, Ellen Jane Carter, came to live in Baldock with her sister Eva. They were tempted away from Merthyr Tydfil in Wales when Kayser Bonder (the 'nylons' factory - now Tesco) were searching for workers and sent representatives to Merthyr, which was ,and still is, a town that suffers massive deprivation.
My mum and dad met one evening at a dance held in Knotts Dancehall which was situated in Eastcheap in Letchworth. My dad knew instantly that she was the girl for him and when family tragedy struck and my mum was called back to Wales to mind her youngest sister, my dad soon followed. He asked for her hand in marriage and their wedding was in Merthyr Tydfil on August 5th 1939.
When war broke my dad duly signed-up and was then away for six years plus. During this time my mum entered nursing and trained as a State Enrolled Nurse and was kept extremely busy during the long years of WWII.
I think such a long period of separation altered them both a great deal but nevertheless, when dad returned they moved into Chiltern View in Letchworth. My sister Virginia was born in 1946 and I came along in 1949. Whilst I was still a toddler we moved just around the corner to a 'parlour type' house in High Avenue and in 1955 my sister Georgina was born. This was the house my two sisters and I were brought up in and we all have many happy memories of our time there.
My dad spent the majority of his working life at The British Tabulating Company (latterly ICL) whilst my mum stayed at home in the early years to take care of us three girls.
Growing up
Those were the days when we were all allowed to play outside and as there weren't too may cars around, playing in the street with all the other kids in our neighbourhood was the norm. Even though times were financially tough for most families, we had much more freedom then and life was a fun filled adventure.
One of my earliest memories of the Town was in 1953 when celebrations were held to commemorate Letchworth's Silver Jubilee. A grand fete was held and somewhere in my distant memory I recall that Tessie O'Shea (known as Two Ton Tessie) came to open it. There were all sorts of competitions and my sister and I were in fancy dress; she as a Hawaiian girl and me as Andy Pandy.
Letchworth was such a great place to grow up in and there we so many things to do. It was also full of some fairly eccentric, entrepreneurial and free spirited people. There was Miss Childe-Warren the ballet teacher; Miss Lewin the piano teacher, Taffy who had stables in The Wynd and Mayblossom Li who was Chinese and employed as a companion to an elderly spinster. They resided in Sollershott West and Mayblossom was often to be seen navigating her little black Austen A30 around the town. She was exceptionally sweet and charming but absolutely unbeatable if you dared to play her at cards.
For us as kids, there were always clubs in the summer holidays and we were allowed to just go off out for the day as there was very little to concern our parents. Life wasn't so transitory and some of the friendships we made in those very early days still endure.
All three of us first went to Westbury School (now converted to flats) and both my sisters went on to Letchworth Grammar School. I wasn't quite as academic as my sisters and initially when I was 11 I was sent to Norton Road School (also now converted to housing) as this was the school that my dad had attended. I hated it as none of my friends went there and it was 'the other side of the railway'! Sometime during my first year I was allowed to transfer to Pixmore School and once in the second year everyone moved into to the newly built Willian School (guess what - also now given over to housing). I loved this school and did really well.
However - it was now the early 60's and I turned into a fairly rebellious and hard to manage teenager, more interested in boys and music than education. I was also desperate to earn some money so that I could be one of the first girls to buy a motor scooter.
I pestered my parents' so much that my mum said if I could get a job that paid at least five and ten shillings (in old money) I could leave school. Very soon after that I landed my first job at Irvings in Icknield Way in the division that made seat belts. I was paid five pounds and fifteen shillings a week and on my sixteenth birthday I rode my first scooter to work.
On my seventeenth birthday, my Uncle Doug (who then ran a very successful driving school), met me from work in one of his Triumph Heralds to assess my driving skills. I put in for my test immediately and he took me out a few more times for me to learn a bit of road craft. On November 22nd 1966 I passed my test the first time! I purchased my first car soon after. It was a 1953 Hillman Minx which cost me £15.00 to buy and £26.00 to insure and I worked every Sunday at Candy Corner in Leys Avenue to pay for the petrol to run it! Nothing changes for teenagers with a car!
At some point in time I moved from the seat belt division of Irving's to St Christopher Press in Ridge Road and then took a job selling advertising space for a company in Stevenage. I didn't like it at all and telephoned Irving's to see if they had any vacancies. Luckily they took me back and this time I was on the other side of Icknield Way in the parachute division. This was the point in time when I realised that manufacturing was really very interesting. I did various administration roles ending up in production control which took me all around the building. These were the days when all factories had a canteen and the bell was rung for both morning and afternoon tea breaks and at lunch time. We had only two weeks holiday a year but were given a very generous Christmas bonus and our Christmas Parties at the Locarno Ballroom in Stevenage were legendary.
The Locarno Ballroom - or The Mecca as we all called it, was where our Saturday nights were spent whereas during the week we would all congregate down at The Leys Youth Club at the bottom of Leys Avenue. By this time some of us were turning into miscreants and a few were even banned from the Club!
There were no 'out of town' retail parks at that time and Letchworth Town Centre was full of wonderful shops. You could literally get your wages on a Friday and pick up a dress to wear for Saturday night from a boutique called Minnell's and, if you had enough cash, you could buy a pair of shoes to match. The only out of town shopping we did then was the occasional trip to Oxford Street on a Saturday morning to try and find something really outrageous to wear but, we had to get there early as everywhere closed at lunchtime!! Unimaginable now.
Family life
My two beautiful and talented daughters were born in the 1970's and they also were able to enjoy the freedom to 'play out' with all their friends.
Whilst they were still at school I trained for the CAB and enjoyed my time as a volunteer there - although it could be quite taxing at times. In the early 1980's I re-trained and became a fitness instructor but this type of income could be really variable and in 1984 I went back to manufacturing when I joined Viking Johnson in Hitchin. It was a great place to work and when I joined it was only the 3rd 'employee buyout' in the country.
During my years there I rose through the ranks to eventually become their Commercial Manager but, in the late 1990's, following the births of my first two grandchildren I decided to semi-retire, hoping to be able to play an active part in their lives and give them similar happy memories to those that I have of my own grandparents.
I re-trained once more, this time embracing the age of 'information technology' and took on all manner of small system design projects. I also took up volunteering again and for the past fifteen years I've been a churchwarden and lucky enough to look after the little medieval church of St Mary the Virgin in Letchworth Lane. Built circa 1125 the walls and fabric of the building are a testament to the rich vein of history held within. It is most definitely Letchworth's oldest building. I'm also a volunteer with Garden House Hospice which can be tough but is extremely rewarding.
This beautiful Garden City has undergone many changes and grown substantially. The changes have been both good and some perhaps not so good, but I feel privileged to have been brought up here, and to have brought my children up here. It is my home town and I love it.
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