Grace, in her own write

My Mother, Grace Carver (William Wilcox’s eldest daughter), often talked of the number of places and houses that she lived. I think she once told me that she lived in 26 different addresses. That would be with her parents and in married life.

I can certainly make a claim to six of those addresses.

This week I am posting a memoir that Grace wrote, probably in 2000, to describe those addresses. There is not a lot of detail but it does give a good backbone to the research that I do. For example, I knew that my Father, Bill Carver, served in the Army during the Second World War but never knew where and what he did. It seems that he was in ‘Searchlights’ on the Essex coast.

The actual document is only three pages long but Grace listed everything that she could remember, and the early information up until the Wine Merchants in Croydon is backed up with online searches.

I have a suspicion that she wrote this with the encouragement of my sister, Janet, in 2000, when Grace was living in Eastbourne. This was her last address before she died. Bill Carver died four years previously in 1996.

Grace was a great letter writer. She wrote to me regularly throughout my life. When I left home at the age of 19 to live in Nottinghamshire, Grace would send me a copy of the local newspaper, the Surrey Mirror, with a packet of cigarettes tucked in the middle with her letter. Her letters were chatty and told me everything I needed to know about what my brothers and sisters were up to, and what she was up to. We corresponded nearly every week throughout my life. I have kept a number of her letters from the 1990’s. I wish I had kept earlier ones.

I’m posting a copy of the original memoir here, together with a transcript that I prepared.

Transcription of a paper by Grace Carver describing all the places that she lived in with her parents and then with her husband, William Carver.

This paper was probably prepared at the suggestion of Janet Walsham when Grace was living in Eastbourne and after William had died. I would date this at around 2000.

The Places I and William have lived

6 Homes with my parents

I was born in Ealing. William in Old Oxted, Surrey.

My father was a milkman.

We left Ealing to go to Leatherhead, Surrey .The hills were bad for him to push his barrow and each customer had 3 visits in his day!

So we went to West Green Road, Tottenham where I remember I went to St.Annes Convent. Very strict. My father was manager of 3 shops and my mother was in charge of one. Patting up packs of butter and selling milk from a churn.

Then on to Church Path, South Acton, a grocery. I used to weigh up the loose soda and put into bags, also loose sugar. Later I went round the large shops in Acton High Street and buy the bags of sugar at a penny a lb cheaper sometimes. It was cheaper than bagging it ourselves. When I was 12 I passed the entrance exam for Acton and Chiswick Polytechnic situated near Turnham Green Station. We had our Sports ground in Osterly Park, the home of the Rothschilds.

My father got tired of listening to the old wives tales and decided to go back to selling milk. So they went to Caterham on the Hill and left me in a shared bedsit as I had started work as a junior Secretary at Times Furnishing Co. in Acton High Street. After a few months I went to live with them in Roffes Lane Dairy. The house is still called the Dairy. I got a job as a cashier in the Valley. A grocer’s shop. I used to go to all the dances at the Guards Depot also the hall in the Valley. I met William at the Guards Depot. I was 16. After my 17^th birthday in April we married in Reigate Registry Office in August. He was 20.

20 Homes with William

Our first place together was a bedsit in Chaldon, a little village near Caterham on the Hill. A bedsit, single bed. We went to London Veg Market and filled a van William brought with one product (e.g. celery, apples) at a time and went back to Redhill, our nearest town, to knock at doors and sell them all, then finish for the day and start again the next day. After a few months my father sold the Dairy. It was too much for him and he bought a grocery shop in Lower Edmonton. We followed them and had a bedsit and separate kitchen not far from their shop. William was on the dole and I was expecting Ken then. After he was born we left and went to a flat with extra room. William had a job selling Tizer and driving long distances. We were still in Lower Edmonton. So we managed to save £19 odd for the down payment on a house near Ponders End. William changed jobs and went to United Dairies which was with a horse and cart. We lived in the new house for a year or two and Jill was born in a private nursing home. William wanted a change so we applied for a Manager’s job of a dairy in Soho, Green’s Court. We were not there long before the bugs came out. The doctor advised William to leave as he was being poisoned. They didn’t touch me. So back we went to Lower Edmonton. My father had bought another shop in the same road and fortunately there was an empty flat over the shop We were there for a few weeks looking for more work and found a Manager’s job and a nice little cottage in South Croydon. Threshers Wine Stores which had a round for William and me to help in shop. We did it together. This was 1939. In 1940 he was called up and I was left to manage. We had a driver for the round. William was eventually put on “Searchlights” and he found a cottage in a field to let and he wanted me to go with Jill. Ken had already been evacuated. We went to Great Totham near Maldon Essex. It was very peaceful after the bombing of Croydon Airport. I had Janet there in the November and when she was about 8 months old William came out of the Army 1941 and while visiting his parents found a Manager’s job in Redhill, a dairy in the Brighton Road. Peter was born there in 1942 and then Mr. Den(?) the owner sold out to United Dairies. So we were looking at adverts and found a Manager’s job in Sunningdale. We were supposed to have the whole house but the owner stayed on and William was cross and then heard the Café in the Brighton Road was for sale. My mother lent us the money. The house was rental and we were there for 4 years. Mostly war years. We were the only place open in the evenings for food and drinks and did well and stayed until I was expecting David and we were advised by the hospital not to stay as it would be too much for me to do so we found a house in Crawley when it was a little country town. David was born in the house and after a few months we had to sell and go back to the café. Then William decided to go in for horseracing and started a business in a shed in the garden. That was after I was evacuated to Anysable (not the right spelling). I only stayed there for a week left Ken and Jill and took the two youngest home. I couldn’t stand the inactivity. When David was 3, 1950 we moved to Ladbroke Road sold the Café and William was a bookmaker. We had always wanted a little Hotel at the seaside and do bed and breakfast so William

had always wanted a little Hotel at the seaside and do bed and breakfast so William came home one day wanting a change and left Ken to do the Bookmaking left Peter also and Jill who was working and had the York at Bexhill not small ! William didn’t like it there so we left and had to look for another. Which we found in Stratford Broadway. The King Edward but still called its old name The Prussia. A year or two there but Ken asked William to go back to Redhill to open up a betting shop. We went to a house in Linnell Road and eventually got a shop (rented) in the Brighton Road. William and I managed on our own. We retired in 1980 and lived on top of the Reigate Hill, Lower Kingswood and there for 16 years then moved to Eastbourne.

Grace Carver lived in only two place during the last 26 years of her life. Lower Kingswood is a village at the top of Reigate Hill in Surrey. Grace and Bill Carver lived in a mobile home on a private estate. It was homely and exactly what they wanted. As they grew older, my sister Janet persuaded them of the wisdom to live in Eastbourne, in sheltered accommodation, not far from where my two sisters lived. This guaranteed them the support that they needed for the rest of their lives.

In future posts I shall revisit this memoir to look at the places they lived in and what they did for a living, in more detail.