King Tree

ID: I00002
Name: Annette Mary Birtwistle
Sex: F
Birth: 31 JUL 1921 in Pleasington Lodge, Nr. Blackburn, Lancashire, UK
Death: 6 MAR 2006 in Dumfries Infirmary, Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland
Event: Regiment/Rank WAAF Joined up 1941, Officer 1943
Note:
Driver, Code and Cipher officer, overseas service in Isle of Man, decoded German Armistice message

Beginning Autobiography by Annette Mary (Birtwistle) Maclaren (This has not yet been edited and is just a typed version of her handwritten notes. )
Monday 11th September 2000

“Write” they said. “Who?” sez I. “You” etc. So here we go. It must be like most things- you will never get better until you do it. And the more one does it - it can only get better.

In the beginning there was James Astley Birtwistle and Muriel Mary Marwood. And they begat Mary, Iris, Michael, Annette, Edmund, David, Anthony and Angela.

I think that they must have known each other for ages as they would have been in the same middle-class swinging Blackburn social life in pre 1st W.W. Lancashire. The B’s were ‘in cotton’ – i.e. they had spinning and weaving mills in the area. About nine mills I think in all. The brothers in sole charge of one, two or three mills. I really don’t know how Grandpa B kept the whole thing together – or if he did. There was J&A Leigh Mill in Preston and Birtwistle & Fredding at the Blackburn end. The Leighs & Fieldings had been gathered -or disposed of some time before. (I really must ask Michael if he has more knowledge of affairs.) The Marwoods made crown corks in the days when various bottles had caps of round metal with crinkled edges and a bit of cork inside to make it airtight.

Grandpa B was, I think, educated in Germany but Daddy and his brothers at various English public schools -Cheltenham, Charterhouse, Rugby, etc. The girls I know spent at least some of their time in European schools.

Grandpa Marwood was educated in France as Catholic Schools were not allowed in Britain. All his sons went to Ampleforth as the law had been changed. (When they went to school in France or was it Belgium? they left home after the summer holidays and did not get back until the holidays a year later. It must have been awful for the poor little boys.)

As far as I can gather there seemed to be a lot of concerts, balls and theatres in every town. The ladies who always wore long frocks, had their dresses made up from fashion patterns from various catalogues –either by a shop or a ‘little woman’ in the village or town. The men going to a Ball always wore tails, stiff shirts and collars and white gloves. The more fastidious always took changes of collars and gloves. There were no deodorants!

The Marwoods all played golf as Grandpa and a friend personally had a golf course made in Pleasington where they went to live after they moved out of Blackburn, and every house had a tennis court (it since became a championship course).

Every man seems to have ridden, but I don’t think that the women in our families did. In the War Nebbie failed his medical as he had ‘cartilage trouble’ - so I don’t think he rode. I think all the Marwoods were Gunners (i.e. Royal Artillery – mounted of course).

Nebbie was left behind to run all the mills. He went gray at twenty-six with the strain. Uncle Cyril Marwood had his hearing permanently impaired by the gunfire. He got an MC. The B’s went to various regiments. I know uncle Norman was in the Lothian and border Horse. He got an MC and was killed. Uncle Will got a DSO and Uncle Bert an MC.

The women’s war work was in the VAD (Voluntary Aid Detachment) which meant first aid, rolling bandages, helping in convalescent homes (officers only!). They also did concert parties for charities – i.e. Red Cross, etc. They also worked at Buffets at the stations dishing out tea and sympathy to those on their way to or back from the Front. Uncle Reggie as at the Monastery -becoming a priest.

The Birtwistle males only had one day off a week (Saturday and Sunday didn’t count) so they had to decide between riding or shooting. Will and Oscar went for hunting and Nebbie and Bert opted for shooting (Uncle George didn’t count. He had married his nurse when injured who was not quite - ? and went a bit nutty and always lived in the south).

The Marwoods must have played golf all the time. Uncle Gilly was a scratch player and captained East (or the?) Lancashire at one time. I know Mu and Aunt Freda spent most of their time there.

So Nebbie and Mu got married – in spite of great opposition from both sides (“Religion”?). They bought a house in Pleasington where the first four of us were born. Everyone was born at home even though the doctor lived miles away and to get him -before telephones – someone had to saddle up and ride before he set off in his coach to attend the poor woman. In Mue’s day they had telephones and one got in a ‘Monthly Nurse’ who was an efficient midwife and stayed for a month.

(Our FAMILY DOCTOR was wonderful. Tall, good-looking, charming, cultured and a friend. Whilst studying medicine in Vienna he wooed and won a small beautiful woman who was studying to be a concert pianist. She gave up all to marry him and become a GP’s wife among the dark SATANIC MILLS. Can’t remember her nationality but they seemed blissfully happy though unable to have children. Her name was Florie and I think enjoyed ill health. He was Walter Briggs and his sister, Pearl, who lived with them and seemed to run their house for them.)

Mu was ill after my birth and was told “not to have any more.” So we moved to Houghton House and in due time the three ‘little boys’ arrived. ‘No More’ they cried. Four years later Angela arrived.

I remember nothing of Pleasington (I was a year old when we moved). And what were my earliest memories of Houghton? It is difficult to distinguish between family lore, photographs and facts.

We obviously had a privileged, comfortable, stable and happy home. We had about twenty acres of garden and fields around the house and kept a succession of ‘house cows’. It must have been before the days of general TB herds. I remember Lucy, who had a crumpled horn, and Bluebell among others. A sow in the pig sty (who Nebbie always called after Mue’s friends, Betty, Helen. etc.) It produced litters who were dispensed with when the time was right. I think we were sent away for the day when the butcher arrived. I can’t remember any being salted or cured – so they must have been sold or given away in those days. And always lots of hens.

Staff were Nurse (Prior), Under nurse (Winifred), Gardiner (Mr Tomlinson), Under Gardner (Joe Ashton) who later married one of the maids. Cook (Margaret). A large Irish woman who adored all the animals. Her particular pet was a calf called Josephine and who, it was generally suspected, got all the best cream, porridge, etc.) A housemaid and a pantry maid. Mrs Thorpe came on Mondays to do the washing – which involved lighting a vast copper in the laundry room – not attached to the house – where things were boiled and then into the yard through a large mangle and out onto the line. We sometimes got to turn the mangle. While in the copper boiling a large posser was used to push the clothes under. She also came on Fridays to do the silver. She was rather a stern woman who was married to Tom who kept the level crossing at Brindle. He was a delightful man and a constant fascination as his left arm had been amputated leaving just a stump. And seeing him pealing potatoes was an endless ?. Keeping the level crossing meant that the gate across the railway lines were kept shut until you blew your horn. He then had to telegraph Houghton Station to find out if any trains were on the line. Then if the right bell rang he would open both gates on either side. We were not meant to look at or remark on his stump – but he had no inhibitions and enjoyed showing off his dexterity. They had two sons for whom their mother had great ambitions for them to ‘better themselves’ as she married ‘beneath’ her. I know who we liked most.

12th September 2000.
No account of the staff would be complete without mention of Tommy Campbell. Tommy was the farmer who milked the cows and looked after all the other animals as well as any job going, window cleaning, chimney sweep, general mender and fixer. He was also a saint and had endless patience with us children. He was brought up in an orphanage and had married his “superior’ wife when was pregnant with someone else’s child. A devout catholic – as were most of our staff – certainly the indoor ones.

Mary and Iris went to school at St Leonard’s Sussex run by Holy (?) Child nuns. Michael and all the boys went aged seven. I was eleven when I first went – not sure about Angela. Before that we had governesses who came to the house daily. There were two very successful governesses. The elder three had Miss Craven and Edmund and I had Miss Moxam. They were excellent teachers and we were well ahead of our age when we went to school. Between those two there were various ones we did not like and whose lives we must have made miserable. One of our tricks was to hide in the hayloft and pull up the ladder when we saw them coming up the drive. (Tommy had to drag us down.) Going for a walk through a field of cows then pretending there was a bull among them was an endless source of amusement and terror.

An awful lot changed with the cotton crash in about 1930. Staff was reduced to one outside, Tommy, and one inside, cook general I think they were called. I think Prior had to go them to be succeeded by Mother’s Helps. The boys were kept on at Ampleforth at very reduced rates – due to Uncle Reggie who was a housemaster and second i/c to Fr Paul who was the magnificent headmaster. Mary and Iris left their rather posh school in the South and went to a much lowlier one in Blackpool run by the same order. I joined them in 1932 aged eleven.

I was a small delicate child covered with eczema at an early age – for which the treatment prescribed by the Manchester specialist was some sort of medicated tar (pitch). I don’t know how often it was applied daily/weekly? But it burned and Mu had to leave the house so as not to hear my screams as it was applied by the district nurse and nanny. Rumour had it that Mrs B had a Black Baby as I was pushed around in the pram. Dr Briggs wondered what effect so much pain would have in the future (responsible for a lot I expect!). It left me with my potted complexion. I also had asthma and got bronchial pneumonia. But I was a pretty little thing and fairly complacent.

We had no companions outside of the family and social contacts in the main were family. Uncle Will’s family were roughly the same ages – aunt Madge’s three boys, Oscar’s two little girls -all rounded up for children’s parties -which we loathed. Will’s had sports days – egg and spoon, sack race, flowerpot race, etc. They were always extremely competitive and determined to win – which we were not – probably because we knew they would be better.

War
The Sunday it all started some of us had been to early Mass and when the rest walked up the drive after the later one we were able to play chamberlain’s message and that we were ‘At War.’ (Chamberlain was the Prime Minister). I think my feelings were mostly of excitement. Having seen films and heard about seeing the men ‘off to the front’ – being brave and cheerful and all that stuff. A few days later uncle Reggie asked if Iris and I would like to join Mrs Sulton (a Brigadier’s wife) and go to Aldershot and work in the Catholic Soldiers Club. Delighted! Aldershot was the main army town in the country – full of barracks with names of battles from way back when. Malplaquet, Salamanda, Waterloo, etc.

Can’t remember what we did for money. We were not paid at the canteen -just our keep. I think I had £200pa from Nebbie which seemed to be enough. Perhaps we got some clothes from Mu but rationing soon came in and we had coupons for all clothing.

We worked really hard. As soon as one’s shift had finished we used to drop into bed and sleep. There were four of five of us girls plus some paid cooks. We managed a wonderful social life with dances, theatre, tea dances. All public schools had an OTC (Officers Training Cadets) known as The Corp so all old boys automatically got commissioned after a short time in the ranks and then OCTU (Officer Cadet Training Unit) before being allotted to their various regiments. And most of the OCTU’s were at Aldershot. All the catholic boys seemed to find their way to the canteen so we had an endless supply of escorts. They were known as Boy Friends which in those days meant anyone we knew and liked of the opposite sex – not necessarily romantically involved. One never disclosed any particular preference until one had a ring on one’s finger. The working class had ‘boy friends’ and were known as ‘walking out’ with one person but we could ‘play the field’.

It was quite a big step to be asked out for the night a deaux. It usually meant going to London for a theatre and a nightclub then back again by train (petrol rationing). One felt embarrassment going into the underground to use the tube and passing all the people lying out in sleeping bags, as the stations were used as bomb shelters. We had a shelter in the canteen grounds and we used to sleep there every night, as we got fed up with being roused by the sirens in the middle of the night and then having to shelter.

This has all been dashed down as various things come into my head. Whether or not I will ever get round to do a proper job of editing remains to be seen. Looking back over so many decades is fun but bound to be somewhat jumbled. Let this be a lesson to you, my children and grandchildren. Start now to put down what you remember. You will all probably live longer than me and your experience will be equally archaic to succeeding generations (I bet you won’t).

Having started this yesterday I am finding it hard to get back to the day to day ordinary chores – life – cooking – painting – housework – gardening. All the myriad little things that usually take up my oh so valuable time. Christmas catalogues are staring to arrive and I am still waiting to be grabbed by any particular cards. It is difficult to get things for the children who will be here for Christmas and then not back again until the summer. Weetabix are offering ‘Chicken Run’ beanie toys. They are Mac -the brains of the outfit, Ginger -feisty idealistic young hen. Rocky - Sweet talking American rooster. Fowler – likes discipline and order. And Babs -innocent and dipsy but kind hearted. Haven’t seen the film, yet so don’t really know. Might send for them though. What on earth is ‘Dipsy’? Scatty? Daft? Dear thing?

Driving Miss Daisy
6th Feb 1996
This will surprise you but the fact of the matter is we are virtually snowed in. The electricity has gone off again- it had been off for about eighteen hours. Luckily we have a gas fire in the drawing room and Sue’s old gas cooking stove for heating food. You see we are not geared up for this sort of weather in this part of the world.

Th other night we watched “Driving Miss Daisy” on the television. What a remarkable film. Beautifully acted and directed. It reminded me of going to the pantomime with my grandmother. It was very exciting, Granny would arrive with Walpole, her chauffeur, and we would all be tucked in with rugs. The adults had foot muffs too. Three would sit on the back seat. Two on small folding seats and one lucky one in the front. Behind the front seats was a glass panel which could be wound down but usually Granny used a speaking tube to communicate with the driver. There was of course no heating! Coming home in the dark was an adventure too! I think these were the only times we went in her car, but she used it all the time for shopping and social occasions. That must have been in the 1920s but I seem to remember Walpole being with her until she died- sometime during the last war.

Every summer we took a house at the seaside for a month. The parents drove by car with the lucky eldest ones of the family, while the rest went by train with the nanny – called Prior, and a under-nurse called Winefred. There was an awful lot of luggage. I remember there was one large laundry hamper which had only bathing clothes in it. Towels, capes, bathing dresses, caps. The men/boys had full figure one piece but that included tops. We always had the same house, Decota and a Mrs Hughes. It was a magical place. I front of the house was a small sandy grass area, and then down a few steps and one was on the beach. A long sandy beach with one end with rocks and rock pools were we used to fish for shrimps.

Rhosneiger village was at the end of a cul-de-sac so there was hardly any traffic and we were able to wander around the shops. The great trick at the start of the holidays was to get Daddy in a good mood and then go shopping with him for new buckets, spades (I remember how great it was to be promoted to iron spades instead of the wooden ones), yachts, etc. I will end this now and perhaps do some more reminiscing again.
Lots of love
Grandmother.

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Father: James Astley Birtwistle b: 19 FEB 1889 in Lancshire, England
Mother: Mary Muriel Marwood b: 15 NOV 1893 in Lancashire, England

Marriage 1 Ian Garnet Maclaren b: 24 AUG 1915 in Troon, Ayrshire, Scotland
Married: 31 JUL 1947 in Pleasington Priory, Nr Blackburn, Lancashire
Children
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