My Country Holidays

My Country Holidays

One way of having a cheap holiday was to stay with a family on an informal basis. Our contribution would help them with their housekeeping.

A neighbour of my mother's parents had a sister who lived in Knowl Hill village on the A4 between Maidenhead and Reading. We sometimes stayed with her for our summer holidays. We went to Knowl Hill by coach from Victoria coach station.

'Aunt' Doll (Mrs Stokes) was kind and cheerful. I loved the food and helped her pick caterpillars off the cabbages in her huge garden.

Our neighbours were very kind and  sometimes I would ride on a hay cart.

Here you can see Aunt Win and her friend, Ivy,  helping to bring in the hay. So much better than noisy London streets.

They both worked at Ghinns, a large drapery store in Rye Lane. They would not be able to afford  holidays if we did not take them with us. Children left school at 14 but only earned adult wages whn they reached the age of 21.

Aunt Doll had a sister who lived a mile away in Warren Row. Sometimes we would walk to her cottage to have tea. We would walk across this hay field until we reached the wood that you see in the background of the photo. We then followed the path through the wood to reach Warren Row. Her husband worked in a nearby chalk mine, which was very interesting. Usually chalk is obtained from the open face of a quarry, but this was definitely like a cave. It was dark and cold when he took me into it.

I used to enjoy the Victoria plums I could buy from the orchard a few yards along the road. It belonged to Mr. and Mrs Neighbour. I would call out, and they would come to their little wooden gate. Victoria plums fresh from the tree have a very special taste. It was also great fun going blackberrying. It was as good as helping myself to free sweets.

For our holidays in 1939 we stayed in Reading with Mrs Lambourne. I think she was a relative of the Stokes family. At the end of our holiday my parents returned to London, but left me behind in Reading. It would have been August, and war might soon start. It did start in September but it simply extended my holiday. Later on I will tell you about my experience of Evacuation.