1958
Chris's first passport photo ~1958, with a well loved dress
Click on thumbnails to enlarge photos
We moved from Woodford to Ashton, Northamptonshire on 6/1/1958. My mother was extremely unhappy with this move ( even though Dad's job at Whichelows was doomed- the tannery finally shut ~1960) . Mum said there was not a tree in site- so I went outside & counted a 100 in the garden!, albeit small & leafless in January!! Hazel stayed with the Granges, our Woodford neighbours, for 2 school terms, to complete her O Levels at WCHS.
Hazel - a photo of the Granges please ?
I started at Northampton High School: the authorities had placed me at Towcester Comprehensive School but Dad managed to persuade them, on religious grounds, to pay for NHS, which was a direct grant, C of E, school, charging fees ,
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I was unhappy both at home & at school for a while, so took refuge in work!
My grandfather died in April of this year: I remember attending his funeral down near Ilford, wearing a black armband on my dull pink coat
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Ashton: Hazel & Spud |
Chris, Spud & Hazel |
Chris, Mum & Hazel - back garden |
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Chris, Mum, Hazel, uncle Lionel |
Roseline with cousin Odile's family |
Beatrice, Jean, Jacq., Roseline & parents |
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Chris, Margaret, Ann P, Vanessa ,Kath | Jane Collier, Diane,Patricia Chadwick |
Pat, Diane,a wet Jane & Chris -Oxford |
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Our first holiday abroad was to Sweden in the summer of 1958. We went by ferry from Ipswich? to the Hook of Holland, then drove north to Copenhagen, staying there a night or two, then over on a ferry to Malmo, from whence to Gothenburg where Dad;s laether friends, Lars & Harriet Gunnarson, lived. Harriet was a doctor and they had 2 small sons, Gunnar & Torsten?? We stayed with them for several nights: we ate local crayfish and raspberries( bursting with maggots) from their garden . They took us round Stockholm and round a folk village called Dalecarlia . I was so excited to be abroad and wrote a long detailed letter about everything we did to Margaret. Years later, ~ 2007?? - she copied this out for me - but the copy has been been lost for many years
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Torsten, Chris & Gunnar |
Harriett's house |
Chris, Hazel, Gunnar & Torsten |
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Harriett & Chris |
Lars & Dad |
Chris outside a Dalecalia cottage |
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Harriett & Mum |
Lars, Chris, Mum, Hazel & Harriett |
Dad, Hazel & Chris |
Chris & Hazel |
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Chris, Dad, Hazel in caravan |
Chris & Hazel on Dyffryn dunes |
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A trial run in the caravan to Dyffyrn, Wales. Tempers were frayed as all the crockery went flying as Dad navigated narrow Welsh lanes!