An interview with Margaret Crisp (née Woodvine) by Joyce Hopkins and Ruth Rowley
Margaret was born in the bedroom above the Post Office (now Briar Cottage), Hill Ridware, in 1915 and lived there until she was about 18 years old.
Margaret’s mother was born in Acton Trussell and was cook to a German doctor who lived on the Newport Road in Stafford. Margaret’s father was second groom to the Duke of Westminster prior to his marriage, when he moved to Hill Ridware in about 1908 to take up a position with the Timmis’, who were gentlemen farmers of Wade Lane farm. In 1914, Mrs Woodvine took over the Post Office
(it had, previously been located in Hammonds Cottage, opposite the Old Schoolhouse). After the war, Mr Shepherd took over Wade Lane Farm. He didn’t need a groom and so Mr Woodvine became the postman, sorting and delivering the mail which arrived at 7.30 a.m. He had a bike allowance of half a crown a week and had to get the letters out in all weathers by 9.00 a.m. There were particular problems with delivering to Hamstall as the lane was prone to flooding.
In addition to stamps, dog licences, gun licences and pensions, the Post Office also sold groceries and sweets before the Co-op and Masons started deliveries by van. Joyce remembered the first telephone in the shop before a kiosk was built across the road to enable calls to be made more privately.
Margaret remembers the Post Office being at the front of the cottage, with a door in from the Wade Lane side. Behind this was the living room with an inglenook and a large black range. Behind this was the back kitchen which contained a large paraffin range in later years and behind this was the dairy. There were two outbuildings, a small passage, then the pigsty and privy which looked out over the fields. There were three bedrooms, although the family only used two. There was no bathroom. Water was fetched from the pump in the yard and had to be got in the evening as it frequently froze. Paraffin lamps were filled in the afternoon or evening. Buckets of coal were also filled then, ready for the night.
Margaret has many happy memories of her childhood. She used to play with Barbara Shepherd and clearly remembers Mrs Shepherd in a long red two-piece, smoking a cigarette through a long holder. The children played in the nursery and were sometimes allowed in the kitchen. Cyril Collins’ mother was a live-in maid and used to look after them. Margaret remembers her changing into a clean white apron in the afternoon and entertaining them by dancing with a kitchen chair. Barbara hated wearing shoes and would only put them on when they got to school. Margaret knew that they had plenty of money because Barbara used to call in at the Chad on the way home from school and ask for a bottle of pop (they were the bottles with a marble in the top), saying, ‘Daddy will pay for it’ and they always gave her one. They used to sit by the stile and drink it, then Barbara would throw the empty bottle into the pit (a water hole where the village hall is now).
Margaret loved school and the headmaster, Mr Smith, and teachers, Mrs Stokes and her sister Miss Ballance. She particularly remembers Christmas parties when all of the children had a present and the plays which both the infants and juniors performed. (Everyone had a part, even the children who stuttered.) Margaret left school when she was fourteen.
The area between Briar Cottage and Wade Lane Farm was open at the back at that time and Margaret remembers the cows being brought for milking at 5.30 a.m. every day. They came from the moors (through where Gould’s house is now), across the grass triangle (which used to be at the junction of Wade Lane and Uttoxeter Road) and through the gate between Briar Cottage and Barn End. The cowman was Cyril Collins’ grandfather and he used to call Margaret his cowman. She remembers falling into some big cow possies, [cow pats] while wearing a clean white apron and Mr Collins saying, ‘never mind cowman, it’ll make you grow’.
Margaret’s mother used to have someone in to do the washing and Mrs Godwin, who lived in what is now Rose cottage, to do the ironing.
Christmas time at the Post Office was very busy with parcels piled up. Margaret remembers having a stocking every year containing an apple, an orange and a few nuts and usually having one little present such as a book, except for one year when she had a big doll, which she loved. The main event of Christmas was the Christmas dinner, after which there was nothing much to do. She remembers playing Snakes and Ladders or Ludo or reading. Her mother’s birthday was on Christmas Eve, but Margaret can’t remember them making anything of her parents’ birthdays: no cards or presents. Joyce remembered the first birthday card that she saw as being like a postcard with a celluloid front.
Margaret feels that she was fortunate to have a holiday every year with her grandmother in Shropshire. She was thrilled to bits and remembers having the collywobbles while waiting for the taxi to take her to Armitage station. From Armitage she caught the train to Stafford and then Wellington or Shrewsbury and finally another taxi at the other end. She spent hours every summer getting rides on the drays and hay carts as they returned empty to the fields and then running back for another ride.
The Churchwards lived at Ridware Hall. Mr Woodvine used to ride a spare horse out for Mr Churchward when he went hunting. The son, Bob, had one of the few cars at the time – a Lancia- and used to drive up Wade Lane very fast. Margaret also said that Wade Lane flooded badly, right up to the Post Office step. Harry Shepperd used to get out a boat.
A dance was held once a year in the school. The screens between the classrooms were pushed back and a proper dance band played, although Margaret couldn’t remember their name. There would be a whist drive from 8 p.m. to 9.30 p.m. and then dancing from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. The music was sweet and could be heard a long way off.
The Reverend Allison’s wife ran the Girls’ Friendly Society when Sunday school was outgrown. There was a garden fete once a year on a Wednesday afternoon (half day closing). Ralph’s Radio played there in later years. Margaret remembers charabanc outings to Milford and Sutton Park where they had a picnic and played. She thought at the time that these places were miles away. The charabanc had hard tyres and no top so that if it rained you got soaked. She remembers the newer ones coming in with pumped up tyres and a top on but none of the children wanted to go on it, they preferred the open one.
She remembers a neighbour who was a miner at Brereton Colliery who would walk to work across the meadows for the night shift, arrive back home black, clean himself and work in the fields. She didn’t think that he would have earned much.
Margaret feels that they were very happy though hard times, when everyone knew
everyone else and helped each other