Childhood at Bourne (3)
Emmie Taylor's memories of childhood at Bourne (continued)
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It was while we lived at this house that I started to go to school. I have marked it on the map as Miss Leyton's. She was a little old lady, very strict and very religious. The school was at the back of the house and we went up some wooden steps into the cloakroom and the schoolroom was off this and the school consisted of 3 classes all in one room, an oblong table at each end and Miss Leyton's class at a square table in the middle. We did not have the lessons that you do, but my word we knew our tables, we could spell and we knew our Bibles. We learnt History off by heart out of some little blue books. The reign of each king was told in about 1 1/2 pages. I suppose Henry VIII must have taken more pages to tell all about his wives. We knew all the dates off by heart. Miss Cox was the main assistant teacher and she was bad tempered. We used to have sewing and scripture with Miss Leyton. I was alright at scripture because we had to learn Psalms and the 10 commandments and the Beautitudes. I had a good memory so this did not bother me, but we had to learn the Catechism and I did not like that, so I have forgotten it.
But sewing, good gracious, it was awful. We had to hem stiff linen teatowels and we had to take two threads at the top and two at the bottom, and I had not started to wear glasses then, so I generally had to unpick mine, and also had my hand caned in the bargain, so I think this turned me against sewing.
Soon after I started school I fell up two steps going into Daddy's bedroom. It hurt but we did not know I had a greenstick fracture in my arm. I was a bad writer then, as you will see I still am, although I am writing this in bed to keep warm as the electricity has gone off, so it is extra bad. In order to improve my writing one of the older girls who was a good writer was deputed to guide my hand and with this fracture it hurt very much so I started to cry. Miss Cox was very cross and said I was soft as this girl said she had done nothing to hurt me. Because of this Daddy took me to the doctor, who was called Dr Golightly and he said I had broken my arm. I mention his name because a few weeks ago on "Down Your Way" Franklin Englemann was at Bourne and he talked to a Dr Golightly at the Cottage Hospital, as it must have been his son or grandson. I know his son was a doctor but he would be nearly as old as I am. However my arm did not get any better so Daddy decided to take me to a bone setter in Spalding who was very much talked about. It was the famous Mr Barker who worked in London for years and made the well known Barker shoes. When we got there he had already gone to London and another man had taken his place. He gave me a whiff of Ether, broke the arm and set it properly. I had it in splints for 3 weeks and then had to have it bathed in vinegar every day for quite a time, but it got quite better. After we came from the bonesetter we saw a lovely little dolls' rocking chair, costing 2/11 so I persuaded Daddy to buy it and I had it for years, but poor dear I bet he had to go without something to buy it.
Auntie was a darling and kindness itself, but she had one fault, she was a poor getterup in the morning, so I often had to run all the way to school, sometimes I was late and was so bothered that I walked into the schoolroom with my hat on, and all the children burst out laughing. Oh, I did feel embarrassed.
The station master at Bourne was called Mr Brader, and when I was small they lived at the old Red Hall and they had a son Cyril who was just my age so I went to play with him a lot, and Mrs Brader was such a kind jolly person and used to have luxuries which we didn't often have, one was lemonade which she made from some crystals out of a bottle and if I called at dinner time on my way home from school she would always give me some and I would stay and play with Cyril so I would be late home for dinner, and they would get uneasy about this. (Daddy and Auntie). I was told I must not call at dinner time and one morning, I got special instructions that I had not to call but come straight home but the lure of the lemonade was too much and I went. Mrs Brader said "Emmie, does your Auntie know you have called" and I said "yes", "Are you sure?" "Yes" I said again. I stayed so long that Daddy turned up to look for me, and Mrs Brader said she would have sent me home, but I said that Auntie knew I was there. What a lecture I got on my way home for telling untruths, how wicked it was etc. I can see myself now walking down Coggles Causeway crying my eyes out. Auntie could not bear to see me cry and I am afraid she fussed me up on the quiet and comforted me.
While I am on about Braders I will tell you a bit about the Red Hall. It was a big mansion and the Braders only lived in half of it. It had been the home of the Digby's and Sir Everard Digby was supposed to be one of the Guy Fawkes plotters. At the back on the top floor was a big room that ran the length of the house and it had mullioned windows almost covered with ivy. It was supposed to be haunted and very occasionally we were allowed to play up there. I don't know which affected me most, the joy at being able to do something special or the fear of the "ghost". One day when Cyril had a girl cousin staying with him, we were playing up there we all got frightened and went rushing downstairs and the girl cousin (I cannot remember her name) fell and broke her leg. It was summer time and she had to stay a few weeks and she used to lie in the garden on a lounge chair under a yew tree, which was hundreds of years old.
The Red Hall was next to the station but in the old days this was all parkland and there were still iron gateways of the park, one of them was at the entrance to the station yard, and here there was one of the original turreted gate houses. The district nurse lived in it and if she saw me passing she would take me in and give me red jelly.
At the congregational chapel there was a very big Sunday School, 320 children and one of the great events of the year was the Sunday School Anniversary, which was held on the second Sunday in July. It was in a way like the "Sermons" but a much bigger affair. The stage at the Sunday School was built up in tiers, the choir sat at the top, then all the Sunday School children in classes, the infants at the bottom. We had all special hymns, which we used to practise for weeks beforehand. The infants always sang a special hymn morning and afternoon, but they did not go on the platform at night. The Sunday School was packed at all the three services.
The day after we always had the Sunday School "treat" with buttered buns, plain cake, fruit cake and tea. We had this about 4 o'clock, then we lined up in front of the school with a band playing and marched through the town. In the market place we stopped and sang a hymn and then marched to the Sports field where there were swings and rowing boats and we had races and competitions. It is a funny thing I never remember it being wet on "treat" day.
About 1900 it was decided to build a new Sunday School with classrooms all round the side and a special infants room. We had a lot of efforts to raise money, and one was a concert when we did a play-cum cantata. I cannot remember what it was all about, but it was something to do with flowers and I was a Golden Rod and had to say "A sceptre worthy of a Queen, the stately Golden Rod is seen, Which comes when Autumn's purple haze proclaims the end of summer days."
On May Day (May 1st) children used to go round to houses with garlands, covered with a cloth and it was 1d to look at the garland. That year I had one to raise money for the Sunday School. Auntie fastened two hoops together, one threaded through the other, then trimmed them with greenery and wild flowers. I had a doll's swing which was fastened in the middle with my best doll in it, and it was carried by a stick threaded through it. Daisy Hinson and somebody else carried it and I carried the box for the money.
We also had a big bazaar for it, and Auntie West was on the Cake and Apron stall and wore a big white apron. She was a good cake maker and she taught me how to make cakes and pastry. There was a lovely flower stall run by Miss Hinson, Daisy Hinson's Auntie. Ethel Branston was on the Fancy Work stall. Auntie helped with the teas which were in the new infants room. Down one side was a big refreshment stall where they sold jellies and custards in little glasses and other things of course. Two ladies who were on this stall Mrs Wall and Mrs Andrews who always wore lace caps like my grandma Curry. We had a concert party from Nottingham who gave concerts in the chapel and one lady played tunes on bells. I thought this was grand. The men ran all sorts of funny competitions and they had an Alley Sloper, which was a cardboard man and you had to try to throw things in his mouth.
When I was about 6 Braders left the Red Hall and went to live in a house at the top of Coggles Causeway and they had a big back yard, where they used to have a bonfire and fireworks on Nov 5th. At the bottom of the yard ran the river which worked the water mill and went past our house. There was a gate which we could open and dabble our feet in the river [but] it was too deep to paddle in.
They used a Magic Lantern and they put a sheet on the wall and we sat on the kitchen table and watched the slides. They had three lots of slides, one set of animals fleeing before a forest fire, one lot of "There was a frog who would be wooing go" and I cannot remember the other one. We had seen them dozens of times, but there was always great excitement if Mrs Brader would put them on. Afterwards we had cream crackers with jam on and lemonade. I had forgotten to tell you that Cyril now had a brother called Frank who was about 4, and another boy called Raymond Eason used to come. Mrs Braden had a sister called Miss Burroughs who lived with her mother at Boston. Sometimes she came to stay at Braders and she was jolly like Mrs Braders. Her mother died and Auntie and I went to stay with her at Boston and I did enjoy it. There was a river that ran into the Wash and I saw St Botolph's Church which we had only seen from the top of Stamford Hill before. Auntie and Miss B. used to talk in mysterious tones about Miss B's mother's death, and I have thought since that she must have committed suicide.
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