Childhood at Bourne (9)
Emmie Taylor's memories of childhood at Bourne (continued)
One Sunday night soon after I was 12 when Auntie West and I had gone up home I suddenly had a great desire to laugh and I started to laugh and cry, in fact I had violent hysterics. Poor Auntie West she kept waiting for Dad and Ma to come, but they had gone for a walk before they came home, and the longer they were the worse I went. At last they came home, and Dad went for the doctor who came and I suppose he must have given me something to calm me down and he said it was because I was going to start with my periods. Anyway I was alright the next day and I have never had Hysterics from that day to this.
One Saturday during the last winter we were at Bourne Ma sent me with a message to Mrs Stubley and to get some meat. She said I must not call at Miss West's because she was waiting for the meat, but I could go afterwards if I wanted to. There was a sloping path up to Mrs Stubley's cottage with a step at the bottom. The weather had been very cold and the path was frozen and when I got to the bottom I fell full length and banged my head on the step. I got up and somehow got as far as Auntie West's. As soon as she saw me she said "Emmie, whatever is the matter"? I told her I had fallen but I could not stay as I had to go home with the meat, but she would not let me go; she got pillows and blankets and wrapped me up on the Dining Room sofa and sent Tommin (?) for Daddy. Poor Tommin had a poisoned foot so could not walk very well. Coming back my Daddy nearly ran, as Tommin had to come more slowly. There was a door between the shop and the Dining Room which was glass at the top. In my mind's eye I can still see my Daddy's worried face through this glass door. After he had seen me he went for our own doctor, but he had gone to one of the villages to a confinement. He would have gone on his bike or by horse and trap because only "Mays's" had a car up to this (time?) and hardly anyone had telephones.
As Dr Golightly was out he went for Dr Gilpin, Auntie West to doctor, who came and said I had slight concussion and I stayed on Auntie West's sofa until evening and I would like to have stayed all night but Daddy got a cab and took me home. Tommin's brother who was a vet, died the same day at Horncastle. It was usual if you had shutters to your shop window, to put up two sections to show that someone had died. Tommin did this, so it was said all round town that Emmie Parker had had an accident and had died at Miss West's. How tales do grow! The next morning I was much better although rather shaky, so when Dad and Ma had gone to Chapel I got up and got dressed, and I can remember putting my best Sunday pinafore on. Before Dad and Ma came back from Chapel, the Weslyan Minister Mr Watkinson called. When I opened the door you should have seen the look of consternation on his face and he at last stammered out "I thought you were very ill". I think really he had heard I was dead, and had come to offer his sympathy, and that is why he was dumbfounded when he saw me. Rumour could not kill me off and although I have twice nearly died since, here I am at nearly 78 still going strong. If like a cat I have nine lives, I have a few to go yet.
Shortly after this my Daddy started to go to Horwich to preach. The Minister at New Chapel was leaving and he and Mr Lloyd-Jones who had both been at college with Daddy recommended him so after hearing him preach 2 or 3 times the people at New Chapel asked him to be their Minister and he accepted the "call", and he was to start his new Ministry the first Sunday in June 1908. The people at the Church at Bourne bought him a beautiful desk and I think they bought Ma a tea service, but I am not sure about that. When they were married the people had bought them a clock.
When the time came for us to leave Bourne the furniture was sent by road (?) and Daddy left the day after to be at Horwich when it arrived. The day after that Ma and I left and I can remember us both walking across the Market Place with tears streaming down our faces, she very sad at leaving her family and her native place and me sad at leaving Auntie West and Tommin and my friends. We had to change trains a time or two. Daddy met us in Manchester. What a change to see factories and chimneys and smoke after a beautiful little country town and what a change from the flat fenland to the hills around Horwich. I thought they were beautiful but what a muddy land New Chapel Lane was then. We had a cab from Horwich station and I wondered what we were coming to when we turned down the lane.
When we got out of the cab at the Manse I shall always remember Mrs Crankshaw who lived next door coming smiling across the lawn with both hands stretched out saying "Welcome to New Chapel". Mrs Crankshaw was the mother of Mrs Taylor who came to tea with me a few weeks ago and is now 91. She still lives in the same house where she lived with her Mother and Father then. Well, this was the beginning of a new chapter in my life. In case I do not write any more in fairness to my Stepmother I must say that as time went on she made my Father a very good wife. I think she was genuinely fond of him and when he was old and ill she nursed him most devotedly.
One thing I have forgotten to mention and that is the great interest my Daddy took in Politics. I seem to have grown up with Liberalism. The Jesuits say "Give me a child until it is 7 and you can do what you like with it afterwards". I think this applied to me in regard to Liberalism. I heard it talked about so much that I have never been anything but a liberal. I remember the great excitement in the 1906 Election when the Liberals swept the country. The elections were not all held on one day so that they lasted about 3 weeks. Day after day as the results came out my Father's excitement grew. Ours was a very Tory constituency, but Daddy even began to think a Liberal would get in there. When the result came out the Tory was in by 86, usually it was thousands. A lot of the labourers, especially those who worked on the Earl of Ancaster's Estate dare not vote anything but Tory, because if he suspected they had voted Liberal they would have been sacked. There was only a sprinkling of Labour candidates then.
If a person had property in more than one constituency, they Had a vote in each of constituencies so as the Tories were mainly the property owners they had an advantage. The Liberals put a stop to "plural voting" by passing a bill for "one man, one vote", they also put all the elections on one day.
I think it was in 1902 that Mr Balfour's Education Act was passed which subsidised Denominational Schools. This in Lincolnshire really meant Church of England schools. My Father and Mr Carvath (the Baptist Minister) refused to pay their Education Rate. People who did this were called "Passive Resisters". Every time the rate came round they were fined for not paying it, but they refused to pay the fine, so the Police destrained (?) on their goods. My Daddy always gave them a silver individual Communion Service and Mr Carvath gave a very good study chair which he had. Mr Wherry, a well-to-do Baptist always bought them and gave them back to him.
In those days there were Boards of Guardians who administered the Poor Law and the Workhouses. They were elected. One time my Father and Mr Carvath stood for election amongst several other. This election was not on political grounds but was more of a personal matter. My Daddy was top of the Poll and Mr Carvath was second. I was very proud of him.
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An edited and illustrated version of Emmie Taylor's childhood memories of Bourne has been published by journalist Rex Needle as 'Memories of a Bourne childhood 1905-1908 by Emma Hester Parker' and is listed on his website's publications page. Thanks to his wife Elke, who typed Emmie's handwritten papers into digital form.
