Grace Evelyn Taylor nee Ivall (1922-2006) : Her Life Story Part 3

After the War, Living in Barnehurst

Eric was demobbed in February 1946 and given three months leave. We stayed in Cambridge living with my mother and Old Pop in Paradise Street (it was Paradise to us then). It was a lovely spring and we cycled miles across the traffic free, flat Fenland country to places like St Ives and Ely. We also punted on the River Cam and walked across the meadows to Grantchester. All was well in our (and many other people’s) lives.

So, at ages 32 and 24, we started our “real” married lives and turned our thoughts towards acquiring a home of our own and a family. This meant returning to the London area as Eric was still employed by the LCC (they had made up his army pay to his full salary all through the war years). We wanted a house somewhere in the London suburbs, we didn’t mind where. We had some ex-office friends living at Potters Bar (a northern suburb of London). They suggested that we went to live with them whilst we were searching for our “dream home” and we gladly accepted. However, this arrangement didn’t work for long for a strange reason. All food was tightly rationed and our friends had a fourteen year old son, David. David used to eat our rations in secret! We were always hungry as a result!

One day in early September 1946, Eric and I visited his Dad who lived with his third wife in Woolwich. A chance look at the local paper showed an advert for a terraced house in Barnehurst. We decided to look at it and set off by train to Barnehurst station. I had never heard of the place before but found it pleasant enough, reasonably leafy - typical suburbia. The house was at 309 Parkside Avenue, about a mile from the station. Parkside Avenue was a long straight road, on the local bus route and 309 was at the far end. We looked it over - it was a middle terrace, 3 small bedrooms upstairs, two rooms down with a bathroom and toilet downstairs built on the back. It also had a small glass roofed (freezing in winter) kitchen extension on the back. As you can imagine, houses weren’t easy to come by at that time as there were thousands of demobbed soldiers looking for a home. The house agent who showed us round said “You’ll have to make up your minds straightaway as I’ve got a lot of other people waiting to see it”. We said “Yes” - the house cost £1,195 freehold (£5 deposit!). The advert had been put in the paper for the first time that day. Fate had taken a hand.

Grace (fourth from left) with her old school friends Edna (second) and Ida (third), c1952. Eric (first from left) was Ida’s husband, Basil (fifth) was Edna’s husband.

We lived in 309 for eleven years from September 1946 to September 1957 and during that time both our children were born. Evelyn June, our first child, made her debut at the Russell Stoneham Maternity Home (just around the corner) in 1949. She was a big baby and a horror, crying incessantly in the early weeks of her life. It was a hot summer and wool vests for babies were a “must”! However, she grew up to be a daughter to be proud of. She went to Normandy school for the preliminary years (under the tuition of the eccentric Mr Newman) and then to Erith Grammar School. She obtained 11 O levels and achieved A levels in Physics, Chemistry and Biology and decided she wanted to be a doctor. Her training was at the Royal Free Hospital and after getting her medical degree there she went on to get many other qualifications, finishing by becoming a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in the faculty of Anaesthetics. Evelyn’s medical training lasted 10 years. Soon after she got her final qualification she married Brian (in January 1979) and then gave us three grandsons Michael, Christopher and Peter (all now over six feet tall). Evelyn’s life is full and busy as she is a Consultant Anaesthetist at High Wycombe Hospital and most important she gives her time to caring for her family and has a happy loving home life. I benefit too in that I have a kind and attentive son-in-law and three grandsons to be proud of. Despite her “action packed” days Evelyn manages to find time to devote and care for me when needed, even though she lives at Marlow, 80 miles away.

Our second child, a son, was born at the Russell Stoneham Maternity Home in 1953. He was a bonny baby and much less demanding in the early days of his life than his sister had been. We named him Philip William - Philip after the Duke of Edinburgh (it was coronation year and the royals were very much in the limelight), William after his male grandparents on both sides of the family. At five Philip started at Barnehurst Primary School under the headmistress Mrs Munford - a strict and formidable lady who commanded discipline and respect. At aged eleven Philip followed in his sister’s footsteps and went to Erith Grammar School, where he later became Head Boy. Philip decided to choose science A levels (after achieving 10 O Levels) and he passed three with good grades which qualified him for a place at Bristol University. He studied chemistry getting a BSc degree, following it with a MSc and then a PhD. He was now a Doctor, so he’d kept up with Evelyn. After 6 years at Bristol University it was time to start work. Philip’s first job was at RHM (Rank Hovis McDougall) Research in High Wycombe, where he stayed for three years. He next obtained a job with the Wellcome Foundation in Dartford where he worked as an analytical chemist. After 12 years he transferred into project management which he did for a further 11 years before retiring (aged 50) as the result of the Dartford site closure (by then Wellcome had been taken over by Glaxo who then merged with Smith Kline Beecham).

During this period when our children were growing up - our family (Eric, me, Evelyn, Philip and Meo, our black cat) moved from Parkside Avenue, where we had a small terraced house, to Barnehurst Avenue (no 92) where we bought a large, detached house with a garden on many levels. This was in September 1957 and we were destined to stay there for thirty nine years (until June 1996). Soon after moving to Barnehurst Avenue it became necessary for us to have my mother (now a widow) to come and live with us. This was because she had become disabled (after a fall and a broken hip joint) and needed looking after. She moved from Cambridge to our house in 1958, had the downstairs front room as her own and stayed with us until her death in October 1970.

Grace and her mother in the back garden of 92 Barnehurst Avenue c1967

For Eric and I the years of our residence at Barnehurst were busy, working years. Eric worked at the County Hall, Westminster for the GLC until his retirement at 65 in 1978. I looked after the house and family, including bringing the shopping home from a local small store on my bicycle. The washing was done by hand, whites boiled in a copper, all of it rinsed in the sink and put through a mangle before hanging out on a line across the lawn to dry! Between us, Eric and I grew fruit, vegetables and flowers in our terraced garden, Eric tended a “con” (conservatory) full of pot plants and I slaved away preserving, freezing and otherwise using vast quantities of fruit of all types. At one time Eric had an allotment as well! They were happy years, probably the happiest in our lives. We were young(ish) and had a good social life with family and friends, lots of energy and (something we probably didn’t fully value at the time) good health.

During this period of our lives I got a part time job - the only time I took paid employment during nearly sixty years I had of married life. I became a part time play school teacher at St Martin’s Play School. During all this time (ten years from 1976 to 1986), I worked closely with Rita Gillis, who has been a much valued friend ever since those days. The experience of working with young children was a very happy one especially at Christmas when the Nativity Play and Christmas party were sheer magic. For a short while Eric also was “on the staff” (unpaid) as he came and played the piano. Here too I made several friends who have loyally shared my life since - Gill Sathy and Pam Sloan being particularly kind and caring to me in my later years.

The National Trust played a big part in Eric and my lives during the years at Barnehurst Avenue. We belonged to their local group (the Darent Cray NT Association) and participated in many outings and holidays with them staying in lovely places all over England - a very enriching experience and a very happy one. Here we made more good friends particularly Jack and Betty Clark, Pamela Monk and Pam and Jim McQuillan. Our other major interest was Natural History. We attended classes and courses, going on many outings based on Botany. We learnt (and often soon forgot) the English and Latin names of wild flowers, grasses, trees and shrubs. We made friends too with folk who had similar interests. It was all a happy and fulfilling experience.