Dorothy Martin, nee Oldham
1920 - 2001
I thought it would be easy to write one’s life history, but I am finding it’s not so.
I was born just after the 1st World War in 1920. My dad had just arrived home from the 1st World War when he met my mother at their workplace, a cotton mill. They married and after a while I was born - June 27, 1920 at Rose St., Accrington, Lancashire, England. My brother Alfred was born two years later and my sister Gladys in 1924. I think my parents, Arthur Ward Oldham and Molly Ward Oldham, stayed together for about six years. My mother ran off with a Mr. Halliday. I didn’t like him.
Gladys and Dorothy
They took all of us to London. We lived at a place called Finsbury Park, North London. I was always running away and going to the park, even at night, and a policeman would bring me home. Of course I got a whacking.
When I was seven I cut my heel quite badly and landed in hospital with a cut tendon and a cast. Also had to wear a boot with a brace for a year. During this time they made arrangements for Gladys and I to go into Dr. Barnardo Homes. Dr. Barnardo Homes was a place where mothers put their children when they couldn’t take care of them. So Gladys and I went there. I stepped on a broken bottle near the dustbin (garbage).
We stayed in the home for a couple of weeks and then they sent us to foster parents for a couple of weeks before landing at Mother’s in Norfolk. Her name was Mrs. Rose Rivett and her daughter Auntie Florence. They lived at The Cedars, North Lopham, Diss, Norfolk. It was the first time I had seen the country. It was a small farm, with a cow, horse, ducks and chickens, orchards, and a garden on a few acres of land. Apple orchard in front of the house and then hedge and lawn house, etc. We had outside toilets, and our toilet paper was newspaper. There wasn’t any toilet paper to be had; no stores. Bus once a week to Diss, about eight miles away, a very small town and Norwich was about twenty. That was a big city.
We went to the castle at Norwich. It was built on a hill surrounding the town. The walls were about six feet thick, and prisoners were put in a deep home at least twenty feet deep and left there. They dropped their food, I guess, by bucket. But they were never released. Of course this was 1600, etc., so I guess they died in the hole.
Every morning when we went to school a farmer would move his cattle to a field past our school, so we were mixed in the middle of them. The cows didn’t care where they walked and me not being used to cows every time one looked at me I would try and move to the sidewalk. Thought every one was a bull. It took a while to get adjusted. Mother was a lot older, more a grandmother type, and Auntie more my mother’s age. I loved to read and mother would read two of the chapters a night to us. One of the stories I remember was called “Only a Dog.” Naturally it was a sad story but I loved mother reading.
In England, old houses are heated by coal fires and our lighting by oil lamps in the ceiling. Mother had a grandfather clock in several rooms and they all chimed about the same time. In the kitchen was a long bakers’ oven and a mangle to press the water out of the clothes after mother used the dolly, which turns the clothes in the tub, then we hung them out in the meadow to blow in the wind. A long line across the meadow with props holding up the line.
We also had a well; mother brought up the bucket of water when needed. Also we washed in rain water. Large tubs at the corners of the house and barn. We used to collect the eggs from the nests. One day when mother had company, I dashed in and said I saw the cockerel lay an egg. They all laughed and told me no, but didn’t explain why. I am afraid living on the farm did not improve my sex education. Even the dogs were taken to the barn when they had pups.
I loved school and hated staying home. One day my sister was not well and the doctor was called in. When he arrived, I heard him say she had scarlet fever and we were quarantined. I dashed out of the house to go to school but the doctor grabbed me on the way to school, so I was home for a while too. Don’t get those diseases today.
One day mother had a letter from the Homes that our mother wanted to come and see us, so mother prepared a beautiful meal, etc. Then we waited and waited. I sat at the window all day, although the trains had gone and no busses. I never heard until years later why and never received a letter. I had one letter when I was nine from my father. He had been ill and had just found out where we were. The Barnardo Homes painted out a lot of the words so we couldn’t understand it. I guess he died about 1929. I think from the war injuries. I heard they used gas on some of the troops and my dad had lung trouble.
Our village had 900 people in it and about five different churches, all denominations, and six hotels, or public houses as we called them.
Twice a year the Barnardo Homes sent a person down to check on us, also our weight, and at times they would set up at school and take out weight on an old weighing machine which they hung from the ceiling in the school cloakroom. Of course the boys got a kick out of it. It singled us out. There were two other families in the village that had children from Dr. Barnardo Homes.
Well, time passed quickly. I was fourteen June 27. I was graduating from Grade 8 with high marks. When I arrived home a matron from Barnardo Homes was waiting for me to take me to London to learn how to work, to get a job. The place was called Girl’s Village Home Barkingside, near Ilford, Essex. There were 3,000 people in the village, all female. About fifty cottages, each with a mother and about ten to fifteen young children, who for some reason were not boarded out. There were three older girls like me who did the housework. Thank goodness, I managed to get the upstairs work and polishing the floor on your knees with paste wax. I didn’t like kitchen work. The cottage was called Marian Cottage. Each one had a different name, no boys’ names. There was a hospital, a laundry and a school for the young children. Also a high school called The Meadow High School.
I went before the governor of the village, who looked at my report, and they let me sit for an exam for high school. I passed and was put in the upper fourth. This is a name for grade nine, and then lower fifth, upper fifth, lower sixth, upper sixth, etc.
