This is a rough account of life for my great grand mother as written by my mother, Mona Timmis. Granny Polly married Issac Waters, from Poland, they settled in Granny Polly’s county of Norfolk and had nine children some of whom left for the U.S.A. in the early 1900’s and started the family line over there, one of them is my uncle Ed. The others stayed in Norfolk apart from my gran, Gladys who married a Lincolnshire Soldier. I thought it may be interesting to compare with my life and diary so when I complain of being wet or cold or having too many jobs I can read it and realise how privileged I am.
Granny Polly
had lived in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s in a very remote part of
Norfolk called the Belt, near Little Massingham.
It was called The Belt as it was just that a belt of trees, nothing more.
Growing up in the country meant plentiful supplies of home grown food, no baths, (a tin one in front of the fire was the norm), and toilets were at the bottom of the garden. People tended to be healthy with good food and fresh air so good ages weren’t uncommon. Granny Polly looked after a large family and always had extra food for anyone who might drop in, she was known as a good cook. Granny Polly was the local midwife and should anyone die she laid them out. People were few, so having lots of skills was necessary
Granny Polly
also kept a flock of turkeys in a nearby field, these had to be fed, watered and
fattened until December, when they were to provide a valuable extra income from
nearby towns. The heating in her house was a coal range, which was also a
cooker and water heater. Washing
was done in the copper, which was placed on bricks, and a fire was heated
beneath it, whatever the weather the washing had to be done for the
ever-expanding family. The fire for
the copper was always lit on a Sunday night after church and filled by hand with
gallons of water ready for Monday morning. She would be up at four or five on a
Monday morning to get the bed linen into the boiler.
The bed linen was always white and changed every Sunday; with eleven
people in the house this was a major task.
Washing had to be fitted in with all of the other chores of cleaning,
feeding the family and animals, bringing the odd baby into the world and seeing
off the people who may die that day, still the men had to be fed at the same
time. Babies and washing couldn’t interfere with that.
Monday lunch would be leftovers from the previous day, mashed potatoes
and cabbage all fried in beef dripping, very healthy!
Sweet would be a steamed pudding of whatever fruit was in season and
custard made from milk from her cow, untreated, and still warm.
Work for a
typical woman of that time didn’t stop there; Granny Polly worked in the
fields, laying the crops, singling out the beet and other root crops and hilling
the potatoes (which we still do today). In
summer there was fruit picking a very prickly job with the gooseberries,
raspberries, and brambles. Strawberries
were knee aching because you had to crawl on the ground on a straw mat.
There were compensations good, fresh food and the companionship other
fellow workers.
In autumn came
the fruit picking, up the long, high ladders with big baskets picking apples and
plums. They were paid by the punnet and the money was saved. It
couldn’t go into the normal housekeeping as it was seasonal work so was used
for Christmas and according to the time you spent in the fields, the gifts you
received at Christmas.
Winters were
very hard then with no central heating or good roads.
Frosts seemed harder and snow thicker.
The cottage was isolated so Granny Polly was often cut off. She spent her
days in preparation for the Christmas market, killing and plucking the
turkey’s by hand it was done in and old she way from the house.
The family pig always went at winter providing food to take them through
to spring. When all of the turkeys
were ready Granny Polly would travel on the carriers cart to Kings Lynn and sell
them in the market, sitting on a stool, surrounded by the turkeys and no
protection from the winter weather. Market
always called for best clothes and her Sunday hat.
During
these cold months Christmas was a pleasant interlude.
With the spring it all started again buying fertile eggs, rearing them in
the shed and with the good weather, letting them into the fields.
Life may have been hard but happy and fulfilling.