Violet Brown (

The eldest child of Fred and Esther Yarwood, Violet (pictured below aged about 4 years) was born 10th December 1923 at Thornton Villas opposite the Windmill in Thornton. In words taken from a series of letters to nephew Stephen in December 2001 Violet tells her own story.

"Thornton Villas only had two bedrooms, Aunt Annie and Uncle Jim (Wall) and son Bobby (born 1921) had one, and we had the other. That was Mum and Dad, myself and later Harold and Bernard. I can remember Harold (1926) and Bernard (1929) being born, no going into hospital in those days, the midwife came on her bicycle. I was in a cot when Bernard was born and the midwife caught me looking over the side and sent me packing. My Dad got me dressed and took me over to Grandma Wall's where for some strange reason I remember having Shredded Wheat for breakfast. As you can imagine the house was beginning to get a bit crowded so we eventually moved to Carleton.

We lived in Poulton Road, not far from the school. My Dad was working for himself at the time, he was a good joiner and built hen cabins etc. After a couple of years he got a job as chauffeur and gardener to a rich family in Bispham Road. With the job came a five bedroom bungalow which had been empty and neglected for some years. It had quite a large garden with an orchard. Dad spent all his spare time gardening, painting and repairing, it was really something when he'd finished. I still don't know how he got the job because he'd never driven a car and had done little gardening. In those days you didn't need a driving license, there wasn't much traffic.

Our neighbours in Bispham Road had two daughters who I think were in their thirties. They had a gents' outfitters' in Poulton, when I left school aged 14 I went to work there. They were both in poor health and so eventually I ended up running the shop myself, which I really enjoyed. I got 12/6 a week of which I gave my mother 10 shillings. It's amazing how far 2/6 pocket money would go in those days. We had spent four happy years at Bispham Road until 1939 when Dad died aged only 41. A few weeks after the funeral we were told we would have to vacate the bungalow as it would be needed for whoever took Dad's place. When we left Carleton we went to live in Holmes Road in Thornton.

Auntie Annie Burgess used to clean for a Mrs Gaffney in Woodlands Avenue, the lady next door to her had just sacked her maid for stealing, so she was on the lookout for somebody else. Auntie Annie suggested I go and try it, I wasn't at all keen but I went to see them. They turned out to be extremely nice people and treated me as one of the family. He worked for Terry's the chocolate firm. If they went anywhere they took me with them. The lost both of their sons in World War 2, lovely boys, it was heartbreaking. When I was 18 I had the choice of going into the forces or to the ICI. My mother didn't want me to go away from home so I went to the ICI, how I hated it. The first day home I wept and said I wasn't going back, but I had to. There were three shifts, night shift was 12 hours. We were filling bombs with phosgene gas which thankfully were never used, but to think we spent two years wasting our time. When I first started it was a bit of a shock, the girls there were not what I was used to. The language was awful and I was tormented terribly, there were just a couple who stuck up for me. After the War I went on to spinning nylon thread. The only good thing that came out of my time at the ICI was that I met Joe. [photo right taken c1946]

When Joe and I were first married we lived with Auntie Bessie and Uncle Albert, Olwen and Lesley were both born while we were there. Then Joe found a cottage in Hambleton that had originally been part of the Post Office, it had been empty for years and the kitchen roof had fallen in. Joe and two of his pals, a joiner and a decorator, spent their weekends making it habitable. I didn't see it until the day we moved in, it was March and pouring with rain. A friend of ours who lived nearby had scrubbed it all out and put curtains up. We spent happy years there, we had hens, geese, rabbits and piglets in the garden.

Then out of the blue Gillian was born in May 1959 and in September the same year Joe was transferred to Dumfries and we bought a house in Rotchell Park. It was a really long hot Summer, I don't think it rained from May until early November. We'd only been there 18 months when Joe was transferred back to Hillhouse, and we moved to Osborne Avenue in Cleveleys. 18 months later and Joe was back off to Dumfries and a week before Christmas we moved into the house in Robison Drive where I still live. The carpets were laid on Christmas Eve and Joe and I worked nearly all night putting up the tree and decorations. A lot of people thought I would move when Joe died, but half my life has been in Dumfries and I still feel he is near."

With nephew and niece Stephen Yarwood and Sheila Meades (nee Yarwood), April 1998.