Remembering Rodborough - Irene Connor - Remembering Rodborough - Irene Connor

Summary of Irene Connor Interview

· Born in Canada – Toronto - moved back at end of WW1 – dad a carpenter – Mr. Davies - bought the plots in Spillmans and built the house – now 37 – a very Christian carpenter – built 39 for daughter and husband – hand-built – lots of wood – in the garden of 37 at end of WW2 – Irene in uniform WW2 – dad built 37 in the Canadian style – dad from Butterow and Mum from Kingscourt – met at the Tab

· Dad – Mr. Davies – 100% Christian carpenter – model citizen – valued integrity rather than cash – died 84 and mum at 91 – looked after her parents – ideal home for Irene now

· Lyrical description of men going to work in the mornings – hooters and boots on cobbles – cobbled roads eg RB Hill – horses struggling up the hill – RB Hill tarmacadamised in the 20’s – descriptions of horse drawn traffic – beer – veg – bread – milk – coal – fish – kids knew all the horse’s names – Tom used to get into trouble – putting head over gardens and eating the veg that all people grew – women didn’t go out to work until later in WW2 – most lights out at 10 for most people – early start for work

· Child’s death when playing on house opposite – railings pierced his body when he fell on them – other kids paralysed at the site – he ran home crying and died

· Half way down Spillman’s Pitch Mr Vesey’s off licence – sweetshop too – choc drops or liquorice skipping ropes – smelling of beer – drawn from the cask and into jugs brought by the men

· Very full descriptions of the community spirit – but not extended to evacuees etc during WW2 and people drafted into the local factories – Irene quite open about the rural antipathy towards “foreigners” like Brummies and Cockneys

· The Common – and the countryside – playing all day – made the place special – knew every nook and cranny – town close too – all children knew each other – that time has gone – family walks on the common on Sundays

· Descriptions of the Tab’s community spirit - also some chapel-Church stylised and ritualised conflict at procession time at Whitsuntide Treats – Mr Daniels factory owner a chapel man – lent out his fields

· The workhouse? Captain Forster at the school – with his cane – “You’ll end up at the workhouse if you carry on like that” Hot summers made loads of dust in the roads and the dust wagons with water would come along – summer also saw the fever-wagon come along – TB etc

· Descriptions of children playing games through the seasonal changes – marbles and conkers and gender! –

· The cobbler’s hut at the end of the alley way going up Spillmans – kids would see him cobbling away – old man then – prob born just before the Crimean War!