Memories of Leeds 

by Lilian Dailey (nee Dixon)

Part THREE

The Ireland Wood Estate then was quite a small one compared with the other large estates in and around Leeds. There were no shops, just a travelling Co-op van and the odd greengrocer calling. There was a 20 minute walk up Hospital Lane to the nearest bus stop and a very much longer walk to the nearest shops in West Park. This meant that in our isolation we all helped each other and built up a great community spirit, soon getting to know our neighbours and equipping our lovely new homes with whatever we could afford.

Dad, Uncle John and Hughie made a start on the large garden at the back of the house and gave us items of garden tools. Daisy and the other Uncle John became regular visitors with bits and pieces from the saleroom, though they could not leave their premises for long. They had no children, unless you counted the endless number of stray animals they nurtured in their large yard. Their own particular pets were three cats and Peggy, a very large Irish wolfhound, as soft as she was ferocious looking. John said that apart from her fearsome looks any burglar who gave her a cuddle or stroked her coat would have been easily welcomed to their premises in Park Place.

Hughie often took Peggy for walks and when she saw Hughie she would throw her lead towards the door, barking with a terrific din until they were clear of the city. One Sunday he walked the dog all the way from City Square via the Black Road to Temple Newsam, throwing sticks for her to fetch when they reached the Park. They were both pretty tired and Hughie attempted to board a tram for the return journey. One look at Peggy's grizzled face and no tram conductor would allow her to travel, so it was a long walk back home for both of them.

During those early months, living in our new abode, we made some very good friends. There were many young families with young children. We became close friends with the Nichols - Anne and Nick - who we very much admired. Their outlook on life and politics was an inspiration to us. They had a daughter, Gail, about the same age as Alan, and they became good friends too.

Items of furniture were becoming available after the War and we bought a carpet for the front room, some utility furniture (on dockets still) and a roll of stair carpet, together with some solid brass stair rods purchased from the saleroom. We fitted the stair carpet one Saturday afternoon and allowed Alan to ride his little red tricycle around the spare empty bedroom while we worked. There was a knock on the kitchen door as Hughie was selecting a suitable screwdriver and I answered the door. There was such a clatter as Alan, still on the tricycle, came head over wheels down the full length of the stairs. I was horrified and so guilty that such a thing could happen - how could he have managed to open that bedroom door? He was shocked and soon consoled - there were no broken bones and he was soon back on his trike.

Alan was a helpful little lad, very caring with a very innovative mind - so caring indeed that one day he took a full can of Vim, (a powder for cleaning greasy pans and cookers) shook it all the way down my new stair carpet, found himself a scrubbing brush with a bottle of water and scrubbed his way to the bottom of the stairs. The carpet had dark red flecks in the pattern and as he thought I didn't like them he had tried to remove them.

The following week I went into the garden to see why he and Gail were so quiet. I watched for a minute or so - they had a small bucket containing privet leaves, which they kept squashing, squeezing and rubbing on the white concrete walls of the house to create mottled green patches. I wasn't best pleased, but they tearfully explained they had heard me say that the houses would have looked better if they were more colourful.

The Holmes family lived opposite our house, a very nice couple with a toddler named Billy. Billy was absolutely devoted to Alan and followed him around all the time. He came across looking for Alan one afternoon and asked Hughie who was working on the back garden where Alan was. Hughie thought for a minute and said to Billy: "I don't know - maybe I sold him". The next day Billy's Dad, a burly Prison Officer and a very nice chap when not annoyed, came across and asked Hughie what the hell he was thinking about. Billy had cried most of the night, had nightmares and was sick, all because he thought we had sold Alan. We consoled Billy, spoiled him for a few days when he never seemed to leave Alan's side, and we were once again the best of friends.

The winter of that year proved to be another severe one in more ways than one. Hughie slipped on the ice as he ran for the bus to get to work and sustained a broken shoulder blade. The Welfare State was still in the offing, but workers were not paid when off work, and neither was there any pay for holidays, which were covered by a Works holiday scheme - a certain sum each week taken from the week's pay and repaid when the firm closed down for a week in July or August when maintenance work was carried out. I had not experienced this, working in the office as Staff we did have a part time holiday pay, though I know it was hard for my parents to cope with Christmas time and holiday times.

Hughie was not able to work for the two weeks before Christmas and two weeks into the New Year - I was expecting my second child but in spite of the fact that we could only put a few groceries away each week we had a very good Christmas. The salesroom came up with a small second hand pedal-car, which we re-painted a shiny red with a number plate in white 'AHD 1' and of course there were more presents from our families.

In the following spring, on the 22nd March 1951, our second son was born; again a Caesarean birth, and one of the Surgeons had fixed a nametape on the baby's wrist - "ANDREW", because the operation had been carried out by Professor Andrew Clay, apparently the top man in his field. Strange that my close friend and neighbour, Ann Nichols, who was expecting her baby about the same time, came home from hospital in April with a son also named Andrew.

My two boys were alike as chalk and cheese, Andrew as fair as Alan was dark, with very different temperaments. They were devoted to each other and as they grew they enjoyed most things together. I recall the day soon after Alan started school at the little Infants' school along Iveson Road, when Andrew went missing. I was beside myself with worry when I found the garden gate open and no sign of the missing infant. As it was mid-afternoon and nearly time for lessons to end I ran along Iveson Road to get Alan and there was Andrew sitting beside Alan on the classroom floor apparently enthralled by what was going on in the lesson.

That year 1951 produced another good summer as I remember - we had lovely picnics in the woods, caught tadpoles near the ponds, walked across to Horsforth to visit the King family and possibly did some shopping along the way. We had no shops near the estate - it was either the visiting Co-op van, which was very popular, or a fair walk to West Park.

The local Labour Party formed a group in a Ward predominantly Tory and Mrs. Anne Malcolm, our local Councillor, formed a Women's section which was very active. The meetings were held fortnightly in members' houses - we had talks and fund raising ventures - all very enjoyable. I particularly remember a talk by Ann Nichols, on Octavia Hill - I was so impressed by that evening - Ann and myself entered a sort of competition, comprising of essays on working class struggles in years gone by. As a result of this we were both offered the prize (on a shared basis) of a five day visit to the Women's National conference in Edinburgh. The husbands decided we should both go and shared the half-cost. We had a very inspiring week in spite of the odd tears when thinking of the little ones we had left behind in the care of husbands and grand parents and who seemed to be quite unbothered by our return. Andrew clung to my father and wouldn't let go.

Mother and Dad had got some groceries in for us and it is hard to remember managing without refrigerators, washing machines, televisions and the like. We still had the copper boiler fixed to the gas point underneath the sink to cope with wash days, and still had the old K.B. radio we got from the sale room when we were first married. Our neighbours, the Dillinghams, were the first couple we knew to own a television and when the Queen was crowned they invited quite a crowd of us - neighbours and friends - to watch. Our living rooms were quite large and we all packed in to watch the ceremony. We had baked and made sandwiches and were very excited when it was time to draw the curtains to view the black and white screen and the Coronation. The gathering lasted for practically the rest of the day.

In due time, as property building began to revitalise surrounding areas, people began to look for bigger houses and drifted away from the estate but the friendships made there have survived. My own parents were having health problems and eventually we moved back to East Leeds, to the new housing development adjacent to the old village of Seacroft. Again our move was in the depth of a hard winter - New Year's Day in 1953. We were five minutes walk from the old village and only three houses separated us from the main A64 York Road which catered for the only bus route into Leeds, on the familiar red West Yorkshire buses.

Seacroft in 1954 was not much different to this picture from 1927

Alan started at his new school in Crossgates, about a couple of miles away from the bus route and I vividly remember walking twice each day to deliver him to school and collect him at 3-30 p.m. with Andrew strapped on to a home-made sledge which I dragged through the snow. There was never a thought given to missing school because of a snowfall or two. At that time Seacroft had retained a lot of the old village atmosphere - on the village green there were cricket matches and maypole dancing by children from the Grange School, which overlooked the Green. My present neighbour then had the village off-licence and stores/ The post office was a picture of rural beauty, the post mistress Sheila Graham was a lovely lady.

We had lots of communal activities, not least the Garden Society, which held in the Village Hall a very high standard show in Spring and another in the Autumn harvest time. Hughie was very keen on his garden - our house practically faced the Old Windmill and the Farm which had been known in the past as Betty Barker's farm. When the farmer (Mr. Harrison) offered us quite a lot of pigeon 'muck' from the Windmill, Hughie thought it an offer not to be refused and went along each evening with his barrow to collect it. Often he took the two boys along to look at the old mill and the farmer fascinated them with tales about the use of the mill, and of the goings on in Seacroft village in what the boys called 'ancient times'.

Suddenly Andrew became very ill with what was thought at first to be mumps, but it was very much more serious and he was taken to Seacroft hospital and isolated for weeks. We were not allowed to visit him and as he was only three and not yet reading properly Hughie and Alan drew pictures of anything that might interest him - the garden, the old mill, the budgie, anything to keep contact. Something was taken to the hospital every day. It is an easy thing to sympathise with parents of sick children but the pain of it when it strikes home is hard to bear. The illness was never fully diagnosed but I have always blamed it on the pigeon 'muck'.

I must admit that for some considerable time I really missed the life and community spirit we had shared at Ireland Wood, but it was good to be near family and many old friends and of course the Nichols were not far away in Hollyshaw Lane. Alan and Andrew settled in well at school and we were so very proud when Alan passed his 11 plus examination to go to Grammar School, this in spite of his teacher remarking that he was more interested in the climbing rate of the ink up the length of string he was dangling in his ink well than anything she had to say to her class. We had further cause for pride and thanksgiving when in his turn Andrew passed the 11 plus at the age of ten years.

We had a wonderful holiday that summer, by way of celebration, in Guernsey, catching the overnight milk-train to London which irritatingly stopped noisily at every station, then spending most of next day walking and bussing round the sights of London. We found ourselves pretty tired by then but we had to journey on to Southampton - another slow train - to eventually catch the boat to St. Peter Port, where we joined the Snell family in their lovely house in Gibauderie for two weeks. In all, it was a great adventure for us. We paid Mrs. Snell twenty-eight shillings and sixpence, plus fourteen shillings for the two lads, and for this we were fed like royalty.

Mrs. Snell was a wonderful cook and though she could only accommodate two families and an old couple at the one time, there was such a choice of fare at every meal it was quite unbelievable. We had bowls of raspberries from the garden with our breakfast cereals and a huge jug of wonderful Guernsey milk. For our picnic lunch we had the fresh Guernsey biscuits (lovely flat bread cakes) tiny wine tomatoes from a nearby French gardener and fresh green figs, ( also from the garden) all washed down by Mrs. Snell's home made lemonade. After a swim in one of the bays, it was indeed a feast. We heard about Mrs. Snell from Uncle Herbert who, as a railway worker, was quite an authority on rail travel and places to stay. Needless to say we repeated that holiday for several years to come.

In 1959 with the boys settled in their respective schools I was offered a position as school secretary at St Kevin's, a new, very large Secondary School, on Barwick Road, which catered for 600 boys. The pay was £280 pounds per year but with the advantage of school holidays I decided I would prefer it to better paid office work in town. I felt very apprehensive when I was first introduced to the all male staff, but I needn't have been worried, they were a grand bunch to work with.

It became very hard work when the school reached the time for G.C.E. and later C.S.E examinations with lots of preparatory work, papers &c. to type and duplicate by hand. Well it can't have been too bad as I stayed for 25 years until the school became a junior school, and then I continued as Clerk to the Governors after my retirement.  The school catered for boys from eleven years of age - we had good boys, clever boys, not so good boys and those with special needs and I am pleased to say that I cannot remember any of them being rude or cheeky towards me. I hope I didn't scare them all that much. I enjoyed working in an atmosphere of young people and amongst a caring and dedicated staff.

I recall some of the absence notes from parents, my favourite being from the mother who kept her son off school because she was pregnant and expecting delivery of a pram! There was also a telephone call when a young voice asked, 'is that you Miss?, well this is my dad speaking and Jack can't come to school today'. 

When I retired from St.Kevin's I did a six months stint as a secretary at the Probation Office and that really finished my education.  We all made our own coffee or tea at break-time and some of the clients were also allowed in to the upstairs kitchen. One of the younger clients was in there and approached me - "Do you remember me Miss.....what did you do to get into trouble?" What indeed? I was sorry to retire from the school and to leave the many friends I made there. I was also sad that the school with all its amenities, the huge building, the workshops, woodwork, metalwork, specialist Art Departments, Biology and Science labs. and extensive playing fields, was to become a Primary School. To me it seemed a waste when there was so much land which could easily have housed a junior school, and there seemed neither rhyme nor reason to be transporting young people past St. Kevin's to down town Secondary schools totally lacking in the facilities and space from which our pupils had benefited.  However, in their wisdom the powers that be decided it was to the ultimate good and St. Kevin's became history.

My own two boys progressed well in their school work and pride again swelled when they both did so well in their G.C.E. examinations and again at 'A' levels . which gained University places for them. Alan was to go to Sheffield and Andrew to University College, London. It is hard to express our feelings at these occasions and Hughie and I were only sad that our parents had not lived to enjoy the success of their grandchildren. As with many other parents, that pride in the two of them lives on today but above all it was in their integrity, their caring way of life, and eventually their lovely wives and children.

It was during the latter period of time that we acquired a second hand car and Hughie, not having totally outgrown his Scouting days, bought a tent. We were quite excited and enjoyed so many happy weekends camping either by the coast or in the Dales, sometimes in France or on Guernsey. As time passed, it was a good feeling that Alan and Andrew still enjoyed the outdoor life, and retained their enjoyment in most things musical. They both were very good guitar players and played other instruments as they went along. Alan changed his course at Sheffield from Electrical Engineering and took a teaching degree, but later began working in the TV Studio at Bradford University, then moving to Yorkshire television. Andrew gained a good degree in Physics. specialising in Astro-Physics, after which the Government became less involved with matters of Space and he decided to study for a degree in his first love, Architecture, in which he was very successful.

It was during these learning years that Alan took off in the summer holiday from University with a group of friends for Turkey. They had the use of one of the friends Land Rover, which was quite a novelty in some of the remote places they visited and aroused much interest. Alan had always been interested in his hobby as a Radio-ham and in this respect he had friends in far flung places - he was very keen to visit the family of the Chief of Police in Istanbul. On the return journey the Land Rover gave up and broke down somewhere near Lyons in France. One of the group of travellers set off home to get a new 'half shaft', quite a long trip to Southampton , while the remaining members of the group stayed with the Land Rover in a lay-by, and existed on turnips from a nearby field. Alan managed to get by on about sixpence I believe. If only he had contacted home for some money, but I know that would not be Alan's way.

In another year or so, it was Andrew's turn, and he and his friend John Moorcroft set off for Turkey in John's mother's Ford Anglia which Mr. Moorcroft had specially adapted for such a journey. They were supposed to be meeting up with John's parents in Italy at some point but I don't think that actually happened. They too were short on funds and picked up some work picking peaches on the Italian border.

The next year he and a friend bought a tandem, to which Hughie gave some careful attention, and they set off by train to the Channel and then overland to Turkey. On the return journey, the back wheel of the tandem snapped under the weight of the Lord knows how much weight, luggage and camping items. They put the whole thing on a train and it came back safely to London, only to be stolen, chain and all, from outside the Cycle repair shop near the University.

We realised that while it is the given lot for parents to worry about their offspring, the worry when they are children is not to be compared with the worry which comes when they are older. The travel bug must have been contagious because not long after Hughie and I retired , I noticed an advertisement in the paper for a couple plus car to look after 20 or so caravans on a most beautiful site on an estate in the Vendee country in Western France. I applied and that Spring found us enjoying ourselves at Les Biche site, situated in a Pine forest about two miles from the sea.

It was quite hard work initially, setting up the vans, but once that was accomplished and we were up and running it was mainly receiving new arrivals, and checking them in and out when leaving. In between these times and seeing to the supply of gas and attending to odd repair jobs, we were able to visit the many lovely places in the area. We had a nice caravan for our own use - there was a lovely swimming pool and many beautiful beaches around. I loved every minute of it while Hughie genuinely missed his allotment and the garden at home. Nevertheless he mostly enjoyed the life and settled in after the first two weeks, making friends with our visitors and the staff on site.  In between these times and seeing to the supply of gas and attending to odd repair jobs, we were able to visit the many lovely places in the area. We had a nice caravan for our own use, there was a lovely swimming pool and many beautiful beaches around. I loved every minute of it while Hughie genuinely missed his allotment and the garden at home. Nevertheless he mostly enjoyed the life and settled in after the first two weeks, making friends with our visitors and the staff on site.

The next few years seemed to fly by; Alan married Mary who was at the University in Leeds and they produced the most adorable little girl, Caroline, such a good, lovable and thoughtful child who gave us such joy when we sometimes looked after her. She developed very much her Mum's way of speaking and I can recall the Christmas when she would be about three and insisted on carrying her presents individually up the three steps to the garden gate - first one parcel fell and she came back to pick it up - then the next from under the other arm and then another, and back to pick it up. She very patiently bundled them all up and dropped them on the top step.  She looked at them, put her hands on her hips and said "Oh bugger" with a very posh Southern accent she could only have learned from one person. 

We were very fortunate to be able to take her camping with us for the odd week-end - she was equally happy in sunshine or the rain. She would run along in her little blue wellies, (or were they red?), doing an excellent fruit and nut case walk she had seen done by Morecambe & Wise on television and later on the silly walks of John Cleese.

Very sadly, we were very devastated to lose our next grandchild, Alice, who was born with Spina Bifida. Mary and Alan were in deep shock and it was hard to find words to express their feelings. or to give comfort.  Then came Thomas, a lovely healthy boy. Caroline stayed with us when Mary went to Hyde Terrace and we had the extreme pleasure in taking Caroline to collect her Mum and new brother from the hospital. She ran along the corridor as soon as they appeared and couldn't contain her excitement. She nursed him, cuddled him and nearly squeezed the life out of him when we returned home. Tom was a very different character to his sister, very strong and determined but lovely with it. He almost worshipped his sister but was not to be bossed. I think Hughie was very proud of Tom and could never see enough of him. He so looked forward to being able to help with baby sitting and all too much to the two of them as if they were grown up.

Lilian Dailey (nee Dixon)

<PART TWO

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