This is from an account by Sheila English about her mother Dorothy May Ashman.

"My mother was in service with Lord and Lady Westmorland. Their daughter's names were June and Anne Capel and they lived at Lyegrove House in Wiltshire.

In the winter they lived in their London home at Richmond so Mum and the other maids used to go to the theatre on their days off. They used to sit in "the gods" where the seats were cheapest. Mum was a parlour maid and shared a room with 2 other girls and they never talked about "the facts of life" or anything like that (that explains why at the age of 25 when she was about to have me she didn't know where babies came from). Mum's job included putting coal on the fire in the parlour, and one day the Prince of Wales was sitting there in the armchair when she went in with the coal.

After Mum was married the nanny of the family sometimes sent parcels of clothes and toys which their children didn't need any more, it was a great help when we lived at Gorlestone and were very poor.

My father joined the army when he was 17 in WW1 and was sent to the Middle East, I still have a letter he wrote from there to his parents in 1917. Sometime between 1918 and 1926 he met my mother. He wrote an autograph in her book that year and I have got the book. Dad worked for the AA till he moved to Gorleston.

Mum and Dad met each other when he was performing his duties as an AA man and was standing by his box saluting people when Mum cycled past. They were married in 1928 at the Registry Office at Wimborne in Dorset which was some distance away. I don't know how that came about. They were married in a registry office and there are no pictures. They made their home in a house named Oakview at St. Ives near Ringwood and that is where I was born. The house is still there.

When Mum was expecting her second child, she was so unhappy that she packed her case and went home to her Mother [Celia Brown nee Cornaby] at Gorleston , I don't know how she got across London with me and a heavy suitcase. Eventually, my Dad followed her and they lived in a cottage in Dock Tavern Lane; my earliest memory is of that cottage. When my Dad was clearing the house prior to following Mum to Gorleston, he got rid of the letters he wrote to Mum when they were courting, and Mum was upset about that. He was good at putting his thoughts into writing as evidenced by the letter he wrote when he was 18 .

Dock Tavern Lane led to the quay near the mouth of the River Yar where the fishing trawlers docked to unload their catch of fish in barrels. Mum would go down there to buy herrings very cheaply to feed her growing family. Alongside the quay was a row of sheds with open fronts and we would walk along and watch the women below gutting the herrings, they wore rubber aprons and wellington boots. These women came every year from Scotland for the season and we would hear them talking to each other with their broad accents, I seem to remember that they travelled down by sea.

In the front room at 4 Dock Tavern Lane was a brown rexine covered sofa and four upright straight backed chairs and on the table was a wind-up gramophone with a green trumpet. Sometimes we would go in there to listen to records. The two I especially remember were "The Isle of Capri" and "The Cobbler's Song", we heard it many times.

One Christmas I can recall standing on a chair to stir the pudding then Mum went out to get some stout to put in it. The other children were in bed and there was only the two of us in the room.

When my sister Dorothy was born in April 1935, just before my 6th birthday, my two brothers and I were taken upstairs to see the new baby. She cried lustily as she lay in the bed beside mother and mum said, "She can cry too". My brother Philip stepped on the edge of the chamber pot and upset it so that caused a commotion. While Mum was laid up she received a box of Black Magic chocolates in exchange for some cocoa coupons. [This was long before war time rationing, so I can only think that these must have been some sort of coupons for poorer families.]

My father could not get regular employment, it was mostly seasonal. Gorleston came alive in the summer with holiday makers and I remember him on a tricycle selling ice cream. "Stop me and buy one" was the slogan, he wore a peaked cap and a white jacket. Another job he had was driving a van for Mr Hills delivering cakes and sometimes in the winter he delivered coal. I don't remember the other jobs.

During the 1930's we were going through a time called "The Great Depression", although us children didn't know much about it, but I do remember going to the soup kitchen where they doled out soup to needy families.

When I was 5 in 1935 my father took me to Stradbroke Road School in Gorleston and on the first day we sat in the hall waiting. The classroom door in the corner of the hall opened and I saw my teacher. I can still see her now in her green overall. She wore glasses, had ginger hair and was plump and motherly. She made me welcome and showed me where to put my lunch in the bag behind the door. As time went by I was able to go on my own to school and on the way along the street I always noticed the Sharp's toffee advert with the monocled man wearing the bowler hat.

I remember chanting the times table all together and learning it by heart every week. One year a Canadian teacher came in part exchange. In the winter the classrooms had open fires with big fireguards round them. Each year on Empire Day May 24th we had a celebration in the school hall. At other times I remember marching out into the playground while the teacher played a record on the gramophone "Colonel Bogey" and other tunes in that vein. In the school photos I can remember several of the children, one of them in the infants, Leonard, ate some plasticine - he must have been hungry. When George VI became King in 1937 we were all given a book about him and I have still got it, we were also given a silver coloured tin with a picture of our new King and Queen on it , inside the tin was some chocolate.

When I was about 8 years old and sitting next to a girl named Dorothy Pawsey in the needlework lesson she spoke to me and I replied so the teacher gave me a whack on the hand with her ruler, we were not supposed to speak in class. In that lesson I embroidered a cushion with marigolds and was very pleased with it, I can still see it now. At the end of term we were supposed to pay for it but on taking it home to Mum she said she couldn't afford it so I had to take it back to school. Marigolds always remind me of that cushion.

Now, back to life at Dock Tavern Lane. In December 1936 just before my brother Bill was born a girl named Eva came to see us and it was decided that she would take me on the train to stay with my grandparents. Whilst there I slept with my Auntie who had also come to stay while her husband was away on the Trinity House lightship. (http://www.trinityhouse.co.uk/) On Christmas morning before opening my eyes I heard some rustling and thought it was Father Christmas it was worrying for a few minutes until I heard my Auntie talking to her little boy. One of my gifts was a doll and later on that day the arms and legs came off Auntie got rather short tempered because she had a lot to do. At the party when I was sitting on Uncle Chester's knee he said he was too young to be called Uncle, there was only 10 years between us. Another night we went to a party at Uncle Fred's and played games like "Simon says do this", etc, then on the way home Auntie tried to put me on the end of her pram but I was too heavy.

On returning to Dock Tavern Lane I still have a clear picture of my two brothers Richard and Philip running in from the garden wearing identical hand knitted jumpers, Dad had made them a wheelbarrow each for Christmas. Indoors there was a surprise, our family had acquired a crystal radio set somehow and there were voices coming out of it the station was Radio Luxembourg. Later on I heard that famous jingle "We are the Ovaltinies happy boys and girls"

By the way, my brother Bill had arrived by then so I now had 3 brothers and a sister. When Mum had her babies she was looked after by her Aunt Rose a rather grim lady whose daughter had disgraced her.

In 1936 we moved to 99 Baliol Road, there was a wide alley way lit by gas lamps bordering on our back garden where we mostly played with the other children, hop scotch, marbles, skipping, bouncing balls or swapping cigarette cards etc. Dad smoked woodbines or Player's Navy Cut when he could afford it, there was a machine on the wall at the local shop where anyone could put in their money and buy them.

We went to Sunday School most weeks and then we qualified for the annual Sunday School treat to Somerleyton House and gardens this was the highlight of the year for us and the mothers came too. We were taken to the gardens of a big house where there was plenty of space for us to run around in, we had packets of Smith's crisps and they tasted different to the ones you buy today. Us children were once invited to tea by our middle aged Sunday School teacher who lived alone, the table was loaded with goodies and in the centre was a resplendent iced cake but we didn't have a piece because she never offered us any. We had all the other things but not the cake.

Most weeks we had a half penny pocket money, it was the change after Mum paid the insurance man and he gave it to us. There were several things you could buy for a farthing, everlasting strips or gob stoppers were the favourites or you could get yesterdays cakes at the bakers shop.

We walked to school each day and came home for lunch it was often bread and dripping, it must have been hard work for my mother to feed and clothe us all on not much money. Also there was all the washing to do by hand, she used to light the fire under the copper to boil up the sheets etc. At one point the two school age boys only had one shirt each so when it was half way through the week she washed the shirts , dried them overnight and ironed them in the morning. There was a black-leaded kitchen range with a big fire guard round it.

One day when we were going out to play my sister Dorothy aged three was laying on the sofa not feeling very well and couldn't come out with us. Soon after that when we came home from school for lunch the doctor was upstairs with Dorothy and Mum came hurrying downstairs and went up with a jug of water. She had seen the doctor coming out of next doors and called him in because she was very worried. People mostly only called the doctor if they were desperate because they had to pay him. In the afternoon on our way home from school some children called out "Your sister has died" so when we arrived indoors we were rather apprehensive and we said "Where's Dorothy?". Mum's words are still etched in my brain, "I left the window open and the angels took her". We said, "Why did you leave the window open ?" Dorothy had died of bronchial pneumonia. We didn't know that Mum was expecting her 6th child at the time and the shock caused the baby to be stillborn, she told me about it years later and also the last words Dorothy uttered, "Is I going to get better?"

After this tragic episode it was decided that Mum should go to stay with her Mother for a while taking Billy with her, he was a few months old. Dad looked after the remaining three of us. When Mum was back home she often took us for a walk pushing the pram with Billy in it and we would go to the small unmarked grave.

Not long after my sister died when I was 7 I became ill with polio (or infantile paralysis). It started with a pain at the back of my neck and being confined to bed not able to move. The next thing I remember is being pushed along in the big pram by mum at top speed to the Cottage Hospital and buying oranges on the way.

The hospital kept me in and as I couldn't move the nurses would periodically turn me over. My hair got very matted so they cut chunks of it off. Later on I was transferred by ambulance to the Norfolk and Norwich hospital with mum anxiously waving goodbye.

Eventually what seemed to help me a lot was being given injections in the spine. I started to improve and gradually got better. One day I was taken into a big room with students all sat round and the matron asked me if I would like to go to a convalescent home. It was at Cromer for 2 weeks.

Soon after this I arrived at Cromer and put my case in a big cupboard with lots of other cases. My bed was in a large mixed ward of boys and girls and we were all supposed to be quiet after lights out! After a nice breakfast every day we all had our daily dose of cod liver oil and malt. One day a letter arrived from my father which pleased me very much. The nurses took us all to the beach most days to get the air. Soon the two weeks was up and I was taken to the cupboard full of cases and didn't remember what mine looked like. Anyway I grabbed one of them. The next thing I recall is being met by my father at Norwich station and he took me home.

In the summer after school we often went straight to the beach where mum was with her friend Mrs Chatten and their prams. We enjoyed being down there playing in the sand and the sea. At home we only had a small back garden.

We never met my father's parents at Bath because nobody could afford the fare. Dad went on his own once and brought us some presents back. So in 1939 when they died within a week of each other we'd never seen them. Dad travelled to their funeral and then was invited to stay with his sister Annie at Boscombe near Bournemouth. He found there was much more work in that area compared to Gorlestone.

Meanwhile at Gorlestone we were issued with gas masks and mum was getting a bit worried so it was decided to move to Boscombe. Mum had to sort the house out and send things by rail. She sold some items. Her mother came to help and then took me home with her to Woodbridge in Suffolk. Mum, Richard, Philip and Billy came later to stay with Grandma for a few days on our way to Boscombe. Before mum arrived Grandma enrolled me at the village school to pass the time.

We arrived at Pokesdown station (Boscombe) in July 1939 and there was dad waiting for us on the platform. We were all glad to see him and then we walked all the way to aunties house where a great welcome awaited us.

We soon got used to being there and finding our way about and one day in early September when I was in charge of the three boys we were at Fisherman's Walk we saw a newspaper hoarding with big letters spelling one word "WAR". It was September 3rd and I was 10 years old. On another day not long after that when we were out we heard an air raid siren and followed some people into a hotel underground car park but nothing happened. We heard that you had to wait for the "All clear". At home dad put sticky tape across the windows in case of bomb blasts and we had to have blackout curtains. We were issued with ration books because as time went by things became in short supply. We were registered at the corner shop for our rations.

Uncle Reg was away in the Merchant Navy. I don't know how long we lived with auntie and her two sons but when uncle was coming home she decided to move to another house she liked better while we remained at 161 Stourvale Road. It was all quite amicable.

As the war progressed we had some evacuees come to stay with us. A mother and her children and they lived in our front room for a few weeks then decided to go back to their own home.

Our school was just around the corner and I took the 11 plus exam during my first year there but didn't pass. Two of my friends, Iris and Betty, passed and went to the Municipal College at Bournemouth.

While we still lived at Stourvale Road our school was closed when a lot of French soldiers were billetted there. We didn't know why they came. We were living in exciting times!

It wasn't long before mum decided we should move to a council house because the rent was much cheaper so off we went to 148 Iford Lane next to the railway line. It was then a long walk to school (boo hoo). [Colin, possibly put in here the photos we took of this house?]

On our first night there when a train rushed by dad jumped out of bed and got under it thinking there was an air raid. We got used to the trains being so close. Some people had Anderson Shelters in their living rooms but we just had an extra wall outside the front door. Our Anderson Shelter was an iron and steel table.

From time to time we heard air raid sirens and if it happened when we were at school we had to wait till the "All clear" before we could go home. During the war some bombs were dropped in the Bournemouth direction. One was on the Hotel Metropole which was full of Canadians.

At school our teachers were either elderly or unfit for serving in the armed forces. I remember Mr Stiles singing in the classroom "The last time I saw Paris" - he was quite a character.

We lived opposite a field which led to a river where my brothers would go swimming. On the other side of the river further down was M.E.X.E the Mechanical Engineering Experimental Establishment where they developed the Bailey Bridge. It was a sectional portable bridge used by the army during the war to cross rivers when a bridge was wrecked. Our river was nice and wide so they used it to test out their invention.

We sometimes used to get over the fence by the railway line to play on the bank and we put a penny on the track to see what happened when the train went over it.

Dad grew lots of vegetables in the garden to keep us supplied. It was imperative especially during the war when we were all told to "Dig for victory". England had to be mostly self sufficient. People walking by admired his garden.

Another slogan was "Careless talk costs lives" also "Even walls have ears" in case a spy was listening.

We were asked to give newspapers and books to be recycled for the war effort so dad gave his school prizes "King Solomon's Mines", "John Halifax Gentlemen" and "East of Suez". I had read those books and thought it was a pity they had to go.

When I was 13 there were cookery lessons at school. One day I made a shepherd's pie with the families meat ration and was carefully carrying it home when I dropped it outside the school gates. A dog came along and ate it all up! When I got home I looked so woebegone that when she heard my story my mum just laughed.

There weren't many toys made during the war so we had rather a lean time at Christmas.

All the above was written by Dorothy's daughter, Sheila, and it gives a marvellous idea of what Dorothy was like. But reading what Dorothy herself has written gives an even bigger picture of her personality. This is part of a letter written by Dorothy to Sheila in March 1958, at the time of the birth of her grandson, Colin (the same Colin who is doing this website). The letter was written from Dorothy and William's home at 148 Iford Lane, Boscombe (see photos).

(Just a quick note, the letter was virtually devoid of punctuation. There were virtually no capital letters or full stops to indicate the start or end of sentences, or paragraphs, but she did occasionally use commas. Usually it's pretty obvious where these should be, I hope I've added them all in the right place. I've also removed references to others of her children, to protect their privacy.)

"Dear Sheila,

"So pleased to hear junior is gaining weight. He will get on alright. I think he is a dear little chap. You must wrap him up well when you come out as its so cold. To look out of your window the sunshine makes you think its lovely and warm.

"I've been watching the Queen Mother arriving this morning on teli, the plane was late and princess Ann kept looking at her watch.

"I expect John has told you we are still decorating blue in our bedroom for a change, when I was scrubbing the room out, I upset a whole bucket of hot water on the floor. Was I mad. I put the bed cover down for quickness to mop up the water. By my quick action the water didn't seep thru the ceiling, thank goodness. This morning, I was preparing the boys room for Dad to whitewash the Ceiling, and the corporation came to do our staircase so we can't get on, they take the paper off the walls, then leave for a week or so. Keep you hanging about, I wanted to get that room done first before we put [one of our son's] bed up, as you can't move with the two beds up.

"I asked John to bring any washing over to be done here. All he managed to rake up was 2 towels and tea towel, so if there is anymore will you tell him where you usually keep your dirty washing. I haven't been over yet. [She then talks about some other washing that she's done, and says] There was a lovely dry today.

"Bye, bye, for now
Love to little Colin x
Loving Mum x"