Olive was born on 23rd February 1889 at 13 Sandy Lane, Barrowford, Lancashire. This tiny terraced house was the home of Joseph and Nancy Holt. Nancy made sure that her daughters Edith, Olive and Florence learnt needlework. Before they went to school, and later the mill, they had to spend an hour every morning doing some form of needlework, perhaps embroidery or crochet.

On 15th August 1916, Olive married Herbert Duerden at the Hill Top Congregational Chapel in Barrowford. They had met at a dance in the nearby village of Barley. Olive and her brothers and sisters would have walked there from Barrowford. It is a fair distance, but there would have been no public transport. Herbert had walked even further, having come from Burnley and walked over Pendle Hill during the day. At the time of her marriage, Olive lived at 6 Belmont Terrace in Barrowford. Her brother and sister, Fred and Flo, were the witnesses. If the photos we have are anything to go by, these are the brother and sister she was closest to in later life.

Herbert and Olive were married during the First World War. They did not live together for another ten years. Soon after the marriage, Herbert left to serve in the Royal Army Medical Corps, first of all in Salonika and then India. He did not return until 1921 or 22. Very soon after this, he got a place at Birkbeck College in London to study law. Olive did not join him until about 1926. We don't know if she lived in her parent's home during this time, but before she moved to London, they had both died - her mother in 1919 and her father in 1924. We believe that she continued working as a cotton weaver and her income helped to get Herbert through college (he was also working in London at the same time that he was in college, teaching botany). He would not have been able to afford to go to university unless he got a scholarship, there being no family money or savings to help him. We have been told by Olive's niece that he applied for a scholarship to send one Lancashire lad to university, but he did not get it. Olive's sister Florence had married a solicitor, Robert Slater. Robert quizzed Herbert about how well he thought he had done in the exam. Once he was convinced that Herbert thought he had done well, he fought for Herbert to have the right to get the scholarship, and he won. It seems that prejudice had stopped him from winning it. The man who had originally been awarded it was from a comfortably middle class background - they hadn't wanted to give it to someone from such an obviously poor, working class background as Herbert's.

Olive was 37 when she eventually joined Herbert and they at last set up home together, ten years after they had married. They lived first of all at Wandsworth where a son, Gordon, was born to them, and then Streatham, where, at the age of 42, she had her second son. In about 1935 they moved to Horley in Surrey, 175 Balcombe Road.

When Herbert got his degree/doctorate (?) he went to Ede and Ravenscroft to hire his gown. There he met Leila Williams, with whom he subsequently went to dancing classes. We have always thought it must have been disconcerting for Olive when she at last moved to London that, as well as Herbert meeting her at the railway station, he had taken along Leila as well. Leila lived at Wandsworth, so maybe that is why Herbert chose it as their first home. (Herbert secretly kept in touch with Leila over the next few decades, and he married Leila within a year of Olive dying.)

In about 1940/1, Olive took her two sons back to Barrowford and all three lived with her brother Fred, and his wife Margaret, while the blitz was at its worst in south east Britain.

In about 1960, when Herbert retired and both sons were married, they moved to 2 Whiteman's Close, Cuckfield in Sussex. They used to go to whist drives in the village. Olive died on 19th June 1967. She had been ill for a long time with heart problems. I was eight when she died and I have no memories of her at all. I can remember our family meeting Grandma and Grandpa for a picnic by a watersplash in the Ashdown Forest. I know Grandma must have been there, but I don't remember her. I also remember visiting when she was ill in bed, but that's because I remember the great big jars of sweets they used to keep for us, not her at all, although I have a vague memory of a fluffy crotcheted pink bedjacket around her shoulders. The year before she died, Herbert and Olive celebrated their Golden Wedding Anniversary. Although there were a couple of lunches and various other gatherings, I can't remember Grandma there, although I can distinctly remember various other older relatives.