My aunt met Uncle Bill on a holiday. They took me to a posh hotel in Manchester and Laura told me I had to eat everything that was put in front of me. I was then violently sick in the Foyer! Laura & Bill married in Manchester Cathedral on the 21st December 1946 and I was a bridesmaid. They then moved to Burton-by-Rossett in Wales to a bungalow as my Uncle worked in the Education Offices in Chester at the time. My Grandfather and I could always get to Chester in my Dad’s car but we could never make it in Bill’s car because the leather smelt so much and Bill used to put his foot down and then take it off the pedal and you got the movement of fast and then slow. (He never took a driving test). I remember my aunt getting furious with me and pushing me onto what appeared to be a footpath but was actually a ditch and I fell down it and for years afterwards was picking out gravel from my knee. I used to go into Chester with Bill and spend my day wandering round the walls and down by the river and generally enjoying Chester. Bill was a great swimmer and at one point dived into the Dee from the Suspension Bridge. I also remember going to a tributary of the Dee and seeing otters there. It was at Burton-by-Rossett that I met Barbara Phillips (as she was then) and I am still friends with her today. We write regularly- she married Derek Caulfield but he had now got Parkinsons and finds it much more difficult to get about as time goes by. I also used to go to the farm a few doors away from where my aunt and uncle lived in their bungalow (the farmers were called the Redrupps) and became very friendly with their dog! (I have a picture in the album). He was a small terrier who used to go down the fields and bring back the cattle. My Aunt and Uncle them moved to Marford just of the main road between Wrexham and Chester to a very large house. There was a pig farm opposite that used to fascinate Uncle Bill. My aunt had two beauty salons, one in Wrexham and one in Chester and she wanted me to go into it with her but it wasn’t my “cup of tea”. Bill taught me to swim at Hoylake swimming pool. I attended Moseley Hall and used to ride my bike there every day except when the weather was too awful and my mother made my go by bus. It was a mixed school so there were boys as well as girls and several of the boys from Bramhall also passed to Moseley Hall. I used to meet “Bombhead” – Alec Maund, so called because he had a shock of red hair. (He was Friar Tuck in the Bramhall school play). I was in the “A” stream and the subjects I enjoyed the most were English, French and History. I kept in touch with Alec until I was 21 but then it faded out. I got to know Kate Ireland (or Kathleen as she was known then). (She also went to Bramhall school and took the part of the Grey Witch in the school play). We used to meet and cycle together to school. She wasn’t in the same class as me but we became firm friends. She and I joined the Tennis Club in Woodford and we also used to do the cricket teas. A few years later, Kay Sellars moved down from Leeds and she also became a firm friend. My first boyfriend was a twin Gerald Huxley (known as Geb), twin brother Kenneth. That was when I was about 15. It didn’t last all that long though! I also used to go to Life Saving classes from Moseley Hall. Sadly, it is no longer a school and a hotel has been built on the side. Moseley Hall used to be an old Hall but I can’t remember the family who lived there. I remember going to a dance social at Cheadle Hulme with Kathleen. We used to wear circular skirts with lots of petticoats underneath. We would often walk home with the boys who danced with us (they usually had a bike) but it was about four miles so I can’t remember whether we took a bus eventually. My Dad bought a car from Fred Maddocks (next door). (WS3928). Dad eventually passed his test on Market Day in Macclesfield. The wife of the local farmer went with him (Mrs Gibson) but said he would definitely pass so cleared off and left Dad to it. Fortunately he did pass. We used to go on holiday with the Sellars (Kay’s parents) and went twice to Ilfracombe and once to Bournemouth. I remember it took us 2 days to get down South because the car wouldn’t go more than about 40 mph. We once stayed at Laycock and I remember they had a stagecoach outside the inn as they were always filming there. In fact the recent episodes of Cranford were also filmed there. I remember going down to the beach in Bournemouth and Kay and I sat on the boot of Mr. Sellars car – it certainly wouldn’t be allowed now. Fred was an electrician and I used to babysit Carol & Keith (Keith was the oldest) when Beattie & Fred went to Belle Vue to the Dog Track and they used to bring in Fish & Chips (for me also) and then we had cream cakes – something my mother could never afford. I actually used to go to the Bramhall village to buy the cakes for Beattie and always wondered what to buy when I got there. They also had a TV which was unheard of in those days and I enjoyed watching that. I think we went in there to see the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth. I remember Jehovah’s Witnesses calling on Beattie and she said “just let me put a bet on the 2.30 and then I’ll come and talk to you. The Witnesses moved away!! I joined the Church choir but the girls weren’t allowed to process. Only the boys were allowed to do that. I was confirmed by the Bishop of Stockport, The Rev. Wilfrid Garlic who at that time was the radio parson (Thought for the day). I think I was probably about 15. Woodford got a bit of notoriety when the vicar, the Rev. Philip St. John Ross disappeared at Hell’s Mouth in Wales. His car was found abandoned and his clothes were on the beach so it was presumed that he had drowned. Several years later he was found hiding in the boot of a car in Switzerland. I joined the Brownies and Brown Owl (Mrs Whittaker) used to own the Deanwater Hotel and we often went there and had a lot of fun around the trees and the stream in the grounds. I became a Patrol Leader in the Brownies and I then “flew up” to Guides and also enjoyed my time there. I also became a Patrol Leader in the Guides and used to take my patrol down to Bramhall Woods on Nature Walks. At that point, we could actually pick the bluebells! We used to go to Guide camps on the back of Mr. Wilkinson’s coal lorry (scrubbed up of course for the occasion!). (I don’t think that would be allowed now for Health and Safety reasons.) I remember going to Matlock Bath. We had a round tent with our feet pointing towards the centre. I think the Guiders had a caravan. We certainly enjoyed Matlock Bath and went on long walks around the area. I took part in several of the Fancy Dress they used to have at the village Rose Queen fete. I remember once I was a Costermonger, and once in the year of the Festival of Britain was “Rule Britannia! June and I were attendants to the Rose Queen (Audrey Wood) the previous year and then in 1953, I was voted in as the new Rose Queen. That was the year that the new community centre was opened by Mr. & Mrs Shaw. I remember being driven around Woodford by Rene Clayton on the back on a car before the ceremony. (Something else that wouldn’t be allowed now). There were dances at the new Community Centre and my parents starting going to Benja’s Fold in Bramhall to be taught by Mrs. Burgess. My Dad used to come home and demonstrate quite fancy footwork and I decided it was time to learn to dance also. When you were taught by Mrs Burgess you remained taught! Archie who was a milkman and lived with Mr. & Mrs Burgess, came to the classes and was a very good dancer. I got my Bronze, Silver and Gold medals and also my Empire Emblem (the school of dancing was the Empire Society of Teachers of Dancing but I don’t know if that exists now although it was a Northern Society). When I was going out with David, Archie used to put on the “Belle Bottom Blues” and grin at me and then dance with me. (although David didn’t have bell bottoms!) Mum & Dad got their Bronze, Silver & Gold but didn’t go any further. I also met there Elsie & Joe Bannister and I became Godmother to Elsie and Joe’s daughter Susan. Joe sadly died of cancer and Elsie moved to the Isle of Man. She then went back to Blackpool near to her daughter Susan and her second husband also died there, and Elsie and Joe’s son, Michael, died of kidney failure. It wasn’t a very happy life. Now Elsie lives in Fuerteventura in the Canary Isles along with her daughter and son-in-law and son. Years later when we were on holiday at Lake Garda we met a family from Cheadle Hulme and they were still going to Mrs. Burgess’s lessons! June and I together with David Buckley, started to organise Young Peoples Dances at the new Community Centre and we had the fore-runner of the disco – a DJ who brought strict tempo Waltzs, Quicksteps, Foxtrots and Tangos as well as playing the Palais Glide and some Scottish Flings. We also had various other dances as well such as the Barn Dance, the Veleta, and the St. Bernard’s Waltz. I used to enjoy these dances although never went out with anyone from the dance group. There was a dramatic society set up in the new Community Centre (the old one was wooden and was pulled down). I joined the society and quite often was given the junior lead. We used to practice in someone’s house (usually Mrs Simpson’s) and then for the dress rehearsal we practiced at the community centre. I remember one year, the lights all went out and we had to wait until they came back on again before we could continue with the play. When I was 17, my Aunt & Uncle moved to Jersey and bought a perfume and cosmetics shop. They had a flat just across the road. I went to see them and it took 3 hours from Manchester to Jersey and then we couldn’t land because of fog and we were taken to Dinard in France where we stayed the night, flying back the next morning. I had never stayed in such a grand hotel. Kay Sellars also came to Jersey at that time with her parents and I spent some time with her. The shop made a bomb for my aunt and uncle but my aunt was hankering after coming back and they came back to London after 7 years and sold the shop. My uncle was never well whilst in London – they bought a medical book shop and had to pay vast amounts for employees, and the Dr. told Laura to get him back to Jersey immediately. They moved back to Jersey and my uncle bought a jeweller’s shop and my aunt set up her electrolysis business. That was when they rented a house half way between St. Helier & St. Aubin. Uncle would never buy a house because he wanted to use his investments although at the time, houses were very cheap in Jersey. Now you can’t buy a low cost house as they are all for the Jersey born people. I left school at 17 and went to Miss Wilkinson’s Secretarial College for Young Gentlewomen!! There I learned to type and do shorthand. I think my aunt and uncle paid for some of the fees as my parents could never have afforded it. I remember at one point the Manchester University Rag Group coming in and rampaging through the college. I became friends with several girls and used to go to the cinema with them. I had 10 shillings a week for my lunches. (50p in today’s terms). I would occasionally eat at a restaurant in St. Ann’s Square but the only thing I could afford was Tomatoes on toast that cost probably 1/9d.and a drink. A better deal was at a café underneath Lewis’s where I could get a reasonable meal for 1/3d and could then afford a drink too. After I finished at Miss Wilkinson’s I went for a holiday with Kathleen and her parents near Stratford. We met two airmen there and they could dance so enjoyed that. Unfortunately, the guy I was with was 6’3” and I was only 5’3” so it was a bit of a struggle dancing with him. They did come to Woodford to see us but I finished it then. I then got a job with a partner at a firm of Chartered Accountants in Manchester and went there on the train. His previous secretary had been with him for 19 years. It was there that I met Jean who was 12 years older than me and she worked for Mr. Myers. Jean eventually married Alan Waring also from work. They had a boy but it didn’t really work out as Alan was a lot younger than Jean. It was also there that I met David Port who was in the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve. At Christmastime we went to the Manchester Palace theatre to see a pantomine as a group from work, and when we came out it was dreadfully foggy. David found someone who was going to Poynton and we travelled in his car but someone had to walk in front of the car all the way to establish where we were going. I phoned Dad and he tried to get to Poynton but in the end had to give up when he was nearly there. David and I were walking into the hedge and onto the verge as the fog was so thick. We did eventually meet Dad which was fortunate and he eventually managed to find his way home. Eventually David qualified as an Accountant and then had to do his National Service. He was fortunate to go in as an Officer and, I think it was at Liverpool, that the ship came in and I was invited to attend. The Navy certainly didn’t do things by halves then and we were piped on board. It was an Aircraft carrier and the Marines Band was playing on one of the decks they used for the aircraft that was partly up. We had food and drinks. We were then piped off again when the event finished and I came home again by train. Eventually, David’s ship was sent to New Zealand. Six of us went to the Isle of Man, David, Derek & Graham and Kate, Anne Tunstall and me. The girls shared a room and the boys did also. We met a family there who shared a table with us. We stayed at the Balqueen Hydro at Port St. Mary and we went to Port Erin to a dance. The guy who came with us could actually dance and I really enjoyed dancing with him. He lived at “Crows Nest House” Hebden Bridge, Yorkshire. I did actually write to him for a few years. David couldn’t dance at all. There was a boy called Pete joined the tennis club together with his friend – I can’t remember his surname. Pete was a butcher who lived at Cheadle Hulme. He very kindly started to teach me to drive in his brand new Morris Minor although I didn’t take my test until down South. I went out with the son of the Chief Constable of Stockport for a while. Occasionally David Rees (another one!) would borrow his father’s car. That was in the days when there were policemen around and they would salute smartly as the car came along. David did come down to Woodbourne Avenue but I finished it with him then. I believe he eventually married a widow with four children. I remember going into Manchester on the day of the Munich Air Crash. This was the Manchester United football team. Everyone was just standing around, reading the papers. I think everyone knew someone who had died in the crash. In fact our old senior partner (well he seemed old to me then) was a friend of the Club secretary who died in the crash.