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Peter Steward's Web Pages |
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My Site
Review Section Books Concerts
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History
of the Steward Family
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Sixer's real name was
George. He was a self-employed shoe maker which is not surprising in a
city which was renowned for this trade. The census has him down as
"Worker working at home."
George "Sixer" Steward
A history of Norwich in the
19th century gives some idea of the world that the Stewards would have
inhabited:
In 1801 Norwich had a
population of 36,000. It was still one of the largest cities in Britain
but it soon fell behind as towns in the North and the Midlands mushroomed.
Nevertheless Norwich grew during the 19th century and by 1900 it had a
population of over 100,000.
In the early and mid 19th
century skilled workers built houses at Heigham and around Vauxhall
Street. The middle classes built houses along Thorpe Road. However, like
all 19th century towns Norwich was dirty, overcrowded and unsanitary.
There were outbreaks of smallpox, typhoid, cholera and dipthaeria during
the century. In 1819 there were 530 deaths from smallpox.
Nevertheless there were many
improvements to Norwich in the 19th century. In 1804 a dispensary was
opened where the poor could obtain free medicines. In 1806 an act of
parliament formed a body of men called the Improvement Commissioners who
had powers to pave, clean and light the streets.
The first police force in
Norwich was formed in 1836. As early as the 18th century there was a piped
water supply in Norwich - for those who could afford it but the water was
impure. In the 1850s the council built a pure water supply. In the 1870s
they built a network of sewers.
After 1877 they began slum
clearance. The first public library opened in 1857. Chapelfield was opened
as a public park in 1852. Mousehold Heath opened as a park in 1886. The
Castle museum opened in 1894. The Royal Arcade was built in 1899. In 1844
Norwich was connected to Yarmouth by train. From 1849 it was connected to
London. The Roman Catholic Cathedral in Norwich was built in 1884.
During the 19th century wool
weaving and silk weaving rapidly declined. However, leather working
boomed. So did brewing (note that in the 1901 census William Steward was
listed as a brewer's labourer). Norwich became famous for boot and shoe
making. In the late 19th century an engineering industry grew up in
Norwich and flourished. There was also a mustard making industry.
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George "Sixer" Steward (back row) is photographed at the wedding of his son Arthur Steward to Florence Payne. Arthur was born in 1894 and that would put the date of this photo at about 1916 which is borne out by Arthur wearing military uniform. |
George Steward was born in
1858 and was apparently married twice. His first wife, Hannah, who was
born in 1861 and is recorded in the 1881 census
as a "fitter," died. Initially my information was that
George had one son Horace from his first marriage and two daughters (Alice
and Sarah) and one son (Arthur) from the second marriage.
The census seems to disprove
this, however. He is listed as having four sons and two daughters of
which Horace was the youngest at just one. The eldest George was
definitely the son of Hannah and I would suspect from ages that William,
Sarah and possibly Alice were born to Hannah, whilst Arthur (my
grandfather) and Horace were born to Sarah. It is likely that he gained
the nickname Sixer from having six children.
In the 1901 census, George's
wife is listed as Sarah Steward who was aged 37 (and therefore seven years
younger than her husband). Like George, her birthplace is given as
Norwich, Norfolk, but her employment status is "undefined".
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Sarah Steward - My great grandmother |
The eldest son is listed as
George and his age of 20 means that he was born in 1880. His employment is
given simply as "worker."
Next in line was William,
aged 18 who is noted as a Brewer's Labourer. Sarah D. Steward was 17 and
described as a "Boot Twiner."
Next comes 13-year-old Alice, followed by Arthur, aged seven and finally Horace, aged 1. This establishes that my grandfather (Arthur) was born in 1894 or 1895. Alice married Elijah Ribbons who was head gardener at a holiday camp at Hemsby. They had one son. Horace married Hilda Watling who was born in 1896. They had twin daughters named Betty and Barbara. Horace subsequently died of Bright's Disease. I have been given a great amount of help in this area by Steven Dann of Norwich who is Betty's son. Steven contacted me through the excellent Genes Re-united web site to say that his mother married Bramwell Dann and he was born in 1954. He subsequently married Judith Atterton and had two children - Nicholas Dann (born 1978) and Eleanor Dann (born 1980). Eleanor married Ian Neave and they have a son Jamie Neave (born in 2000). And so the family tree begins to grow with new branches.
My understanding is also that
Betty's twin sister Barbara had two daughters - Roz and Patricia. Patricia
is now Patricia Cameron and I believe that she is undertaking her own
family research.
By all accounts Sixer Steward made Japanese style shoes from his own home and drank considerable amounts. His family were often forced to go begging for soup in order to survive. I have been told that it was common for him to finish an assignment and then "disappear" drinking for days, only to return home when the next job became available. It is also thought that his long suffering wife was a member of the Salvation Army and this in itself would have been a great source of domestic strife due to her abstinence. One comment I have received surrounds one of his disappearances and a report back that he was "caught one night entertaining the old trollops in the Magdalen Street area of Norwich." Magdalen Street would only be a few minutes walk from the area in which he lived.
Through the ages, boot and shoemaking became ever more important to Norwich. Modern day excavations at Whitefriars Bridge revealed fragments of soles, uppers and triangular off-cuts of leather, clearly the waste from shoemaking, dating from the 10th and 11th century. By the mid 18th century, Norwich was a prosperous textile manufacturing city providing footwear for a large surrounding area.
As the textile industry dropped off, footwear took over. The streets around Whitefriars and Cowgate would have been constantly busy with people, often children, carrying boots and shoes in various states of completion back and forth.
Machines for sewing uppers were introduced into Norwich in about 1856 and stouter machines for sewing the uppers to the soles were introduced about 1870.
The National Union of Boot and Shoe Operatives was established in 1874 to cater for workers in the new industry and in 1897 there was a strike to gain the minimum wage, a 54 hour week and constraint on the part of the employers in the employment of cheap boy labour. The strike lasted for 34 weeks and resulted in the workers returning to work for very little gain.
The use of outworkers (and I believe my descendents to be in this area) provided the manufacturers with an infinitely variable workforce. The workers were not employed permanently and could be taken on or laid off at will.
As more machinery was
introduced and the need for direct quality control increased,
manufacturers employed outworkers less and less and this caused great
distress. By 1910 the balance of shoemaking was undertaken in factories
rather than from outsource.
On looking at a map of Norwich I notice that Cowgate adjoins a small back street that is named Steward Street. At first I thought this might have been named after Sixer as he was a well-known tradesman in the area. But there were many people with the surname Steward working in this area. Further research has shown that there are places in Norwich named after either a Steward or a Stewardson.
Steward's Court and Yard ran from number 130-132 George's Street but went out of existence sometime between 1935 and 1941. An 1877 directory lists it as the works of G. F. Steward, boot and shoe manufacturer.
Then there was a Steward's Yard
on the south side of Bull Close which was lost between 1883 and 1890. The
directory lists it being used by George Steward, a baker.
To put the time of my
great-grandfather's birth into some kind of national and international
context, the year before his birth, 1857, was the year Afghanistan became
independent, James Buchanan was inaugurated as the 15th President of the
United States of America, Garibaldi was attempting to unify Italy. George
Borrow wrote Romany Rye, Joseph Conrad was born, Thomas Hughes wrote Tom
Brown's Schooldays and Anthony Trollope wrote Barchester Towers. In
London, the National Portrait Gallery was opened, the Victoria and Albert
Museum was opened as the Museum of Ornamental Art and the Science Museum
in South Kensington started its life. Edward Elgar and Robert Baden-Powell
were born and Louis Pasteur proved that fermentation was caused by living
organisms. There was a financial and economic crisis throughout Europe
caused by speculation in United States railroad shares.
The year of his birth, 1858,
saw Lord Derby become Prime Minister and Britain proclaim peace in India.
It was the year that Theodore Roosevelt was born and Saint Bernadette is
reputed to have seen her vision of the Virgin Mary at Lourdes. Puccini was
born and Ottawa became the capital of Canada.
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The watercolour above shows Cowgate, Norwich, in 1867 and was painted by renowned local artist Henry Ninham (1793-1874) The original is on display in Norwich Castle Museum.
I should imagine that the
young George Steward would have been blissfully unaware of any of these
developments which were helping to modernise the world, although there is
some suggestion at the time that revolution was a topic of conversation as
will be shown in an excerpt from a book below.
A visit to my local library
uncovered a volume entitled "One Journey" by Bert Steward.
Written in 1981, it details his life growing up in the Cowgate area of
Norwich and his subsequent survival of the trenches of the First World War
and his success as a farmer on the Norfolk-Suffolk border.
I have at present been unable
to ascertain whether Bert is a direct relative of mine, but it would seem
quite likely as he grew up in the same area of Norwich which today boasts
the Puppet Theatre amongst other things.
The book does have an
interesting few paragraphs about growing up in that area of the city. Bert
was born in 1897. He lists his great grandfather as James Steward, a
weaver. "Like many 19th-century Norwich citizens he worked in his own
home, using an upstairs room, sitting on a stool pedalling away at his
loom."
"The talk was of
revolution. He (James Steward) was a Chartist. Near his loom hung a big
picture of Feargus O'Connor, the Chartist leader. The Chartists believed
that elections for parliament should not be decided as they were then, by
a limited franchise and beer and bribery, but by a secret ballot and one
man one vote."
Bert Steward goes on to talk
about the life of his father, Arthur (another close name link with my own
family here), and his two brothers - George and John, and their school
Days at the Norman School in Cowgate Street. They were entitled to attend
this establishment under the terms of the will of an ancestor Alderman
John Norman who was Mayor of Norwich in 1714.
"Joseph Benjamin Brown
was the headmaster, and the first errand my father was given was to shop
to buy a big bundle of canes. These Mr Brown used generously, particularly
on his two sons, but also on the Steward brothers. They benefited,
learning more than the three Rs, the eldest becoming a headmaster himself,
brother John being apprenticed to a Norwich carpenter, and my father, when
14, leaving according to the school records to help his father."
"His own father needed
some help. The making of boots and shoes was taking the place of weaving
in Norwich industry, and George Feargus Steward was one of the first of
the small manufacturers round about 1860.
"In Colegate Street,
where the 14-year-old was helping his father, there was also Tillyard and
Howlett, later Howlett and White and then the Norvic Shoe Company, so
there was competition right on the doorstep."
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My paternal grandmother's maiden name was PAYNE and I am greatly indebted to Ian Baker who has provided me with much of what follows on this side of my family.
George H Payne was born in about 1860, probably to Henry Payne and Eliza Charlotte Drake who had married in 1852. Henry Payne died in 1864 and in the 1871 census Eliza is living in Northumberland Street in the Heigham area of Norwich. She is a 49-year-old widowed Laundress and has five unmarried children living with her. Elizabeth is an 18-year-old Laundress, Mary Ann a 16-year-old Laundress with Honor, 14, Eliza, 12, and George,9, all scholars and all born in Norwich.
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Eliza Payne |
In 1881 the same family group is living at 118, Northumberland Street. Eliza Payne is described as a 59-year-old widow and Laundress, George, 20, is a Labourer at Heigham Lime Works and probably a lime burner, Elizabeth, 28, and Eliza, 22, are Laundresses and Mary Ann, 25, and Honor, 24, are Willow Box Makers.
George Payne was later to marry Elizabeth Barrett. Elizabeth was born in Mulbarton in about 1854. In the 1871 census she is a 17-year-old general servant to Ann L. Palmer, a widow, in the village of Mulbarton. Early in 1879 Elizabeth married Zachariah Gowing who also lived in Mulbarton. Zachariah was a shoemaker and the son of Samuel Gowing, a shoemaker, and his wife Mary.
Zachariah died, aged 25, towards the end of 1879 after less than a year of marriage, leaving Elizabeth a pregnant widow. By the time of the 1881 census, Elizabeth Gowing (nee Barrett) has a one year old daughter, Mary E. Gowing, and is living with her parents John and Eliza Barrett on Norwich Road, Mulbarton. Next door is the family of Samuel and Mary Gowing, the parents of her deceased husband Zachariah. By now Samuel Gowing, 51, is an established figure in the village, being a Master Shoemaker and the Parish Clerk. It is likely that the homes were somewhere around the village pond.
In 1884 the widowed Elizabeth Gowing married Lime Burner George Payne, who was some five years her junior. They set up home in the Heigham area of Norwich and by the time of the 1891 census they were living at 86, Northumberland Street and had three children - Kate H, 6, Ethel, 3, and Ellen M (Nellie), 16 months. All had been born in Norwich.
Mary E. Gowing, Elizabeth's daughter from her first marriage, stayed in Mulbarton with her grandmother Eliza Barrett and was there in 1891. She has not been found in the 1901 census, but appears to have married late in 1901 (possibly either to Sidney Bellchambers or Ernest George Brighton).
George's mother Eliza in 1891 was living at 59, Northumberland Street, aged 69, with daughters Elizabeth, Mary A, Honor and Eliza. All five of them are shown as Laundress. Eliza died in 1895, aged 73.
In the 1901 census George Payne and Elizabeth are living at 66, Northumberland Street, Heigham and have four daughters at home - Ethel, 13, Ellen M, 11, Florence M (my grandmother), 7, and Anna E, 5. George, aged 40, is now a Labourer-Scavenger. Kate Payne, aged 16, was a domestic servant in the household of Richard Burrow at 130, Queen's Road, Norwich. Northumberland Street still exists as a narrow area just off the main Dereham Road in Norwich and about 20 minutes' walk from the city centre.
The term Labourer-Scavenger has intrigued me and I have been able to find out very little about it. At first I thought it would be the equivalent of a modern day refuse collector, but now have the feeling that it may have been less grand. A scavenger may well have had something to do with the collection of excrement from the road! Again as with the Steward side of the family, it seemed that George Payne more than enjoyed his drink and also frittered his money away on booze. He apparently kept some ducks and one Christmas asked his family to look after them whilst he went out on a bender. When he returned he found the family had lost the birds and so went into a drunken rage which included throwing his entire family out onto the streets in the pouring rain. George's nickname was Camster. I still have to ascertain why!
It is difficult to ascertain information on my grandmother's sisters, but I have gained one or two snippets which still need verification. It is thought that Kate Payne married a man by the name of Barner who worked with horses and they had three daughters. Ethel married a man by the name of Bob Wilkes who worked on the estate of Lord Roberts at Cockley Cley in West Norfolk.
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Arthur and Florence Steward. On the right on their wedding day and on the left a number of years later |
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Florence Payne married Arthur Steward and they became my paternal grandparents. Looking back I can still remember my grandmothers sisters Ethel, Nellie and Annie. I particularly remember Ethel who lived in a converted railway carriage in the west of Norfolk, which I always thought to be great fun.
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The six sisters - The Payne Ladies |
Indeed in my own personal diary entry for Monday, January 1st, 1973 I note:
"Got up at 10.15 a.m, had breakfast and checked the car ready to take Ethel back to Boughton. Set off at about 11 a.m and after a slow journey reached the destination at 12.30 p.m. Had dinner and set off for home at about 2 p.m. The return journey was much faster and took just over and hour."
Unfortunately I didn't record anything about the conversations or anything else that took place on that day. I also remember coming across the sisters at the wedding of my cousin Jennifer Nobbs to Raymond Ollason a number of years previous to this. I can also remember that one of the sisters (and I can't remember which one) died in my grandmothers house whilst staying there.
The records would put my grandmother's date of birth at about 1894 and she lived to be just a few months short of what would have been her 100th birthday. Towards the end of her life she lived in a home in Links Close in Hellesdon and refused to admit to being nearly 100, taking a few years off her age whenever possible.
Florence Payne met and married Arthur Steward and they lived at 122 Reepham Road, Hellesdon, which is about three miles out of Norwich in the North Norfolk direction. Today Hellesdon is a thriving suburb of Norwich, but in the early days of their marriage it would have been a much quieter place. Previously Florence had been employed as a laundress in Norwich Waterworks.
At one time my grandfather Arthur Steward was employed by Caleys Chocolate Factory. He was made redundant and moved to Hellesdon where he rented a bungalow from the local squire. Presumably this was 122 Reepham Road. He also rented a grocery store opposite and this is likely to be 154 Reepham Road where I was born.
My grandfather would deliver goods around Hellesdon and as far afield as Horsford on his bike. During the war he had a nervous breakdown which necessitated my father returning from the second world war to look after the shop. Later my grandfather also ran a dairy in Reepham Road. Today this is a travel agency.
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Florence Steward (nee Payne) with baby Vera |
Florence and Arthur had two
children - Vera (my aunt) and Arthur (my father) who was born in 1920.
Both are still alive and still living in Hellesdon.
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The wedding of Vera Steward to Jack Nobbs. Arthur Steward is on the right and the two bridesmaids front left are Betty and Barbara. |
Vera Steward married Jack Nobbs and had one daughter Jennifer (my cousin). Jennifer in turn married Raymond Ollason and they had one son - Andrew.
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Two photographs above of Jennifer and Raymond Ollason. Jennifer is my cousin and daughter of Jack and Vera Nobbs |
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The wedding of Jennifer Nobbs to Raymond Ollason. I am on the left of the back row next to my grandfather Arthur Steward, my father Arthur Steward. On the right of the back row are jack Nobbs (my uncle), Phyllis Steward (my mother). On the front row left is my grandmother Florence Steward along with her sisters and my aunt Vera Nobbs. |
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Above (right) is two generations of the Steward family. Photographed are Florence Steward (nee Payne) and her great grandson Matthew David Steward. The photograph was taken in 1984 when Florence was well into her 90s. She lived to be just a few months short of her 100th birthday. Florence was my maternal grandmother. On the left Florence receives a bouquet. It is likely that this would have been at Hellesdon Community Centre possibly to mark her 90th birthday. |
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In many ways I feel lucky to be alive. My immediate descendants both come from second marriages with death bringing a premature stop to their first marriages.
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On my maternal side I have
also had some success in my research. As outlined below my maternal
grandmother was Selina Maud Dew (nee Sandall). Using the 1901 census I
tracked her down to an address at 4, Wells Street, Great Yarmouth.
At the time of the census she was nine-years-old which would put her year
of birth at around 1892. Her parents were Henry Ward Sandall (aged 36 -
date of birth probably 1865). He is described as a "house
painter." His wife Margaret is listed as 34 years of age.
The remainder of the
household consisted of John (aged 10), Selina (aged 9), Earnest (aged 7)
and Henry (aged 3). All were born at Great Yarmouth.
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Hall Quay, Great Yarmouth in the 1880s when Charles Sandall would have been in his mid to late 50s and my grandfather Henry Ward Sandall would have been in his late teens. |
Hall Quay pictured slightly later in 1902, 14 years after the marriage of Henry Ward Sandall and Margaret Annie Edmonds. |
My maternal grandfather was
Frank Owen Dew. His name is interesting in that the Owen was passed to me
as my middle name and subsequently to my eldest son as his middle name.
In the 1901 census Frank Dew lived at 118, King Street, Great Yarmouth and was 11 years of age. I was having considerable problems tracking down this side of the family until a chance contact via the Genes Re-united site which introduced me to another distant relative.
Denise Burton listed amongst her relatives a Frank Dew who was born in Great Yarmouth in 1890. This co-incided with the name and birth date of my own grandfather and it soon became obvious that myself and Denise shared the same family tree. Closer investigation establishes that we have the same great great grandfather William Dew who married Suzanna Yaxley. They had seven children, the youngest of whom was my great grandfather Francis Dew.
Francis was born in Great Yarmouth in 1856 and was married twice. The first was to Caroline Harper Bowles and together they had a daughter - Laura Dew. It is believed that Caroline died and Francis married Maria Stone and they had a son Frank who became my grandfather. Francis' occupation was greengrocer and a number of descendants along the Dew family line seem to have followed this profession.
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Marine Parade, Great Yarmouth photographed in the late 1800s. |
Great Yarmouth Market Place - Early 1900s with St Nicholas Parish Church in the background |
With the help of Art Mitchell from Virginia (another branch of the Sandall dynasty), I have been able to establish that my Great Grandfather Henry had a brother and three sisters. Elizabeth, a dressmaker, was born in 1853, Alice, a waiter in a tap room, was born in 1855, Charles, a gas fitter's labourer, was born in 1860, and Selina Eliza was born in 1861. It is interesting to note that Henry and Margaret went on to name one of their children (my grandmother) Selina. This Charles married Sarah Jane Davey in St Nicholas Church, Great Yarmouth on 25th February, 1882. Henry is also likely to have had another sister Selina who died as an infant in 1858. It is likely that Selina Eliza was named after this dead infant.
Selina is not a common name, but it is one that seems to run through many generations of the Great Yarmouth Sandall family. Elizabeth, Alice, Charles, Selina and Henry appear to have been the children of Charles and Elizabeth Sandall who were both born in 1825. Charles appears to have been the licensee at the Sir John Franklin Tavern at 56, Nelson Road, Great Yarmouth.
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Regent Road, Great Yarmouth early 1900s |
Regent Street, Great Yarmouth late1800s |
Further research shows that this tavern closed in 1904 when the "licence was given up in consideration of a new licence being granted for the Salisbury Arms in Cobholm." Cobholm is another area of Great Yarmouth. In the 1901 census there is a Charles Sandall listed for Great Yarmouth, aged 76, and described as a retired mariner. It is likely that on relinquishing the pub, Charles went to sea. It is also quite likely that the sea was his original vocation. A document listing ships in ports in County Durham in 1881 lists a Charles Sandall, aged 56, as a mate on the vessel Flora.
I recently visited Great
Yarmouth and found that the former Sir John Franklin Tavern has now been
split into two houses or flats. The outside of the building has been
painted in what can only be described as burnt orange. Interestingly you
can still see the bolts where the tavern sigh would have hung.
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Two shots of my paternal grandfather Arthur Steward in his First World War uniform. |
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I have established that my
paternal grandfather was born in 1894 or 1895. This would make him 58 or
59 when I was born in 1952. My father was born in 1920 and so my
grandfather would have been about 25 when he was born. My grandfather was
a painter and decorator by trade but at one time also owned a dairy and a
considerable parcel of land at the back of his bungalow in Reepham Road
in Hellesdon. He later sold this land to a builder by the name of
Southgate who developed a number of properties on the land off Meadow Way
including the Meadow Way Chapel..
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The
photograph opposite shows four generations of the Steward family
and was taken in 1982. From left to right are Florence Steward (nee Payne), Arthur Steward, Peter Steward and baby Christopher Steward. |
Somewhere along the line my
grandfather pulled his finances around after a difficult start with his
father's drinking.
Likewise my paternal
grandmother came from a working class Norfolk family.
On my maternal side my
grandmother Selina Maud Sandall married Frank Owen Dew. They had two
daughters - one of whom died as an infant. The second was to become my
mother. She married my father on Boxing Day (year unknown).
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A
new generation. Arthur William Steward, Peter Owen Steward
photographed in the garden of 157, Reepham Road, Hellesdon,
Norwich in either late 1952 or early 1953. |
Phyllis Margaret Steward (nee Dew) and Peter Owen Steward photographed in Trafalgar Square during a trip to London. Estimated date of the photograph is between 1958 and 1960. |
I married Anne Burton on 24th
July, 1976 in Knottingley, West Yorkshire, and our sons Christopher Owen
Steward and Matthew David Steward were born on 24th February, 1982 and
10th January, 1984 respectively.
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The
wedding of Peter Owen Steward (born October 9th, 1952) and Anne
Burton (born October 3rd, 1951) in Knottingley, West Yorkshire on
24th July, 1976. |
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One of my grandfathers brothers Horace was licensee of a pub in King Street, Norwich, by the name of the Music House. It is likely that this is on the site of the present Wensum Lodge, an educational complex with sports facilities. Previously Wensum Lodge had been known as Jurnet's House at 167 King Street. It is the oldest surviving house in the city, built in about 1175. It belonged to the Jurnet family until King John Seized it. In the 18th century the house was known as the Music House and it was used by The City Waits who were the five official musicians for the city. In 1790 the building was divided into three tenements and was then bought by the brewing family of John Youngs who built a maltings there in 1851. It was sold to brewers Bullard and Sons in 1958 and converted to an adult education centre in 1997.
In July 2006 journalist Derek James wrote about the numerous pubs in King Street in his column in the Norwich Evening News. At one time almost 60 pubs were in operation. Sailors from around the world mingled with the locals when they stooped off at the port of Norwich and headed off into King Street for a night on the town. Derek tells us that many were going into town but never got any further than King Street.
Norwich pub historian and author Derek McDonald says it is difficult to imagine what life must have been like in the extraordinary King Street. In his article Derek lists the Music House as being in business from 1760 until 1932.
Follow the links below to read the individual biographies of the people who I am researching and places featured n my research.
Miscellaneous Family Photographs
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On the left, Florence and Arthur Steward (my grandmother and grandfather) are photographed at a dinner and on the right Arthur Steward receives a trophy (probably at Hellesdon Hoticultural Society where he was an active member and regular prizewinner). |
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Genealogy - The Dew Line
I have come across the following people whilst researching my maternal line back from my grandfather Frank Owen Dew. Names in italics are also featured separately. The first section lists all the people who had the surname Dew either through birth or marriage. The second section includes those who had connections to the Dew family but never carried the Dew name.
James Dew:
Born in 1780 and my Great Great Great Grandfather. He married Rebecca Bond and his place of birth is given as Norfolk. James and Rebecca had six children over a period of 12 years. They were John Dew (born 1800 in Great Yarmouth), Maria Dew (born 1802 in Great Yarmouth), James Dew (born 1803 Great Yarmouth), John Dew (born 1805 Great Yarmouth), Charlotte Dew (born 1808 Great Yarmouth) and William Dew (born 1812 Great Yarmouth.
Rebecca Bond: (became Rebecca Dew)
Rebecca was born in 1780 and is my Great Great Great Grandmother. She married James Dew and had six children. One of these - William Dew was my Great Great Grandfather.
John Dew:
The first of six children of James Dew and Rebecca Bond. Born in Great Yarmouth on 12th January, 1800 and baptised on 13th January, 1800.
Maria Dew:
The second of the six children of James Dew and Rebecca Bond. Born in Great Yarmouth on 21st February, 1802 and baptised on 24th February, 1802
James Dew:
The third of the six children of James Dew and Rebecca Bond. Born in Great Yarmouth on 6th December, 1803. Baptised on the same day. Burial records showed that a James Dew, son of James and Rebecca was buried in St Nicholas Churchyard, Great Yarmouth in 1800 aged 3. There are discrepancies in the dates here.
John Dew:
The fourth of the six children of James Dew and Rebecca Bond. Born in Great Yarmouth on 6th December, 1805. Baptised on 11th December, 1805
Charlotte Dew:
The fifth of the six children of James Dew and Rebecca Bond. Born in Great Yarmouth on 20th January, 1808. Baptised on 26th January, 1808.
William Dew:
The youngest of the six children of James Dew and Rebecca Bond. William was my Great Great Grandfather. He was born in Great Yarmouth on 16th February, 1812 and baptised in Great Yarmouth. He married Susannah Yaxley at Great Yarmouth on 5th February 1835, aged 22. His occupation is given as a carter in St Peter's Square. In the 1841 census he is listed as 30 years of age and a labourer living in Row 99. In the 1871 census William is listed as 59 years of age and a carter by trade in St Peter's Square. By 1881 William is 69 years of age and a coal carter living in Row 60, No 13A. His wife is listed as Susan (obviously Susannah) aged 64.
Susannah Yaxley (became Susannah Dew)
Susannah was born in Great Yarmouth in 1814. She married William Dew in Great Yarmouth on 5th February, 1835, when she would have been either 20 or 21 years of age. Susannah is my Great Great Grandmother. In the 1841 census Susannah is listed as 35 years of age (I am sure this should be 25) and living at Row 99. In the 1871 census her age has been corrected to 55. In the 1881 census she is listed as 64 years of age and living in Row 60, No 13A.
William Dew
The eldest (first) of the seven children of William Dew and Susannah Yaxley. Born in Great Yarmouth in 1836. In the 1841 census he is listed as five years of age and living at Row 99
Henry Dew
The second of the seven children of William Dew and Susannah Yaxley. Born in Great Yarmouth in 1840. Occupation is given as greengrocer. He married Clara Cavy and they had three children - Frederick Dew, Herbert Dew and Henry Dew. In the 1841 census he is listed as Harry Dew, six months old, living in Row 99. In the 1871 census he is listed as 30 years of age and married to Clara whose age is given as 37. He is employed as a greengrocer in Albion Road.
Clara Cavy (later Clara Dew)
Clara was the wife of Henry Dew and was born in Ipswich, Suffolk, in or around 1834
Susanna Dew:
The third of the seven children of William Dew and Susannah Yaxley. Born in Great Yarmouth in 1843.
Louisa Dew:
The fourth of the seven children of William Dew and Susannah Yaxley. Born in Great Yarmouth in 1845.
Butliffe Dew:
The fifth of the seven children of William Dew and Susannah Yaxley. Full name was Butliffe Edward Dew. He was born in Great Yarmouth in 1850 and his profession is given as a greengrocer. He married Rosina (surname unknown) who was born in 1856. They had four children - Rosina Dew, Butliffe Dew, Florence Dew and Arthur Dew. In the 1871 census his name is listed as Blissiffe, 20 years of age, an unmarried hawker.
Caroline Dew: (later Caroline Brunning)
The sixth of the seven children of William Dew and Susannah Yaxley. Full name was Caroline Sophia Dew. She was born in Great Yarmouth in 1853 and married Thomas Brunning in Great Yarmouth on 23rd March, 1873. They had five children - Susannah Brunning, William Brunning, Louisa Brunning, James Brunning and May Brunning.
Francis Dew:
The seventh and youngest of the seven children of William Dew and Susannah Yaxley. Born in Great Yarmouth in 1856. Full name Francis James Dew. He was married twice, firstly to Caroline Harper Bowles and secondly to Maria Stone. Francis Dew is my Great Grandfather. Fracis an Caroline had one daughter - Laura Dew. Francis and Maria had one son - Frank Dew - who was my Grandfather. Francis' occupation is given as greengrocer. In the 1871 census Francis is listed as 14 years of age, an unmarried hawker. In the 1881 census he is listed as 24 years of age and a general shopkeeper and hawker, living in Baker Street, Gorleston with wife Caroline (aged 22) and Laura (aged 1).
Frederick Dew
The eldest of the three children of Henry Dew and Clara Cavy. Born in Great Yarmouth, probably in 1861. The 1871 census lists him as a 10-year-old scholar.
Herbert Dew
The second child of Henry Dew and Clara Cavy. Born in Great Yarmouth in or around 1863. The 1871 census lists him as an eight year old scholar
Caroline Harper Bowles (became Caroline Dew)
First wife of Francis Dew. She was married at the age of 21 in St Nicholas Church, Great Yarmouth on 21st January, 1879. Born 1858 (?). Full name Caroline Elizabeth Harper Bowles. Caroline was the daughter of Benjamin Harper Bowles and the mother of Laura Dew. In the 1881 census she is detailed as living with Francis and daughter Laura in Baker Street, Gorleston
Maria Stone (became Maria Dew)
Second wife of Francis Dew. Marriage took place in 1889. Full name Maria Harriet Stone. Born in 1859 in Great Yarmouth. At the time of her mariage would have been 29 or 30 years of age. Maria was the mother of Frank Dew and my Great Grandmother.
Frank Dew
The only child of Francis Dew and Maria Harriet Stone. Half brother to Laura Dew. Born in Great Yarmouth in 1890. Married Selina Maud Sandall and had two children - a daughter (name unknown) who died and Phyllis Margaret Dew. Frank Dew is my Grandfather
Laura Dew:
Only child of Francis Dew and Caroline Harper Bowles. Half sister to Frank Dew. Born in Great Yarmouth in 1879. In the 1881 census she is aged 1 and living in Baker Street, Gorleston. According to the 1901 census she was living at 118 King Street, Great Yarmouth.
Selina Sandall (became Selina Dew)
Wife of Frank Dew and mother of Phyllis Dew and my Grandmother. Born in Great Yarmouth in 1892.
Phyllis Dew (became Phyllis Steward)
Daughter of Frank Dew and Selina Sandall, Born June 10th either 1920 or 1921. Died 1981. Mother of Peter Steward (me) and Grandmother of Christopher Steward and Matthew Steward.
PART TWO: Other Members of the Cast (names other than Dew)
Benjamin Harper Bowles
Father of Caroline Harper Bowles who was the first wife of Francis James Dew. Born in Great Yarmouth in 1830. Father-in-law of Francis Dew.
Thomas Brunning:
Husband of Caroline Dew and one of two sons of James Brunning and Ann Nelson. Full name was Thomas John Brunning. Was born in North Walsham on 22nd August, 1849 and baptised on 9th September, 1849. Thomas and Caroline had five children - Suzannah Brunning, William Brunning, Louisa Brunning, James Brunning and May Brunning.
Louisa Brunning
Third of the five children of Thomas Brunning and Caroline Dew. Full name Louisa Elizabeth Brunning. Born 1877 in Great Yarmouth. Married William Fleet.
William Brunning
James Brunning
May Brunning
Susannah Brunning
William Hurrell
Leonard Hurrell
Reginald Hurrell
Victor Hurrell
William Hurrell
Alice Betts
Bryan Hurrell
Trevor Hurrell
Joan Taylor
Denise Hurrell
Mark Burotn
Stephen Hurrell
Arthur Steward
Arthur Steward is my father and married Phyllis Margaret Dew who was the daughter of Frank Dew and Selina Sandall. I was their only child.
Peter Steward
This is me!! I am the only son of Arthur Steward and Phyllis Margaret Dew. Born on 9th October, 1952. Married Anne Burton in Knottingley, West Yorkshire on 24th July, 1976. We have two children - Christopher Steward and Matthew Steward. I am the grandson of Frank Dew and Selina Sandall, the great grandson of Francis Dew and Maria Stone, great great grandson of William Dew and Susannah Yaxley and great great great grandson of James Dew and Rebecca Bond.
Anne Burton (later Anne Steward)
Anne married Peter Steward as detailed above.
Christopher Steward
The eldest son of Peter Steward and Anne Burton
Matthew Steward
The youngest son of Peter Steward and Anne Burton
Chapter One - The Early Years 1952-1963
Life in 1952 - the year when I was born- was quieter and much simpler than the years towards the end of the century. I was an only child born to Arthur and Phyllis Steward in Hellesdon which is about three miles from the centre of Norwich.
At the time of my birth and during my first 10 years my parents owned a greengrocer's shop on Reepham Road. Many is the happy hours I spent chatting with customers and helping myself to sweets from the numerous jars on the shelves. My grandparents on my father's side lived directly opposite. Legend had it that my grandfather was one of the first residents in Hellesdon when it was a village and before it grew out of all recognition. I don't know how true this was but I do know the family also owned a dairy. By trade my grandfather - also named Arthur - was a painter and decorator. He was a jovial extrovert who had a great influence on my early years and I loved him dearly.
A Short History of Hellesdon
I was born in Hellesdon in 1952. Hellesdon today is a suburb of Norwich and is about three miles from the city centre. Originally the settlement was a village as the following short history illustrates.
A village settlement was set up in Hellesdon by the Anglo Saxons and flint tools have been found that date back at least 4,000 years. Most early settlements were by the river in Lower Hellesdon. It is not known where the name Hellesdon comes from but it could have Scandinavian extractions.
The first full picture of the village comes via the Domesday Book which estimated a population of between 120 and 150 in 1086. The river drove two mills and was a fishery and many other villagers cultivated the land.
Later Hellesdon became well known for rabbits and fish. By the 15th century, 6,000 rabbits a year were produced with their skins being used for hats. As trade increased, roads began to be cut out from Norwich and turnpikes collected fees. Farms grew larger and smallholdings smaller. Poverty began to strike and a poor house was set up.
A route was set up to take the increasing number of cattle coming into the area from Scotland. Up to 50,000 cattle a year tramped over the lanes of Hellesdon before sale and fattening on the farms of Norfolk.
In the 19th century Norwich expanded beyond its ancient walls and Hellesdon was within walking distance of the city. Hellesdon Mill developed into a large oil and corn mill. There were market gardeners and a bombazine manufacturer. Bombazine is a twilled dress material of worstead much used for mourning. In addition there were cabinet makers, agricultural seedsman, a grocer and a blacksmith and brickmaking was carried out in Upper Hellesdon.
By 1841 the population of Hellesdon was 400. Cottages and more substantial residences were built along the main roads out of Norwich. In 1880 the Norwich Pauper Lunatic Asylum was set-up and later became Hellesdon Hospital.
Then the railway came to Hellesdon. The Eastern and Midlands Line opened Hellesdon Station in December 1882 linking the old City station in Norwich to King's Lynn and the Midlands as well as Sheringham and Cromer. A golf course was built and substantial houses were built fronting onto the river in the 1890s.
Humbler developments began to spring up in other parts of the parish and tram routes cut into the area.
In the early years of the 20th century movement out of the city of Norwich gathered pace and the First World War brought further growth to Hellesdon along the Cromer Road. In 1915 the coachmaker and car firm of Mann Egerton took up residence and successfully bid for aircraft contracts during the war.
After the war buses started to run along Drayton High Road and Cromer Road. The boundary between the city and the county was gradually built into a ring road as part of the improvement relief projects of the 1920s.
Trams along Aylsham Road stopped in 1925 and the improved bus route led to more housing being built along Cromer and Reepham Roads. Heather Avenue School was built in the 1920s and Edward Bush Builders put up numerous inexpensive houses. Between 1921 and 1931 the population of Hellesdon rose from 922 to 2,237 and in the 1930 avenues and side roads were developed off the main routes.
Hellesdon High School was built in Middleton's Lane to take the place of the original 1930s secondary school which became Firside Infants and Junior School. By 1941 the population was about 5,000 with many of the homes being occupied by young families.
During the Second World War the new RAF base in St Faiths was used for the United States AirForce's B24 bombers. For a short time further development was cut short by the war, but after the war many local groups such as the Royal British Legion Branch (1947), Old Folks Club (1948), Hellesdon Players Drama Group (1952) and the Youth Club (1953) grew up and the population by 1951 was 6,359. Bush started building houses again and the parish church was built in 1950. Kinsale Avenue Junior School followed in 1951 and I attended here from about 1956 until 1962. The playing field off Middleton's Lane was opened in 1954 and was followed by the community centre in 1959 and library in 1960.
Middleton's Lane (where I loved from about 1964, having moved from Reepham Road) became the centre of the parish. It was named after Charles Middleton, a farmer and brickmaker at the end of the 19th century. He owned 450 acres of land in the north of the parish and a brickyard off what became Middleton's Lane.
The railway station closed in 1953 - six years ahead of the closure of the line which served it. The RAF left St Faiths in 1962 and a large industrial development sprang up around the airport which itself began to expand after being opened in 1969 towards its place of today as a major provincial airport.
For many years the Firs Stadium in Hellesdon was home to the Norwich Stars speedway team which met with great national success and included in its ranks the Swedish multi world champion Ove Fundin. The stadium closed in 1960s and was built on between 1966 and 1969.
My father was a television engineer in those days being unable to make a good enough living through the shop which was run by my mother. I believe that the business failed to flourish because of her kindness and insistence on charging fair prices not to undercut any other businesses but because she wanted her customers to have good value. I hope that this trait of generosity and kindness has been with me all my life and will continue to be so in the future.
Greengate Groceries was not only a place where local people came for their vegetables, sweets and cigarettes but also a place where people came for a chat and to unload their problems. My mother was always a willing listener. Again I hope that I have inherited this aspect of her.
The grocery shop struggled along for many years and was a focal point for my pre-school years. I still vividly remember Friday afternoons when my mother would divide the week's housekeeping money into various tins to help meet the bills. It was also the afternoon when local deliveries came and I happily spent time sorting through oranges and apples. Looking back it was an immensely happy time and I suppose at that time I thought it would go on for ever. A number of particular memories flow from those times - all very ordinary in the great scheme of things but all of which left their imprint on a toddler and young boy.
Those memories include stand up washes in a tin bath by the fire because it was too cold to go upstairs for a real bath, having measles and being made to take disgusting medicine, kind Doctor Cowan who came to see me and remarked on my model soldiers on the mantelpiece. Isn't it strange how such a small thing can bring such a lasting memory. Dr Cowan probably thought nothing of it, but I remember it 40 years later.
I also remember being in a cot, being in a playpen, going to visit friends at the age of four when I thought I was really grown up and also regular bus trips into town on Wednesday afternoons when the shop was closed. From the city we went to visit my maternal grandmother who was a widow and lived in a terrace house in Rupert Street.
My maternal grandfather died before I was born. He was apparently an accomplished musician and I am sure that is from where I inherited my love of music. I also inherited the middle name of Owen from him. I have in turn passed this on as the middle name of my eldest son and hope that this has become a family tradition and he in turn will pass it on if and when he has a son of his own.
My maternal grandmother was another kind woman to whom I was very close.
The greengrocer's shop was next to a large ironmongers store called Dixons.
They always had a line of dustbins and other items outside on the forecourt.
These effectively cut the forecourt in two. I used these to make a racing
circuit for my pedal car and subsequently my small four wheeled bikes. Years
later Dixons turned into a number of individual franchise stores and the
forecourt was turned into a car park. More of that later.
I vividly
remember my first day at school. The infants' school was about 10 to 15 minutes
walk away although in later years 10 minutes turned into an hour as my friends
and I played games on the way home. It is amazing how the imagination can extend
time. In those days nobody told us to hurry home. We were free to take our time
unworried about being attacked or anything macabre happening to us.
At this point I must apologies if I get anybody's names wrong in what follows. Memory can play tricks - particularly 40 years on.
I believe that my first teacher was Mrs Thaxten - a kindly lady as I recall. My first reaction to school was one of confusion similar to that of generations of children both before and after me. Of course like all children I believed I only had to go for the one day and that when I returned home in the afternoon it was a part of my life that had finished. It was a part of my life that wouldn't finish for another 15 years. I couldn't understand what I was doing in this large brick building with other children in a room dominated by a complete stranger who was neither my mother nor that of any of the others there. The tears flowed - it was a difficult time and I can't remember anyone preparing me for the shock of it all.
It took at least two days for me to realise that things were not as black as they seemed at first. I settled in quickly and soon those early days at home themselves became a memory.
I only vaguely remember learning to read and write. I suppose that suggests that both came reasonably easy to me. I suppose these basic things become shrouded in the mists of time. You always believe that you have been able to read and write for ever.
I must have made good progress as by the age of 10 I was starring as Dick Whittington in the school Christmas play. I still remember the luxury of being able to eat a buttered crust of bread on stage (another one of those minuscule events that stand out in the mind). I also remember the school Christmas parties with the sandwiches with that awful salad dressing spread which seemed to be full of bits of peas and other rubbish.
I came home for lunch. My father did the same and gave me a lift back to school in his works' van. I must have been picked up from school in those early days but I cannot remember.
I progressed through school very nicely thank you (I forgot to say it was Kinsale Avenue Infants and Junior School in Hellesdon) until I came across a gorgon of a teacher Miss Q. I believe this brought me my first personality clash. For some reason we did not get on, although I know not why. Other teachers had been kind and supportive. I worked hard but continually got shouted at for no apparent reason. My work suffered and on at least two occasions I was accused of something I did not do.
At that early age I realised how frustrating life could be. I was accused of knocking a balsa wood model over. I never touched it, but my protestations of innocence were wasted on Miss Q who had decided I did it. This all seemed unfair and unreasonable. I knew I had done nothing wrong but was being punished for it.
I began to understand that teachers could be unreasonable and not the wise and fair people I had thought. The matter was sorted out when my parents went to school to complain, although I still believe Miss Q thought me guilty.
The next year couldn't have brought a bigger contrast. I idolised Mrs Sloane (I believe this was her name). She treated me like an adult and helped me to understand throughout my life that if you treat people with respect and understanding they usually respond. I remember the pride I felt at coming top of the class. Mrs Sloane told the class that there was a surprise over top place. I couldn't understand that as I expected to be top. That was not arrogance but just a culmination of the effort and work I had put in over the year.
My confidence had returned and I beat my arch rival Malcolm Stokes to top place. Malcolm and I were best friends - thus proving that rivals can be mates as well. We saw our friendship as part of the rivalry between us.
Another of those irrelevant memories comes from those days when I went out collecting census forms with Malcolm and his father. We drove some considerable distance in their car and at the end I felt extremely travel sick. I suppose that must have been the 1961 census.
Midway through the next year Malcolm and his family moved away. I can't remember where and haven't seen or heard of him since. I would love to know where he is. If by chance anybody is reading this and knows of a Malcolm Stokes who lived in Hellesdon around 1960 please let me know.
Returning to Mrs Sloane. She really was one of the kindest people I had ever met. It mortified me the one time when she raised her voice to me. That was when I was caught red handed spraying water around the boys cloakroom by placing fingers over the holes of the water fountain. I do not know what made me do it. It upset me that I felt I had let the teacher down. I still hate letting people down and feel guilty when I do.
I think at the time that Mrs Sloane was not really Mrs Sloane but got married during the year. I remember her coming to our shop to show my mother her wedding photos. I think she must have liked me and my family as much as I liked her.
I have other vivid memories of these times - memories of playing conkers and marbles in the playground and of moving into the junior school where I was thought to be intelligent and able enough to move up a year with older children.
As a consequence my handwriting suffered as I went from a class which printed its letters into one which had already learned to join them up. I never learned this art and even today my writing is disjointed and uneven and at times resembles a spider's scrawl.
Happy years were spent in the classes of Mr Spinks, the wonderful Mr Potter and then my second Bette Noir Miss W.
Above is a photograph of myself and fellow pupils at Kinsale Avenue School. I would estimate that this was taken in 1959 and 1960. I am very grateful to Janet Statham for letting me have a copy of this. Janet is the young lady on the left three rows from the back in the white blouse. I am in the front row three from the left. The teacher is the wonderfully kind Mr Potter. Malcolm Stokes, who I also mention in this piece is three rows from the back in the centre (the smiling lad next to the one putting his tongue out). I am also indebted to Linda Williams who is in the front row on the right. Linda has e-mailed me from her present home in California with the names of some of those pictured. They are Michael Betts, Michael Claridge, Martin Clapton, Janet Statham, Malcolm Stokes, Sally and Susan Abel, Rosemary King, Sally Pitcher, Lizzy Burton, Karen McGee, Bridget Palmer, Linda Williams, Catherine Andrews, Shirley Howes, Graham Snelling, Ian Mallett and Lesley Bloom.
By the time I made it to her class it was the top one at the school and I was probably struggling to keep up with students a year older than myself. At this point we were approaching the dreaded 11 plus exam which would decide which senior school we would go to. A pass meant grammar school, a fail meant secondary modern. It was as much a class thing as an academic. Secondary schoolers were losers consigned to the scrap heap of life.
To say Miss W didn't like me was an understatement. Why does success in life come down so much to people's opinions of you. I consider that I have been the same person throughout my life with the same values and beliefs. At times I have forged ahead and at others have been completely stuck depending on what people thought of me at any one time.
As far as Miss W was concerned I couldn't do anything right and I was the same person who came top of the class and was promoted ahead a year. The class was lined up in columns of desks according to perceived ability. There were five lines with the "brightest" pupils in line one and the "stupidest" in line five.
I started of f somewhere in line three which probably was a fair reflection of my ability. I then dropped down to line 5 after once again being wrongly blamed for something inconsequential.
This time I was accused of writing a rude message in my homework book. My parents were summoned and apparently the dreadful sentence turned out to be totally harmless. It read "This is Miss W's writing" - scarcely a hanging offence. The teacher was obviously paranoid about something or other. I did not write that message and to this day do not know who did. Once again I felt the hurt that young children can of being wrongly accused.
So I sank without trace until the day when fate took a hand. Miss W moved house. She didn't just move house, she moved next to my grandfather and opposite our home.
When I heard about this I was appalled and unhappy to say the least. It turned out to be sunshine on a cold day, however. Miss W took immediately to my grandfather who helped her in many ways, particularly with the garden and odd jobs. Suddenly my success at school began to increase in direct proportion to the help he was giving her.
Messages in books were forgotten. I was on the way up through lines five, four, three and two and yes into the top line. I don't remember how this was justified but practically overnight I turned from a bad pupil into one of the tip-top elite. This inconsistency was almost numbing. It was certainly something I would experience again in later life. It was a case of on Monday morning being incompetent and useless but by Friday being a shining beacon. And of course I claim that all the while I had not changed.
Suddenly teachers were talking about what would be in my best interests. It was decided that I shouldn't take the 11 plus a year ahead and that I should stay another year in junior school and go back to my right age group. This brought more disruption, but I enjoyed the extra year under the teaching of Mr London who, despite sarcastic outbursts at times, was a reasonably solid teacher. I notice that on the friends re-united web site there are many reminiscences regarding Jack London.
I eventually breezed through the 11 plus. I found it very easy. The result is that I won one of only a handful of free places available in the county for what was regarded as the top school in Norwich. At King Edward VI (The Norwich School) I found things very different.
Chapter Two - The Formative Years 1963-1971
I started the Norwich School as a boy with well above average intelligence and a bright future. Over the next few years I put that in jeopardy with a refusal to put in much effort. Whether it was something inside of me or the appalling standards of teaching at the school I have never been sure. Certainly there was very little motivation from within the teaching staff.
Today I view the school with some affection, but must say that it did little for me and I must be critical of the teaching staff. Senility and being out of date seemed to be the only criteria. It was a culture shock to me of the greatest magnitude. The school in the early to mid 1960s was still desperately living in the past with its out-moded ideas of discipline and ridiculous antiquated rules regarding dress code, school buildings and many other areas. The head was a tyrant who most people were afraid of and the teaching was without enthusiasm and repetitive. I slumped.
After initial effort, I slumped into a despondency that often turned into physical hypochondria. I hated so many lessons it wasn't true. Every three weeks they had what was quaintly called the three weekly order. All the test and marks from the three week period were entered into a book, totalled up and each pupil was then given a position in the class. On merit I should probably have come in the top 10 - indeed once when I made an effort I finished sixth. In general I was down in the twenties out of 30 pupils. This was not good. I suddenly realised that I had little interest in learning, the school was too daunting and I was rapidly losing my way.
Indeed I found the school somehow held me back until I reached the sixth form and again became interested in learning. I remember a number of teachers with great affection and have no hesitation in naming them here. I will gloss over the ones I disliked or the robot teachers who thought the way to learn something was to write notes on the board which we copied and then took home to learn parrot fashion.
My two great loves, however, do have their roots from the Norwich School. My love of music and literature both began at the school and are due to four very good teachers.
My love of music (and it is the over-riding passion of my life), was nurtured by the wonderful Bernard Burrell. I have referred to him on other pages of my web site but I cannot thank him enough. Sadly he died a number of years ago.
Bernard was like a breath of fresh air to a school which always seemed to suggest that music stopped with Beethoven. Suddenly here was a man who had an open mind to music. He traded his classical for our rock. He allowed us to teach him about the Who, Jethro Tull, Black Sabbath and Procol Harum. He insisted that we didn't just play this music but we studied it deeply and told him what we liked about it. In exchange he described the music of Dvorak and Smetana and told us what he saw in it. And of course we listened to him because he listened to us. I still love those composers and somewhere, some place Bernard is looking down on us and I owe him a debt of gratitude. A couple of years ago I visited the graves of Dvorak and Smetena in the same cemetery in Prague. It was a poignant moment and as I walked by the banks of the River Vltava I hummed that wonderful section from Ma Vlast which describes the river as it meanders its way through one of the world's great cities. I have Bernard Burrell to thank for introducing me to that music.
In the English department we had the new headmaster Stuart Andrews and he instilled in me a love of the classics. Peter Clayton gave me a love of poetry (and in particular W.B. Yates) and Peter MacIntosh, well he was just one of the nicest people I have ever met.
Yes good teachers do leave their mark. Over 30 years after leaving the school I still remember them all.
I eventually managed to pull myself up by the boot laces and gain three A levels which was good enough to give me entry to a journalism course at Harlow Technical College. I was employed by Eastern Counties Newspapers who paid for my tuition on the course and also paid me a wage at the same time.
Chapter Three - The College Year
So in 1971 I left home and spent nine great months at college in Essex. It was the first time I had left home for any length of time and I loved the freedom and all the friends I made on the course. The rock concerts, the parties, the pubs - it was all new to me.
I remember journeying down with the Anthonys. Peter Anthony was on the same course. After lunch at a Harlow restaurant we went to the college. The first afternoon was spent acclimatising, talking about Harlow and taking us round on a coach tour.
Two would be students dropped out after the coach trip and returned home. I don't think it had anything to do with bad driving.
Harlow was a rather confusing, rather imposing place. The kind of town you either love or hate. I loved it. In many ways my nine months there were the happiest of my life.
It was just something about the new town set-up. The smell of autumn nights on the open grassland areas but above all to be in a town where I had total freedom to go out when I wanted, to arrive home when I wanted, to study when I wanted.
And home was remarkable. Once we had enjoyed the guided tour we were dropped off at our lodgings. Many people signed up for rooms at the YWCA (included men as well as women). I opted for lodgings where meals would be provided.
It was a smart move. I remember being one of the last to be dropped off which meant I lived the furthest away from the college. This proved a problem in the early days when I had to walk over 30 minutes to college and over 30 minutes back. That was all sorted out, however, when I later bought a mini car which made the journey easy.
I still remember that walking journey from college, along one of the main avenues, down the full length of Abercrombie Way and along a couple more roads before getting to 123, The Maples.
Two of us were staying at the Maples address. It opened up a whole new lifestyle for me. Living at home with my parents had been rather a sheltered existence. Suddenly I was thrust into the world of the Turners. Sonia was a lovely lady in her late 20s whom I looked upon as a big sister rather than a landlady. I would love to meet her again. She had two children - Samantha who was about six and Jamie who I believe was about four. Sonia was divorced but had boyfriends.
I soon found myself on the same wavelength as the kids and used to enjoy reading to them at bedtime. They were real characters.
As well as myself and Tom Carver (also on the journalism course), the house played host to a number of other inmates during their stay there. There was Marcia Davis who was a reporter with another newspaper group and another female whom I believe was called Veronica. She made quite an impression on me due to the fact that she insisted on walking round the house in a see through blouse (well it was the early 70s and a time of freedom of expression). She worked on the lighting at Harlow Playhouse and used to meet many of the stars appearing there.
She was rather blase about meeting the stars, telling us that David Bowie had been rather boring. I remember that she was going out with a Hungarian chap whom I never did meet because on the only occasion he came round I was in bed with a rampant headache.
I remember periods of sleeping through what seemed to be whole weekends due to the pace of social life which saw us out night after night after night. Sometimes we got home at 2 a.m only to have to get up a few hours later to get to college and somehow get through the day on coffee, adrenalin and fun.
Sonia had excellent parties, served good food and was tremendously good fun. In addition she liked my Richard Harris records which I thought was unique until one of my fellow students (Andrew McClardy - I hope that is the correct spelling) quietly admitted one day that he was a fan too. Andrew married one of the other students - Pippa Birchall - and I understand they have now celebrated their silver wedding anniversary and I believe have three children.
At 123 The Maples, it was open house for us and I loved the freedom. As for my fellow course students, I remember all their names because I have a copy of the student newspaper with all the photos in (one day soon I will place them all on the internet). So who do I remember and for what.
I had a crush throughout the course on Carolyn Burns. I somehow found myself going out with her during the first week to a pub in Old Harlow. I'm not quite sure how it happened, particularly as I'm only about 5ft 6in tall and Carolyn was a good 5ft. 9in and a gorgeous looking lady. We remained friends throughout the course and she later visited me in Lowestoft although no kind of intimate relationship developed. She did visit me in Norwich and had tea with my parents and my mother thought she was wonderful. When I originally wrote this article, I had a great wish to meet Carolyn again and find out what has happened in her life. My wishes were realised thanks to the already mentioned friends reunited web site. I was able to contact Carolyn again and meet up with her in London. She is a top cooker writer and has something like 37 books in print under her married name of Carolyn Humphries.
Bob Mee was a belligerent Midlander from Oadby in Leicestershire whose first love in life was boxing. He is now one of the foremost boxing journalists/writers in the country. Bob, despite at times seeming aggressive, was at heart a very gentle person. I remember one weekend staying at the home of one of the lecturers. There were about 10 of us there and Bob went to the pub to get some drinks and was picked on by one of the local yobs. He laid him out with a perfect right hook but felt upset and guilty about it for some time. He didn't feel guilty, however, the day he asked me to teach him how to play table tennis and let me go through all the rules before wiping the floor with me and admitting he has played for Leicestershire. Bob was also a very proficient footballer and on a number of occasions we went to White Hart Lane to see Spurs play. When on my own I preferred to go to Highbury to see Arsenal. Bob had periods of depression and it was alleged that he spent one Christmas wrapped up in his Leicester City scarf without any heat, very little food and listened throughout the day to Leonard Cohen.
Again through Friends Re-united I have been able to get in touch with Bob and met up with him as well as Carolyn.
Others I remember less vividly and for different reasons - Celia Merrell because she fitted perfectly in a waste paper bin and was often placed in the men's toilets at college; Christine Barrett because she was sweet; and some of the others I remember with less than fondness. I remember one guy who insisted on reading us the entire sleeve notes and record label of every Pink Floyd LP.
Of the staff I remember Joe Barrett (strangely there were two journalism lecturers by that name). This Joe was a garrulous Scotsman who used to insist that we should all be "operators" without really ever explaining what he meant. You didn't joke with this guy. Apart from his size, he would call everyone's bluff. I remember him asking once for a subject for a survey in the town. Somebody jokingly said "birth control." We spent the next two hours on the streets of the town asking people about contraception! Joe lusted after a female lecturer called Cherry who was a lovely lady.
I recently came across an unauthorised biography of Mark Knopfler the Dire Straits guitarist and leader who was on the journalism course a few years before me. There is a specific chapter about his time on the course which is more a chapter about Joe Barrett than Mark. Barrett gave me a pretty luke warm report I seem to remember, but he did say that I had put in more effort and time to my studies than anyone else on the course (not true).
Bill Hicks was a former sports editor on the Express and had a holiday home in Cromer and so I got on reasonably well with him. He died a few years ago after enjoying a long retirement. Brian Downie was the British Constitution lecturer (I think) and introduced us to T groups which involved sitting around and chatting about ourselves and our problems (very seventies). There was also a politics lecturer who we called Red Mole and a former policeman by the name of Wilf Graham who, behind a very gruff exterior, had a heart of gold. On Friday afternoons he used to tell us: "If those of you who are going home for the weekend and have a long drive ahead were to ask me if they could go to the toilet and then not return, well come Monday I will have forgotten all about it." There was also dear Ted Mawdesley who would often take pity on us and give us lifts home and a shorthand teacher by the name of Ted Ware who had a humped back but who was a very keen cyclist. Sadly I am sure many of these will have passed on by now. Another I remember is Frank Warner who had a west country accent.
I was only at Harlow for nine months but it probably affected my life more than any other period. I have so many memories - concerts in the main hall organised by Steve Clarke who later went on to become a well known rock music writer. He booked the likes of Medicine Head and America and on one autumnal evening I went to see a band I had never heard of. In those days the main group came on late with three or four support bands preceding them. I had never heard of Barclay James Harvest let alone know what their music was like. But being at a loose end I decided to go along.
That night had a profound affect on my musical taste. I thought they were brilliant and have been a fan ever since. Mockingbird remains my favourite ever track and I was left speechless when they concluded with the Poet/After the Day with its apocalyptic overtones.
My other great musical memory was going to the playhouse to see David Bowie. The support band were Cochise and they cleared the auditorium. Bowie was sensational. He played a one hour acoustic set featuring material from Hunky Dory. He then introduced his new band The Spiders for Mars and returned as Ziggy Stardust and played an entire electric set. I think it was only his second or third appearance as Ziggy. I have seen Bowie many times since, but he has never eclipsed that evening.
As you will gather, Harlow and music go together. I can still be reduced to tears driving along the M11 in the vicinity with Barclay James Harvest's Once Again on the CD player. All the memories, all the smells come flooding back.
Other memories include being introduced to Chinese food by Sonia; regular visits to the cinema to see the likes of Straw Dogs, French Connection, the Devils, Clockwork Orange, Love Story and nights spent in the Hare, the Painted Lady and other pubs.
Chapter Four - The Early Working Years
It all had to end, however, and after just nine months I
