Historical Memories

Reminisces of life in the early 1930s and 1940s as I remember it in Earl Shilton.

‘Sport was such a big thing in the family and in the area – that was the thing, you see’
 

Father was away from home working as a commercial traveller and at the age of 42 was called up by the RAF. Monday was wash day - no washing machines or dryers and after the death of my grandfather mother would cycle to attend to grandmother and prepare meals for us three growing lads’. They did have the help of a maid. They were very happy days, the family lived on Hinckley Road and that time (1930s/40s) they overlooked Kirkby - ‘nothing between us and Kirkby Hall’. Don remembers as youngsters they played in a sand hole until Pegg’s lorry came along and cleared them off. At this time not a lot of houses and they could go out all day and Bell Vue was only just being built. The three brothers would ‘troop off to watch the cricket at Leicester, the three of us, before the war, go off on the bus. In those days the Leicestershire cricket played at Aylestone Road’. They would take their lunch and get off the bus at Western Boulevard. On a Saturday morning they attended George Geary’s coaching school – George Geary, a test player, one of the Barwell cricketers who did so well. Don remembers, Dempster, a New Zealand player who advised him ‘[Now] when you bowl clip you ear with your right hand as you come over so you get it straight’. Sport was such a big thing in the family and in the area – ‘that was the thing, you see’. There were a lot of tennis courts in the village and numerous tennis tournaments. Churches and chapels all had their own sports teams and local factories had their own football and cricket teams and the factories competed in the Sunshine League – Betty’s (Don’s wife) brother won a medal.

Both Don and his wife Betty had extended family in Earl Shilton – people tended to get married locally and stay in the village and people had big families during the Victorian times – Betty was related to the Taylors and Coley’s on her mother’s side, her father was a Butterworth. Don remembers some of his teachers – Miss Everard wore pince-nez glasses and ‘she’d have us sleeping in the middle of the day’. Because of the problems he had with his ankle he was off from school quite a lot. At the Top School he didn’t spend much time in Miss Reynold’s class ‘fortunately’. She was a very good teacher and would drill the times tables into the children. The Top School, at this time, had a very good reputation – Jim Clarke was the headmaster and his wife Florrie also worked at the school (she was a Loxley). Mr Clarke had a very stern voice and when he died Mrs Clarke took over. Discipline was very good in those days, but as commented by Don ‘they were very happy days’. Mrs Clarke who was very musical would recommend children for the various church and chapel choirs. When he was at the Grammar school he was known as ‘Baby Loxley’ by one of the teachers, Mrs Duncan. She had taught his father in 1917 and his two brothers. Both his brothers went to university both getting their MA’s. It always took Don longer to do his homework! He went to the grammar school in the April rather than the September and he and his first cousin, John Gilbert, would cycle to school together every day. While at the Top School they would find alternative routes to school – often walking along the ‘backs’ – from their house on Hinckley Road, across the sandpit area (Bell Vue) and onto Heath Lane South passing Earl Shilton Pharmacy and walk to the top end of the village along the ‘backs’. The bell would be rung which was situated in the bell tower (Don remembers Mr Humble being in the bell tower) and a whistle would be blown and everyone would stand still. Gardening and woodwork were activities that took place in a building in West Street, just passed the Working Men’s Club (now demolished and replaced by flats).

We had been talking about two older men, Jo Lawrence and Bill Lumley who both started work at Bradbury’s hosiery factory at the age of 14. Betty’s father became a managing director at the firm and Don remembers that members of the Bradbury family lived in Hollydene House (now Hollydene Crescent). During the early years of WW2 the ‘ long garage’ was used by the Homeguard as a shooting range and also the headquarters of the Homeguard. Before he was called up, Don’s father was a sergeant in the Homeguard. He remembers everyone was issued with a stirrup pump and bucket and local people were put on fire duty.

Don’s mother was a Gilbert and brought up on the High Street (134) – that was the family house. It was also the premises of the Earl Shilton Building Society. On a Monday evening people would pay their 1/3d subscription and Don’s mother would help out and Don remembers a long table and the money was there – no security in those days and he would help his mother. This was before the new building society was built. Their grandfather Gilbert was the Registrar, secretary of the Chrysanthemum Society, something to do with the Oddfellows and a churchwarden at the top church for 30-40 years, he was manager of the Building Society – he was a very, very busy man. His grandmother who lived to be 91 he remembers as being ‘a little bit immobile’. There were numerous clocks in the house and Don and Betty were given one of these clocks as a wedding present. Don’s great Grandfather was a licencee at the Red Lion and he thinks that they had some ground behind the Bowling Green pub which was the original bowling green and belonged to the family. They also had quite a bit of land, behind the Red Lion pub, where Tower Road is now. His mum’s maternal grandmother was a member of the Power family from Barwell – three of his grandparents were brought up in pubs – grandmother Loxley, the Gilbert and the Power (Queens Head, Barwell). Grandmother Loxley was at the Royal Oak (now demolished) and the Elephant and Castle in Thurlaston – she was a Whitmore, another local name. My grandfather Loxley (along with his brother) always associated with footwear manufacturing and their factory was on New Street (factory converted to flats). Don’s great Grandfather Loxley came to Earl Shilton, at the age of about 37, in 1834, as a framework knitter. He married into a local family (the Fosters) and had six children, the youngest, Don’s grandfather, was born when he was in his early 60s.

When Don left school it was a choice between hosiery and footwear and Don’s first job after leaving school was at a footwear company in Leicester, where his father worked as a commercial traveler. He was called up for National Service after a few months and did go back to work for the same firm but did eventually leave to work at Whitmore’s, where he stayed for 30 years before opening his own shop in Hinckley which he had for the last 10 years of his working life. The connection with Earl Shilton building society continued, however, Don’s grandfather Loxley was director for 41 years, his dad was a director for 10-12 years and Don was a director for 40 years – very much family and local people. At present directors all made up of the professions. When Don was a director they would meet up and assess the numerous applicants wishing to take out a mortgage – no surveyors then – all done by members of the board. This was unpaid work but the members did have an annual outing. Don feels the Earl Shilton Building Society has survived due to its local reputation. The present Building Society was built just before WW2 and replaced Grace Well’s sweet shop. At this time John’s father was manager. Don has some Earl Shilton Building Society records from October 1936 - E H Gilbert and H W Gilbert – John’s grandfather and father. John’s father prior to being manager of the building society, worked for a shoe factory on New Street. Many of the names read out by Don included in the subscription book were local businesses people who he has already talked about – Shorelands, the Best’s , Reynolds, ‘Putty’ Taylor, undertakers, Pegg’s the builders, Trusloves, Foster’s, a relation to my great grandma, Ball’s the butchers, opposite the Red Lion and the Hinckley Road shop was opposite Heath Lane, site of photocopy shop, Mr Bell the chemist and Freddie Bray, a local electrician – his housekeeper was Larry Grayson’s mother and he would go to the cinema, he was a big friend of Freda Cooper (Aldridge).

Don’s mother was a teacher at Wood Street school before she was married, she had also attended the local schools including Hinckley Grammar, and because of the friendship between Don’s mother and Miss Richardson, (she was headmistress at the school) she became Don’s Godmother. Miss Richardson’s housekeeper apparently came from a famous family…
 

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