Tower and Town, June 2023 (view the full edition)Memories of 11 St John's Close Both sisters went on to qualify as nurses during the war, while the residents of St John's Close took in refugees from the cities, if they had spare bedrooms. Bern was in the Home Guard. The girls married, Joan (then training to be a doctor) to a Canadian air force man from Montreal and Billie to William Thorpe, who she met when posted to India during the war. My sister Sally and I lived with our grandparents at no.11, with mum, during postings, until 1953. None of the houses had a bathroom or running hot water then, so on bath nights, water would be heated in a 'large copper'. In the summer, baths were taken in the kitchen; in the winter, in front of the coal fire - such luxury. Grandad worked for Stratton Sons & Mead, a local grocery and provisions retail business, based on the High Street (where Cromwell Court is now) from1924 until his retirement in 1961 at the age of 68. He used to travel to the local villages to collect orders for the shop and then they would be sent, with other items, later in the week on delivery lorries. He drove an A30 van in the 1950s and during the school holidays he would take me on his rounds, where there was always cake and a cup of tea waiting at all the houses he visited. On Saturday afternoons, around 5pm, silence was the order of the day so that Grandad could listen to the football results on his crystal radio. The batteries were taken to be recharged at James's Electricians in the High Street at the entrance to Chandler's Yard. Like most of the men in the Close, Grandad had an allotment. A local farmer, Mr Shewry, would graze his herd of cows on the Common during the day, and when they were moved off in the evenings the men would go out with buckets and wheelbarrows to collect the cowpats for manure; organic gardening was the norm. There was also a large chicken run opposite Hyde Cross. Later on, when the fairs came to Marlborough in October, they would run cables over to different houses in the Close and plug into the electric to run the electric in their caravans. No Health and Safety then! The hurdle shed, the Pound and the tall trees behind the terraces have all gone. Two detached houses now stand on former allotments between No 19 and the Common and the chicken run is now garages, so there have been a few changes since I first lived there. Bern died in 1971, and Flossie, or Gran, moved to The Priory in 1979. Helen and Harold Caswell moved in with their three children, so another family grew up at No 11. Harold died last September and there have only been two sets of tenants in almost 100 years, but a lot of children and grandchildren have special memories of the house and the road. Michael Thorpe |