Tower and Town, June 2023 (view the full edition)Dot Cleverley of No. 28
Through an aunt, the Maurice Family had inherited 10 houses in St John's Close which they rented out privately: the terrace of 13 to 18 and the semi-detached houses 25/26 and 27/28. Alec and Edith Lawrence had lived at no 28 for decades and everyone in the road was 'old', except for Pam and Taffy Green. Mr Lawrence had worked for the College, so all the doors were painted with College paint. When No 28 became available, Dot thought it was wonderful, even if it did cost 15/- a week. Dr Maurice had said to her 'I hope you're going to have a family for this three bedroom house', but he was a bit surprised after they had been there a month that she was back for a pregnancy test and commented 'I didn't expect you to work that fast!'. Paul was born in the house with Nurse Jones from Manton in attendance and Ian followed in 1965, when Dot's oldest sister Nurse Nightingale (Jean) delivered him. At least No. 28 had a downstairs loo - the cottage in Mildenhall had only had an out-house. Ron was earning £6 a week as a bricklayer and usually gave it to Dot for the household expenses. They put down lino on the draughty wooden floors and there were original gas mantles on the walls, though the house did have electricity for lights and gas for the oven. Sometime in the 1960s, Bert's Builders installed bathrooms in all the Maurice houses and a back boiler was installed behind the fire. The bathroom was luxury, as prior to that it would be a tin bath (the copper) with whatever water could be heated on the stove. The coal for the fireplace in the sitting room was delivered by Free's on the Salisbury Road and stored in the coal house, next to the loo, but with every house in the town with multiple fireplaces the air was thick in the winter. Smog was common. Dot can remember being in a car on the Swindon Road and being unable to see anything around. The Clean Air Acts of 1956 and 1968 meant that only smokeless fuel could be used and the air quality locally improved. Eventually radiators would be added in the house and the fire would be a luxury, not a necessity. Many people will know Dot from her long career at Savernake Hospital as an Auxiliary. She started in 1975, at the age of 36 and left 45 years later at the age of 80. Mrs Bunce the Matron gave her the original job. With more trucks and cars in the road a layby next to the allotments was created for parking and eventually some garages built. Monty Miller at No. 24 even had a tractor. After the first five garages had been erected, Dot asked Dr Maurice for three more for Taffy Green (No. 14), Mr Shewry (No. 15) and Ron and herself. Nowadays most of the front gardens have been converted for parking, but back then Dot had been using the drive at Clement's Meadow on Cross Lane to park. Ron left Burt's Builders at the age of 50 and worked for the Borough Council after that. He retired with ill health from asthma and unfortunately died aged 66. Dot turned 80 in 2019, and alongside Dick Whitfield from No 15, they both had birthday roses planted in the Community Garden. Dot's is appropriately a 'Dorothy Perkins' and is thriving, climbing up the arch, much like the energetic and chatty neighbour she continues to be a mere 62.5 years after she moved in. Jo Payne |
Dot was born at Savernake Hospital in 1939 to Norman and Olive Parker. Norman came from Lancashire, and got a job at the Post Office locally, Olive was originally from Avebury, then Ogbourne St George. Dot was one of four children who lived at 5 Coldharbour Lane in a newly built house within walking distance of the infants' school on Herd Street where she recalls the two Miss Slades. At the Secondary Modern on the Common, where one of the teachers, Mr Taylor, used to tease her saying 'Dotty P. - I saw you walking out with your bean pole'. When she was 14 or 15, she had met Ron Cleverley while visiting a receptionist friend at Burt's Builders. He lived at 18 London Road then and Dot got a job at Garrods factory on Elcot Lane from 1954 until their marriage in 1957. Living in a damp thatched cottage in Mildenhall paying 5/- a week, Dot took her daughter Tina to see Dr Maurice about Tina's bronchitis and told him they wanted to move to better accommodation. She had tried the council, but no luck.