LFR 11 Aug Number 604

North Berwick, East Lothian, Scotland

Welcome to the Laws Family Register. 

A Child of the Twenties

A suburban childhood of the Twenties 

seen from the Ninteen Nineties

by my late father

John Robert Laws 1921-2008

Part 5.

Surely the most elegant piece of furniture stood opposite the fireplace behind the settee. A china cabinet to match the rest of the furniture, standing around six feet high by four feet six, with its mirrored back multiplying the pretty little collection of china and figurines. Although fragile in appearance it has survived a war and several house removals and is still with us, No doubt my mother lived in fear and trepidation when I was in the same room, and hence my feeling that the room was little used.

The front door of the house led into a normal hall and passage with a long red and green 'Turkish' carpet runner, over the linoleum which covered all our floors. The hazard of a slip mat guarded every door and a matching carpet strip ascended the stairs, held in place by gleaming stair rods, another regular chore. 

The wall of the hallway carried a wooden moulding about three feet from the floor, below which it was papered in a heavy moulded paper and painted. The wall above was papered in the normal way. As in all rooms there was the obligatory picture rail with pictures, of which more anon.

The stairway was straight and unremarkable, once I tumbled from top to bottom in a careless moment with no worse effects than considerable surprise. Going up or down in a more conventional manner could be aided by a substantial banister rail which was not however very good for sliding down on account of the newel post sticking out at the bottom. The stairs faced the front of the house and at the top a passage went on down to the back and a landing turned round to the front and led to the main bedroom.

As a small infant I had my cot in there with my parents, but must have generally slept like a log as there are few memories of wakefulness. Perhaps it is just one winter of memory before I had a little room of my own. There were venetian blinds at the windows and an occasional motor vehicle would trundle past before I slept and its lights throwing the pattern of the slatted blinds on the wall and moved it round the room as it passed. It must have been that year that the electric light was put in. I was in my cot with some childhood ailment and watched as a rising and falling two light filaments were put above the dressing table in the window bay and wired up through the ceiling. What a pity to have missed the rest of the performance.

Each main bedroom had a marble topped washstand with a set comprising a hand basin, water ewer, soap dish, and toothbrush vase, in the double cupboard below were a pair of chamber pots in the matching pattern. This set was patterned with large red roses, but of these only the hand basin now survives. Being a large one, it has gone through a number of uses, from the earliest being I was told. My bath in the earliest weeks, to mixing Christmas puddings in succeeding years and holding wine much later. 

Gas fires were fitted in the main bedrooms to provide a trifle of heat at bedtime and a brass jar of water stood in front to stop it drying out the air. Not that the furniture stood in any danger of drying out in those days although it was all solid wood, even plywood does not seem to come in, till much later. There must have been more furniture, but nothing built in except the larder and the dresser in the kitchen. The freestanding wardrobes were big since one needed plenty of clothing and were supplemented by large chests of drawers and blanket chests. Bedroom furniture was only slightly less ornamented than downstairs.

The beds varied through the plain iron, and the iron with brass knobs and fittings to the wooden headboard and footboard veneered in burr walnut which could not have been part of the original set up in 1912 as it did not match anything else. The bed springs of that day were a sort of lightly stretched steel spring fabric which became a hammock with the passing of years and can be consigned to the past without a trace of nostalgia. 

Sheets were white and cotton, or linen for the fortunate, blankets thick and numerous and the eiderdown de rigueur, though with often no trace of eider ancestry. The white quilts were not quilted but of a heavy cotton material with an embossed pattern. These whites and white lace curtains fitted the general darkness of the furniture and decor as did the use of mirrors in the furniture and over fire places wherever possible.

I was moved into my own minuscule bedroom at an early age and the one thing that has stuck in my mind is the wallpaper. It had vertical pink stripes perhaps three inches wide with ovals holding arrangements of roses a little over a foot above each other and the stripes separated from the ivory background by thin silver lines. It is the only wallpaper I recall from that house but the bed was tight to the wall and I had time to gaze at it. 

In that room my Mother would read me a chapter from a handsome volume of 'Robinson Crusoe' or from 'Tom Sawyer' once I was settled in. Although occupying that room for five or six years it was never dark in memory. I can however remember reading under the bedclothes with a torch after the light had been put out so winter darkness did exist. 

To be continued tomorrow

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If you are a LAWS or a LAWES or have these surnames in your family or perhaps it sounds like this but in fact is spelt differently, we would love to hear from you, we need to extend and expand our knowledge of the families we have already discovered,

Come and join us, theres no better time than now.

The LAWS FAMILY REGISTER is here to serve you the members, Just send a email to me at registrar@lawsfamilyregister.org.uk

We reach out to all, regardless of race, colour, creed or national origin with support for researching family and documenting cultural inhertance

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Family Events from our database for today August 11th

If you are interested in anyone listed here, email us with the name, date and reference number, and we will happily do a look up, you might get a whole tree! 

Family Events

1693 - Christen: Ann LAWS-7456, St. Peter Parmentergate Norwich NFK UK

1797 - Death: William LAWS-116896, 

1806 - Marriage: Thomas LAWS (Seaman) -33464 and Honor JENNINGS-7481, Great Yarmouth                NFK UK

                                                       Great Yarmouth NFK UK

1813 - Baptism: Elizabeth LAWS-58306, St George in the East, Stepney MDX UK

           (My Second Great Grand Aunt)

1813 - Residence: John LAWS (Shopkeeper) -7633, High Street, Shadwell MDX

           (My Third Great Grandfather)

1850 - Marriage: David John LAWS (Ropemaker) -40105 and Elizabeth MESSHAM-40106,                        Portsea HAM UK

                               HMS Victory (Nelson Flagship) preserved in Portsea Naval Dockyard

1874 - Marriage: George LAWS (Labourer) -50724 and Maria LAWS-50725, Bungay SFK UK

                                                                    Bungay SFK UK

1875 - Death: Josiah LAWES (Cabinet Salesman) -2133, Lymington HAM UK

                                                    Lymington & the New Forest HAM UK

1876 - Birth: Emily Susan LAWS-3419, Kialla VIC AUSTRALIA

1882 - Birth: Bertram LAWS (ARMY 5895) -50215, Croydon SRY UK

1886 - Baptism: Allan LAWS-116994, Ovington NBL UK

1886 - Will Proved: William LAWS (Gentleman of Independant Means) -8053, 

1886 - Death: John Dixon LAWS (Coal Borer & Sinker) -7516, Newcastle upon Tyne NBL UK

                                                       Newcastle Upon Tyne NBL UK

1893 - Death: Glaister LAWS (Innkeeper) -4831, Allonby CUL UK

1894 - Marriage: Albert Edward LAWES (Foreman Pastry Cook) -172 and Ellen BATTY-5,                        Kensington MDX UK

1895 - Death: Edith LAWS-167657, 

1905 - Birth: Gladys LAWS-118652, 

1912 - Burial: Bessie LAWS-105534, Fulton Cemetery MO USA

1916 - Death: G H LAWS (ARMY Private 16543) -45071, 

1926 - Birth: Albert H LAWES-48072, Swaffam NFK UK

1929 - Death: Hannah LAWS-7266, Tunstall DUR UK

1932 - Death: George Mervyn LAWS (Butcher) -3961, Newcastle, NSW AUSTRALIA

1934 - Marriage: Alfred James LAWS (Clerk) -167377 and Caroline Mabel Seppings DUNT 

           (School Mistress)-167379, Hornchurch ESS UK

1934 - Death: Alfred LAWS-167378, 

1939 - Miscellaneous: Grace LAWS (Spinster) -117376, 

1939 - Will Proved: Edith Florence LAWS (Spinster)-117375, 

1939 - Residence: Christopher James LAWS (Master Mariner 09697) -56337, Sutton Bridge LIN

1948 - Burial: George W LAWES (Sgt US Army) -37872, Long Island NY United States

1952 - Admon: Alfred Edwin LAWES (Engineer - Well Fitter)-120413, 

1952 - Miscellaneous: Thomas Alfred  LAWES (Shops Inspector)-118616, 

1962 - Birth: Thomas Paul LAWS-167690, 

1964 - Death: Dora LAWS-124148, Crook DUR UK

1974 - Birth: Paul Andrew Peter LAWS-52097, Epping ESS UK

1980 - Death: Thomas B LAWS (TSGT US AIR FORCE) -37878, 

1992 - Death: Robert W LAWS-52520, Jacksonville, Duval, Florida 32220 USA

1994 - Death: Wilce Pate LAWS-56624, Memphis, Shelby TN USA

MISC

1799 - Christen: Mary CRAFTS (Seamstress) -3107, Chatteris CAM UK

                                                                  Chatteris CAM UK

1813 - Residence: Mary ???-7634, High Street, Shadwell MDX

           (My Third Great Grandmother)

1832 - Birth: Ellen WING-31872, 

1834 - Birth: Elizabeth P PATTERSON-115133, Welland ONT CANADA

1851 - Immigration: Mary Ann ALEXANDER-3947, 

1895 - Burial: Eleanor JENNINGS-46578, Stanley WRY UK

1922 - Will Proved: Dorethy Sarah Sophia TIMMINS-1209, 

1934 - Residence: Caroline Mabel Seppings DUNT (School Mistress) -167379, Sherringham NFK 

1948 - Death: Frances Ann WRIGHT-5855, Moulton LIN UK

1952 - Miscellaneous: Henry A SPRINGATE (Police Constable) -123287, 

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