LFR Aug 8 Number 601

North Berwick, East Lothian, Scotland

Welcome to the Laws Family Register. 

Part 2.

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

HOME

Our garden was not very large, a rectangle with a concrete path round the patch of grasst o leave a border for plants and little trees. A little extra bit was squeezed in at the side of the back of the house before the narrow sideway out to the front. Inside the rectangle of the path the grass had half a dozen little apple trees round the edge. The plants elude my memory, only the laburnams stand out clearly always in flower, with a prickly rose bush under one of them.

One went into the garden beside the back door from the scullery down a couple of sandstone steps. Only in very warm weather was the double back door of the bay window in the kitchen opened for regular use. It opened onto a paved patch across the garden which caught the afternoon sun. For some time I had a white albino rabbit in a hutch in the garden. It had a wire netting run from which it would burrow out if not carefully supervised.

Our house was a semi, built of London stocks in the late 1800's, one of the better houses almost at the top of the hill. We lived there till I was ten, so being an inquisitive  child, I learned to know the area better than the palm of my hand.

As an infant the day was spent in the kitchen, a pleasent enough room lit by a bay window with a half glazed double door to the garden. It was heated by a black-leaded built-in kitchen range with an oven to the side and a back boiler to heat the water. This had to be lit every morning if the weather was cold and if it were lit it would be used for some cooking. the kitchen was lit at night by a single central gas light, a soft sypathetic light without the brilliance of the electricity which came later. candlesticks were on the mantle piece for bedtime. Mine was enamel but my mother had a more elegant one, once silver plated but already polished down to the brass, I still have it.

The kitchen furnishings were plain and useful. A large deal table with an end drawer and covered with a tablecloth. one leg very tatty from being used as a acatching post by the cat. Bentwood chairs, comfortable enough but a little creaky, one an elbow chair the rest plain but with the usual pressed pattern on the seat. A built-in brown painted dresser with drawers and cupboards below and a slightly mixed collection of plates on edge on the shelves with the cups hanging from hooks on the front. Meals were usually taken in the kitchen except at weekends when lunch (called dinner) and tea were taken in the dining room. fortunately the kitchen was a good sized room and a child could run about and play on the floor with little impediment.

The cat which had used the table leg as a scratching post was known by the unlikely name of Ma. It appears that I christened it with the only word in my vocabulary at a very early age. It was an undistingushed tabby which would catch the occasional unwary mouse but would spend more time snoozing in front of the fire. It seemed that every house had mice at that time. Food was more acccessible before fridges and freezers.

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 8th

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

1743 - Birth: William LAWS-47290, Feltwell NFK UK

                                                        Feltwell St Nicholas NFK UK

1802 - Christen: Gilbert LAWS-2992, St. Mary Magdelene, Bermondsey SRY

1804 - Death: Frances DURHAM-37677, Mercer Co KY USA

1824 - Marriage: Henry Howe FAIERS-30478 and Elizabeth LAWS-30479, Norwich NFK UK

                                                      The Cathedral, Norwich NFK UK

1824 - Baptism: Ann LAWS-4709, Norwich NFK UK

1860 - Occupation: William B LAWS (Ordinary Seaman) -51786, 

1860 - Birth: David LAWS-35746, Gateshead DUR UK

1867 - Occupation: William LAWS (Cook on Ship) -51792, 

1881 - Death: Rebecca LAWS-8027, 

1884 - Birth: Theodora LAWS-115114, Clarendon, JAMAICA

1886 - Christen: John Thomas LAWES-2878, 

1889 - Birth: Augustus Charles LAWS (BM1 US Navy) -37898, 

1892 - Birth: Eva Irene  LAWS (deaf)-41203, 

1899 - Burial: Charles Evens LAWS-124484, West Ham ESS UK

1901 - Marriage: John Henry LAWS-45529 and Lela Mae SLAUGHTER-45530, 

1908 - Birth: John W LAWS-99979, 

1916 - Will Proved: John LAWS (Farmer) -6912, 

1918 - Marriage: Maurice Albert ROBERTS (Army Private) -28721 and Nelly Louise LAWS 

           (Shop Assistant) -28698, Brighton SSX UK

1918 - Death: Joseph George LAWS (ARMY Private 44038) -45110, 

1918 - Death: Frederick Compton LAWES (ARMY Private 814293) -44908, 

1924 - Admon: Alfred Henry LAWES (Head Postman)-59272, 

1926 - Death: Fred James LAWS-38381, 

1931 - Death: Agnes Emma LAWES-34270, Horsham VIC AUSTRALIA

1935 - Birth: Richard John Sinclair LAWS (Broadcaster Ch 10 & 2UE & Farmer) -38468, 

           Wau, New Guinea

1938 - Birth: Uculas Ralph LAWS-125474, NC United States

1941 - Death: Gertrude Mary LAWS (Servant) -168103, St Marylebone MDX UK

1943 - Birth: John Edward LAWES-47052, 

1948 - Marriage: Albert James Gerald LAWS-31465 and Evelyn Joyce COLEMAN-51549, 

           West Ham ESS UK

1956 - Marriage: Henry James LAWS-55223 and Dorethy Emily LAWLER-55224, 

           St Andrews Church of England NSW AUSTRALIA

1959 - Birth: Cindy Rochelle LAWS-49525, Eureka, Humboldt CA USA

1960 - Birth: Ronald Earl LAWS-38404, 

1960 - Death: Emily Susan LAWS-3419, Bendigo VIC AUSTRALIA

1969 - Marriage: Gerald Theodore LAWS-114928 and Constance Mae BARKER-114929, 

           Las Vegas NV USA

1981 - Marriage: Leonard Sidney LAWS-54686 and Janice STANFORD-54687, 

           Coonabarabran, NSW, Australia

1984 - Birth: Aliya Iman LAWS-40734, TX

1987 - Death: Stanley Roy LAWS-43857, Cabramatta NSW AUSTRALIA

1994 - Burial: William Arlington LAWS (T4 US Army) -37725, Calverton Natl Cemetery, NY NY

2000 - Birth: Oliver LAWES-37175, 

2003 - Burial: Louise LAWS-31252, Houston, Harris Co TX USA

2008 - Residence: Robert LAWS (Auto Electician) -58121, Bradford WRY UK

MISC

1812 - Baptism: Sabina SARGEANT  (Lately widow SIMMS) -3887, Puddletown DOR UK

1880 - Death: Elizabeth Bricknell GROSSMITH-50963, Gaspe, Quebec CANADA

1887 - Birth: Jessie JAMISON-34230, 

1906 - Birth: Herbert Charles WOOD-30155, 

1922 - Death: Elizabeth P PATTERSON-115133, St. Catharines, Lincoln Co., ONT CANADA

1930 - Will Proved: Maude Mary STUTTER-6108, 

1937 - Death: Catherine RUSCHLI (German ancestry) -46275, Crown Point, Lake Co IN USA

1946 - Birth: Patricia GRIMANI-45188, Hayes MDX (A distant cousin of mine)

1951 - Birth: Maria Concetta RUSSO-43818, Cairns QLD Australia
1952 - Death: George William DRUMMOND-31924, 

1966 - Death: Marguerite Emma GODDARD-116021, Southend-on-Sea ESS UK

                                     Southend on Sea & its longest pleasure pier in the World

1986 - Death: Georges Edouard Marie Claude PETITPIERRE-115278, Lannion, Côtes-d'Armor,                Bretagne, France (Grandfather of my 2nd Cousin)

2010 - Death: Yvonne Marcia NICHOLSON-121687, Christchurch NZ

To see

 our full database, which now contains 

42,404 People   

12,975Families

105,503 Events 

in 19,774 Places

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The content provided on this site is not guaranteed to be error free - It is always advised that you consult original records.

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With grateful thanks to Simon Knott for permission to reproduce his photographs on this site see :-http://www.norfolkchurches.co.uk/

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