St Teara in about 1933 with cousin Audrey and a young Frances
In 1922 I started going out with Frank Fuller who I had met through the church and through playing in his father's orchestra. Frank bought me a bike. It was a beauty that he had built to specification; it must have cost a fair bit. We cycled miles from East Ham, and from Laindon, and quite often to Epping Forest. Then we thought we might save time and money in train fares to work in London - Frank worked in the Board of Education in Whitehall and I was in Charing Cross Road - if we had a motor bike and side car and so we bought a Matchless costing £60 in 1925. Frank hired a garage about two minutes walk from where I lived. As he lived in West Ham he used to cycle there and pick me up after collecting the motor bike. The venture was a complete dead loss. We only kept it for a year. The first time we took my mother out in it she put her foot through the floor of the side car! We used it for some time and the one weekend we went to visit Frank's Uncle Frank and Auntie Em in Laindon - our first long journey - and starting back home the back axle broke so we had to leave it and come back by train. It was a dead loss, especially as it always seemed to start raining about 9am when Frank picked me up and stop about 10am when he dropped me off, started again about 5pm and so on. I bough Frank a mackintosh outfit; it was well used. Several times the bike went wrong in the City between Aldgate and St Paul's and trying to find a garage around there was like looking for a needle in a haystack! We did manage to get to Yarmouth and back with it once. After about 9 months it wasn't a money saver after all and Frank sold it for about £30. Although we were not engaged, we reckoned if we saved up for about 2 years we would be able to get married. I think it was then that Frank bought the tandem, which we made good use of and cost nothing to run. From time to time we used to cycle down to Laindon, visiting Frank's relations - Auntie Edie and Uncle Joe (Pilling) , Uncle Frank and Auntie Em (Lane). I don't remember going to work on it, but I do remember we visited Shanklin and rode home from Southampton - I was saddle sore!
Frank's Parents and St Teara
Frank's parents live in West Ham. Mother Fuller (Elizabeth) was a teacher and Father Fuller (Henry) was a signwriter. He was a very clever man, but very modest. In his spare time he produced beautiful oil and water colour paintings, made lovely pieces of furniture and was also an acclaimed violin maker - he was in the violin maker's directory that included Stradivarius! He could repair bows, which was something Frank also did in later life.
When visiting Laindon we always like the look of a bungalow called "St Teara! which I believe is the name of a Devon village. It was in Tavistock Road and had been bought by Uncle Frank (Lane) to accommodate his parents, John and Ann. After they died he let it to weekly tenants. It consisted of four rooms and a scullery, and an outside earth closet. Water was laid on, but no heating system. There was no gas or electricity. In the scullery there was a brick copper. We thought we would like to have the bungalow as our first home and asked Uncle Frank if he would sell it to us. The price was £500. It needed a lot of alteration and decoration to suit us and every available weekend we went to Laindon and did as much work as we could, and leaving our homes on Saturday afternoon - no free Saturday mornings in those days - and returning in time to play in the orchestra on the Sunday afternoon. That is when the tandem really came in handy with no fares to pay. I used to wear a sweater and divided skirt made for comfortable cycling. One Sunday we were delayed in starting back and I had to take my place at the piano in my cycling gear. Doing up the house was really hard labour, but well worth it in order to get the home we wanted. It took along time with so few hours available. Their was a kitchener stove in the living room and that had to come out and a new stove put in place. We wanted picture rails too, which are now old fashioned. Cooking was done on an oil burning Valour Perfection stove, which used to be in the second bedroom as there was no room for it in the scullery. Frank's Uncle Lando used to bring the oil round in large drums every so often. Lighting was by oil burning Aladdin's lamps, which were very good as long as there was enough oxygen in the room.
In 1922 I started going out with Frank Fuller who I had met through the church and through playing in his father's orchestra. Frank bought me a bike. It was a beauty that he had built to specification; it must have cost a fair bit. We cycled miles from East Ham, and from Laindon, and quite often to Epping Forest. Then we thought we might save time and money in train fares to work in London - Frank worked in the Board of Education in Whitehall and I was in Charing Cross Road - if we had a motor bike and side car and so we bought a Matchless costing £60 in 1925. Frank hired a garage about two minutes walk from where I lived. As he lived in West Ham he used to cycle there and pick me up after collecting the motor bike. The venture was a complete dead loss. We only kept it for a year. The first time we took my mother out in it she put her foot through the floor of the side car! We used it for some time and the one weekend we went to visit Frank's Uncle Frank and Auntie Em in Laindon - our first long journey - and starting back home the back axle broke so we had to leave it and come back by train. It was a dead loss, especially as it always seemed to start raining about 9am when Frank picked me up and stop about 10am when he dropped me off, started again about 5pm and so on. I bough Frank a mackintosh outfit; it was well used. Several times the bike went wrong in the City between Aldgate and St Paul's and trying to find a garage around there was like looking for a needle in a haystack! We did manage to get to Yarmouth and back with it once. After about 9 months it wasn't a money saver after all and Frank sold it for about £30. Although we were not engaged, we reckoned if we saved up for about 2 years we would be able to get married. I think it was then that Frank bought the tandem, which we made good use of and cost nothing to run. From time to time we used to cycle down to Laindon, visiting Frank's relations - Auntie Edie and Uncle Joe (Pilling) , Uncle Frank and Auntie Em (Lane). I don't remember going to work on it, but I do remember we visited Shanklin and rode home from Southampton - I was saddle sore!
Frank's Parents and St Teara
Frank's parents live in West Ham. Mother Fuller (Elizabeth) was a teacher and Father Fuller (Henry) was a signwriter. He was a very clever man, but very modest. In his spare time he produced beautiful oil and water colour paintings, made lovely pieces of furniture and was also an acclaimed violin maker - he was in the violin maker's directory that included Stradivarius! He could repair bows, which was something Frank also did in later life.
When visiting Laindon we always like the look of a bungalow called "St Teara! which I believe is the name of a Devon village. It was in Tavistock Road and had been bought by Uncle Frank (Lane) to accommodate his parents, John and Ann. After they died he let it to weekly tenants. It consisted of four rooms and a scullery, and an outside earth closet. Water was laid on, but no heating system. There was no gas or electricity. In the scullery there was a brick copper. We thought we would like to have the bungalow as our first home and asked Uncle Frank if he would sell it to us. The price was £500. It needed a lot of alteration and decoration to suit us and every available weekend we went to Laindon and did as much work as we could, and leaving our homes on Saturday afternoon - no free Saturday mornings in those days - and returning in time to play in the orchestra on the Sunday afternoon. That is when the tandem really came in handy with no fares to pay. I used to wear a sweater and divided skirt made for comfortable cycling. One Sunday we were delayed in starting back and I had to take my place at the piano in my cycling gear. Doing up the house was really hard labour, but well worth it in order to get the home we wanted. It took along time with so few hours available. Their was a kitchener stove in the living room and that had to come out and a new stove put in place. We wanted picture rails too, which are now old fashioned. Cooking was done on an oil burning Valour Perfection stove, which used to be in the second bedroom as there was no room for it in the scullery. Frank's Uncle Lando used to bring the oil round in large drums every so often. Lighting was by oil burning Aladdin's lamps, which were very good as long as there was enough oxygen in the room.
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