1946

Hazelwood Castle

The castle was converted to a maternity home during the second world war.

Selby Abbey

Selby market place with the Abbey in the background.

Richard Who

Before Marriage mom lived at home where grandad Roland had a fish and chip shop. Mom often told the tail how she and my grandma Eugene would be left peeling spuds for the chipshop while granddad spent the day in the pub with his brothers. It wound her up eighty years later! Grandad's brothers Bill and Fred both had businesses in Selby. Bill had a fishshop just over the canal bridge and Fred had a tobancconist / sweetshop. Wonder why I remember that? Could be the fact that when we visited on Sunday afternoons the shop was shut but I wandered arround picking at the sweets. Mom and dad met in Selby at a dance as dad was stationed there for training before being sent to France. Grandad was always a bit of a character - imagine pop Larkin from 'Darling Buds of May'. Mom told the tale of how during the war he had an illegal pig in his barn. When time came to dispatch and butcher the pig, it got so cross it chased grandad and the butcher who had come to help up into the rafters. Mom carried a leg of this pig all the way down to Wolverhampton to her prospective inlaws, hidden in a suitcase, where it was not well recieved by my grandma Alice.

Hazelwood Castle near Tadcaster in Yorkshire is where I was born. This is not as posh as it might first appear as the castle had been turned into a maternity hospital in 1939 and it remained so until 1953. During this period 2500 babies were born there so no lordship I'm afraid. I am then christened in Selby Abbey. Woa I achieve fame at last...

At this time, dad was back from Burma and mom and dad were living in Brook street Selby where they ran a fish and chip shop for grandad Hanson. My recollections of this period are down to things told to me by my mom. I remember her talking about the terrible winter of 1946-47 and how they had to walk on the tops of walls to avoid the flooded roads and the dreadful cold. This quote was taken from the Met Office: "River levels continued to rise. The banks of the Trent burst at Nottingham on 18 March and hundreds of homes were flooded, many to first floor level. While floods in the south-west England began to subside, other rivers continued to rise in eastern England. The Wharfe, Derwent, Aire and Ouse all burst their banks and flooded a huge area of southern Yorkshire. The town of Selby was almost completely under water. Only the ancient abbey and a few streets around the market place escaped inundation. Seventy per cent of all houses in the town were flooded. The flooding issues continued into the spring, bringing a nasty end to the cold and snowy winter."

1950

Nulaboor Plain

The road across the Nulaboor plain. Miles of nothing!

Australia!

This move takes place in January 1950. All the family sets off to Australia. This is grandma Eugene, granddad Roland Clayton, my mom Rene and dad Arthur.

Grandad had sold his shops and mom and dad had saved money whilst my dad was away fighting in Burma with general Slim. So this was to be a joint venture. We left from Southampton with the Shaw Savill line on the ship ARAWA. I can clearly see the dinner menus and booklets in my minds eye, which were still lying around years later when I would be rooting around in the photos box. I also remember or remember seeing, photos of the captain dressed up as Neptune as we crossed the with all the gullible travellers subjected to a ritual, eating soap is something that sticks in my mind.

We landed in Freemantle and the plan was to find a garage to buy. Initially the familly were disappointed as they were expecting to be able to buy a garage in a village or small town and Perth was quite a large City without anything they could recognize as suburbs. When I went to Perth years later I was struck by what an amazing place this was. I visited Kings Park which mom had remembered all these years later.

The price seemed to be inflated once an enquiry was made. So they bought a car in order to travel to Adelaide. We then proceeded to cross the Nullarbor Plain via Coolgardie, Kalgoorlie and Eucla on the way to Adelaide. Note this is an epic journey even today! I remember seeing the map which was in book format and was basically a straight line through the pages, mile after mile and then it would show where you could refuel and where water was available.

Not sure where, but mom remembers after driving day and night they came to a small town – resembling a wild west scene. It had a ramshackle hotel with hitching rails for your horse. We all checked in and then freshened up and then went down to eat. Only to find that dad and granddad were refused entry because they didn’t have ties on! Continued on and on to Adelaide; to which they took an instant dislike. After a few weeks staying in a hotel and looking for a business they decided to set off back to Perth. Roughly 1700 miles each way! Mom and dad, had by now come to the conclusion that best thing was for them to get jobs as their funds we being depleted by the travelling and hotel bills. Instead of going back to a hotel upon their return they rented a bungalow! - mom remembers the address still: The four mile peg, Albany Road, Perth. I think this gives a flavour for the dust covered tin roof shack miles away from anywhere. However, grandma was not coping well with the heat and all the travelling and no one was coping with the creepy crawlies hiding in the dunny down the yard BIG spiders. Grandad had the purse strings and was holding on to them very tightly, often mom would complain she didn't have enough money in her purse to buy me an ice cream. So a the decision was made to return to the UK. Unable to find a direct route home they got passage on tramp steamer the Cyrenia making its way back to Europe.

The route as far as I can ascertain was from Freemantle in Western Australia to Ceylon as it was then called, Sri Lanka now. Then up through the Red Sea, Suez canal then calling in Cairo Egypt. From there Round Greece and on to Naples or Rome. From there, would you believe they caught a train; yup a train home to Wolverhampton. What an adventure! Worth remembering this is just five years after a world war and grandma loosing her son Robert in the war at Anzio.

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