Frederick and Jane Birch (nee Dell)
My father Frederick was born on 25th September 1864 into the
family of William and Ellen Birch, one of the oldest names
in Chesham. The name Birch can be traced back in and around
Chesham to the early 14th Century. His father, William
Birch, was described on Frederick's birth certificate as a
farm labourer, although it is known from census entries that
he had previously been a pit sawyer. His mother was Ellen
Birch (nee Butler) from Hyde Heath, a village 3 miles from
Chesham. He was born in the family home, a small cottage in
Amy Lane, a part of Chesham known then as Weylands.
Frederick was the eldest child of six, two brothers William
and Thomas, and three sisters, Fanny, Pearl and Catherine
(Kate, who lived to be 92).
Frederick Birch
My mother Jane was born on the 5th July 1864 in Grimsdells
Lane, Amersham Common. Her Father Isaac Dell was born at
Hyde Heath in 1826 and as a young boy was hired out to a
farmer at Mantles Farm, Hyde Heath. He later became a farm
bailiff and was well respected locally. Her Mother, Jane
Bedford, was born at Northchurch, Hertfordshire in 1830.
As a family they moved from farm to farm in and around the
district as their father changed his work place. At one
time they were at Flaunden in Hertfordshire as all seven
girls were christened on the same day in the local church.
Jane and her six sisters had a good living, their mother
managed to feed them all very well in spite of what must
have been difficult circumstances looking after eight
people in a small cottage.
Jane Birch nee Dell
After the local farmers had gathered in the last of the harvest people were
allowed by law to go onto the fields and pick up any ears of corn that had been
missed. This was known as gleaning, and as long as there was one stook of
sheaves still in the field the farmer could claim he had not finished, and
people could be kept out. As soon as this last stook was removed however, anyone
could legally go in. In this way, with all the girls helping quite a substantial
amount of corn could be gathered. This was taken to the local flour mill to be
ground into flour by the miller. Enough was usually obtained to make sure there
was always a sack or two of flour to bake all their own bread and pastry.
A pig was also kept, and when this was killed it would provide bacon and pork
for eating and dripping and lard for cooking etc. When the pig had been killed
it would be butchered into joints and then wrapped in paper and cloth and hung
in the chimney to be smoked.
Money was always in short supply so anything that could bring some in was
welcomed. One way was by the local tradition of straw plaiting, and most of the
family would be engaged on this. My mother used to tell me that in the winter
they would get very cold while they were sitting plaiting. They could not sit
near the fire for fear of setting light to the straw. The way they kept warm was
to put some hot coals in a tin box on the floor beneath their long skirts so
that the heat would rise and keep them nice and warm. When she was older mother
went to work in a farmers house and there learned her skills of cooking and
housekeeping that stood her in good stead after she was married.
My Father did not go to school as a child because this would have cost 6 pence
(2p) a week and this amount of money could not be spared. Instead he was sent to
a Straw Plaiting School in the St. Mary's Church rooms, for the more affordable
sum of 2d weekly. Children at that time had to play their part in helping to
support the family from a very early age, and Frederick was to be no exception.
By learning to make plaits he could help in what was the very popular cottage
industry. This activity provided additional, and sometimes the only source of
income for many families in the villages surrounding Chesham and Amersham, and
most other Chiltern towns.
Each piece of straw was first split into 4 or 6 strands, and then plaited
together in lengths of 20 feet called a score. The completed scores were then
taken to Mr. Tree's shop (photo) in Chesham Broadway and sold for 2d. Very few
people at that time had any form of transport, and if they were rich enough to
have transport, they would not need to plait straw. It was therefore a common
sight to see people walking into Chesham from miles around carrying their
completed scores of straw plaits, and returning home with bundles of straw ready
to start on the next batch.
Mother who lived at Amersham at this time also had to walk to Chesham to take
her plaits to Mr. Tree, and collect more straw for the next batch of plaits. As
it was quite a long way for her she was given a halfpenny to buy a drink at the
White Horse public house on her way home. To give me the strength to get back up
the hill, as she later recalled. Eventually all the collected plaits were sent
to Luton to be made into straw hats. The hats were sold at the door by hawkers
who carried their long boxes of hats around the district trying to sell them.
They were priced from 6 pence three farthings (3p) to 2 shillings & 6 pence (12
½p) which was quite a lot of money to pay for a straw hat.
Unfortunately for the Birch household, young Frederick never mastered the art of
plaiting, and so was sent out to work as an assistant pit sawyer. A pit sawyer's
job consisted of cutting the trunks of trees into manageable lengths so that
they could be taken back to the saw mills. First a pit was dug and the tree
rolled over it. A man and a boy were then required, one on top of the log, and
one down in the pit, using a two handed cross cut saw to cut through the log. As
all the sawdust fell into the pit on top of the unfortunate person underneath,
it was always the assistant who had this position. This was the origin of the
expression "top dog and bottom dog" and it was not a very pleasant job for a 9year old boy.
My father’s maternal grandparents lived at Great Missenden and Frederick's
mother would sometimes walk them the 4 miles each way to pay a visit. This was a
very special day for young Fred and his brothers, and was fondly remembered in
later life. He often recalled that he used to hide one of his grandmother’s lace
bobbins in his pockets before leaving, in order that they could be ‘found' the
next day. As his grandmother earned her living as a pillow lace maker, this
meant a further visit in order to return the bobbins. After a number of such
instances the bobbins were always checked before they left.
In those days it was difficult for boys to court girls from another village. The
local lads would try to stop strangers coming to ‘steal' local girls from them
and fights would often take place. Somehow father must have overcome this
problem, because he and mother were married in the Lower Baptist Church at
Amersham, (now known as Old Amersham) on the 1st August 1886, and between them
managed to bring up ten children, one of which, May, died at 18 months. It was
not always easy then to raise children as there was very little help available.
All the care and attention children had was what their parents could provide
themselves. There was no such thing as free milk, child allowances, medical
attention etc. If you could not pay for things you had to go without them. As
money was always in short supply, traditional handed down remedies were used if
anyone was ill. Goose grease, saved after cooking a goose at Christmas was
rubbed on your chest if you had a bad cold. Coughs were treated with treacle and
honey melted in a drop of warm water. A bread poultice would be made for a
septic wound or boils, etc. For mother to have only lost one out of ten children
was quite an achievement. I can remember my sister Alice sending her son John
down from Harrow to get some goose grease from Mother because one of her other
children had a bad cold. Disinfectant was obtained from the water works and was
used to wash the floors and table tops etc. to help kill any germs that could be
present. There was a large outbreak of Scarlet Fever in Chesham at one time and
many people died, but Mother, much to her credit, managed to keep us all
healthy.
When father and mother were first married, father was working for a Mr. Page of
Quaker Lane, Chesham, delivering coal around the local villages with a horse and
cart. When the owner of the business died the widow handed everything to my
father, including the horse (called Blossom) and cart, so that he could carry on
and work for himself. The horse and carts were kept at Jimmy East’s timber yard,
and the coal would arrive by train at Chesham Station goods yard. (photo?) There
father would fill the sacks with coal and take them on his regular rounds in the
town and nearby villages. Blossom knew her way round the routes and could find
her own way home without any prompting from anyone. This was just as well
because on one occasion father was very late home and mother was getting worried
waiting for him. She took her younger children round to a neighbour to look
after, and then went with her eldest child George to look for him.
As he always went to the same places on particular days she knew which way to
go, and eventually found Blossom and the cart standing outside the Portabella
Arms in Chartridge. (photo?) Father was inside enjoying a few jars of ale with
some friends and was in no hurry to leave. Mother jumped up on the cart, shook
the reins and called out "home, Blossom". The horse, having stood there for a
long time was also anxious to get home and needed no second bidding and duly
trotted off home. Father must have heard the cart leaving and ran out shouting
for mother to stop. Blossom however was having none of it, having at last
started for home she was not about to stop. Father had to walk home and no doubt
had some thing to say when he arrived.
He carried on with the business for a few years, and the family lived a better
life than most other people at that time having a pony and trap to ride in when
everyone else had to walk - the Rolls Royce of the day!
Father did not make any better success as a businessman than he did as a straw
plaiter. He took his coal around all the surrounding villages on his regular
days, and sold it for one shilling (5p) a hundredweight, or one ton for nineteen
shillings. He was, however prone to staying too long in the local pubs, and to
listening to hard luck stories. He allowed many of his customers to ‘pay next
week'. Some did, some did not, and it was not long before he had to go back to
the timber trade in order to pay for the coal he had given away. The horse and
cart and trap also had to go to pay off what was owed. One day a man called at
the cottage asking for Mr. Fred Birch. Mother, who was home at the time asked
what he wanted him for. He still owes me twenty pounds she was told and I want
to know when he is going to pay me. Mother was horrified as she never owed
anyone any money. She knew that father was over the road in the Huntsman public
house (Photo?) and so took the man over to find him. Mother walked into the pub
and announced to all the men there that "this gentleman is owed twenty pounds by
freddy. You have all been drinking the beer he has been buying you, so now pay
up and let this man have his money". I never found out if the man ever got his
money back, but knowing mother he probably did.
He now continued to work with horses, and became a timber carter for the firm of
Jesse Wright, woodenware manufacturers of Chesham, moving the timber from the
local woods back to the factory.
When George, the eldest of the family left school, he went to work at East's
timber yard. He had done very well at school and the teachers wanted him to stay
on to improve his education. They considered that he was capable of going far.
However, money was not very plentiful and mother only had 12 shillings and six
pence (62p) to feed and clothe 11 of us. Thus George was sent to work to help
out with the family budget. He earned 5 shillings in his first week and mother
was so proud of this that she took the two half crowns round to show all the
neighbours. This did not last long, for shortly after George was struck on the
ear by a flying piece of wood from the saw mill. This wound turned septic, and
the poison affected all his body, especially his legs. He was in Chesham
Hospital for 6 months and walked on crutches for another 18 months. In
hindsight mother and father should have let him stay at school. When he
recovered from his injury George joined his father building fences on and around
the new Metropolitan Railway housing estates being built in Harrow and Ruislip.
When they first married they lived in Waterside, Chesham,
where their first child William George was born. They later
moved to Quaker lane and the next two
Children, Alice Mary and Thomas were born there. Another move
found them in the High Street at No.118 where Rosa and
Frederick John (Jack) were born.
The next move took them to No.1 Wagon and Horses Yard where
they stayed while the rest of the family, Dorothy (Doll),
Florry (Flo), May, myself and Gladys were born.
Hilda Jane on her first
birthday in 1906
Brother Jack had been killed in the war, and the last time he
had been seen by mother was as he was leaving home. He stood at
the top of the yard and turned
round and waved goodbye to her. This picture in her mind of him
standing there waving stayed with her, and every time she looked
up the yard to the road she could picture him standing there
waving. This disturbed her so much that after a few years she
decided we would have to move.
Jack Birch
So in 1920 the family moved once again, this time to 120, Broad Street, where
they stayed for four years before moving on August Bank Holiday Monday 1925, to
the bungalow that Mother had had built at Tylers Hill, just opposite the Hen and
Chickens public house. It was the first house to be built down the lane, and was
supposed to have been the top house in the road, but a house was later built
next to it which rather spoilt the outlook from the bungalow. Moving day was a
great day, Alice and George, Doll and Harry came down from Harrow bringing their
children, Gwen, John, Rita, Ron and Joan with them. A horse and cart had been
hired to carry all the furniture and this had to make several journeys. A second
horse had to be used to pull the loaded wagon up Eskdale Avenue as it was too
steep for one horse to manage. It was a real carnival atmosphere, and everyone
enjoyed the day.
The bungalow had been built by a Mr.
Burgin, a builder from Bovingdon and it
cost £440, including a grant from the
government of £75. This grant was made to
encourage people to have their own houses
built in order to help with the
depression in the building trade. The
only condition was that it had to contain
a bathroom. A bathroom was not the thing
that was taken for granted then, and
although ours contained a bath, that was
the only thing in the room, and only a
cold water tap was provided. The toilet,
a modern flushing one, was joined on to
the house, but it was still necessary to
go outside to reach it. For its day in a rural district, it was a very modern
dwelling. We were now able to have a bath in a real bath for the first time in
our lives. This was much better than using a tin bath on the floor of the living
room in front of the fire, although as there was no heating in our new bathroom
it was much colder. All the rooms in the bungalow had fireplaces in them, but
they were seldom used. Only if someone was ill did we consider lighting a fire
in the bedrooms. We had a hot water bottle to go to bed with, and these were put
out of the bed during the night when they cooled down. It was quite common after
a really cold night in the winter to find them frozen solid in the morning. It
was a real effort to get out of a nice warm bed into a freezing cold room to get
dressed.
A kitchen range was provided in the living room for cooking, and a large cast
iron boiler in the scullery for boiling the water for the washing, and for
having a bath. Both were coal-fired, and of course a fire had to be lit in them
before they could be used. So to have a bath, or do the weekly wash, you first
had to chop up some kindling wood, start the fire with paper and wood, and then
when it was burning nicely put on some coal. All this would take about half an
hour, after which the hot water had to be scooped out of the copper and
transferred to the bath. The bungalow was not connected to the sewerage system,
but had a cesspit in the garden which cost 11 shillings to have emptied. It was
necessary therefore not to put water down it if it could be avoided. Water from
the bath and washing was always scooped out and poured on the garden. This not
only saved having the cesspit emptied so often, but helped water the garden as
well. What with one thing and another, having a bath was not to be undertaken
lightly.
No electricity was connected to the bungalow; lighting was by gas light in the
main living room and candles in the rest of the house. After the second war we
wanted to have electricity connected, but any building work needed a permit from
the Government as materials were still in very short supply. With a reference
from Dr. Catherall on the grounds that father needed nursing care, and the use
of candles was not very safe or practical, a permit to have electricity
connected was obtained. The bungalow was eventually provided with electricity in
1948. Father offered to pay for the wiring if Horace and I paid for an electric
radio to replace the battery/accumulator one that he had been using for years.
This was agreed, but in the event the wireless cost £30 and the house wiring in
best quality lead covered cable only cost £28. The wireless, an Echo 6 valve
portable, was given by Horace to Philip, our grandson. It is still in working
order, with all the original valves still in place.
The money for the bungalow came from a variety of sources. The land on which it
was built, was £1 for each foot of the 65 foot frontage, on a plot that was 275
feet deep. This was provided by my sister Rosa, whose husband Harry Bolton had
been killed in the First War. She had saved the allotment from her husband’s
army pay, and as she was leaving to marry her cousin Frederick Talbot who was in
Canada, gave Mother the £65 to buy the land. Brother Jack, who had also been
killed in the war, had given Mother £200 for safe keeping, with instructions to
use it to buy a cottage of her own if he did not return. This money was kept in
gold sovereigns in a tin trunk at the side of her bed, and was used to pay the
builder on a day to day basis as he progressed with the work. Mr. Burgin would
call on Mother to say that a certain stage of the building was completed, and
she would get required number of sovereigns from the trunk and hand them to him.
I do not remember any receipts or other papers being signed, it seems that
everyone trusted everyone else to keep their word. Mother had over the years
saved £100 of her own, and the remaining £65 was borrowed from Florry, who had a
good job and was saving to get married. This was repaid in lieu of rent, as
after Florry and Reginald married they lived in the bungalow until they had
enough money to have their own bungalow built next door. They just paid for
their food while they lived there, and thus the loan was repaid during the time
they stayed with us. Mother only lived until 4th March 1933 so she had less than
8 years to enjoy her new bungalow. Father, however lived on until 25th April
1950 and he had almost 25 years to enjoy his retirement.
Horace looked after the garden, and I looked after the house so he had only
himself to think about. He had a battery wireless on which he would listen to
the news twice a day, and also the morning service. This was the only time the
wireless was used as it needed an accumulator to make it work. This would just
last a week with careful use, and then had to be taken to Chesham to be
recharged. He had two accumulators and as one was taken for recharging, the
other would be ready to bring home. This he did every Wednesday afternoon when
he would go to Chesham to a meeting of The Aged Men’s Fellowship in the Quaker
Meeting House in Bellingdon Road. (photo?) There father would meet lots of his
old friends and ex-colleagues for a chat about old times over a cup of tea. It
took something very serious to make him miss this weekly meeting. Apart from his
arthritic hip which gave him a bad limp and considerable pain, he kept in pretty
good health until he was taken to hospital with cancer. After he came home he
needed a lot of nursing care, and there was only the District Nurse available.
She had a large area to cover and this meant that she would be unable to come in
the necessary twice daily to attend to Father so I was trained to do it instead.
This I did for some years until he had to go back into Amersham Hospital again
in 1949. My own health was suffering at this time and it was decided by the
doctors that he could not come home for a while. In fact he stayed there until
he died on the 25th April 1950.
The first girl to get married in our family was Alice. She had been in service
at Harrow and had met and had been courted by George Farmborough. They were
married in St. Mary's Church (photo?) at Chesham. Alice wore a grey wedding
dress, and had a car to and from Wagon and Horses Yard and the church. This was
most unusual in those times as cars were few and far between. Mother somehow
managed to find the money to purchase three yards of Irish damask linen to use
as a table cloth for the wedding breakfast. This proved to be a good investment
as this same cloth was used for all of her girls’ weddings, several
christenings, and after her death, her own funeral. I still have it now.
After Alice and George were married they had a greengrocery shop in Harrow, and
they would come down to visit us from time to time. They would travel down in
the pony and trap that George used to fetch the fruit and vegetables from Covent
Garden Market. George's brother Harry would sometimes come with them, probably
having been told by his brother about all the attractive sisters of Alice in
Chesham. Harry and Florry became quite friendly and there was speculation that
they would start to get serious.
About this time Doll had been working in
service for Mrs Ratcliffe at her house in
Bellingdon Road, just opposite Townsend Road
School. Mr. Ratcliffe owned a boot factory
in Higham Road, and they were very well off.
This did not mean they parted with their
money though. Doll would bring home washing
for mother to do, but Mrs Ratcliffe did not
always give Doll the money for it. It was often the case that mother would say
"no more washing until she has paid for the last lot". Doll of course was
reluctant to upset her employer by asking for the money too often, and the
arguments would get quite heated at times. Later on, Doll, no doubt persuaded by
Alice, went to Harrow to work in service with a Mrs. Sheppard at Harrow on the
Hill. There she saw Harry regularly and they eventually became married, again at
St. Mary's Church. Doll and Harry however had a pony and fly (carriage) for the
journey to and from the church, and Doll wore a brown costume.
Florry in the meantime was going out with Reginald Stacey from Amersham High
Street and was married in a blue costume.
After the turn of the century father’s sister Fanny married Joseph Talbot and
emigrated to Canada. This was the start of several members of the Birch family
leaving Chesham to start a new life there. William George was the first of our
family to go. He had married Violet Eagle from Wandsworth in Sept. 1912, and
they left soon after. They were closely followed by Thomas, who joined them in
Toronto before eventually moving on to Vancouver. Jack was next, and again he
went to Toronto and lodged with George and Violet.
They were soon all making good there, and wanted the rest of the family to join
them. Mother was not so sure but agreed that father should go first, they would
follow later if things turned out well. He stayed for 18 months and liked it so
much that he sent word for the rest of the family, Mother, Flo, Gladys and
myself, to come over as well. Mother did not want to travel with the children
on her own, (the journey from Liverpool took over a week) so asked father to
come home to fetch them. This he did, but he had a terrible crossing, and
described it to anyone who would listen in great detail. The result was that
Mother refused to go, and so part of the Birch family remained in Chesham, and
the rest in Canada. There were others who were disappointed as well. All the
furniture, crockery and other household items had been ‘spoken for' by various
relatives and friends, and they missed the chance to acquire a few extra items
for their houses.
The two years after Father returned from Canada were some of the happiest I
remember as a child. He had given up drinking as much as he had in the past, and
we all used to go out together as a family, something that had never happened
before. We would go for long walks in the summer collecting raspberries and
blackberries for jam making, and elderberries and dandelions for making wine.
Most people used to make home made wine, and it was customary to offer visitors
a glass of wine instead of a cup of tea. Great pride was taken over making wine.
It had to be clear of any sediment and not at all cloudy. I remember visitors at
home holding the glass up to the light and saying to mother "lovely drop of wine
Jane, clear as daylight". Of course the more they complimented mother on her
wine, the more likely she was to offer them another glass.
After returning from Canada, Father returned to his old trade of timber carting,
but after a few years of this he moved into the sawmill and operated the steampowered band saw that was used to reduce the logs to planks. He eventually
retired with an old age state pension of 10 shillings a week at the age
of 65. Father did not get a pension from Jesse Wright's wood yard, but for many
years up to his death they used to send two sacks of kindling wood every
Christmas. My Mother also had the same pension and this gave them £1 a week to
live on.
Mother died on 3rd. March 1933 after an illness that had lasted some time.
Shortly before she died she wanted to bake a cake for father. I could tell she
was not feeling very well so I said to her "you go to bed mother, I will make
the cake". She replied "no I will do it as Freddie likes my cakes". She finished
making the cake and waited until it was ready to come out of the oven, and then
went off to bed. Mother was so tired and weary that she at first forgot to say
good night, she came back and put her head round the door and called out
"Goodnight Hilda", and that was the last time she was up and about. She took to
her bed and died two weeks later. The cake was eaten by the family that had come
down for the funeral. Mother was buried in the graveyard of St. Georges Church
Tyler’s Hill on 9th March. The coffin was pushed up the lane to the church on a
bier, with all the family walking behind. The cost of the funeral was £13 and
this included a solid oak coffin and a grave dug by Mr. Taylor (Nossie). When in
1950 he opened the grave to bury Father he said the coffin was as good as the
day it had been put there 17 years earlier. Father's funeral cost £27, but he
had a motor hearse and one fly (car).