AAQ               My mother's essay on Teddington in the early 1900s

In 1975 the Rotary Club of Teddington, through its Vocational Service Committee, sought to preserve the living memories of the dwindling number of old residents of the villages of Hampton and Teddington, now amalgamated to form part of the Greater London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, by promoting a competition among the elderly citizens for the most interesting expressed recollections of those places 'in the dear dead days beyond recall'.

             "My memories of Teddington when I was a child in the early 1900s
                                                            Annie Campbell"

 Annie Campbell, my mother, was born July 5 1901.   Annie just missed being a Victorian by a month or so.  Her elder sister, Lena, actually made it into the world during Queen Vic's reign.  Annie's handwritten story is as follows:

Teddington at the turn of the century was a quiet parochial town with no industries.  When the trams came and Fulwell depot was built, Teddington began to live.  The school, known to me as Stanley Road School, was built about the same time and this provided work for a great number of men.  Hampton Court, with its Palace and Grounds, also provided work for gardeners and cleaners, many of these people walking through Bushy Park night and morning to and from their work, cycles being too expensive for many in those days.  The Wealthy People lived around the river area and some were really rich, employing gardeners, builders, coachmen and a host of servants. Some were gentlefolk but some treated us common folk with such disdain that it was difficult sometimes to suppress the anger that welled up at such treatment.

My first memories are of the stagecoach that used to pass through Church Road, Teddington. As it came along Waldegrave Road, we could hear the horn and away we would run to see it pass along the top of our road. At that time I was living in Clifton Road the top end of which joined Church Road. The coach would first pass at about 12 noon returning at about 4 pm. I think it came from Richmond and finished its journey at Hampton Court afterwards returning to Richmond.  During the summer, and especially on Bank Holidays, we would listen for and watch the horse-drawn Brakes (we called them) for we could hear the clip clop of the horse's feet quite a while before it came into view. These Brakes would carry six and sometimes eight people on seats facing each other. Sometimes we would see a dozen or more in the space of half an hour. They would be having a day out and going to Hampton Court Fair. For many this was their only holiday for working men in those days did not have paid holidays.
Small boys would run alongside doing Catherine Wheels and calling out 'Copper Sir'. At times they gathered quite a few coppers but it was a very risky business. One slip and you could be under the wheels. Eventually the practice was forbidden.

When I was a small child, Teddington had a market on Fridays and Saturdays. There were barrows with fruit and vegetables and all kind of produce. Two or three of these barrows would be round at Elleray Road, the rest along Broad Street with their bright lights and sales talk and banter, it was for years quite an attraction. Gradually, the local tradesmen got their way however, and the barrows were stopped from trading.  To those of our age at the time, Teddington then went into a decline.  We youngsters used to call it 'The Lit-up Cemetery' and for years we seldom called it by its proper name.  One of the 'highlights' I remember was the Procession to collect money for the Hospital   --  the little Cottage Hospital which our family had cause to thank on several occasions.

Then there were decorated Floats representing many places and our popular stall holders dressed up in all manner of clothing keeping the crowds amused with their back-chat and antics. Two other characters I vividly recall. One was called 'Set-em-alight' and the other 'Mother's Pretty Boy'.  They always took part and must have brought in a great deal of money for the Hospital and the church in their times.  I wonder too, how many people can still remember Graves the Pawnbroker. The first shop was opposite the Wesleyan Church near the end of Broad Street but it was later moved to the corner of Elleray Road.  The stories are many that could be told of Teddington's Pawn Shop.

I for one knew most of the interest rates charged there although I often could not do my sums at school. Most of the children in the area knew the ways of the Pawn Broker. During the winter many men were out of work and it was a time of 'no work - no pay'. No unemployment Benefit in those days and when Dad was out of work many things were pawned to buy food and in that way many treasures were lost.

It was a regular practice on Monday morning to pawn Dad's Sunday suit and later, the children's Sunday clothing also. It came out on Saturdays and in again on Mondays. There was a tramcar which left Fulwell Depot at about 9 am and it picked up so many women with parcels that the tram became known as 'the Pawn Shop Special'. Even the Conductors called it that.  There was terrible poverty at times. Free breakfast tickets were given to schools to distribute among the most needy. I know that a room in the Welsleyan Church was used for this purpose. Only bread and butter with cups of cocoa was provided, but there would always be a few children around the door hoping to get in without a ticket. I know because I was there. The doors opened at 8 o'clock and by 8.30 it was all over.

Bakers shops opened early and sold stale bread cheaply. Three loaves sometimes - for the price of one. We would leave home about 7.30, our favourite shop being in the Causeway where a queue would form. Oh, the disappointment if all the bread went before our turn came. If that happened we had to try others - sometimes finishing up in the High Street.

At that time we were living at the foot of Fulwell Bridge so that by the time we finished our tasks looking for bread we had to get home and get ready for school and a scolding was our lot if we yawned or did not pay attention in class. "You should get to bed earlier instead of running the streets in the evening" said the teachers. How little the salaried people knew of the lives of others.  A great annual event was the day each year when the King and Queen drove through Chestnut Avenue on Chestnut Sunday.

As a family we lived in several houses in several streets in Teddington, our last being in Victor Road very near the Red Lion Public House. I suppose I was about ten or eleven at the time.  Weekends saw quite hectic scenes as we lived so close to the pub and we saw many fights and drunks. The boys, there being four or five of them at the time, had the large front bedroom and when any excitement started one of the boys would creep along to our bedroom to tell my sister and me that a fight had started in case we wanted to watch (which we always did) until the Police arrived and if one of the drunks was injured to be too far gone to walk, the Police would get him onto a stretcher on wheels.  This contraption had a heavy strap on each end and once on this barrow-like thing and strapped down, off they would go to the police cells.  This sometimes happened more than once in an evening. One night, I remember, we were watching quite late and I suppose, making more noise than usual when the bedroom door opened with a bang.  I got such a slap on the bottom I shall never forget.  My mother had heard noises and had come to see what was going on and had caught us all leaning out of the window.  We were much more careful after that - but we still watched.  It would be a clever person who could keep up with half a dozen youngsters.

Our first local Picture House was a building in Queens Road where we could have a show and a bag of sweets for a penny. We did not see many shows however, for in those days, a penny was something.  In lean times we would be sent to the Butchers for 'two pennorth of pieces' which we called 'Black Ornaments' or perhaps a pound of 'Park Railings' which was scrag of mutton. A pennyworth of pot herbs which could be an onion, a few carrots, a turnip and perhaps a parsnip. Potatoes were sold by the pottle or bushel which sounds odd now. A pottle measure was made of a cane-like material shaped like a small litter bin. When weighing became law it was fairer because under the old scheme a large potato could wedge in the bottom of the measure and this often left empty spaces and some tradesmen worked a fast one in this way, especially with children.

When Father was in work, we children had ½p per week pocket money, but in the winter there would be lots of weeks when we did not get any. When in funds our halfpenny was not spent all at once. We found pleasure in hanging on for a while looking round for the best value. One shop, near to where we lived, sold a bag which contained mixed tea and sugar and this was enough to make a pot of tea for several people.  A halfpenny piece of fish and a halfpennorth of chips was a good meal and when we were in funds, we children had it for a change.

Most people at the time, tried to let off one room of their house and we were no exception. There would be a sudden change about and a lodger was installed. How we were all fitted in is still a wonder to me and in only one instance can I remember my parents ever falling out with lodgers and that was because they were verminous. They caused a lot of pain because the bed they had occupied had had to be burned.
 
A half-crown for a room was a sum not to be despised as it kept a family for at least a day. In very bad times food was all that mattered.  My school days started at Christchurch School, near Teddington Station. We called it Collis's School - I think because Miss Collis must have been the founder.  My sister and I did not stay long at this school. There was a charge of 3d a week and when work got scarce, the 6d it cost could not be spared and we were found places at the Victoria Girls School in Princes Road.  This has since been pulled down and houses built. I left school at thirteen having passed what was then known as a Labour Examination.

The site on which St. Michael & St. George Church now stands was an open piece of ground when I was young and we children were very put out when the ground was built on and we lost our fair which came sometimes to this end of Teddington.  A man called Mr. Willet started a Sunday School.  First he took a room in York Road, Twickenham, which at that time was quite renowned for its untamed tenants, but the Sunday School was a success and he later took a better room in Fulwell Road.  Through his efforts the Mission Hall in Clonmel Road came into being. I went to his Sunday School and I remember the Summer Outings. Funds would not stretch to a visit to the sea so we went into the country. We had dinner and tea provided and some sort of entertainment. To most children of my time it was a great treat.

With the coming of the 1914 War lots of changes took place. Girls began to work in shops and small factories which began to appear in the district and then engaged girls and women. Some even wore trousers which, at that time, was very looked-down-upon, but this really was the beginning of 'Women's Lib'. Until the War there were very few jobs for women other than domestic service so girls tasted a freedom they had never known before and the big houses began to close down for lack of servants.  As the War got under way and bombing began to be reckoned with, Bushy Park had sections taken over by the Military. A searchlight was installed at one end and an anti-aircraft gun at the other. It caused quite some excitement when it was fired. A crowd of youngsters would rush to Fulwell Railway Bridge, the highest spot we knew, to see if there was an airplane in sight but I cannot remember seeing one. We usually got ticked off by the man who cycled round calling out 'Take Cover'.

We were then at an age when the serious side of war had not penetrated. We learned more later - when food got so scarce that even money could not buy what wasn't there. We had some very hungry times.  The Convalescent Hospital in Bushy Park was built for Canadian Sick and Wounded Soldiers many of whom made friends with local children and young girls. Our money puzzled them with so many coppers. Children were often given farthings and halfpennies, the soldiers saying that they weighed them down and were worth nothing anyway. Of course, they enjoyed a much higher rate of pay than our men and so could afford to be wasteful.

There is still evidence of the Canadians stay in Bushy Park. They used to sit on the low wall of the Pantile Bridge talking to anyone who would talk to them and sharpened their pocket knives on the York Stone slabs. The grooves they wore then are still to be seen.  When the War finished there were great celebrations. Each street was a sight to behold for it was decked, from beginning to end across the road and from house to house. At one end a sheet was flying with the words 'Landlord - Don't Call Monday'. It should have been given a prize for its effort but competitions were not in being then.  Each road had a party for its children. There were far too many for one house so it was held in the road with benches and tables arranged. Most people took some chairs along to help with the seating. The children had a wonderful party and where all the food came from Goodness knows!  People did not own cameras then so many interesting things are not recorded, but there would probably be some pictures in the archives of the local papers.

As the War faded so came the Suffragette movement.  Hampton Court was a Sunday afternoon outing for many people living in Teddington. We would walk through the Park, have a cup of tea or an ice cream and rest by the River or in the Park and then walk home. It came as a shock to have to leave one's umbrella and sometimes a bag before going into the palace. It had been so free and open for many years we could hardly believe it, but a picture had been damaged and restrictions had had to be introduced. There was no entrance fee then, the only charges being a penny to see the Grapevine and a penny to go into the Maze which, as children, had seemed too much to pay. We could look at the grapes from outside and wished we could taste them.  I had a friend whose father worked at Hampton Court and he would sometimes be on duty at the Maze gate. Then we didn't pay but we had a strong warning of what could happen if we misbehaved.  Hampton Court Fair was also a great attraction and people came from miles around.  Such a crush of people -- many smells with cockles and winkles being displayed on small plates, swimming in vinegar. I always wanted to go as a child, but the noise and the smells made me sick so a hurried retreat was made and - Oh, it did seem a long way for we always walked home through the Park.

Another place of great interest was always the National Physical Laboratory. It began in one building which in summer when the trees were in leaf could not be seen from the road.  Now it covers quite a large area of the Park. As youngsters we passed it often on our way to get cheap coke from the Gas Works.  Many little old barrows trundled along Sandy Lane on Saturday mornings to get fuel for the weekend.  For 6d one could get a barrow load and coke seemed to last longer than coal.  Gas came into our house when I was about 14 years old and working.  It seemed wonderful to be able to boil a kettle of water and cook a breakfast without lighting the fire and waiting until the smoke died down before one started to cook.  Previous to that time, a small fire was kept alight all day summer and winter for there was no other means of cooking.

I think our chief pleasure was having a light from the ceiling or high up on a wall where it could not be knocked by children. How many times we had heard the cry "Be careful - mind the lamp" or "Don't bump the table or you'll knock the lamp over". We still had candles to see our way upstairs and sometimes had the task of scraping up the spilt candle wax from the stairs.  Before the 14-18 War the Dustmen used to come every day. Not many people had dustbins and usually put out a bucket or a box, mostly of ashes because things were burned to eke out the coal or coke.  The bucket had to be put outside the front gate - otherwise it was not collected.  The Mikman came three times a day.  Firstly about 6 in the morning then about 10 o'clock - we called it 'the Pudding Round' because at that time skimmed milk could be bought and was used to make milk puddings. The last round was at about 4 pm. The milkman would call out or sometimes yodel and we would hear him. We would take our jug to his cart and he would serve us from a churn with a measure on a long handle shaped like a cup. One measure for a pint and another for a half-pint.  In the summer we used to scald the milk as quickly as possible for there were no fridges then but even then it sometimes soured before it could be used.

Several times a week ice was delivered to Butchers and Fishmongers and also the larger houses many of which had iceboxes.  If we children were around when the ice-cart man was breaking ice to take into a shop we would ask for small slivers that broke off as the man used his small pick. Sometimes we were lucky but if 'Old Misery' as we called one man, was there we had no ice. When we did get some however, it gave us as much if not more pleasure than children get nowadays from their ice-lollies.

It was very difficult keeping fresh food.  Food was bought in small quantities to be used at once. We would be sent with a basin or a dish to collect butter, margarine or lard and it seemed fairly solid when taken from the marble slab on which it stood.  By the time we reached home, however, it would be just about liquid.

Teddington from the 'Nelson' through Stanley Road, Broad Street over the Railway Bridge has not changed very much. The shops in Broad Street have new frontages but the layout has not changed. The main Post Office stood on the rise of the Bridge and now it stands at the bottom. The Library and Elmfield House, the Council Office, seem not to have changed at all and Peg Woffington Cottage with the two small cottages adjoining it are the same as when I first remembered them. I went to school with a girl who lived in one of the cottages and I still remember her name although I won't put it down here.

Teddington Railway Station when I was a child seemed a bright and busy place with its coal yard always being used. Both gates to the Station were unlocked and in constant use.  Broad Street has become a busy shopping centre once more and the Causeway has also brightened.  It seemed almost to decay when 'Dales the Drapers' left. For many years there was a tailor's shop also called Dales opposite the Drapers.  At the end of the Causeway and facing the Clarence Hotel there is still a pair of houses occupied by a Doctor and a Dentist. Years ago it was one house occupied by a Doctor Lee. At that time the Doctor visited his patients in a carriage driven by a coachman. A page boy was in attendance for callers at he door.

This man, although looking rather stern and forbidding, was a good friend to many of the poor of Teddington and I should think he features in the records of the District.  Last but not least, the small Police Station in Church Road. When we passed it we all behaved correctly. The small piece of frontage always seemed to be full of Policemen and how we would have loved to cross the road to watch them being inspected by their Sergeant but we would never dare. Little things like that were interesting in a small town where nothing much happened.



ABOUT THIS ESSAY
In 1975 the Rotary Club of Teddington, through its Vocational Service Committee, sought to preserve the living memories of the dwindling number of old residents of the villages of Hampton and Teddington, now amalgamated to form part of the Greater London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, by promoting a competition among the elderly citizens for the most interesting expressed recollections of those places 'in the dear dead days beyond recall'.
Pictures tell us a lot about how places looked, but there can be no substitute for the experiences of those who lived through those times.
This winning essay was written in an excellent script by Mrs. A. Campbell of Milton Road, Hampton.
Published as a supplement to the Bulletin of the Rotary Club of Teddington in October 1976.