visitors to the Acorn Centre

Audio recollections from those who attend the drop-in centre in the Baptist Church Hall in Union St. Stroud.

track	description	time	Play
		Barbara Clarke
1	Babara’s dad, his name and various jobs in Stroud	1:00
2	Barbara as a member of the Crazy Gang	0:41
3	Attending Youth Club & a German POW as a goalkeeper	0:51
		Betty Townsend
1	Betty’s father at the Gas Works	2:13
2	Betty’s work at Woodchester Saw Mills	1:52
		Ida Schill
1	Ida from Austria as weaver and driving instructor in Stroud	2:52
2	how Ida (sweet as apple cider) met her husband.	0:49
		Imelda Kucharzyszyn
1	Imelda delivering sandwiches to Tom Neil her bargee grandfather at Wallbridge lock. Aged 6 or 7 in 1932	1:39
2	Imelda and local religions	0:38
3	the ladies room in the pub	0:34
4	Granny as cleaner in the Police station and the drunks’ breakfast	0:54
5	buying cheap meat in the Shambles Market	1:04
6	Imelda’s mothers’ household water arrangements	1:45
7	Imelda’s father volunteered for WW1 at the age of 16. He told her about the mud and privation.	1:47
8	her father couldn’t find work after WW1, until he worked for the GWR and traveled to Stroud.	1:06
9	Kid’s street games – reciting a rhyme in chorus and what sounds like a hide and seek game without the hide bit.	0:21
10	Street game – hide and seek with a pile of stones.	0:33
11	Schoolyard games – Tin-I-Aki. Girls/boys call and response song game.	2:07
12	More street games, hide and seek variation. Sounds like it should be called ” kick-a-brick “. Curfew was 7pm.	1:26
13	Snow was deeper in the 1930’s. More of the ” knocking on doors ” wheeze.	1:19
14	Imelda talking broad Strouward	0:20
15	Grandparent as a lamplighter, and great grandparents who came to Stroud from Ireland to escape the famine.	1:01
16	Imelda meets Laurie Lee twice.	0:56
17	Imelda remembers the way they bought milk, and the Coop bread deliveries by horse and cart	1:26
18	Winstones ice cream deliveries by motorbike and sidecar	2:26
19	Imelda is frightened of the canal after a neighbour’s jest	0:56
20	describing the alleyways they call, locally, a churn	0:22
21	as a child – Christmas carols and easter egg painting. Pace eggs	1:38
22	and summer outings to Weston-super-Mare	1:23
23	and a school trip to Cheltenham to ride the helter-skelter	1:22
24	how she met her husband	1:01
25	a clearer version of ” Three Dukes “	0:47
24	Imelda and Joyce singing a rhyme they sang as kids.	0:17
26	Imelda singing rhymes used for skipping, and reciting another rhyme.	1:00
27	another day, another version or Tin-I-Aki	1:41
		Iris Burford
1	Iris working in the ARP control room & the sound of wartime bombs	1:50
2	Iris’s family members in Old Bisley Rd and shop there	4:17
3	Characters in Stroud  – Dorcas Juggins and her husband George	1:14
4	Iris at Christmas and grandfather’s christmas presents.	0:32
5	Iris and how she sees horses	0:17
6	Iris’s father-in-law and his taxi firm	0:34
7	Iris remembering her school now made into a Registry Office	0:20
8	Iris remembers her schooldays and her teachers	3:52
9	the Railway Station announcer at Gloucester Station	1:20
		John Manns
1	John’s grandfather (Bill Hunt) collecting coal in a horse & cart at Dudbridge	0:51
2	grandfather’s horse stops and won’t move for grandmother	0:59
3	John and his time as a musician	2:22
4	John’s schooldays and school leaving	0:50
5	John’s ‘snobbing’, jobs and time as an army conscript	2:32
6	when John was young	1:25
		Joyce Hart
1	Thrupp boat building and trips on boats	0:33
2	Granny Ball’s sweet shop and scrumps	1:04
3	husband Ken working on the buses	0:34
4	Joyce telling about places and names	1:11
5	Joyce talks broad Gloucestershire.	0:35
6	more words and pronunciation of Gloucestershire	1:38
7	The Workhouse inmates near Summer St & how it got its name	1:16
8	games in the school playground	0:21
9	Joyce recounts a skipping rhyme.	0:44
10	Joyce recalling 2 different milk sellers in the Stroud area	0:44
11	remembering the “Cwop” (aka Coop) horse and cart bread van, as a child	1:58
12	as an adult working in the “Cwop” shops	0:34
13	how they coped with a mother’s depression, in those days. A struggle!	0:33
14	As a mother herself, determined to give her kids cuddles and treats – a trip to Winstones	0:13
15	Joyce recalls working at Hill Paul building and clothing firms there. And how work was organised	1:29
16	working at Bensons where they made ring binders	1:36
17	collecting cigarette cards, and similar sales inducements with tea	1:33
18	Childhood dance games, Oranges and Lemons	0:24
19	familiar phrase for the Births, Marriages and deaths	0:06
20	Sliding down the winter road and the farmer who did also	0:50
21	Carol singing and being recognised for your voice	0:35
		Tom & Lillian Jones
7	Tom & Lillian Jones as farm hands and living on the farm	3:12
		Madelaine Stinchcombe
1	Madelaine at school and work	1:59
2	swimming in a pool near the Walbridge lock on the canal	1:38
		Peggy Deuten
1	Peggy Sunday School teacher at the age of 13	0:56
2	Peggy’s Grandfather after 9 children left home & his fine new house.	0:35
3	Games in the school playground	0:52
4	How the influx of evacuees during the war affected Peggy’s school	1:19
5	Songs she sung at school. “Come to the Fair”	0:53
6	how Peggy’s father & mother met. And he uncle in Frampton on Severn	1:10
7	how she met her husband, with the help of a pen-friend	0:43
8	dances in the Stonehouse Sub Rooms and the kinds of dances they did there.	1:06
9	Peggy learning dance at the Waverley Dance School and performing in concerts around Gloucestershire during WW2.	1:28
10	some of the main shops in Stroud Town centre	2:43
11	Taking the train from the LMS station in Stonehouse to Stroud when the buses stopped due to snow.	1:57
12	the railcar, the buses and trains to Bristol from Stonehouse.	0:34
13	seeing the Bristol Brabazon flying over Stonehouse and laughing at Lord Haw-Haw get the facts wrong. (He broadcast from Germany during WW2 and was an Irish citizen)	1:44
14	when Peggy got her first TV – by 1953 – certainly.	0:34
15	houseboats on the canal and a time before WW2. Plus Stonehouse Ocean.	1:13
16	a couple of old sayings, not that peggy believes them. Hopscotch explained a bit.	0:56
17	Bradley’s shoeshop in Stonehouse 1930s & 40s, the Prudential & horses & carts.	1:16
18	Raggy Smith the rag & bone man	0:49
19	Peggy talking about her mother’s work	0:43
		Christine Miller
1	Christine’s father – shoe repairer	1:28
2	Christine’s School days	1:02
3	Christine’s first job & first boy-friend	1:12
		Hilda Blackwell
1	Hilda’s first job, and then her second	2:22
2	Hilda’s husband and what he did for a living. Can you guess what a heyward is?	1:15
3	Hilda’s school days in Minchinhampton and Brimscombe Polytechnic, and does a bit of running	1:18
4	two houses to home a family of 10, and filling the bath with buckets of hot water.	0:55
5	Game as a child, and Minchinhampton Youth Club.	1:19
6	Minch Chapel, and the vicar. Car journeys with him.	0:59
7	helping her friend’s dad mow down ant hills. Riding on the mower is a bumpy business	1:44
8	Saturday dances in the Market Hall.	0:53
9	Playing in Gatcombe Woods and singing in the church.	1:56
10	Courting in Minchinhampton, dances and country dancing at the youth club.	1:44
11	Shops in Minchinhampton and Doctor Brown.	0:58
12	the well in Tetbury St, the Forge, Sweet shop and Cobblers.	1:06
13	Working as assistant to a second hand cum antique dealer.	1:27
14	remembering Brimscombe Port when she was at Brimscombe Polly.	0:32
15	using the rotating arms in the sewage farm as a funfair ride	0:49
16	a couple of old sayings about rain.	0:09
		Roy Fellows
1	Roy’s father and his schools, and trips abroad	2:04
2	Roy’s memory of shops in Stonehouse and Stroud	1:01
3	the cinemas, local transport and working in the petrol station	1:09
4	some of the places Roy worked at	0:23
5	Roy is the focus of attention from the police because he owns a car at 17! And he remembers the Hot 8’s gang.	0:23
6	remembering Granny Balls sweet shop and the Coop on the Cross	0:23
6	school uniform from Mullins, Roy & Peggy describe a Providence Cheque used to pay for it.	0:49
6	Milk cart provides manure for the rhubarb.	0:25
		Valerie West
1	Valerie’s schooldays, as a child & adult. And her husband working	2:04
		Valerie Cullimore
1	Grandfather worked on the Sharpness canal boats, carrying chocolate	1:04
2	Father does some jallopy racing	1:32
3	Boyfriend Ian Stone	1:34
		Mary Stark
1	Sunday school in Nailsworth	0:50
2	growing up in Newmarket in the 1940s. Schools and cinema.	1:50
3	her first job in Nailsworth making paper car parts, and the next one in Stonehouse	0:48
4	country dancing in Nailsworth Town Hall,	1:07
5	rock & roll dances in Stonehouse Community Centre	0:53
		Rose Hollis
1	what brought Rose to Stroud	1:04
2	2 houses in Landsdown to house 6 children	0:52
3	without enough money couldn’t afford buses & trains. Rose did dressmaking to make ends meet	1:34
4	going to the Salvation Army when the kids were small.	1:19
5	shopping in Stroud for groceries etc	1:16
6	motorbiking lodgers meet up at Rose’s house.	0:44
7	going for walks along the canal, because buses cost too much!	1:03