A beautiful daughter has arrived 1953 .

In the spring of 1953 we were blessed with a beautiful daughter ,she was a easy baby always happy ,she had lovely fair curly fair hair ,which sadly she had straighten when she became a teenager .She was very fond of horse,s and when a teenager spent much of her time at the stables grooming them and cleaning out the stables ,and then she would walk with the learner riders up the hill ,for her hard work she would get a free ride , they were happy days
About the middle of the fifties we went camping .Once we went to Wales two other children with us ,in the middle of the night the tent blew down ,the tent poles just bent in two .We got the children together and went to the owners caravan to see if we could have a caravan for the night ,he was very kind and fixed us up for the night .Next morning we decided to stay in the caravan for the rest of the week . Another time we went to Goodrington in Devon and we had a thunderstorm it was so hot that the butter melted to oil ,we always took several children with us ,including our own.
Once we hired a motor launch on the Thames , we got the coach to Staines and walked to Wraysbury pushing the pushchair with Rosemary in it .When we arrived the owner seemed surprised that there was only 2 adults with 2 children aged about 8 and 3 years ,it seemed he had expected 4 adults ,he got rather nervous about me taking the boat out ,he said it was not quite ready and asked me if i had ever driven a 30 foot motor cruiser before ,i said no and he said to leave it till the morning ,as we were tired with the journey we got the children tea and explored the ship it was twin screw with fridge and full galley,twin cabins we were very impressed ,it was quite an adventure sleeping on the boat and cooking a meal .



Next morning he said he would take us to Heathrow for the children to see the planes which was something new for them,while he finished making the boat ready .Next morning he showed me how to drive the boat and we set off up to Bell lock ,we had no idea about going through the lock .The owner said he would follow along the tow path on his bike ,we were all very nervous. Rosemary was strapped in her pushchair so that she would not fall over board ,when we got to the lock we had to use the long pole to pull the boat to the quay side ,i then had to be very quick and jump on to the quay side and put the rope around the bollard,Michael helped me with the ropes ,it was great fun but a bit scary.
We went though 8 or 9 locks sometimes the water dropped about 20 feet ,or at other times rose up 20 ft ,it was all new to me but we got by, we went as far as Maidenhead on the way back we stopped at Eaton Wick and found that Eaton Regatta was on ,we stayed the night there and had a Firework display ,we went on to Runymede and back to Wraysbury.

I had my first car about 1958 it was a Ford Prefect it was one of the first new models to be made after the war , but it was a very basic design .My next car was a Rover 90 ,and about 1964 a Rover 110 as shown in the photo . They both had a six cylinder engines ,the 110 had a Maroon body with a Cream top they were nicked named The poor mans Rolls Royce . Both Rover,s had bench seats ,leather of course , so three could sit in front and back ,no seat belts in those days .They were very heavy cars ,built like a tank ,but very comfortable ,the drivers seat was like a armchair ,the trim was walnut and the carpets were thick and luxurious . In the 110 i had Leopard seat covers ,which was the latest cool thing ,not real leopard of course .