Laburnum Terrace

The Beard family - Continued

The family seems to have shared a love of engines.  I knew Mrs Beard when she was an old lady and was surprised to hear her talk of riding a powerful motor bike in her younger days.  Their son Kenneth was also a motor engineer, as we found from the parish record of the baptism of his daughter, Susan.

We have tracked many of the Electoral Rolls of the 1930’s and 1940’s, which show that Kenneth’s name appeared in 1949 and confirms that he was still living with his parents.  Kenneth’s name was still there in 1951, despite the fact that he married.  This is confirmed by Mrs Excell who remembers that Ken’s wife, Irene, lived there with her husband and parents in law for a while.  Ken and Irene were still living in Thornbury in July 1952 when their daughter, Susan, was baptised.

George Beard died on 14 November 1952.

The photograph here on the right shows a lady who we believe to be Mrs Beard (the second lady from the front of the float) on the W.I. float in a carnival of 1935.  It was taken outside number 24 and shows a much more rural Gloucester Road than we know today.

I remember Mrs Beard from the early 1980’s.  During one of our earliest conversations I was taken aback to have a lecture about my knickers.  She said I didn’t need to wash them every day and could wash the gussets “as necessary”.  This would make them last longer.  I looked at my (at that time) tiny pants on the line and wondered how one did this and what one saved, but of course Mrs Beard was used to dealing with very sturdy knickers that came just above the knee so there was quite a bit of material involved!  She later advised me to get a proper girdle, as my stomach muscles were not all they might be!

She was fascinated by our babies and fussed over them.  She was alarmed at how soon they moved about.   When she was bringing up her own child she was told that babies should lie flat on their backs for the first year to strengthen their spines.  I wasn’t sure how to keep mine still so decided against that plan!

The house at this stage was not in a good condition.  Mrs Beard could not get upstairs and I think I recall being told that there was no electricity upstairs.  A window was slightly open in the bedroom and we soon realised that neighbourhood cats were getting in.

Mrs Beard had no hot water in the house and only a cold tap in the scullery.  She used the outside toilet and insisted on having a privet bush kept to a reasonable height so we could not see her going in there.  She died in 1983.

This page was last updated: 25/06/2008