Individual results

Interviewee: Frank Scotford
Logged by Maurice Rattigan

Track 1
Born in 1913 in the Cotswolds' village of Chedworth. 7 miles from nearest town and isolated. I came to Coventry in 1946 and it was still reeling from the destruction. The house I was born in was built in 1700, out of stone. Two beds up and two down and earth closet up garden. Chamber pots under bed. Three boys slept in one bed and two in another. We took in our cousins when their mum died and they slept on landing. No running water and fetched from a spring 200 yards away. Rain water for the garden and soft water for washing in separate wash house. Copper boiler. Mum washed on Monday, ironed on Tuesday. Leftovers to eat on Mondays.

Track 2
Big fields to play in. 1921 mum was ill with cancer and was away for six weeks and when she came back ill, we all had to muscle in and do all the jobs. Coal delivered once a year supplemented by wood. Hurricane lamp lit house. Kept a pig. And a hunting horse when pigsty empty. The pig was killed in Nov.

Track 3
By village pig killer. By 8 or 9 we had to witness the killing. By the time I was 16 years old I was expected to help. (Description of pigs treatment after death.) Ate what was put in front of you.

Track 4
Pigs bladder was our football. Broken by our hobnailed boots. Crude lard. Breakfast bread and dripping or lard or marge (margarine). Doorsteps of bread from cottage loaf. Had to wash up before school. Had to run up slope to school. Good village school. 120 mixed pupils.

Track 5
Headteacher taught Standards 4, 5, 6, 7 and x7 and were taught in one room, and he taught violin and trained church choir. Hard winters. Brother Jim had fracas with Head and I got cane. I was considered bright and ended up in Cirencester Grammar School.

Track 6
Different games. Marbles, catapults, tag. No concrete playgrounds. Buckets for girls toilets and boys competed to pee up the wall the highest. Grammar School, boarding. Bullied terribly for being different to others in speech. Took it out on my backside every morning. After two years, in 1926, when my mother died, it eased off and after four years I had school Cert exam

Track 7
Dad promised to make a pair of shoes if I passed and he made them when I got my honours Cert and I used them for the next eleven years. Dad had served his time in Gloucester as shoemaker. Only small shop in village but travelling salesmen came to village. Even optician. Dad played the cello and needed glasses to read the music. Also he kept bees, and I also, when older, and since my daughter, Jill, also. 10 or 12 hives. Call dad when a swarm came to our hives.

Track 8
Gathered them and put in a hive. No away holidays. Rabbiting. Did cooking on holidays from school. Once aware of our bodies we never had a bath but a wash down. Dad with cut throat razor. Good kind father. Sometime smacked our bare bottoms.

Track 9
Chapel goers and Sunday school. Visiting preacher. Stood me in good stead. Kept away from girls in grammar school.

Track 10
Bought dancing pumps but first lesson with lady teacher I was entranced with her beauty and her presence. Enjoyed girls company and still do. Sex was taboo subject.

Track 11
Couples had long engagements. Ignorant of french letters (condoms). Fondling and heavy petting but girls in control and never let you go too far. Sex different then than now. First TV I saw was in Saffron Walden, pre-war. Experimental stage. Next time was the Coronation. I then had allotment to look after.

Track 12
Never went to cinema much when young. Remember Douglas Fairbanks film. Last film I saw was 'Some Like it Hot'. Seen films on TV (television). Preferred the theatre. went to Stratford for Shakespeare plays. Belgrade and College Theatre. Monthly season tickets.

Track 13
Humprey Burton Road was only partly made when I came to Coventry. Very bumpy. Town centre almost the same. Desolation. Still air raid shelters at Henry VIII school where I taught. Teaching done in temporary huts. No gym. Had direct hit .

Track 14
Mayor sometimes came to assembly. Head A.C. Burton was called 'Monty'. And he also kept bees which helped with my appointment. Chapel upbringing made me 'Conscientious Objector'. Pre-war travels I had met foreigners. Had joined ATC (Air Training Corps) to get a free holiday and joined machine gun platoon.

Track 15
From 1935 I was troubled and in 1940 when called up I registered as 'conchie'. I was immediately sacked from my job at Approved School. A cheque for £29 as a months salary. Got reference from inmates. Went to Slough at my brothers then job with Forestry Commission,

Track 16
Then asked to go back to Saffron Walden. Got paid by day. Married to Maud and had first child. Expected to be shot by our own or the Nazis who were threatening invasion. Fostered undisciplined boys including seven bed wetters for 3 ½ years then after 39 applications for a job at Coventry, Burton came down and interviewed me.

Track 17
Started 1 Jul. and spent summer looking for a house. Got house in Humprey Burton Road only 5 minutes from school.

Track 18
Was 65 years old in 1978 and stopped in Coventry because I approved the reconstruction. Morris dancing. I liked Precinct. Don't approve of all the subsequent alterations. No longer drive myself. Approve Spon Street area.

Track 19
For 10 years after I retired I was a City Guide. War levelled people out. Have taken pictures of different stages of reconstruction. Quakers and Walter Chinn was one. He was city education chairman. Many arguments with him and fellow Quakers.

Track 20
Other Quaker teachers at Henry VIII. Burton didn't care of your politics or leanings so long as you could do your job. A complete mix. Was there 32 years. Tried to work in with the new comprehensive schools. Out of school activities comp teachers didn't cooperate. So local school sports declined. My own girls went to Barrs Hill and Whitley Abbey schools. Comp schools should have worked better.

Track 21
Applied for posts but would have had to start at bottom. School leavers left at 14 years old. Then 15 years old , then 16 years old.

Track 22
Henry VIII students who never went to university were offered apprenticeships at some of the numerous machine tool factories, but industry declined and world renowned firms went. First to go was Renold Chain at Spon End. Engineering once had a good future, but many car firms went.

Track 23
School lived with change. Always noise of building going on. Coventry was changing like it had never done before. Wonderful post war spirit has gone. Glad to have been part of it. Two universities now here and Science Parks have sprung up.

Track 24
Met wife, Maud, at Saffron Walden, who was introduced to me as best local teacher. 10 years older than me. Lasted 43½ years had two children. Daughter, Elizabeth had multiple schlerosis but she has given me two grandchildren, and great grandchildren. Jillian was born in 1944 in a hostel

Track 25
Jill went to Whitley Abbey school when first opened. Aluminium constructed. She went onto college and now has three children in their 20's.

Track 26
Different bringing kids up 70 years ago than now. Administered corporal punishment but couldn't do it now. Trained as probation officer. Used to difficult boys. Don't relish today's system of punishment.

Track 27
Parents were willing for us to cane them. They never complained unless lads were punished severely and that made no difference.

Coventry Lives Oral History Project, date of birth: 1913