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Introduction - This page will enable contributers to provide articles including memories of the past - Length of time of publication will vary depending on the number of contributions made available, it is likely that articles will be repeated. Contributors to date :- Barry Robbins, Cyril Leeman, Bill Thackray, George Southern, Jean Melvin, Myra Davey, Barbara Chew, Stuart Baird, Robert Whiting. |
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Laura Crewe born Methley 25th September, 1887 Laura’s family emigrated from Methley to Canada after her parents had resettled in Methley from the West Country to work in the mines (see family history) Notes for LAURA CREWE: The following came from Lauramary Cook, grandaughter of I've been looking through the old album and recalling what my Mother (Irene Crewe Davey) and Grandmother Laura (Crewe) Davey told me as they many times recounted stories of the pictures they were showing me. Remember, I was much an invalid as a child, and Grandma spent a lot of time by my bedside telling me stories and playing games with me. She taught me how to knit, how to crochet, and how to do hand sewing as well. She did all of these things quite well, as proper English girls all did. She retained her nice English accent until she died. She had a very soft voice....but if she wanted something, she would loudly call for my mother "I-RE-EENE!" She could be quite a difficult woman, but was my closest playmate all those years. My Mother was devoted to her and nearly ruined her health looking after her. Laura was born on Sept. 25, 1887. Her father gave her a collection of coins from that year as a keepsake. I looked at them many times. It was Victoria's Jubilee year, I
believe. (They were among the several things that went missing after Grandma's funeral. It was a point of contention with my Mother for years after. She had a whole list of things
that "disappeared") Laura was registered "Laura Crew" on her birth certificate, and while the place of birth is not noted, it was registered at Pontefract. I don't know if they lived in
Pontefract, or what. She always told me that her family had a "hotel" in Methley, near Leeds, Yorkshire. When I talked with Uncle Ken, the "hotel" was a pub. I wondered if
this was a little gilding of the lily on her part. But in talking with older friends who grew up in the North of England, they explained that it was normal for pubs to have several
rooms to rent and were usually called "hotels". Once when Laura and her sisters were home on a Sunday morning, and the parents at church (Church of England), she and her
sisters sneaked downstairs and tried alcohol. They normally were not allowed down there because that was where "men" hung out. But no one was there on Sunday morning,
all was closed. They all got soused, and the parents were very angry when they got home. She went to an all-girls' school. When they were decorating the church for fall,
Laura took the notion to climb the 365 ? steps up to the tower. There she proceeded to trip across the battlements in full view of her teacher who was very irate. Sounds to me
she was very mischievious. She told me that "gypsies" were often in their neighborhood and the girls were severely warned not to go near them or they would be kidnapped.
She used to sing me a little rhyme in connection with it "My Mother said/ I never should/Play w As I understand it, Laura was sent out from England to look for her brother, Sam, who had somehow not been in contact with the family. Trevor told me this, and it makes sense. Perhaps Sam was the adventurer in the family. He was in the police force in Canada. At any rate Grandma's other sister, Olive was already here in Winnipeg, she was married to Frank Davey.. It was through them that Laura met Peter Harold Davey. He was working in the Post Office at the time and I think Frank Davey was as well. I have pictures of them both with their uniforms on. Harold seemed to have a fascination with Post Offices, and there are pictures throughout the album of Post Offices wherever they travelled. Laura and Harold were married in 1909, and Irene and Arnold, fraternal twins were born March 14, 19ll. Arnold was born first, and the boys always teased Irene that she was just "an afterthought". Peter H. must have bought the house on 295 Bannerman Avenue in Winnipeg right around the time the children were born, because I have pictures of the young couple holding the twins as small infants on the front porch of that tiny house. Laura told me she was glad she had had twins to start off with, they were able to entertain each other. (I was glad it was her and not me!) In 1913, Laura decided to take the two-year old Arnold and Irene, back home to England to see the grandparents. While they were there the Crewe grandparents took them to Coalport and had a demitasse cup and saucer made for each of them. I still have Irene's, although the saucer is damaged, the cup is intact. Each piece is signed. There is no pattern name on it as you would see today. I also have Laura's breakfast set of Coalport China, so delicate you can almost see through it. It also does not have a pattern, and most of the pieces are signed and dated. She had been planning to stay a year in England, but with the sinking of the Lusitania, she decided she better come back to Canada...war was imminent. They came back on the Mauritania, and Laura recounted to me how they had see flotsam and jetsam from the sunken sister ship in the water as they sailed past the sight of the sinking. (Deck chairs and such) Gradually the family increased, with the addition of Kenneth and Victor. I don't know at what time Harold got the job with the police department, but I think Trevor told me he got it through the "missing" brother, Sam Crewe Since the family did not have a lot of money, they made their back yard into a garden. All the children worked in it. Harold was an avid gardener, Laura less so. I don't think her upbringing in England was such that she was required to do much work. There are pictures of them all in the garden. Harold and Laura made their children sell much of the produce from door to door. The children hated that. They had a little wagon and they took it around. Irene told me stories of the 'flu epidemic. At that time they quarantined....a practice that could well be revisited today...all the family got it, except her. So she had to nurse them all. The doctor came and attended to them...when Laura became exhausted from looking after everyone, she too got it. Irene had a bag of camphor tied around her neck and tended to the family. The flu epidemic was in 1919...that would have made her 8 years old. Quite a responsibility for a child that age. She was quite the caregiver (all her life, in fact) and her brothers have all told me she practically raised them. Their favorite thing for her to make for them was suet pudding, and when she visited Arnold not long before he died (1984 or 5) it was the first thing he asked her to make for him. Laura Crewe by Lauramary Cook and Myra Davey |
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1926 Friday Aug 20th - Tuesday, Methley v Oulton Ladies Cricket – Methley :- Friday August 27th- Oliver Stanger fined 4/- for riding bicycle on footpath. Friday September 17th - Low End Ladies v Scholey Hill (with guests). The crowd were highly entertained and proceeds to the Distress Fund. Football – Scholey Hill 8 Harrogate New Park 1 Friday September 24th - Allotment Novelty – It was strange to notice in Woodrow allotments, six stalks of Indian corn approaching 5 ft in height and heads bursting with corn. The seed was evidently brought by
imported manure from poultry food. |
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Earliest memories are immediate post war and of an overgrown irregular, uneven field with a grass worn area which was the goalmouth in the football season and served as a wicket in the summer. The field was bounded at the Station Road end by a number of allotment/hen runs (where the bungalows are now). Wooden fencing on the railway side also enclosed a storage area for telegraph poles for the railways. There were three constructions of in each case four poles set into the ground with poles fixed as cross members at the sides and ends. The telegraph poles were laid over the cross pieces which created a play and exploration area for imaginative youngsters, far superior to present day playground equipment despite the spells and creosote. The other two boundaries were hawthorn, elder and willow hedges which protected farmer Schofields (Scoweys) field. It took a long time to find out why it was named Billy’s Field and I am indebted to Will Illingworth who tells me that the field once belonged to the Royal Oak pub. Will adds that the name comes from the long serving landlord, Billy Wilson (1920’s) who took his duties seriously at warning people off the land. No warning off in the 1940’s/1950’s however, when there was always a game or activity in progess (would anybody remember bowlering?). Of course, soccer was the main interest, and always plenty of players. In my generation - Barry Ingham, Mike Shillito, Les Austin, Terry Barrett, David Barker and many others. I remember with great affection playing soccer in those years, always arguing whether the ball had gone for a goal inside the coats or whether it was a dead ball. Still clear in my mind is a picture of Tommy Firth (Fagger) racing from the field without a word to anybody. He often did this - just stopping in mid play and racing off without warning. Why? you may ask. Well Tommy was the porter at Methley North Station, he loved a game of any kind but when the 4.45pm to Altofts was due in (and others) he had to fly to be on the platform in time. One of the outstanding players, either at football or cricket was Frankie Purcell. Frank was partially disabled with a shortened leg which required an extended caliper to control a boot that had been specially built up. You couldn’t get him out at cricket and we took it in turns to be his runner otherwise you could be running all afternoon. At the same game he was more than a useful bowler and an agile and competitive stumper. At football he played in goal, so successful was he that he was selected for the school team in that position. During the 1960’s the field was levelled and seeded and is now gang mowed regularly. Since that time there has been few kids playing games in that field, initially I thought it was the effect of TV etc, but it wasn’t, it was this ‘demographic thing’ -there were far less kids being born after the post war boom. Pity they couldn’t have levelled the field 20 years earlier. Bill Thackray |
Harold Davey and Laura (Crewe)
ith the gypsies/In the wood/If I did/She would say/Naughty girl/ To run away.