The daily routine would start with a member of staff getting you out of bed at 7am, your bed would be inspected and then stripped, you would then turn the mattress over and remake the bed in hospital fashion (i.e. the corners being at 45 degree angles) following the making of the bed it was to the bathroom where you washed and dressed. Having done your ablutions we would go to the playroom and await the sounding of the dining room bell calling us to form a queue outside the dining room. Although the dining room was adjacent to the hallway it was taboo to go to the dining room through the hallway  this being classed as a short cut and bordered as an act of laziness so one would have to take the longer route.

Having formed the queue in a quiet orderly fashion we were told to hold our hands out and they were inspected back and front. The dining room consisted of nine tables with four chairs to each table and one long table for members of the staff which was placed obliquely across from the main seating area so that we the children were in full view. On reaching ones table you had to stand behind your chair until all were assembled before taking ones seat. The food was taken from the kitchen downstairs and placed in the electric lift which then ascended to the floor above in the passageway next to the dining hall. Always before a meal we all had to recite “For what we are about to receive may the Lord make us truly thankful”.
During the meal no-one was allowed to speak at all, anyone caught talking was told to leave the table and stand in the corner with their hands on their heads, all food placed in front of you had to be consumed whether you liked it or not and always to use your right hand whether or not you were left or right handed, to use one’s left hand was we were told a sign of weakness. I myself may have been originally left handed I really don’t know because today I am ambidextrous in certain things. Once we had all finished our meal we all then recited. “For what we have received may the Lord make us truthfully thankful” Mrs. Holmes would now give her permission for us to vacate the dining hall and to continue with our manual tasks that we had been allocated.
The clearing of the tables was usually carried out by a couple of girls, stacking the plates and cutlery and placing them on the lift to descend its way down to the kitchen. These were then taken from the bottom of the lift and taken through into the kitchen where they were washed dried and stacked away by other girls. The sweeping of the dining room floor polishing it and setting the mouse traps I did many times with other boys. Another task done by the boys was to polish all the shoes from the shoe boxes in the Ablution room.
The Ablution room was where we prepared ourselves for school. It was quite a large room surrounded by bench seating which went all round the perimeter underneath of which was sectioned into thirty shoe compartments each with ones name where one would keep their shoes shoe polish and brush. Above your shoe box was your clothes peg also marked with ones name. In the center of the room were six sinks placed back to back with a supported fixed mirror to spruce oneself up before meals and going off to school. Daily we would have a change of clothing and socks and once they had been laundered the underclothes and socks would then be taken to the sewing room to be inspected for any repairs. The girls would do any stitching that was required but the darning to socks was done by both girls and boys.  Many was the time  I would turn a sock inside out, insert the mushroom and with needle and the appropriate coloured wool repair the offending hole.
A member of staff would now inform us to gather inside the passage at the back door and form a queue ready to proceed to school. We were escorted to school in a crocodile fashion, a boy holding a girls hand.  The route to school was from the back yard, past the stables across the forecourt and down the back pathway through the woods down to the Great North Road.

      I don’t have any vivid memories of my time at Bramham School but there was an occasion when we the children were all handed Union Jacks and told to assemble on the pavement outside the school. Some time later a large car approached from the direction of Wetherby and seated inside was the King and Queen with their two daughters Elizabeth and Margaret. What the occasion was all about I don’t know, maybe a tour of the country after the war years and they happened to pass through Bramham as this was the main highway from the north to the south and vice versa at that time. The school did the occasional outings to the seaside to Cayton Bay and Whitley Bay as the newspaper photograph
illustrates.

  
 

After school we were collected and escorted back to the children’s home by one of the staff and after changing out of school clothes we were allowed to play outside (weather permitting) or if you were detailed for a task you would continue with that. I myself with two other boys would usually have to peel the potatoes for forty five meals (36 children plus Matron and Super and their 2 daughters and 5 staff) the girls would prepare the vegetables. The ritual for teatime was the same for any meal, the usual prayer before and after a meal and absolute silence at all times, for ones supper it was usually bread and dripping or bread and marmite with a cup of cocoa.

If I didn’t have a task to do or when completed and the weather was favorable, I would dash outside to join the other boys and play. The grounds of Bramham House were a youngsters Aladdin’s dream; you could   get up to all sorts of mischief and adventure by hiding in the woods and playing Cowboys and Indians, Robin Hood and Hide and Seek etc.This to me was a far cry from the days when my outdoor activities were spent playing on the slag heaps of the coalmine where my father worked in Pontefract, sometimes in bare feet if I didn’t have any clogs, or playing chicken on the railway lines. From the woods we became quite adapt at manufacturing our own bows and arrows and also catapults, we would have competitions amongst ourselves to see who was the best shot at hitting selected targets (tongue in cheek it was usually me) so the gang would look to me as their leader. We also built our own den which we took great pride in.
As the evening drew in we would go to the playroom and await the call to go upstairs and get ready for bed after having a bath. Mr. Holmes would then go to each bedroom and recite the prayer “Teach us good Lord”. There were 4 boys’ bedrooms; the first one had 6 beds, the second 5 the third 2 beds and the 4th 5 beds. There were 2 bathrooms to the boy’s rooms, one between bedrooms 1 and 2 and the other at the end of the passageway just passed bedroom 4.

The grounds of Bramham House also had a very large garden which was maintained by Mr. Dickenson, all sorts of vegetable were produced here and fruit such as Pears, Gooseberries and Blackberries which were all gathered and used by the home. The cook would use the off ripe tomatoes for making Chutney and the Gooseberries and Blackcurrant for jam making and stored in the Pantry.

On Saturday mornings and after breakfast (there being no school,) the children would continue with their given tasks. On more than one occasion I would be tasked to polishing the entire cutlery with Bluebell. This I would do in the Scullery and then lay it out on the table for inspection. One could not just place it in a heap; it all had to be displayed in an orderly fashion individually. If having passed the scrutiny you would then wash and dry it all up and place it all in the kitchen drawer and then if the weather was fine, allowed to play outside. The Matron preferred us out of the house because one can well imagine the incessant noise and chatter that 36 children can make and she certainly wouldn’t put up with any misbehaviour.
From a very early age I enjoyed all types of sport especially football and cricket and it was mainly these two sports that I indulged in. Although we made friends at school, after school hours even if invited to a friends to tea or to play, this was not allowed so we all felt very isolated and remote and as time went on we came to know Bramham House as Prison without Bars . This graffiti was daubed on the outside border wall facing the main road for all and sundry to see. If it started to rain we would then be called to come indoors and would go to the playrooms.
There were two playrooms, the larger one facing the lawn and leading out to the balcony (originally the library) and the smaller one next to this one and adjacent to the dining hall (originally the ballroom), was the cloakroom used by the guests who attended the dances. In the larger of the two playrooms was a piano accordion which played music by pressing ones feet on the large foot pedals. The music was on metal scrolls (similar to rolling pins) which rotated as one pressed down on the pedals and played the music and the keys on the piano would go up and down as if one was actually playing. The piano could also be played in the conventional way.
In the playroom you would more than likely find me and three other boys in the far corner on our hands and knees engaged in a game of cricket with marbles. It was always Test match cricket between England and Australia and we knew every present cricketers name at that time. We made the wickets out of matchsticks and the bat fashioned out of a piece of wood. Both sets of team’s names we had on a sheet of paper and every run scored war recorded. I must have spent literally hundreds of hours day after day playing this game especially in the winter months when you couldn’t go outside because of the weather. On Sundays we all changed into our Sunday best and went to church for the mornings service. The local vicar’s name was Mr. Shephard. After the morning service it was back to the home for dinner and then back to the church for 2 o’clock Sunday school which would be for about an hour.

After several weeks the home gradually began to fill with new faces until we had the full compliment of 36 children and we that had been there from the beginning took it upon ourselves to show the newcomers the ropes. In these early days the country was still on rationing which didn’t really affect us as children as it would have done to a normal family. Anyone living in the village the parents of the household would have to produce their rationing book to obtain sugar, butter meat etc which was all weighed and then distributed depending on the size of the family. We at the children’s home had most of the produce home grown, we had pigs and hens so there was no problem there .To get sweets from the shops in the village we were issued with sweet coupons.
During the Easter holidays we never had Easter Eggs as one gets them today made of chocolate. The cook would hard boil the hens eggs and the staff (when the eggs had cooled) would paint them in a multitude of colours and paint a face on them with ones name. If the weather was fine we would all go out on to the lawn after being handed your egg. You would then in pairs place them at the top of the rockery slope release them at the same time and the one reaching the lawn first was declared the winner. All the winners were then paired off until a winner was declared. During the Whitsun bank holiday the girls would change from their winter clothing into their summer dresses and we the boys into white shirts and sandals. On nice warm evenings we would take the table cloths from the dining hall, place them on the lawn and have a picnic.

In those days there was no music to entertain us in the home and television was unheard of to the majority of people. There were however many occasions when members of staff working in the sewing room would put their wireless on with the window slightly open and the music would drift over the forecourt where I was playing either football or cricket. Most of the music in those days was by artists from the war such as Vera Lynne, Gracie Fields, and Anne Shelton along with the likes as Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole and Perry Como. The big band sounds of Glen Miller, Benny Goodman, Ray Dorsey and Billy Cotton to name but a few. So life went on in the same routine day after day.
When I became bored as I often did, I would go down to the Laundry room to talk to Mrs. Young. She was a lovely kind lady who showed compassion and understanding and would listen to what you said to her. I used to be fascinated in the workings of the Laundry, great big cauldrons everywhere with steam billowing from them, a big steam press used for ironing the bed sheets, a large mangle for wringing the clothes out. Right next door to the Laundry was a small boiler room which Mr. Dickenson would stoke and maintain regularly. It was fed sometimes with coal, coke or anthracite. It would get bitterly cold down this part of the house and it was on many occasions I would sneak into the boiler house to get warm. The only other part of the house that emitted any sort of heat on this ground level, was in the kitchen in front of the cooking range.

I suppose the average age of the children would have been about Nine to Ten when I first arrived at the home. The eldest child was Roy Thorpe who was about fourteen and then John Knowles a couple of months younger. The two eldest girls were Florence Jarvis and Mary Knowles both aged thirteen. When a child reached school leaving age which was fifteen the child would also leave Bramham House so when Roy and John left they were replaced by two new boys. The two girls Florence and Mary when they left were probably replaced by my two sisters Pat and Olive. When my two sisters arrived I cannot recall the occasion or of being told they were present it was just one of those things, they were here full stop end of the matter so to speak. The summer holidays were mostly spent in Robin Hoods Bay, we usually had a three weeks vacation there. The coach would arrive on the forecourt in mid morning and off we would go. As the coach departed we would all burst into song “its a long way to Robin Hoods Bay, it’s a long way to go? Farewell Bramham House Farewell Boston Spa. This was to the tune of the war song Tipperary. I don’t remember Mr. Holmes coming with us on holiday, he probably stayed at the home to oversee the daily running of the home; Mrs. Holmes always came with us and also three members of the staff. After disembarking from the coach we would all climb up the long steps to the school where we were being accommodated? This is a photograph of the steps leading to the school.

Steps leading to the School

The sleeping quarters at the school were in the main assembly room, this was the largest room in the school. The walls were all covered in paintings drawings and sketches that the children of the school had done before their summer break. We all slept on camp beds which were then folded and put away after the nights sleep and replaced with trestles for the meals. There was no playground at the school so at the rear of the school we would go out to play. This was on a grass knoll that led up to the Coast Guard Station on top of the cliffs. If the weather was fine and the tide was out, we would all in crocodile file wend our way to the beach with buckets and spades in hand. I used to love going to the beach mainly because of the freedom and the open space, the fresh air and the sound and smell of the sea and exploring. Often one would find me when the tide was way out wading far out to sea looking for Starfish Crabs Lobsters and above all else Sea Urchins. Why Sea Urchins? Because I knew I could sell them for sixpence each to a fisherman who used to be sat in the vicinity on the approach to the beach tending his lobster pots. I remember making as much as two and sixpence on one day, that’s five Sea Urchins. I being such a distance from the beach and out of sight of the Matron would scamper with my prized captures to the fisherman. It wasn’t just a case of handing the Sea Urchins over; they had to be the finished article so with penknife in hand I would gut them, swill them out and them take the spikes off by rubbing them off on a rough surface.

Looking for Sea Urchins

Other activities on the beach was going for Donkey Rides and playing my love of cricket.

Me in the middle looking at the wicket
More photographs taken at Robin Hoods Bay late 1940s to 1953
 

View of Robin Hoods Bay from the school

My sister Olive on the far left

My sister Olive foreground

On The Beach

Tom far left eating Ice Cream

Another Beach Scene

On the cliff outside the school building
 

Mrs Holmes on the left

Tom far left Robin Hoods Bay 1952

 

On the occasions when the tide was in we would all go on long walks when the weather was suitable and of course if the time was appropriate. We would on occasions walk along the top of the cliffs but because of the constant erosion of the cliff face, one had to be very careful and not go too near the edge. The other walk we used to do was from the rear of the school and across the grass fields and over the sty’s to the roadway and head in the direction of Ravenscar. This is a headland jutting out to sea between Robin Hoods Bay and Scarborough with castle ruins at the top of the headland. This walk is about fourteen miles long. We did go to Scarborough for the Scarborough Festival and watched the cricket between Yorkshire and the visiting Australian Test side; this was the final match that Donald Bradman played in. The Yorkshire Committee bestowed to Don Bradman the honor to be an honorary member of Yorkshire cricket knowing full well that to play for Yorkshire one had to be a bona fide Yorkshire man. After the days play we all went to Peashome Park to watch the evening’s show of Annie get your Gun. The day before our holiday expired it was all hands to the pumps getting the school spick and span and ready for the children to return after their summer break, packing all the suitcases and the buckets and spades ready to board the coach in the morning. The journey back to Bramham was one full of foreboding and the song we all sang. It’s a long way to Bramham House. It’s a long way to go. Farewell Robin Hoods Bay. Farwell Scarborough to the familiar tune of it’s a long way to Tipperary wasn’t sung with the same gusto as on the outward journey from the home.

 Slowly the days passed by and it was back to school to start the autumn term. The weather was now getting noticeably cooler so it was back to warmer clothing for both boys and girls, also the evenings were closing in getting that little darker as each day passed.  In the early months the stables were taken over by the West Riding ambulance service and the stables used for garaging the vehicles, to the right of the stables and attached to the stables was a building that was converted into the main ambulance office, to the right of the office you came into the back yard and directly to your left were steps that led up to where the ambulance staff were housed when on duty, this is where they had their meals and rested and was directly above the office. Turn left from the top of these steps along the pathway would lead to where the pig-sty was. Another set of steps immediately above these steps would take you to the large vegetable garden and was also used by Mrs. Young to hang the washing out on a fine day. The evenings were now drawing in and on my way back from school I would watch the gas lighter ignite the street lighting from his long pole?  With November approaching Mr. Dickensen the gardener would be busy lopping and cutting back all the dead wood from the trees and bushes ready to build a bonfire on Guy Fawkes Night.
 

After school on Guy Fawkes Night we all gathered on the forecourt prior to proceeding to the bonfire and some of the younger children were handed a sparkler. With much excitement and noise we set off at about seven o’clock up the long driveway to just before the main entrance gates where out of the gloom you could make out this dark shape of the bonfire. At the top of the bonfire was the guy, who made it I don’t know, probably the staff or the Holmes’s daughters. With much cheering the fire was lit and the various fireworks set off, the Catherine Wheels were pinned to a tree and the rockets placed in an upright empty milk bottle before being set off. The children were then handed a potato and once the fire was well and truly red hot placed the potato in the embers and then ate them once they were sufficiently cooked. As previously mentioned we attended the church every Sunday morning and Sunday afternoon and I was invited to join the church choir. I was supplied with a cassock and surplus and we would all change in the vestry. Before the service commenced the vicar Mr. Shepard would proceed from the altar with the crucifix and I and another boy would walk either side of him carrying a lit candle each, the choir would follow on behind us down the aisle between the rows of pews of the congregation. In later years I became a server.

With the advent of Christmas approaching the home was full of anticipation and hope, having never experienced Christmas before I could only surmise what it was all about from other children. The Hall was the main focus of attention to celebrate Christmas because here was placed the Christmas tree and all the lights and trimmings. The ceiling to the hallway went way up, past the girls’ bedrooms so there was plenty of room for a very large tree. Just in front of the telephone exchange and under the spiral staircase was placed the crib with the figurines of Joseph and Mary and the three wise men and the baby Jesus in the manger. The main decorations in the hallway were tinsel streamers which looked really nice when the light caught them casting a sparkle throughout the hall. On Christmas morning we all formed into an excitable queue outside the main playroom door which was locked. Mr. Holmes would then unlock the door and in we would go. Stretching from the full length of the room was a line and attached to the line were stockings with a child’s name written on a peg. Inside the stocking one would find an apple orange banana dates and nuts. I well remember starting to eat the banana skin and all and being cuffed on the ears for doing so. Having never eaten or tasted a banana before I didn’t know any difference same with the apple, core and all went the same way. The main Christmas event was Boxing Day because this was the moment you received your main Christmas present. It was again the same routine of waiting for the door to be unlocked before entering the room and finding your labelled parcel on the floor. I believe all the presents were donated by Dr Banardo’s.

 The Christmas food wasn’t as grand or as plentiful as it is by today’s standards as food rationing was in force so one had to be satisfied and grateful for what one had on one’s plate. It was however a great improvement to the normal mundane meals.

We would also hold a Christmas service in the hall attended by the vicar and sing Christmas carols around the crib. With the Christmas holiday over it was back to school once again to start the new term. The weather being very cold and damp meant we couldn’t go out to play after school and it was too dark in any case, so it was back to playing games in the playroom. I used to get quite easily bored so I would find other things to do or explore. I remember in the early autumn months watching House martins fly in and out above the stables and during twilight hour’s bats coming to and fro which got the better of my imagination and something I had to investigate. When I thought no one was looking I would sneak out of the back door into the backyard and climb the steps that led to the top rear of the stables. It was here that I found a small opening that I climbed through and I was in the loft area of the stables that extended the full length of the building. It wasn’t long before some of the other boys noticed me disappearing and decided to follow. My younger sister Olive asked if she could also explore with us and I said no as it was all dark and spooky and there was a ghost up there. Little at the time did I realize how this would affect Olive as she became absolutely petrified and that night in bed she had nightmares.
 A member of staff, after talking to Olive reported it to the Superintendent where I was taken up to my bedroom, told to take my shorts and pants down and bend over the bed. I was then given several lashes across my backside with an army belt. This wasn’t the normal type of belt that would hold one’s trousers up but the leather strap that army officers wore from their shoulders to their waist on top of their tunic; about four inches in width so one can well imagine the pain. During my seven years at the children’s home, three incidents stand out in my mind more than any other. The first one was the ongoing saga of who didn’t empty the sink of the dirty potato peelings from the scullery. As mentioned previously the potatoes were peeled by three boys and then the peelings would be emptied into the slop bucket ready for Mr. Dickenson to collect and feed to the pigs. On this occasion the peelings were accidentally left in the large sink and end of story as far as we three boys were concerned until we sat down for the evening meal. No sooner had we all seated when the Matron told us three boys to stand up one at a time and asked us individually who had left the peelings. No one admitted to leaving the peelings so we were told our pocket money would be stopped until someone came forward. Every morning at breakfast we went through the same humiliation of being told to stand up one at a time in front of all the other children and asked the same question over and over again and this went on for a year with no pocket money. I really used to dread those few minutes at breakfast.

 The following Christmas morning one of the foster mothers came to my bed and asked me if I would be brave enough to tell the Matron it was me who was the culprit as this had gone on long enough. I told her that it wasn’t me and why should I take the blame and she said telling just a little white lie would solve everything, you would have your pocket money back and I know it would make Matron very happy so I agreed and she went to get the Matron. I was hiding under the blankets when the Matron came up to the bedroom and sat on my bed and asked me what it was I wanted to say. With tears streaming down my face and feeling very scared I said it was me that had left the potato peelings in the sink. For the first and only time showing compassion, she put her arms around me and said, “I don’t really think it was you but thank you for making it a wonderful Christmas present for me so now let’s forget all about it and start afresh”

The second incident was when I came out of the Ablutions and witnessed my sister Pat screaming and being literally lifted off the floor by her ears. I stood back absolutely petrified and then followed the staff member down the kitchen stairs shortly afterwards, making sure the member of staff hadn’t seen me.  I dashed into the scullery and picked up a frying pan and went back up the stairs and waited with the frying pan behind my back. When the said persons head was at my level I belted them on the head with the frying pan let go and just ran. I don’t know what happened after that, where I was found or what punishment I received because I was just so upset I can’t recall.
The third incident happened much later. One of the girls happened to have a weak bladder and consequently was nearly always wetting the bed. On the way to school one morning the girl was in a distressed state and walking past one of the cottages which was at the bottom of the pathway and on the Great North Road, the state of the girl was noticed by the lady who lived there, she took her indoors to see what the matter was. After talking to her the lady walked with her to school and spoke to a member of the school staff. As it appeared the girl was in a lot of pain it was decided to examine her, it was then noticed that her back was covered in heavy bruising. As far as I can remember it was reported to the welfare services and at sometime they paid a visit to the home.
With the early passing of the years and the country slowly recovering from the war, things gradually began to improve and the activities at the home were getting better. A trip to London to see Buckingham Palace, another to Blackpool to see the lights and to Manchester’s Bellevue. It was during this visit to Manchester’s zoo that we met the singer Johnnie Ray; he was sitting on top of an elephant doing a photo call for the press. At the time he was the biggest star in the singing world with his record 'Walking My Baby Back Home ' the number one selling record throughout the world. He followed this up with the smash hit 'Just a walking in The Rain'.

 In 1951 and at the end of the Spring Term and approaching my 11th birthday in the August, I left Bramham School. After the usual holiday at Robin Hoods Bay I started to attend lessons at my new school in the village of Boston Spa which is about a two mile journey. Those of us having left the junior school could now make our own way from the home to the bus stop without any supervision. On the way to school it was usual for me to call into the sweetshop to buy sticks of liquorices.  I’d hand over a penny and receive four sticks; a farthing each .The shop was more or less opposite the Red Lion pub and near the village pump. I would also take an occasional swig of water from the pump if I felt rather parched. The school bus stop was just past the intersection of Clifford road and Bramham New road and looking down the road towards Clifford you could see the bus approaching from quite a distance. One thing I couldn’t stand was to hang about in queues I’d get bored and restless (I still have this trait today) so if the bus wasn’t in sight I’d run to school depending on the weather of course. The school at Boston Spa was a Secondary Modern school which was divided into two sections as the main road to the village passed through the centre.
The main buildings consisted of prefabricated classrooms where we did the main lessons. The other section of the school, you had to cross the main road to do outdoor activities such as sport and gardening. I don’t know any history about the school but having been in the armed forces myself I should imagine the school may have been used as billets during the war; they certainly were reminiscent of that type of usage. What I really liked about this school was to play cricket on grass as I’d always played on concrete. The school at Bramham just had a concrete playground and at the home we played on the forecourt so playing on grass was heaven to me. It was a different ball game now as I could really bowl flat out on any length of run up without any restrictions and playing on grass you could use the conditions, weather, pitch, wind etc to exploit the batsmen.
The other sport I played a lot of was football; although I enjoyed playing in a match I wasn’t all that good. In 1952 the nation was in mourning at the sudden death of King George the 6th, although he had been ill for sometime it still came as a great shock. The month of June was the Coronation of Princess Elizabeth and after we had finished breakfast that morning and finished all the usual work we were all told to assemble in the dining hall. All the tables had now been removed to the rear and all the chairs arranged in seating rows to the other end of the room. Sitting on top of a small table in front of the chairs was a wooden box which we were told was a Television which we could view the Coronation as it actually happened. This to us was amazing, unheard of, how on earth could an event taking place in London come all the way to where we were sitting as if we were actually there, although it was only in black and white it was still magic. The Television was only there for that one day, probably hired by the West Riding but our first taste of the future of broadcasting.

At about this time, there was quite a lot of work going on when I was on my way to catch the school bus, mainly on the street lighting. All the old gas lights were being replaced by electric ones and the water pump was being taken away. During the early months of the year I would continue playing the usual games in the woods of the premises but now that much older I would further my exploits by bird nesting and collecting eggs. There were quite a lot of wild birds that nested in the woods and which we unfortunately don’t see today unless one is very lucky, the Bull Finch, Song Thrush and Thistle Thrush and the Shrike to name but a few. In the surrounding wall crevices there was the Yellow Hammers and in the meadow grass Cowslips with their yellow flowers another rarity today. Another activity was to see which of us boys could climb to the top of the highest tree and the winner would carve their name at the bottom. Little did I realize at the time that the summer of 1953 would be the last time I would go to Robin Hoods Bay from the children’s home? After this summer holiday and the weekend off after school I was introduced to a lady called Mrs. Curtis, after chatting with her for a while I was excused and carried on with whatever I was doing. It so happened that my brother Arthur and two sisters Pat and Olive were also introduced to the lady so I became somewhat curious surprised and apprehensive. Several weeks passed and then Mrs. Curtis paid a return call to the home and spoke to Arthur and myself and asked us if we would like to visit and stay with her and her husband at their home in Harrogate for the weekend and the following weekend it would be my sister’s turn. This was wonderful and exciting news to us and of course we all agreed. We were told on this first weekend with them that they would like us to refer them as Auntie Laura and Uncle John. From the beginning I could tell they were a kind and caring married couple. They would talk to us about their time in South Africa where they ran a Missionary and although very religious they didn’t impose or preach religion to us.

 On the Sunday morning we would go to church with them which we were used to anyway but it was so different to a Church of England service that it seemed alien to me.  It was a Methodist church that was conducted by a Pastor who didn’t wear the robes of a vicar and when he preached members of the congregation would sometimes chant 'Alleluia' and 'Save us Lord' which made me start giggling out loud, I just couldn’t help myself as it was so out of character to what I was used to, obviously I apologized to Auntie Laura. After several weekend visits it was then asked of us if we would like to be fostered out with Mr. and Mrs. Curtis together as a family. So it was that we said our goodbyes to our families of children at Bramham House and started our new life at Harrogate. I joined a new school not far from where we lived. I didn’t like the school at first because of course all the other children were strangers and it was a boys only school which I wasn’t used to. No sooner had we all settled down to family life when the unexpected suddenly happened. During a Saturday night when everyone was in bed, Uncle John became ill with severe head pains. The doctor was summoned but he died that Sunday morning of a brain haemorrhage. He was just forty eight.

With the sudden death of Uncle John it was inevitable that circumstances would change and so it turned out to be that Arthur and I would return to Bramham House and Pat and Olive would go to a girl’s home in Knaresborough. We had only been back in the home but a short while when out of the blue Mr. and Mrs. Holmes suddenly left. There was no prior warning as far as I remember, no goodbyes, just here one minute and gone the next. We had a caretaker person for a short while until the appointed new Super and Matron were introduced. From the very beginning the first impression one got from Mr. and Mrs. Turner was their friendly approach and smiling nature, one felt at ease immediately. We were introduced one at a time and told from the very beginning what was expected from each of us, good manners, respect and good behavior and any problem or doubt one had, not to bottle it up but to talk it over with them. Within a few weeks the atmosphere in the home changed because of the freedom we were given. We were now allowed to play football and cricket outside the boundary of the home. This was in a large playing field at the top of the main exit drive to the home and I’d spend many an hour up there just bowling at the stumps after everyone had gone back after a game. Mr. Turner always encouraged us to better ourselves, he would even join in with the games we were playing and also ask the ambulance staff to join in. Mrs. Turner would sit outside with some of the girls on a warm day and teach them how to knit. When the village cinema was showing a film we were allowed to go and see it, this was unheard of before they arrived. I used to love the old comedies like Charlie Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy, Buster Keaton, Fatty Arbuckle, Old Mother Riley and George Formby and of course not forgetting the cowboy films like Tex Ritter, Roy Rodgers, Gene Autry and Hop along Cassidy. All films in those days were of course only done in black and white. In the summer of 1954 we went for our summer holiday to Skegness

On the beach at Skegness
Arthur Tindall seated centre rear with Miss Myers and Mr. and Mrs. Turner
 

After the holiday I was asked by Mr. Turner if I would like to earn some extra pocket money by going out potato picking which I thought sounded like a good idea. I was told to be up early and ready to meet the tractor at the bottom of the road by half past seven. The cook had prepared me a packed lunch with a thermos flask of hot tea and away I went. There were about five women on the tractor trailer besides myself and with the farmer driving we set off up the hill past Bramham Road crossroads to a field about a mile and a half away. Although the work was back breaking I enjoyed myself because the farmer on the second day taught me how to drive the tractor in a straight line between the rows of potato’s and dig them up. This work lasted about eight days before we cleared the whole field and by time we’d finished my back was killing me, I could hardly move. Going back to school after the summer break I mentioned to a school pal of mine that I could now drive a tractor. He lived on a farm up Wetherby road on the left hand side just a short distance past Bramham School, his name was John Watkins and he asked me if I would like to visit their farm and have a drive on their tractor. Obviously I jumped at the chance and after clearing it with the Super I visited the farm. This tractor was much bigger than the Fergie, it was a Fordson Major heavier and more powerful but after a bit of practice I got used to it and really enjoyed my time there. With Christmas approaching some of the children were encouraged to take part in school Christmas plays as the photo below shows.

 School Play
 

In the November of 1954 coming back from church I saw something that would change my life, as I was walking towards the war memorial I saw a sailor who was obviously paying homage and immediately was struck by his appearance. I thought how smart and neat he looked in his bellbottom trousers and blue collar, it just wasn’t the sort of thing you would see in the middle of a Yorkshire village miles away from the sea and it was at that moment that I decided I wanted to join the Navy when I left school. During the Easter holiday period of 1955 Mr. Turner took me into his office to discuss what my intentions were on leaving school in the summer and I told him I would like to join the Royal Navy. I got the impression from what he was saying to me that he thought I ought to pursue my cricket interests first and if that didn’t work out, then have that as a second option. He himself had served in the Navy during the war and it wasn’t all fun and games, it was a hard life and once you had joined, there was no going back. Nothing he said changed my mind so an interview and exam was arranged for me in Wetherby late that May. After the exams it was a case of waiting for the result to come through and when it did I was informed that I had been successful and would be informed on the date to attend my medical. The end of July I said my farewells to Boston Spa school, I enjoyed my school days there. In August we all had another holiday in Skegness where I had my 15th birthday and after the holiday it was back to school for the children at the home. I think during this period I would have had long conversations with Mrs. Young and the lady cook who was a large jovial lady from Greece. Early in October I received various forms and detailed instructions to get to my destination and also a railway ticket to Manchester for the pre-medical for a two o’clock examination on the 10th. Early that morning before I left I was given a brand new set of clothing and for the first time a long pair of trousers, handed my railway ticket and with Mr. and Mrs. Turner wishing me luck made my way to the village bus stop. What my feelings must have been at this stage I really don’t know, as I walked across the forecourt, took the all familiar left turn and down the path through the woods and to my right that tree with my name on it. I probably gave it a cursory glance and would I have stopped at the bottom of the path and glanced back. I doubt it .You see I was free.
 

I caught the bus to Leeds at the bottom of Tenter hill to board the train to Manchester where I duly arrived at the medical centre. After being informed I was medically fit I was now accommodated in a hostel with other successful volunteers to stay overnight in Manchester. The next day we all caught the train to Ipswich and then a naval coach to a village called Shotley where the naval establishment was H.M.S Ganges. After proclaiming our alliance to the Queen we signed the papers and were now enlisted in the Royal Navy on the 11th October 1955. The discipline and routine of Bramham House put me in good stead for those early months training in the Navy, a lot of the boys found it hard going. In the Christmas of that year we were sent on two weeks leave and me having nowhere to go I spent my leave back at Bramham House. I didn’t like this two week period at all because instead of having my meals at the table with the children I knew, I was seated with the staff which made me feel uncomfortable and embarrassed. I was also put into a spare single bedroom where I felt isolated. This was the last occasion I was to live within the walls of Bramham House but I did correspond with the home when I was posted to the Far East. Many years passed before I was to see Bramham House again and it came completely out of the blue. My wife Mary and I regularly visit my eldest son David for a few days in Chester usually in the August. During our stay at his home in 1999 we were going to spend the day in York when David asked me out of the blue if I would like to visit Bramham on the way. This came as a nice thoughtful gesture as I had no preconceived thoughts of ever going back to visit, it was just past memories. We arrived at Bramham at about lunchtime and went into the Red Lion and had a snack lunch and a beer. I asked the landlord if Bramham House was still there and he assured me that it was. I took this to mean that it was still being used as a children’s home. After lunch we strolled down the high street and visited the old familiar Post Office and pointed out where Bramham School used to be. Instead of going my old route past the Bay Horse Hotel towards the old crossroads and up the bottom path I took them up the Almshouse Hill and approached the house from the top of the main drive entrance. From the top of the drive one cannot see the building, it’s only when you have gone about fifty yards and the drive curves to your left that you see the building. What beheld me was an unbelievable sight. I was looking at a ruined derelict building all shuttered up and boarded, it really was a terrible shock and made me feel sick to the stomach to see this once wonderful building completely neglected. I took my wife and son to the rear of the house where we used to picnic on the beautiful lawn on hot summer days. Rolling those Easter eggs down the slope, now it looked like a jungle with the grass waist high.
 

In the midst of the grass Mary noticed a rose bush covered in bright red roses and chose one to take back with us. We proceeded to the front of the house again and I spoke to the duty ambulance man in the ambulance building to enquire the future plans that were in the pipeline regarding the future prospects of the house. He told me that as far as he knew it was on the market to be sold and the keys to the house were held at an Estates agency in Wetherby. He also informed me that the police did regular spot checks because of the vandalism that had been taking place; he also remarked that most of the lead had been stolen from the roof .We then went to the back yard and the backdoor where we the children always used, (never the front door that was for staff only) and David came across a loose brick which we kept as a keepsake. I said to my son that there was a tree I had carved my name on in 1952 and I wonder if the tree is still there, he asked me if I still remembered where the tree was and I said I’d certainly remember. Sure enough I took them straight to the tree and there was my name still there after all those years. After the visit to the house we then went to Bramham Church where I would go every Sunday. The door was open which surprised me and so we went in and I signed the visitor’s book and then carried on our journey to York, I only regret not taking a camera with us. When Mary and I arrived back home down here in the New Forest Mary placed the Rose in a picture frame and the fragment of the house David picked up is still with us on the kitchen window ledge. In August 2002 we were again at David’s home for a few days holiday and intending once again to visit York when David suggested we pay another visit to Bramham but this time with a camera to take some shots. We again arrived at Bramham about lunchtime and I not feeling hungry decided to go outside the Red Lion just for a moment to myself. On entering the pub I told Mary and David I would be in the other bar whilst they finished their lunch and got talking to a local who I thought was roughly my age so hopefully he would be able to remember certain people. He said he knew one of my school pals Billy Firth and he was surprised he wasn’t in the bar as we were speaking and if I hung on for a little while he would turn up at any moment. I waited as long as I could and then decided to make tracks to Bramham House We took some photos in the village square and then made our way up to the home.

 Approaching the house it looked far worse than it did just a couple of years previously. The weeds and grass had now really taken over and the whole house seemed so sad and neglected, it really was a sad sight, such a shame.

The Lawn At The Rear

As this photo taken of the lawn shows, who would have believed that this was once a beautifully kept manicured lawn.

We now took our leave from the rear part of the house and up the slope with the boarded up kitchen windows to our right, above these windows were the windows to the small playroom and the large dining hall, also boarded up .Across the forecourt we more or less had to fight our way through the overgrowth to the path that we so often walked up and down to go to school to the main road, you couldn’t even see any resemblance of a path anymore.        And so to the old oak tree.

Carved 1952 Photographed 50 Years Later 2002

Mary and Tom outside Bramham House Front Door

We left Bramham House behind us for the last time. I did give it a backward glance on this occasion because I knew there didn’t seem to be any hope. After our visit to the home we again paid another visit to the church but unfortunately on this occasion the church was closed.

Mary and Tom at Bramham Church
 

In  August 2003 when Mary and I again visited David we all thought it a good idea to stay at a hotel overnight in Whitby and during our stay there visit Robin Hoods Bay which is just a couple of miles down the road. It was nice to go back to the Bay after an absence of fifty years and it’s one of those places that have maintained its charm and beauty. The school building we used to stay at has had a complete overall and now looks modern to the drab look it once had. Again another photo on how it looks today.

Outside The School Robin Hoods Bay

Tom in Bramham Square

Mary and Tom's 40th Wedding Anniversary

Having toured the village and had lunch in a pub we continued on our way to Whitby. I’ve often wondered what would have happened in my life if I hadn’t come across that sailor at the war memorial. Because of that I’ve travelled the world, met Mary in 1958, married in 1964 and have a daughter two sons and two grand daughters and live in a lovely part of the country. We celebrated our Ruby wedding in September of last year so I have a lot to thank Bramham for. There’s nothing further to add really only that when the old house is finally demolished I hope that new houses will replace the old building and that the sound of children’s laughter will come from the walls within. When the site of Bramham House is cleared I hope at least the oak tree where I carved my name all those years ago will be preserved. I officially retire in August so I hope to visit again one day and just sit back and relax in the bar at the Red Lion with a few jars of the amber nectar.

                                     Cheers!!!

Enclosed is a newspaper cutting that Arthur Tindall sent to me several years ago of the letter he wrote to the Yorkshire Post. Two years ago I wrote to the newspaper editor expressing my disgust at the sheer neglect and abandonment of this wonderful building but it was to no avail, they didn't even give me the courtesy to acknowledge my letter. I'm surprised that Bramham House couldn't have been taken over by the National Trust or some grant awarded under the listed buildings programme.


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