Betty's Life Story
I was born at Downs Farm on Dunstable Downs Golf Course on the 22nd March, 1933, into a family of golf professionals and greenkeepers (now Course Managers). Downs Farm was my father’s home which came with his job, that of Head Greenkeeper. It was quite an isolated residence but having an elder sister, Jane, and a brother, John, life was never lonely. My two grandmothers were regular visitors as were numerous aunts and uncles.My early memories of living at Downs Farm were of hot summers and an ideal existence. We had a very big cellar there and one day someone left the double doors to this open and I fell backwards down the steps and was unconscious for forty eight hours. Another memory was when I refused to eat my Force cereal for my breakfast. There were always gypsies camping illegally in the lane leading to Downs Farm and their horses used to stray into our farm paddock. My mother happened to be in hospital at the time and the lady looking after us in her absence threatened that the horses would come and take me away! This has always stuck in my mind.
When I was five my mother decided that living at Downs Farm was too isolated for her so we moved temporarily to a flat in the High Street, Dunstable. From here we moved to "Tandridge", 70 Meadway, Dunstable. I lived here for approximately twenty three years until I married.
Granny Smith lived at Percy Road, Finchley, and I visited her regularly. I remember seeing a little green china dog for sale priced two shillings in a shop window. This was quite expensive at that time so it took me many weeks to save up for it. I still have this ornament in my house at Yardley Gobion. When visiting Finchley each morning I was sent to Lyons (as in Corner House) to fetch bread. This had to be transported home in a clean tea towel inside a basket. Granny Smith was a strict disciplinarian and a very prim and proper lady, always immaculately dressed. I often think that many of her characteristics have rubbed off on me although she was my step-grandmother.
My other Grandmother lived at Bracknell and my frequent visits to her entailed a journey by Green Line coach from Dunstable to Victoria Coach Station, London, where I caught a connection to Bracknell. When visiting her I paid several visits to Windsor Castle and had many trips on the River Thames. I can particularly remember visiting Boulters Lock. The Lock Keeper regularly won the prize for the best kept Lock garden on the Thames. It was a beautiful sight to see.
I attended Ashton Junior School, Church Street, Dunstable, for approximately one year and then transferred to Burr Street Junior School on moving to Meadway. I stayed there until I was eleven when I transferred to Priory Road School. My father was dissatisfied with the standard of education and sent me to a private college at St. Albans called House and Williams. Discipline was very good here and if you ran up the stairs you were made to come back and walk up properly. I gained several Royal Society of Arts certificates when there which set me up for future jobs.
On leaving college I worked for a local equipment manufacturer, Harrison & Carter, for a year and then obtained a job with the Meteorological Office where I worked for twelve years until the Met. Office transferred its headquarters from Dunstable to Bracknell in the early sixties. In 1960 I met my husband, Bill, who was on a course at the Met office. We married in 1961 and moved to Heanor in Derbyshire; Bill was working at RAF Watnall on the outskirts of Nottingham. However, we were at Heanor for only six weeks because Bill transferred to the Foreign Office on promotion. We then moved back to Dunstable (Bill was working at Creslow in Buckinghamshire) and after a year bought a house in Bletchley. After three years we moved to Yardley Gobion where I have resided for 39 years.