Norman & Teddy started “courting,” and it was a long time later that he plucked up the courage to kiss her goodnight, which he did, in the shelter at the bottom of Park Road at Stone Bay, and Teddy fainted!!! Anyway it obviously did not put her or Norman off, as they were married after a five year courtship on April 1st 1939 at Holy Trinity Broadstairs, ten days before Teddy’s 21st birthday.
They adored each other and had a special whistle to attract each others attention and Teddy called Norman Midder which I always thought stemmed from Mister but am not too sure.
They married at Holy Trinity Church, because Teddy was living up the road at 4 Crow Hill, in what I believe was nursing accommodation. They rented number 12 Chaucer Road, Broadstairs to live in and were there until 1957, before moving to the flat at 5 York Street above Blackburns, where Norman was working.
Norman and Teddy rented 12 Chaucer Road for many years, until finally being able to buy the house for £400. When they moved to the flat they kept on number 12 and rented it out to holiday makers. They then purchased 23 Chaucer Road to rent out for holiday lets. I can’t remember the order of sale and purchase, but over the years they bought a house in Belmont road which was 3 flats, another house in Dundonald Road, and then a house in Chandos Road which was also 3 flats. This was the way that they finally made some money, as the only money that they were left was from Norman’s parents who left £700 to each of the 7 sons when they died in 1949, and Norman bought us a car – a Ford 8 reg AFN711 – and later a television. We rented a TV for the funeral of King George V1, but had our own by the time of the Coronation in 1953 and were some of the first people to have one. I remember a lot of neighbours coming in to watch with us.
12 Chaucer Road was a very small house, having three bedrooms upstairs and a small lounge, dining room and kitchen downstairs. Originally it had just a toilet upstairs, but when I was aged about 9, my parents took part of the back bedroom in order to extend the toilet and to put in a bath. This was the first bathroom for us, as before that we had a metal bath that was carried into the dining room and filled by kettle or saucepan with hot water. We all then had a bath – one after the other – usually at a weekend. It was such a performance that bathing was a once a week job. I understand that this is where the saying “Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water” came from as baby was always last to be bathed, and if you were a coal miner then the water would be black for the baby! I remember having such lovely Saturday evenings, as we would have a bath first and then watch television together and my parents usually gave us each an orange to eat. To watch the television, we always sat in the dark.
We had an outside toilet in the small back garden, or yard really, because it was all concrete and had no flower beds. There was some privet hedging in the garden and to this day, the smell of privet takes me straight back to my childhood. There was an alleyway behind the house.
I believe that Chaucer Road and the other roads (all terraced houses), were built to accommodate people who worked on the railways back in 1863.
We had gas lighting for many years and I can remember the excitement when electricity was supplied, and you could turn the light on just by flicking a switch. We had very few electric sockets fitted – perhaps one in the lounge and one in the dining room.
War broke out only five months after Norman and Teddy were married. Norman joined the fire brigade – I imagine it was only part time as he was still working for Daniels Estate Agents in the High Street, Broadstairs. Here are a couple of lovely photos of him in his fire brigade uniform:
However, Norman joined the army in late 1940, signing up at Herne Bay and on that day he met Alfred Amphlett, who was later to marry Teddy’s sister, Bunty, and they became lifelong friends and spent most of the war together. Aunty Bunty had been engaged to marry someone who was killed at Dunkirk, so my parents suggested that she write to Alfred while he was in the desert. Bunty and Alfred married when Alfred returned to England at the end of the war. Norman was his best man at the wedding.
Norman was posted to Kilmarnock, for training purposes I believe, and Teddy went there with him until such time as he was posted overseas. He went overseas when Teddy was three months pregnant with me and did not return for 5 years.
Photos of Norman and Teddy in their courting years
Read about their war years