Dad was one of 10 children brought up in Napier Road and when he gets his site up and running, I tell you, he has some great tales to tell of those times..... like there only being 1 pair of knickers for the girls so they had to take turns wearing them for school.... like not being able to afford furniture so they dangled their feet through holes in the floor... alright, alright so that one was only a rumour !!

So the first photo has to be this classic. Now bear in mind there was never 2 hapennies to rub together, to have this photo taken was a big event for them and guess what.... Dad missed it ... he was out the back polishing his shoes!!!

So who have we...on the left is Dads mum, Elizabeth (nee Blackwell), next to her is Martha and then in the middle is Jessie with Hilda in front of her. The tall girl at the back is Nell carrying Stella and in front of them is Mabel.
As well as Dad other absentees are his Dad, Leonard, older brother Lennie ,the eldest of the family, Annie.... they were all at work... and Dickie, the youngest who hadn't yet been born.

Here is Leonard in uniform... I believe it was the Royal Horse Artillery he was in ...

Goodness knows how old this photo is. Dad reckons its from Len that we all got our love of animals

Here are Dad and Dickie. Dad is only 14 and just returned home from evacuation. The new suit is because he is just about to start work next week ... at 14!!!!

He started work at a place called Carringtons or the Camco as we grew up knowing it... he started as a sweeper up and gradually progressed up to a wood machinist... I think nearly all the Terrys worked there at some time or another and dad was there for about 40 years !!!

Here are Len and Liz taken at Mum and Dads wedding. Unfortunately us kids didn't know Len at all but I certainly remember Nanny Terry... she was tiny but didn't take any nonsense from anyone.. least of all us... we were always on best behaviour ...

and finally as she missed the main photo above here is one of Annie with her husband Bert (Drew) and a nice one I have just found of Dad to finish...

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Now Mum was the other extreme to Dad in that she was an only child, the daughter of Gladys (nee Harrison) and Stanley Jacks.

Here they are at the front of this photo, the baby is one of Mums cousins, Hubert. The others are Gladys' brothers and sisters, going left to right, Elsie, Alfie, Ada, Ernies wife and Ernie...

The gentleman at the front of this next photo is Mums Grandpa Harrison (Gladys' Dad), with Ernie and Arthur. Apparently he wasn't badly off, owing his own rope making business in London as well as several houses....

Unfortunately Mums dad, Stanley, died when she was only 8. Here he is in his RAF days, he was a motorbike rider for them, and one of him with Mum.

Gladys remarried a friend of Stanleys, Charlie Chapman. Charlie had been a miner in South Wales and on moving to Croydon started work in the steel foundry. It was Gladys and Charlie that we 3 kids grew up knowing as Nan and Pop.

I think we will always remember our Christmases with them especially when us kids were allowed to stay and play cards... we used to play until early Boxing Day morning!! We played Newmarket, Pop usually landing up with all the pot pennies. Nan used to get so cross with him and she was so funny trying to sneak her cards in quiet so we wouldn't notice....

Here's a couple of photos of Mum with Nan, in the one walking along the front Mum looks so much like Carol at that age... and finally there's Mums school photo

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Well that's it then ... this is us. I've enjoyed doing this (once I got to grips with the techy stuff) and I'll try and keep it updated, as well as adding more links as they become available, who knows where we are going to go next....
Diane.. November 2000