Cuthbert and Kitty
In my childhood at Priding nearly everyone had a pretty basic living …coal fires or wood from the river, vegetables from the garden, fish from the river, no electricity, no mains water and sanitation was down the garden. The exception to this was Cuthbert and Kitty…. Mr Cuthbert Blakelock was a retired solicitor of some note so funds were plentiful. Kitty his wife was elegant or best described as chic wearing designer clothes and jewellery even to do the gardening. Not the cleaning as that was unheard of. They had a lovely lady Aggie Smith come and do the cleaning and the chores like washing the bed sheets. Their lifestyle for Priding was on another level to everyone else. They had CENTRAL HEATING with radiators! Fitted carpets! and electricity off a Lister Generator in their massive garage, A swimming pool and their own air raid shelter. This was how people from away lived. With no work to do Cuthbert dedicated his time to devices. People had push lawn mowers but he had an electric home built mower with power off the Lister (which of course had to run for you to cut the grass). In the garage the Lister also drove a shaft which drove drills and grinders but also a shoe polisher similar to ones you now see in modern shoe repair shops and a riddler which was a rotating barrel with holes in. Once the boiler was empty you put the ash into the barrel, turned on the Lister and rotated the barrel, the small ash fell through the holes and what was left could be reused!…simple! The Blakelocks also had the only car in the hamlet a polished Black Morris Ten which had a dedicated routine of Gloucester once a week and Church on Sunday. Then dried and polished before it was returned to the garage. Kitty knitted for export which was a government incentive to obtain dollars after the war. Rich Americans would pay over the odds for hand made knitted garments from English Ladies. A lovely couple who were really out of context with the area.