Sunday January 31, 1982

 4th Sunday after Epiphany

When we came home from Karen and Steve's we sat amidst the bed sheets eating crumpets and talking about Lynn. Why is she always so 'cool' with Ally? Lynn drifted into the party, clad in a new mini dress, and chatted to everyone with the exception of Ally who, feeling pissed and disturbed, emptied a full glass of punch, including the fruit chunks, over my head. It is a perfect case for a budding psychologist. What happens to a relationship between two very close girl friends when one goes off and marries the brother of the other? Freaky, man.

I first discovered the day at about 8:30 but then slept until 12:30 and struggled out of bed to stuff a chicken. Washing it in the sink I felt like a midwife, if you know what I mean.

Ally, feeling rough, lay sprawled on a pile of cushions reading Wilkie Collins, which cannot have hepled the situation. We had a weird conglomeration of food. Crumpets with bananas, lots of tea, then yoghurt, oranges, apples followed by a sticky loaf with fruit in, covered in thick butter. Roast chicken later, with cabbage, cauliflower au gratin, roast and mashed potatoes, Yorkshire puddings, &c. All reminiscent of Chatsworth House in 1880.

Films: Carry on Regardless, followed by 'A Shot in the Dark' with the amazing [Peter] Sellers.

Bed at 9:40. Roaring with laughter about something, both in the dark, but cannot now for the life of me remember what was the cause.

I dreamt tonight about Percy Illingworth, headmaster of Fieldhead Rd School 1966-78. Is this sexual? 

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Saturday January 30, 1982

 Awoke at 9:30 and flew downstairs like an over-active pre-adolescent on Christmas morning to snatch the mail from Postie. Yes, I had a letter from cousins Edna and Nellie, at Cambridge Gardens, Bramley. A sweet letter, but giving little further information on John Rhodes (1866-1948). They say that Otley is 'probably' John's birthplace but add that he had a sister, Millicent, who 'lived away from home' and wasn't often seen. Mum suggests that this mysterious aunt is probably the 'mad' aunt of Grandad Rhodes's stories who saw her sweetheart drown in the Strid at Bolton Abbey and then went insane. A Highroyds case I think. The twins sound sweet old girls, and gave me a phone number to contact them with the result of my findings.

To Morrison's with Precious. Afterwards we had sandwiches and I laughed, only half-heartedly, at a prehistoric Will Hay film. Ally buried beneath 'The Woman in White' by Wilkie Collins.

To Karen and Steve's at 8:30. The water supply there is cut off and I looked at Ally in horror _______. Guests: Dave L [who left at 9:30 to go to a party at Sandal], Jacq, Paul, Tim [with a sore eye], Jill, Lynn, Dave B, Diane, Paul E[dwards]. The music was switched off and we watched a Paul Newman film, of all things, and Barry Humphries on the Parkinson Show. Home after 3, or was it 4? Ally on automatic pilot - dangerous really.

NB: My great-grandfather did not have a sister 'Millicent'. His only surving half-sister was Anne Eliza Rhodes [later Robinson] 1875-1954. John Rhodes had a step-sister, Matilda Parker, born in 1866, wife of Michael Elsworth. The story of the drowning in the Strid has yet to be corroborated.

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Friday January 29, 1982

 Ally, feeling rough, stayed in bed after my departure at 7:45. I took a half day and was home at 12:45 and climbed into bed. ______. Downstairs for beans on toast and crumpets, for lunch. We watched a 1942 film starring Vincent Price, and then a Sherlock Holmes film starring Basil Rathbone, but fighting the Nazis and saving Britain from the clutches of the Hun.

Not my cup of tea.

Later we had fish and chips, and Ally, feeling better, got stuck into a 'Miss Marple' tale. I sat with knotted brow quite over-faced by the glut of new book purchases. Which one should I read? For some reason I cannot get into the Hobbit. I don't think Tolkein is my cup of tea, but I don't suppose I have given him a chance.

Mum says that Tony is forming his own business with a similarly redundant colleague. Have I said that Tony phoned me on Wednesday about placing an advert in the paper?

The forthcoming royal birth has been spoiled for me by the coming debate on the order of succession to the Crown which next month may take away the right of the eldest son to succeed to the Crown of his forebears. We are not in Scandinavia for God's sake. The succession to the throne has only been tampered with or diverted in times of great national crisis. In 1688 following the flight of James II, and the death of Queen Anne to secure the protestant succession in the person of George of Hanover. To further amend the succession now, at the whim of a jumped up Labour MP, will only detract from the magic and mystique of the monarchy and lower the whole institution giving it a presidential facade.

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Thursday January 28, 1982

Nellie [left] and Edna Rhodes.

 Black morning. Lay moaning beneath my quilt.

The rail strike continues. At the YP I took at 10 minute lunch break so to escape from the office at 4. Sunny, warm day - Cornish pasty in Park Square.

After lunch Ally phoned from home. She felt faint at the office and has a crippling tummy ache, and is now snuggled down with a book. __________. What will be, will be.

Wrote to my spinster cousins Edna and Nellie Rhodes, twins, who live in Bramley. I picture two sweet old dears not unlike the ladies in 'Arsenic and Old Lace'. It's a little sad writing to cousins, living not ten miles away, whom I have never met. Dad says that his memory of them in the 1950s is that they were very smart, strait-laced old things. Will they tell me where their grandfather, John Rhodes, was born in 1866?

Home at 5. Daylight. Ally in some pain and very weak. We had a pizza. Lynn phoned to report that Christine Airey has given birth to a son. _______________.

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Wednesday January 27, 1982

 No desire to climb out of bed, but we must. I should appreciate my job. It would be quite wrong to pack it in and lay, idle, when the country has 48,000,000 unemployed school leavers. No point in moping. Perhaps Mrs Thatcher should hand over the running of the railways to the unemployed. That would put the wind up Ray Buckton. Perghaps they should force the ASLEF members onto the lifeboats and let them see what it's like doing a proper job. Michael Rhodes, 26, is insane.

The BBC is on the slippery slide. I see little difference between the nine o'clock news and ITN's 'News at Ten'. Is nothing sacred? The Princess of Wales brings cheer to the hearts of this largely sombre nation by smiling up refreshingly from the front page of today's Times. HRH is appearing on stamps throughout the Commonwealth to celebrate her 21st birthday on July 1.

Yorkshire puddings and steak and kidney with Poppet, who was feeling decidedly wobbly, and lay upon the settee, like an Elizabeth effigy, whilst I did the dishes. Afterwards in front of the TV, and later in bed, I thumbed through copies of the Family History magazine, kindly lent to me by Steve Burnip. A Malcolm Fawbert, from Cleethorpes, claims that the Fawbert family are excusively concentrated in the Leeds/Bradford area, and with the exception of only one or two generations, all can be found in Yorkshire. His earliest finds are Abraham and Elizabeth Fawbert, of 'Colbecke' [surely Holbeck?] Leeds in 1560. Direct line back to Isaac Fawbert 1782, baptized at St Wildfred's, Calverley, son of Timothy, son of James. Fawberts are also mentioned in Calverley in 1710 and 1714. I will write to Malcolm and see where Edward Fawbert, my great-great grandfather fits in. 

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Tuesday January 26, 1982

 Steve Burnip is a good lad. He keeps slipping me gems of a genealogical nature and today, when he caught sight of my Wilson [family] tree, he was amazed by the detail. It is warming to have got back to the days of Trafalgar without having to do much hard detective work.

Ally tired and pale tonight. _____________. Home at 6. Out at 7:30 to dinner at Burley in Wharfedale with Lynn and Dave [bearded]. Sue and Pete were dining too and she is bulbous and red and ready [for the baby]. She has to go to Leeds for the accouchement. We had cottage pie and rhubarb crumble by lamp light and drained three bottles of wine. Frances screamed each time they put her down and so she joined us at the dinner table, playing with beer mats and a red dummy. I suppose it's quite wrong to spoil a child at this age but I cannot help enjoying her tiny, yet commanding presence. Even Peter made an attempt to approach his niece and it is dawning on him that babies, for all their inconvenience, are here to stay.

Home after 11. ________.

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Monday January 25, 1982

 Graham Smith's birthday. My grandfather [Mr X of the 1973 diary] is celebrating his 81st birthday quietly today. [He died Sept 9, 1973]. Ally and I shattered. Paid a lunch time visit to the Ref. Lib. No luck for the whereabouts of John Rhodes in 1891. I re-checked Otley. He was definitely not there.

Home at 6 to Ally and fish. Mum phoned to say she and Dad visited Bramley and found John and Christiana's grave in the cemetery there. Dad was appalled at the devastation of the cemetery, upturned grave stones, others daubed in nazi slogans, but my great-grandfather's grave was intact, black marble, gold lettering, green chippings. John Rhodes, I am told, purchased the family grave in 1914, on the death of his son, Henry [Harry] Rhodes, who died June 9, 1914, aged 21. The next inscription on the stone is John Edward Rhodes, a private in the Royal Engineers [no. 57512], killed in action on Aug 7, 1918, also 21. Christiana Rhodes died aged 73, on June 19, 1939, and John Rhodes died aged 81, March 8, 1948. The final occupant is Nellie Rhodes, John and Christiana's spinster daughter, who died Nov 30, 1955, aged 60. A real hive of information, eh? Dad cleaned the grave and says it now stands out like a 'sore thumb'. Sadly, the powers that be are to flatten the cemetery later this year, and grass over the whole site, removing the headstones to the outskirts, and no doubt making a playing field of the place. I'd better get up there with a camera before the end comes.

Phoned Steve Sanderson tonight. Saturday is still on. Ally and I took to our beds quite knackered. 

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Sunday January 24, 1982

 Slept until 12 noon and leapt up to do our weekend chores with haste to make up for our idleness. Whilst cleaning the car we heard the phone ringing and both exclaimed: 'It's Susan!', but no, it was cousin Jackie asking to come over for the afternoon with Barry. They arrived at about 2 and we sat talking about Easter, the royal family, and Northumberland. ____________. Jackie went off at about 4 to inject an ancient diabetic, and returned at 4:30 for dinner and cocktails. Lasagne and chips preceded by French onion soup. We discovered that our home made lemon wine has taken on a champagne-like fizz, and when mixed with a dash of gin and Advocaat, and decorated with a cocktail cherry, makes a delicious and highly intoxicating drink, so much so that the remainder of the evening is obscured and our movements clouded in mystery. We listened to Ella Fitzgerald and Elgar. They left at about 11 leaving us hungover, thirsty and groggy. A splendid 'spur of the moment' little party.

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Saturday January 23, 1982

 Alarm rang at 8 and after a hurried breakfast we went off to Leeds, a bright almost Spring-like day. 

We got to the Reference library for about 11. I looked at the censuses for 1841, 51, and 71. Ally looked at the Bramley census for 1871 and Otley for the same year. In 1841 the Wilsons lived at Kiln Fold, Pudsey, where William Wilson, aged 25, is described as a clothier. His wife Betty is 25, and son Squire, aged 2. Ten years later the couple are living at Rider's Yard, Chapeltown, Pudsey, but Squire is missing and Peter Barraclough [aged 15] has appeared. Where was he in 1841? And who exactly is Peter Barraclough? In 1851 William Wilson is a 'slubber'. The census for April 1871 shows that William Wilson is dead, and his widow, Betty, 55, is a housekeeper at Rider's Row [I presume close to Rider's Yard] and her five younger children are with her. My great-grandfather, John, aged 18, is a woollen mill hand. I also came across other ancestors the Fawberts who in 1841 inhabited Rider's Row, and thirty years later were at Chapel Fold. Ally couldn't find my great-grandfather John Rhodes anywhere in either Bramley or Otley, but she did find great-grandmother Christiana Ross, living in 1871 at Midgley Hill, Bramley, aged 5, with parents Samuel Ross, 31, shoemaker, born in Bramley, and wife, Mary Ann Ross, 30, cloth weaver. Next door at Midley Hill dwelled Christiana Appleyard, 66, born in Bramley, and her spinster daughter, Hannah R Appleyard, a burler. Mary Ann Ross was born Appleyard, and so I assume that her widowed mother lived next door. Christiana, my great-grandmother, it seems, was named after her grandmother, taking us back to 1805. It was marvellous delving into the past in the company of Ally. We sat in this studious fashion until after 4. The library had no public bogs and so we ran to the Jubilee pub across the road, but didn't have time for a drink. 

To Guiseley at 4:30 with our gathered information. Frances is staying with Mum and Dad owing to illness at Burley.Lynn has shingles and Dave a cold. The baby is amusing but refused to go to bed until 8:30. She sat at the table with us eating beans and rice pudding. I explained to her that she isn't the first Frances in the family. She's six generations in descent from Frances Fawbert, wife of greengrocer Edward Fawbert, bringing up a family in Victorian Pudsey.

Dad was out working on and off and afterwards we discussed the elusive John Rhodes, his grandfather. Dad insists he was born in Otley and was partially blinded, aged 13, on Otley Chevin, by a firework explosion. Just when they moved to Bramley I do not know. Dad recalls his grandfather's funeral [1947 or 1948] and gave me a detailed account of his appearance. A tiny, crooked old man with snow white hair and a bump on the top of his head. He wore thick spectacles and always wore a black starched apron in the house. A cantankerous old so-and-so by the sound of things. Dad says he will go to Bramley on Monday and find John's grave. We've hasd no luck on two occasions. Bed at 3am.

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Friday January 22, 1982

 Another mild day. We now expect Kathleen to take the remainder of the year off because her aged auntie has been taken desperately ill. The last rites, and all that. So, it's bye bye Kathleen until the first flowering of daffodils.

Dave L.

Home at 6 for pizza, garlic beans, chips, &c. Petal is beautiful and brighter with the influx of iron tablets, though she has sore lips at the moment, cold sores, and finds kissing painful.

Dave L marched in at 8:15 and we sat for a couple of hours with lager talking about old times. He finds reminiscing a depressing pastime and needs to be worked on before pouring out tales of yesteryear. I love talk of our Benton Park days and Andrew Dean stories. I don't often get the chance to wallow because Dave is the only person I have known, barring relations, since March 1967. He went off at 10:15 and we took milky drinks up to bed.

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Thursday January 21, 1982

 Another dawn start to beat the crush caused by Ray Buckton.

Bob [Schofield] has finally used my tip about Jeremy Lascelles. It seems gthat the young man married last July a certain Julie Baylis, of Worcester, and both are employed by Virgin Records. Bob, beaming, told me he has now passed on 'his scoop' to the Daily Mirror. Am I being used? What price will they pay Bob for my work?

Royal news: Princess Margaret is ill with gastro trouble. Prince Andrew is in love with a ballet dancer called Karen. Will we have long to wait for the commemorative mugs?

Phoned Ally, glum at the AHA complaining of not enough work. Told her to keep her pecker up. Phoned Mum. She's having Frances on Saturday because 'Lady' Audrey [Baker] is having a birthday party. No Susie news although she was at the hospital today. She is growing tired of hanging on.

To the reference library again at lunch. They say the 1881 census will be ready for public viewing in three or four months. Overjoyed that the place is open until 4pm on Saturdays. You know where to find us at the weekend.

Morrison's at 5. [I escaped the YP at 4 leaving Carol moaning]. Fish and chips at 6. Dave L phoned to invite himself to ours tomorrow. We haven't seen him since Sue's on Dec 27. He's disappointed because he thought Karen's party was on 23rd, not the 30th, and he's arranged to be elswehere.

'Top of the Pops' - abysmal. Phone Sue for a bulletin. She says baby could be another three weeks. Peter was out in Leeds with the boys. Chippy and Johnny are leaving for Miami next weeks for a two month sojourn. Ghastly thought.

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