Estcourt Road

When Gill was seven the family moved to 'Redbricks' in Estcourt Road, Gloucester, the house so-called because all the others in the road had purplish-red bricks. She's not sure why they moved from the five-bedroom house in Denmark Road to a four, but 'Redbricks' was detached and in a more prestigious area, just off the Gloucester bypass but on a parallel access road.

The garden was smaller than Denmark Road but it was neat and well-ordered. Most of the plants visible in this picture are roses. Gill's mother, Bea, used to buy the same annuals every year in the spring - salvia, lobelia and candy-tuft, red, white and blue - which Gill and sister Pauline thought was very boring. Later, Gill and Pauline had their own section of the garden, beyond the trellis, where they grew flowers from seed and radishes. Tufty the tortoise lived at the end of the garden.

This picture shows the back of the house and Gill's paternal grandparents. From left, Gill, Bea, George Rogers, Nellie and Pauline. The arch opened in to what was called a loggia, which had a tiled floor and where Bea and Don sat in deckchairs. The back of the house faced south, and Gill remembers Pauline coming home from school and sunbathing against the back wall.

Gill continued to attend Elmbridge Road Junior which had just been built. In this picture Gill is about ten and she's with her friend Sheila Browning. They were in the school rounders team, Gill the bowler, while Sheila was good at batting.