Family Life at Fountain Lane

The girls settled quickly and very happily into life at 10 Fountain Lane. It was an ideal garden, they shared a room which looked out over the back garden, and were very content with each other's company.

However, one frosty Sunday morning when we were all enjoying a lie-in they came to our bedroom to report that one wall of their bedroom was very hot. It was: we had a chimney fire caused by their father going downstairs to make tea and putting a board in front of the fire to draw it, and forgetting all about it. We dialled 999 and the local Hockley retained fire brigade arrived, which included Essex' first female firefighter, who was sent up onto the roof to put spray down the chimney while her colleagues enjoyed a well-earned cup of tea.

The girls quickly made friends, there being other children in several of the houses down the lane, and Lizzie also made friends at school.

This picture of Lizzie was taken by Rick Canton. The Canton family had been neighbours in Jamaica in 1973-74 and we had seen something of them after returning to the UK. Rick, as an art teacher and keen photographer, took a good photo.

Lizzie went straight into Hockley Primary School which turned out to be a good school. Gill and Katy walked her there each day.

This is Rick's photo of Katy.

When we first arrived in Hockley a social worker came to check on Katy. Gill answered the door with Katy standing beside her and the lady said, "I've come to see Katherine." When Gill pointed to Katy the lady said, "But, it says here she was born in Jamaica."

That she was born in Jamaica gave her the option of Jamaican citizenship as long as she took it up before she was eighteen.

She didn't.

This picture is from the first winter at No 10, and shows Katy in the back garden with her friend Gnomy-nomy.

Katy joined Lizzie at Hockley Primary in the autumn of 1979. This picture shows her on her first day at school.

To complete the family we invited a cat to stay. He was a very handsome and friendly tabby who was very good with two small girls. That he was called Salty Jim we owe to a friend from our Bristol days, Bob Bray, who came to stay when the kitten first moved in and was name-less. We thought he looked a bit like stripes of pepper and and salt, upon which Bob came up with 'Salty Jim'.

Although Fountain Lane wasn't busy drivers did hurry along it and Salty Jim became a casualty of one of them. When he didn't come home we started asking around the neighbours whether they had seen him. One of them had found him and buried him in their garden.