A History of the Quarry family
by Joan Quarry
Acknowledgements:
Thanks to my sister, who put in long hours digitalising the hard copy produced in book form by the author. Without this hard work and the associated proof reading, this digital version would not exist. She was also responsible for completing the last chapter, almost closing the story.
Contents
At the beginning of the nineteenth century, in the village of Aspley Guise in Bedfordshire, there were, growing up in an agricultural community, three brothers. There were quite probably sisters as well, but these are lost in the mists of time. William was the eldest, Thomas came next and John was the youngest. And they each bore the proud name of QUARRY.
In due course, William married a Sarah and, in the Parish Church of St. Botolph, Aspley Guise, two of their sons were baptised – James in 1822 and Joseph in 1823.
On the 7th July 1828, the bells rang out again, this time for Thomas, who married Sarah Hoult. The ‘u’ in her name is inserted afterwards. We never meet up with a Hoult again – Holt is the name that travels down through the family, and Holt it remains through the following generations.
Lastly, on the 24th September 1831, John married Mary Batchelor, and of the three brothers, is the only one to remain firmly entrenched in Aspley Guise. He and Mary produced seven sons and four daughters, not all of whom lived, and we find them at different addresses through the years, meeting them finally at 144 Aspley Heath.
But our story lies with Thomas and Sarah.
On the 23rd November 1828, their first child, Ann, was baptised at St. Botolph’s – which leads one to suppose that Sarah must have been obviously pregnant on her wedding day in July. But as brother John and Mary’s first child was also baptised a bare nine months after his parent’s marriage, this was surely a matter of no consequence. The Baptismal Register supplies us with the information that Thomas was a servant. Both William and John were never classed as other than agricultural labourers so a servant was a definite step on the ladder of a more affluent existence.
On 20th March 1831 Fanny was baptised; on 9th November 1834 John Holt was brought to the font and on 15th October 1837 came their third daughter, Mary. Here, as far as the Aspley Guise records are concerned, Thomas Quarry’s family appear to come to a halt.
If you turn, however, to the Census Returns for Aspley Guise of 1861 (the sixth Census to be taken) you will find brother John living at 144 The Heath with Mary, six of their children AND:
Sarah Quarry Dressmaker aged 56
Mary Quarry Lace-maker aged 23 (daughter)
Thomas Quarry Pupil Teacher aged 15 (son)
Minnie Quarry aged 1 (grandchild)
There is no mention of Thomas, the husband and father, who must have been about his business as a servant somewhere. But here, for the first time, we find Thomas, the son. He was born, the Census kindly tells us, at Drayton in Buckinghamshire.
Now there are several ‘Draytons’ in Buckinghamshire and it might have been a hard search for the right one. However, Thomas and Sarah’s eldest son, John Holt, penned a collection of rather doleful poems and one of them is called ‘The Willow’ Protégée’. Most of it is rather laborious, but four lines read as follows:
For ‘twas a gooseberry if you e’en must know
That in the willow’s trunk found space to grow.
When next I visited this lovely spot
I sought that aged trunk, but found it not.
John Holt ends his poem with the following remark: ‘some of this is strictly true, as there was a gooseberry growing in a willow near Drayton Parslow, some bird, I suppose, having dropped it in a crevice in the trunk.’
Was it at Drayton Parslow then that Thomas Holt (Pupil teacher) was born to Sarah and Thomas?
Drayton Parslow is a straggling village, with a lot of new development, set amid uninteresting, flat countryside bordering onto Bedfordshire. The fine church of Holy Trinity, however, has a lovely alabaster panel of the Crucifixion set up on one wall and an entry in the Baptismal Register, dated 11th January 1846, lists Thomas Holt, son of Thomas and Sarah Quarry, baptised by the Rev BH Puckle. And there, in the fading light of a mid-November afternoon, you might want to stand by the font and imagine yourself in the company of Thomas and Sarah, as they baptised their infant son, 150 years ago.
For they did live there. The Census Returns for 1841 in Drayton Parslow at the Public Record Office in London lists the family:
Thomas Quarry aged 39
Sarah Quarry aged 37 wife
Anne Quarry aged 12 daughter
Fanny Quarry aged 10 daughter
John Quarry aged 6 son
Mary Quarry aged 3 daughter
They were still there, as we know, in 1846 but by 1851 their names vanish again. We do know, however that the staple employment for women in Drayton Parslow appeared to be lace-making and three year old Mary did eventually become a lace-maker.
Don’t forget the mention of Minnie – Thomas and Sarah’s little granddaughter mentioned in the 1861 Census. Poor Minnie! She’s described as the ‘natural’ daughter of Mary the Lace-maker. She was baptised Minnie Gilmer at St Botolph’s, in 1859, when her mother was 22. In 1863 her mother married Mr Thomas Bilham, and we must hope that Minnie settled happily into a new home with an understanding stepfather. She certainly became very wrapped up in the church at Aspley Guise, because in 1876 she carefully took note of all the sermons preached by Mr Gem, the Rector and Mr Garnier, who was, perhaps, the Curate. You might come to think that she liked Mr Garnier very much – but at 16 years of age, perhaps she needed him.
On the first day of April 1863 Thomas Holt became a Pupil Teacher. He journeyed to Highgate in London with his father; and signed his Indenture of a Pupil Teacher’s Apprenticeship to a Master. Putting their signatures to the document were:
Thomas Holt Quarry Pupil Teacher
Thomas Quarry Father, of Aspley Guise
The Managers Highgate St. Michael’s National School
John James Master
Each was a witness to the fact “that the Pupil Teacher, of his own free will, doth hereby place and bind himself apprentice to the Master, to serve him henceforth until the 31st day of December 1865 in his business of a Schoolmaster. In consideration of the acceptance… he shall faithfully and diligently serve the Master and shall conduct himself with honesty, sobriety and temperance, and not be guilty of any profane or lewd conversation or conduct, or of gambling or any other immorality, and shall regularly attend divine service on Sunday.”
For the next two years Thomas Holt learned to be a Schoolmaster, and, in fact, he remained with Mr James for five years. At the end of his first year he received the princely sum of ten pounds. Yearly increments of £2.50 were approved so that, at the end of five years, Thomas had accrued the whole of £75. Let’s hope he spent some of his wealth on a train fare back to Aspley Guise to show his proud parents what a fine, learned young gentleman he had become.
By 1869 Thomas Holt obviously thought the time had come to move on. At a meeting on 4 December 1868 a resolution was unanimously passed: “That the Managers of Highgate St. Michaels’s National School have pleasure in placing on record their sense of the great attention as always paid by Thomas Holt Quarry to the discharge of his duties, and of his conscientiousness and steadiness. He is a good disciplinarian, has been respected by the Boys and has enjoyed the confidence of those placed over him.” And “that a gratuity of £5 be presented to Mr Quarry upon his leaving his situation.” Thomas was now 23 years old, a respectful and respected schoolmaster, and a man of some consequence among his more humble relations in Aspley Guise.
The next we hear of the young schoolmaster is at the Royal Free and Industrial School, Windsor, where in July 1870 the following report was inscribed on the certificate:
“TH Quarry seems to be an energetic teacher of very fair qualifications.”
On 25 April 1870 another valuable testimonial came his way. This, on notepaper deeply bordered in black, concerns his musical abilities, and is signed by Richard Trindle-Gibbons – a noted organist to Queen Victoria at St John’s Church, Eton. Mr Trindle-Gibbons “considers Mr TH Quarry in every way fully competent to undertake the duties of Choir Master and Organist in a Parish Church and to discharge them in a most able and satisfactory manner.” So, somewhere, someone had taught Thomas to play the organ – and to play it with some skill.
The opportunity to change schools now came the way of Thomas Holt again and this move proved to be a very important one.
The Goodall’s of Bembridge were a family of some consequence in the Isle of Wight and there appears to have been no lack of money or means of education. On 14 February 1849 James and Harriet Goodall married and three daughters were born to the young couple: Lucy on 23 March 1851, Hannah Elizabeth on 8 March 1853 and Melinda Emma on 1 October 1855. James Goodall, their father, died in 1859, so the little girls were then left to their mother’s care and guidance.
The photographic age was well and truly launched by now and the Goodalls were among the first to make the most of it. More than one masterpiece, with the ladies in crinolines and the gentlemen in frock coats have come down through the decades but there’s not so much as an initial to say who they all are. Into this comfortable and reasonably affluent society Thomas Holt Quarry arrived in August 1870 to take charge of the boys of Bembridge School. He became in addition, organist and choirmaster at the Parish Church.
Thomas had moved up in the world. Through his activities in the church he was invited into the homes of the solid Victorian families of Bembridge. In one such home he met 18 year-old Lucy Goodall and her two sisters. Could the hand of time take us back a hundred years, how might we see the family party entertaining themselves? Thomas would be invited to play no doubt – a duet perhaps with Lucy? Even if not, life had, undoubtedly, become very pleasant for Thomas among the hospitable people of Bembridge.
Just when he needed it, fortune favoured Thomas Holt, and he was offered the Headmastership of his old school at Highgate. This suited him admirably, and he terminated his appointment at Bembridge in June 1872. To Highgate he carried yet another testimonial, this time from Canon Le Mesurier, Vicar of Bembridge: “During the whole time he was here he gave entire satisfaction. He combined strict discipline with great kindliness and pleasantness of manner to the children. His teaching was good – his attention to the Religious Instruction was most hearty and thorough. He was always most ready to carry out my wishes and his conduct in every way has been irreproachable. He is a constant communicant, and I have the greatest pleasure in giving him this testimonial as in every way a good Church of England Schoolmaster.” He was obviously a good ‘yes-man’ then, but no doubt he had to be.
Thomas settled himself as comfortably as he could at St Michael’s and at Christmas he returned to Bembridge where, on 27 December, he married Lucy Goodall. Lucy was tall and slim, taller in fact than her husband, so that in photographs she is nearly always sitting while he stands behind her chair.
At Highgate the young couple began their married life and Nellie was born on 14 May 1974. For the first time a note of censure appears in the Inspector’s Report. On 23 April 1873 we read: “Now employed in this school, which I hope he will exert himself to conduct efficiently”. Perhaps the joys of matrimony were affecting his scholastic duties. Was Lucy, perhaps, homesick for the Isle of Wight with its cultural affairs? Perhaps, however, it’s just that there was no Canon breathing down the Master’s neck at every turn.
In the following two years the reports showed improvement but after only three years at Highgate Thomas and Lucy decided to move. When the chance came to take over the school in the Cambridgeshire village of Fowlmere they packed bag, baggage and baby and, with never a backward glance, they left London for good. With them they carried, not another testimonial, but an ornamental chiming clock, with a brass plaque suitably inscribed:
Presented to
Thomas Holt Quarry
on his leaving
St. Michael’s Schools Highgate
August 31st 1875
This clock followed the Quarry family through the years until 1969 when it refused to go any longer. The brass plate was therefore detached and the clock bidden a sad farewell.
Fowlmere School had been opened in 1861 with 169 children. When Thomas Holt took over the school in September 1875 he found a very poor state of temporary masters and the standard of education had sadly deteriorated. Infants were admitted at the age of three, and numbers varied according to weather conditions and absenteeism. One of the first things the new master did was to get permission to have an outside bell installed to encourage punctuality but attendance was frequently interrupted. Harvest, gleaning, potato picking, pea picking, the various village feasts, the parents’ ‘Annual Tea Drinking’, the Chapel Fete and even bad weather all played a part in interrupting Thomas’s efforts.
Mr Lower, the Rector, was the sole Manager, and it was his practice to visit the school once a week. Here Thomas was on firm ground again, with a benevolent parson to guide and direct him. Lucy now comes into the scholastic picture and takes charge of the needlework.
On 15 May 1976 came the first report at the new school, which must have been awaited with some anxiety. “Mr Quarry has been about six months in charge of this school, which needs great improvement and is improving.” This was considerably better than Highgate. Fowlmere suited both Thomas and Lucy and they settled into a familiar routine. Thomas took over the organ and choir at the Parish Church of St Mary and Lucy, in between teaching needlework, produced and reared her family. Apart from Nellie, who came with them from Highgate, all the rest were born in the Schoolhouse at Fowlmere.
Nora Lindie 23 September 1876
Thomas Francis Beaumont 8 November 1878
Gladys Hannah 31 January 1881
Eva Lucy 3 November 1882
Philip John 27 November 1885
Dorothy Holt (Dorrie) 23 October 1888
Margaret Ethel (Marmie) 29 April 1892
Thomas Francis Beaumont only lived for seven weeks. He was given the additional Christian name of Beaumont to honour Augustus John Beaumont, the master of nearby Harston school with whom Thomas Holt played a weekly game of chess. One week Thomas walked the four miles to Harston, and the next Mr Beaumont walked to Fowlmere. Years later, Thomas Holt’s grandson, Tom, found himself working with a lady named Betty Wolfe – who, before her marriage, was a Miss Beaumont and a granddaughter of the chess playing schoolmaster of Harston.
By 1880 Lucy had taken over the duties of Infant Teacher and became a kindly, efficient and useful member of staff. The reports also continued to flow and show that Thomas was doing well under difficult circumstances and poor attendance. Meanwhile in the Schoolhouse, the children were growing up. When Gladys Hannah was nine years old, Grandmother Goodall wrote her a delightful birthday letter. She sends her a little pocket-handkerchief and wishes she had something better to send her. She continues: “I daresay you are grown quite a big girl, and I hope a good girl, and getting on nicely with your schooling, are you getting on with your music? Can you play any pieces yet? How much I should like to see you all again. Does little Dorothy begin to talk yet, you must tell me who she is like when you write.”
It seems then that Grandma Goodall met the family at some time during the years after her daughter moved to the Mainland. Thomas and Lucy may well have travelled to Bembridge to attend the wedding of Lucy’s youngest sister Melinda to Robert Osborne in 1877. Soon after Gladys Hannah’s ninth birthday, Grandma Goodall came to live permanently in Fowlmere. She died on 5 May1894 and was buried in Fowlmere Churchyard.
In 1897 Thomas Holt thought it necessary to line up another testimonial. As in the past, he turned to his friend the Rector. “The Reverend H.M. Lower has much pleasure in stating that Mr Thomas Holt Quarry has been Master of Foulmire National School for 20 years, and during the whole of that time performed all his duties most efficiently. He was zealous and able in instructing the children, and interested in their welfare, both in and out of school, and most kind in his treatment of them. He is an earnest and consistent Churchman, and gave valuable help in Sunday School, Choir-training and all Parish work. His wife is a most excellent needlewoman and an admirable Infant School Mistress, training the children in Kindergarten-work, singing, etc., with kindness and efficiency. The good example of Mr and Mrs Quarry in their own lives and their bringing up of their own family has been most useful in the parish. HM Lower, Rector of Foulmire. 15 February 1897.
The Reverend HM Lower retired in 1898, after twenty-eight years in the service of Fowlmere parish. Parson Yorke, whose sole claim to notoriety was to drop dead in the pulpit half way through Communion, succeeded him.
And so, as the century drew to its close, Thomas Holt ranked next in consequence to the Parson in Fowlmere and was respected by everyone. He had a devoted wife and seven fine children – all of whom were setting out in life better equipped to deal with it than he had been, thirty-five years before. How proud his parents, Thomas and Sarah, would have felt if they had seen how well their youngest child had got on in the world.
Day succeeded day at Fowlmere School, and soon there weren’t so many mouths to feed in the Schoolhouse as the girls began to leave home.
Nellie, Thomas Holt’s first-born, married Arthur Morley on 11 June 1895 in Fowlmere Church. Arthur was a butcher by trade and at one time he set up business in Guernsey. But he had an unsteady disposition and couldn’t seem to settle down. It soon became obvious that Nellie was unhappy and, when Arthur found another woman, Nellie suffered a nervous breakdown. Poor Nellie was once found wandering in Fowlmere High Street in her nightdress but, fortunately for everyone, Arthur died, and Nellie recovered to end her days in Luton – part of which time she spent as housekeeper to a doctor there.
Second born Nora left home about 1892 to teach in the Cambridgeshire village of Great Shelford. There she met William Louis Walter M.A., who was the curate at nearby Little Wilbraham. William Walter was very different to Arthur Morley. Born in 1869 he obtained a First in the theological tripos at Cambridge and was ordained in 1899. In 1902 he was appointed Lecturer and Chaplain at St Aidan’s College, Birkenhead and later became Vice-Principal of the College and Lecturer at Liverpool University. Nora married him on 12 August 1908.
In 1911, William (or Willie as he was known) was appointed Rector of Sutton Mandeville in Wiltshire. The Rectory became their new home and was to remain so for the rest of their lives. Outwardly Nora’s married life was happy and contented. Photographs show her wide intelligent eyes and a hint of a smile about her mouth. She has a gentle expression and must have been a much-admired sister and aunt. Life can’t have been all easy, however, as Willie was a hardy individual. Tales were told of small fires and a cheerless atmosphere at the Rectory. Nora died in 1935; aged 58 years and her brother declared she died of the cold. But at least her husband, who placed a fine, stained glass window to her memory in the church, mourned her. She can still be seen there, in the company of her husband’s mother, gazing serenely down into the church with the words “Their guide was the word of God, and their strength living faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Eva followed in Nora’s footsteps. She served her time as a Pupil Teacher and departed for a school at Silsoe in Bedfordshire. There she met Jack Harris, a farmer, who had recently suffered the loss of his wife. Eva must have consoled him to some effect for she married him in 1913. In rapid succession they produced John, Lucy and Tom while living at Yellow House Farm in Silsoe High Street and when she had the time Eva conducted a small school in their parlour.
Dorothy married a builder in Bedford named Birt Bird, and they had two children, young Dorrie and Peter. Beyond this there is no mention of when or where she married or what she did after leaving school.
Last to leave home was Marmie. She broke away from the teaching profession and became a nurse. While nursing an elderly gentleman, she met his eccentric brother and, to everyone’s astonishment, married him in Thriplow Church on 23 April 1925. Tom Porter was a good deal older than Marmie and a rather odd sort of man. Apparently Tom habitually wore a woollen muffler round his neck, and saw no reason to discard it for his wedding day. Fortunately Philip, who was best man, was able to persuade him otherwise.
Marmie and Tom lived in a lovely old house at Pavenham, near Bedford. She is described as a charming person, cultured and easy to get on with. Like her two eldest sisters, Marmie had no children of her own but she and Tom adopted a little girl and called her Anne. Eventually they moved from Pavenham to live nearer Anne where Tom was bedridden for the last years of his life.
One daughter, Gladys Hannah, remained at home which was the custom in those days if it could be contrived. She was a resourceful young woman and seemed quite happy to stay on with her parents, move house with them when they retired and care for them in their old age.
In 1911, after thirty-six years of continuous service, Thomas Holt retired. He was in his sixty-sixth year and during his time at the school must have taught at least two generations of Fowlmere children. The Reverend Lower, who though also retired, was still keeping an eye on things and he showed his appreciation with a fine silver-banded tankard inscribed:
T.H. QUARRY FROM A.M LOWER FOWLMERE 1875-1911.
Nora’s husband Willie acquired two cottages in Thriplow which is only a mile from Fowlmere as an investment, and Thomas, Lucy and Gladys Hannah moved into one of them. They called it ‘Aspley Cottage’. There was a good-sized garden to keep them all busy and plenty to do in the village. Thomas led an active life, playing the organ at St George’s Church and keeping a fatherly eye on the activities of the young people. His eldest granddaughter (Gladys Holt) remembered him in his old age as a rather watery-eyed, shortish man, with gingery hair turning to white and a bushy white moustache. She also recalled seeing him in a type of cane wheelchair being towed behind Philip’s bicycle for a fishing expedition.
On 23 January 1920 Lucy died and was buried in Thriplow Churchyard. She must have been a much loved parent and Philip said once that he could never remember a cross word passing between his Mother and Father, and she was never known to shout in anger at the children. Thomas lived on for another six years, with Gladys Hannah to care for him and died after a short illness on 6 January 1926. He, too, was laid to rest in Thriplow Churchyard and so lies beside the wife had who had remained loyally by his side through all the ups and downs of their life together and whom he had met and married so proudly forty-eight years before in the Isle of Wight.
MAY THEY REST IN PEACE
When Thomas Francis Beaumont died at the age of seven weeks in 1878, he left only his brother Philip to carry on the Quarry name and Philip grew up amongst the six girls. As a boy, Philip went down with measles and was so ill the Parson was sent for. A doctor, we must suppose, was either not available or was too expensive.
Footwear of any description was always referred to as ‘Boots’ by Philip – even the summer sandals of 1970 and as a young lad, it was his responsibility to clean all the ‘boots’ of the household. It wasn’t all hard work though. All the children sang and Philip was a member of the Church choir. Fields in Fowlmere were quick to flood in winter, and when the ice was firm enough everyone skated. Philip, too, was an ardent young fisherman. At seven years old he recalled catching a 7lb. Pike and walking home to breakfast with it slung across his shoulders. This passion for angling lasted him for the rest of his life until his eyesight became so poor that he couldn’t assemble his rod and line. Until his 82nd year he could sense a fish on the line as well as anyone and enjoyed nothing better than to sit on the bank of a gentle Cambridgeshire river, lazily playing at fishing.
At the age of eleven, Philip obtained a Scholarship and a place at Cambridge High School for three years. This entailed a walk of three miles, mainly across fields to Foxton Station every morning for the train and the same home again at night. Sometimes, his mother would walk down the long straight road to meet him, knowing how tired he would be.
When he was 14 years of age Philip became a Pupil Teacher at Whittlesford School – a distance of three miles from Fowlmere – and at 18 he moved to London. He went into lodgings with a Fred Cawley and became Pupil Teacher at a nearby school. He lived with Mr and Mrs Cawley for two or three years and would often tell how he used to cycle home to Fowlmere along quiet country roads passing nothing more in the way of traffic than an occasional horse and cart. In 1905 he entered Peterborough Teachers’ Training College and on 1 August 1907 he emerged as a fully qualified schoolmaster.
On 26 October 1907 a Memorandum of Agreement was drawn up between ‘the Body of Managers of St Paul’s Bentinck of St Marylebone in the County of London’ and ‘Philip J Quarry the Assistant Teacher’. In consideration of the appointment Philip was to receive the salary of one hundred pounds per annum. His teaching career established, he may have returned to live with Mr and Mrs Cawley. He was considered a fine looking young man; adept at making himself agreeable to the ladies and within three years he was introduced to Miriam Baxter.
Miriam came from Wilnecote in Staffordshire where her father was a master builder. She was one of five children and when her mother died and her father remarried she soon became stepsister to two little girls. Miriam couldn’t entirely see eye to eye with her stepmother (a woman very little older than herself) and was not sorry to leave home. She travelled to London as an apprentice tailoress and worked long, arduous hours under a poor light learning to sew. More often than not it would be nine o’clock at night before she was free to go her own way but, even so, when she was introduced to the young schoolmaster from St Paul’s Bentinck, she found time to step out with him and on 22 October 1910, at St Anne’s Church, Brondesbury, she became his wife.
Signing the Marriage Register we find, among others, William L Walter, an obvious asset to affairs of this nature and, in the wedding photograph taken afterwards, Nora stands gracefully in the background. Miriam looks very proud of her new husband, as well she might, but there is a certain air of firmness about her too and this was to stand her in good stead over the years. For Philip and Miriam there was no Schoolhouse to move into and they changed houses several times during their early-married life.
Within the first six months of Philip’s marriage, Thomas Holt retired from Fowlmere School and Philip set his heart on taking his father’s place there. He was offered the post and would have undoubtedly done well if he had accepted it but Miriam looked at the matter from an entirely different angle. If they had moved to Fowlmere, there would have been no need for the Quarry family to move out of the Schoolhouse, and Miriam could see herself caring, not only for her husband’s father and mother, but for their remaining unmarried daughters as well, three of whom were still living at home. Miriam dug in her heels. She was by then expecting her own first child and she gained her point. Not without a certain amount of friction though and Philip declared then, and continued to do so for the rest of his days, that if he was to be denied Fowlmere, then he had no other ambition than to continue as an Assistant Master.
In 1915 Philip enlisted as a private soldier and was very soon in France. On the whole, it seems he enjoyed the war. Dangers were many, of course, and had he been in action for a longer period of time he may well have fallen with the thousands, but sometime in 1916 he fell ill with a virulent fever and lay near to death for long enough to have his personal effects stolen from him. He would often reminisce about his experiences in the first world war and an expression of pleasure would pass across his face which indicated good memories rather than otherwise.
Miriam made shift as best she could during these difficult years and, like so many of her contemporaries, she somehow weathered the storm. At least her husband returned home to her and a job was waiting for him.
A settled existence now seemed possible for Philip with the ‘War to end all Wars’ a thing of the past. His family by now consisted of two girls and two boys:
Gladys Holt 19 October 1911
Philip Stevens 14 March 1913
Frieda Joyce 21 May 1915
Douglas Harold 23 June 1917
But the years ahead weren’t to run so smoothly for him as the Fowlmere period did for his father. A Schoolmaster’s pay was never very much and Miriam found it hard to make ends meet. On more than one occasion in order to light the gas she had to redeem the penny on the bottle she used as a rolling pin!
In 1920 little Douglas died of Rheumatic Fever and Miriam couldn’t rest contented until he was replaced. Hence, on 17 October 1924 Thomas Howard made his entrance into the Quarry family. He was born at 24 May Street (which is no longer in existence) and Miriam suffered a difficult confinement. She took a long time to recover and Philip always declared that the nursing home he sent her to in all good faith was partly to blame.
With his family now complete and school back to normal, Philip took up a cricket bat with keen intent. He joined the Stanley Ward Eleven – a team of some repute – and began to make a name for himself as a fast bowler. So much so indeed, that he was given a trial for Cambridgeshire. A trial was as far as he got, but in 1924 there was a memorable match against Benenden in Kent in which he took 8 wickets for 13 runs and 5 for 18. He was awarded the ball for this splendid effort and treasured it for the rest of his life.
At school he took an active part in the celebrated St Paul’s Bentinck ‘School Journeys’. These journeys were provided for the children to have a seaside holiday and everyone considered them the prime event of the scholastic year. The daily timetable was filled with educational visits however and there wasn’t overmuch time for sandcastles.
Happily, where the Quarry children were concerned, there was always a plentiful supply of obliging aunts scattered about the countryside with whom they could spend part of their school holidays. Gladys Holt stayed more than once at Sutton Mandeville with her Aunt Nora and Uncle Willie (her Godfather) and eventually she benefited to the tune of £300 under her uncle’s will.
Frieda visited all her aunts in turn. Aunt Eva was, perhaps, her favourite; she liked Yellow House Farm and was of an age to enjoy the company of her three cousins there. She didn’t appreciate her aunt’s weekly dose of liquorice powder though and refused point blank to take a second helping. She stayed frequently with Auntie Dorrie in Bedford and occasionally waited on her Aunt Marmie at Pavenham. The atmosphere here was a little too stiff for Frieda though, with Uncle Tom always to be hushed for and meal times a ritual of punctuality and decorum!
Visits were also paid to Grandfather Baxter at Deeping St James in Lincolnshire. One of Grandpa Baxter’s brothers went out to seek his fortune in India and scandalized everyone by marrying an Indian lady. A daughter, Olive, was born and although her mother never appeared in England, Olive certainly did. She further complicated matters by marrying a Dutchman and, by reason of her Eurasian blood, was glad to leave India. Frieda remembered her Aunt Olive very well. Her dusky complexion unsettled the Baxters a little but, to Frieda’s great satisfaction, she possessed a fine wolf skin which, when they walked the Deeping High Road together, gave them both an air of great importance!
In 1929 a memorable family gathering took place at Deeping when one of Miriam’s two brothers came home on holiday from Australia. A link remained with the Australian branch of the family in Cousin Doris, who came quite frequently to England and kept track of all her Baxter relations.
When in 1926 Thomas Holt died, a letter, heavily bordered in black, arrived on Philip’s doorstep from Uncle Willie. Thomas had appointed Nora and Willie as executors which, Willie said, had rather pained him. By the tone of Willie’s letter there may have been a little awkwardness during the funeral tea but Philip didn’t, apparently, bear a grudge. The main items of interest in the will were as follows:
Nellie Morley Waterloo Jug (afterwards to Philip J Quarry and his heirs)
Philip John Quarry Family Bible, desk, smoker’s cabinet and the tankard from Mr Lower
Miriam Quarry Glove box, well dish, silver covered prayer book
Gladys Quarry Round silver brooch with pebbles
Philip Stevens Quarry Chessmen
Frieda Quarry Silver brooch with birds
Douglas Quarry Breakfast cup and saucer
Naturally the house at Thriplow and most of the contents were left to Philip’s sister, Gladys Hannah, which was only right and proper. The Waterloo Jug and the Smoker’s Cabinet remain with Joan Quarry in Ferring, as does Mr Lower’s Tankard, which always looks the better for a good polish. The well dish, the silver covered prayer book, and probably the breakfast cup and saucer were taken care of by a bomb during the Second World War though as little Douglas had died two years before the will was drawn up this won’t have worried him. The chessmen also came to Tom, for the following reason.
Philip Stevens had become an apprentice carpenter on leaving school and when he finished his apprenticeship he married. Something must have gone very wrong as, in 1938, he was brought before a Criminal Court on trial for his life for stabbing to death his young wife. A verdict of manslaughter was eventually returned and Phil went to prison for six years. Frieda always wondered if an episode earlier in his life had had something to do with it. One evening Phil borrowed a pair of roller skates from a schoolmate against his mother’s wishes. He was later found unconscious at the end of the road and was taken to hospital. He recovered but from that time onward Phil was subject to occasional headaches and fits of melancholy.
Tom saw his brother in prison a few times before his release in 1944 but preferred to forget the whole episode. Phil went his own way after his release and soon remarried. Then, one day in 1945, his clothes and wallet were found neatly piled beside the River Thames and Phil had quietly vanished. He was never found or heard of again.
In the unsettled years immediately before the Second World War, Gladys Holt left college with a degree in Geography and followed the family tradition into teaching. In 1935 she married a brilliant, though somewhat cynical, physicist, Harold Nancarrow, and between them they produced two equally talented sons. The eldest, Peter, (born in 1939) married Rachel who became one of the first women to be ordained into the Church of England and he invented the first Chinese typewriter. The youngest son, Jeffrey, (born 1945) married Celia and has become a highly respected hand surgeon and enjoys playing in a jazz band in his spare time.
Frieda was determined to be a nurse and, until her eighteenth birthday when she was accepted for training, she tackled a variety of temporary jobs to fill in the time. At Peter Robinson’s in Oxford Street, she promptly got the sack for trying on a model dress and not being able to get out of it without mishap. As a nurse, though, she excelled. Kind and sympathetic towards her patients she was happy to spend long hours on the ward for precious little pay. She remained a bit of a dragon and was more a Baxter than a Quarry, though she always retained her great sense of humour. At her funeral in 2002 were some young neighbours who remembered her zest for life with great affection.
46 Liddell Gardens, Kensal Rise was the settled home of Philip and Miriam from 1932 until the war when it was commandeered by the local council for a destitute family. Willie continued to visit fairly often after Nora died and Frieda remembered seeing him there, clothed in a shiny black alpaca coat which reminded her of the coalman, and a little black cap perched on the crown of his head for all the world like a Jewish Rabbi.
Immediately hostilities were declared in 1939 – if not before – St Paul’s Bentinck School was evacuated to Beaconsfield in Buckinghamshire, and Philip and Miriam went with it.
After settling himself and the school into the community of Beaconsfield, Philip was quick to join the Home Guard and threw himself heartily into soldiering once again. Fortunately nothing much occurred in the way of action around Beaconsfield during the six years of the war and Philip and Miriam were extremely lucky to be there instead of in London. 46 Liddell Gardens had a bomb dumped in the back garden early in the blitz and a lot of damage was done to the house and furniture.
1944 heralded the beginnings of a shake up in the educational system. There was more self-expression for the children and less of the stick and Great-I-Am from the staff. Philip, whose teaching habits were firmly entrenched in the system that had served both him and his father so well since 1863, was disillusioned by it all. As soon as he possibly could he retired, thereby settling for a very reduced pension, which he found hardly enough to live on. However the decision was made, the books were shut and the schoolmaster and his wife set out for fresh fields and pastures new.
Partly through the efforts of the Deeping relatives they bought a rambling old house at South Luffenham in Rutland called Ratcliffe Lodge and Philip was at last able to go back to the country life that suited him so well. Ratcliffe Lodge was, nevertheless, a bit of a hard nut to crack at first. Water was obtained by pump or rainwater tank and lighting was by oil. Outside there was an acre and more of ground for vegetables and poultry – not to mention a pig or two.
It seems certain that from the day he moved into Ratcliffe lodge Philip gradually became happier and more contented than at any time since the days of his childhood. Here he was able to undertake many of the responsibilities and parochial duties that a small country village will always provide. The Parish Council was on the look out for a new Clerk, the church choir needed another tenor and someone else was always undoubtedly the better off for his advice. It was hard work and long hours, especially as by now Miriam was finding it difficult to do much more than the cooking because of the phlebitis in her legs. Frieda came home for a time to help out but didn’t stay; it was not now considered the duty of an unmarried daughter to remain at home.
In spite of the drawbacks, Philip thrived. For relaxation he offered his services to the local cricket club and in his mid-sixties could still enjoy a match even if he didn’t take any wickets. And when Cousin Doris from Australia paid her fist visit to England, Philip cut quite a dash and squired her around Oxford and Cambridge with the greatest aplomb.
In 1951 Aunt Gladys Hannah died after an operation for cancer and was buried in Thriplow Churchyard. A pewter jug can still be seen there, given in her memory. When Uncle Willie died in 1958 the Church times did him proud saying: “The Revd William Louis Walter, Rector of Sutton Mandeville for 47 years, died recently aged 89 years. He was a very faithful parish priest, visiting every house in his parish every month. The strong constitution which enabled him to carry on as parish priest until well in his ninetieth year was obvious at Cambridge where he rowed in the University boat. He will certainly be remembered in Sutton Mandeville, not only for what he was, but also for what he did – buying the school for the parish, and a new burial ground, installing electric light in the Church, and in many other ways being a benefactor to the parish and to parishioners. One of the old guard has passed on.”
The stage now seemed set for Philip to end his days at Luffenham but fate held one more card of fortune for him to take. On the death of his sister Gladys in 1951 Aspley Cottage at Thriplow came up for sale and Philip, at long last, came back to the home of his father. Not, as he had originally intended, to the Schoolhouse at Fowlmere, but to the next best thing. And this time, Miriam was content to come too, although she soon set about modernizing the cottage. She declared categorically that visitors were not to be conducted to the earth closet down behind the barn for the calls of nature as the order of things had been since 1911. A bathroom and toilet were promptly installed, together with other structural alterations to the kitchen and dining room. Once having put their house in order, Philip and Miriam settled down to enjoy their remaining years.
To Philip, the long grind in London faded away to nothing. He was home at last where he belonged. He came upon old friends and acquaintances and took up the same sort of pursuits and diversions that had kept him occupied in Luffenham. He became the organist at Fowlmere Church but was the first to admit that it was a hit and miss affair. He also became the news provider for the local paper, piano teacher to the young ones and last, but not least, appointed a School Manager. To add to his joy, Splodge – a golden retriever – joined the household. He certainly was a fine looking animal and everyone told Philip so.
The Thriplow Jubilee Friendship Club, however, was Philip’s over-riding pride and joy. Although at 76 he should have been merely one of the members, he threw himself whole-heartedly into the formation and running of the club. Time had come full circle – only now, instead of the schoolboys looking to his leadership it was his Over-60’s.
On June 20 1959, just after spending a pleasant holiday with us at Halstead, Miriam suffered a sudden stroke and died within the hour. This sudden passing was a blessing, as her lack of mobility would have made her difficult to nurse. She died as she had lived, giving as little trouble as possible to anyone.
For eight more years Philip enjoyed his little paradise and then, while out with Splodge one evening, he had a sudden heart attack. Eventually, after another blackout, he was persuaded to make his home with Tom and Joan in Halstead and, with a great sadness, he settled his affairs at Thriplow and wrenched himself away from the only place that was ever really home to him. For three years he lived at Halstead but his heart was always in Cambridgeshire. There was no purpose to Halstead; nothing to do except make wool rugs, and no one to worry about. He was tough to the last though. Always washing and shaving in cold water and never seeing the need for a hot water bottle or an electric blanket.
He died in Orpington Hospital on 18 May 1970 and, like Miriam before him, his body was cremated. In Thriplow Church two chairs were dedicated to the memory of Philip and Miriam and placed alongside others to their many friends and neighbours in the village. This is where Philip would wish to be remembered: close to his father and mother out in the Churchyard and in the midst of all the simple country people he knew and loved so well.
Young Tom, who had been spending part of his summer holidays with his Aunt Gladys Hannah at Thriplow when the Second World War broke out, was ordered to remain there. He was transferred to the Cambridge high School for Boys and very soon adapted himself to country life becoming just as much as a country lover as his father and grandfather. When the time came he went up to University at King’s College, Cambridge. (Actually, it was London University evacuated to King’s) but half way through his degree course in September 1944 he was called up and directed to the Armament Research Department at Fort Halstead in Kent. Here, to his chagrin, he made cigarette lighters for the best part of a year when he could have been completing his degree.
Within a fortnight of his joining the ARD, Joan E**** presented herself as a Laboratory Assistant. Born at East Grinstead in Sussex and later moving to Worthing, she hankered to spread her wings and, as a very raw 17-year old, she tried her hand at Science – without a great deal of success, as she freely admits!
On 26 March 1949 Tom and Joan were married at St Andrew’s West Tarring, Worthing, and they lived firstly in Bromley (at 18 Elmfield Road which is now a car park!), secondly in a pre-fab in Orpington (5 Zelah Road from 1953-55) then for sixteen contented years in the village of Halstead at 30 Southdene. Tom sheared away from the teaching profession – he considered there were quite enough teachers in the family already – and settled happily into being a scientist. In 1953 he was awarded the Queen’s Commendation for Brave Conduct in connection with an incident at Woolwich Arsenal. Ammunition had exploded on a train and Tom with some others had to find the cause and disable the rest of the explosives before further disaster. It had, apparently, become very unstable due to moisture getting into the explosives.
On 30 July 1952 A**** was born, followed by J**** on 18 March 1957 and Vivian Edward (Viv) on 5 June 1961. Tom and Joan both had a lot of pleasure from Table Tennis and in his 47th year Tom became an official coach and went on to the next level of a diploma coach. With great skill he taught young and old, his own children and paraplegics the art of Table Tennis. So much so that, in spite of himself, “the business of a schoolmaster” did not entirely elude the descendant of two such doughty exponents of the art.
In 1956 Tom, with several other Scientists from Fort Halstead made the three-day plane journey to Australia where they took part in the atomic bomb tests at Maralinga. Tom’s duty was to set out certain devices and reclaim what was left of them after the blast. Protective clothing of sorts was provided but in the main they sat with their backs to the explosions and when the dust had settled wandered out to see what the results had been. Tom died 25 years after Maralinga as did many of his colleagues.
In 1972 Tom and Joan had the thrill of buying their first home at 27 The Gill, Pembury – a detached 4-bedroomed house – for just £9000. Joan, who had been involved in the village library at Halstead, got a job as Library Assistant at Pembury Hospital. Then in 1974 Tom gained promotion to Principal Scientific Officer which entailed a move to Bath. He and Joan bought Cherry House in the village of Farmborough and Tom continued his work in Foreign Ammunition at the Ensleigh base visiting both Peru and California in this capacity. For recreation Joan and Tom joined a Folk Dance group at Radstock and spent many a happy hour on the floor. Tom loved the countryside and his garden (growing plenty of vegetables) and also continued playing table tennis until just before his death.
1976 was a difficult year when Viv became ill with ulcerative colitis and spent three months in the Royal United Hospital in Bath. The long hot summer will always be linked in the family’s minds with the visits to the hospital, watching Viv fight the disease and subsequently manage his ileostomy.
Returning from a couple of days at Fort Halstead in April 1977 Tom became unwell and he was admitted to the Royal United Hospital in Bath. Less than 24 hours later he died of a Pulmonary Embolus on 3 April at the age of 53. He was cremated and his ashes lay at garden six in the Cemetery in Whiteladies Road, Bath. Cherry House and its garden was too large with the children gone and Joan did a house swap to 10 Bell Close in Farmborough. She spent the next 17 years busying herself in village affairs and did a successful stint as one of the editors to the Farmborough Priston Link.
When, in 1991, George Carey was elevated from Bishop of Bath and Wells to Archbishop of Canterbury, J**** temped at Wells Palace to help with the 600 or so congratulatory letters a week being received. (She had got to know George and Eileen Carey when George was vicar of St Nicholas Church in Durham and she was living in Durham and working as a physiotherapist in Sunderland.) Subsequently Joan was asked to oversee the move of the bishop’s personal books to Lambeth and spent the next 12 years travelling to London approximately every six weeks to catalogue the 50 or so books received by Dr Carey. When Dr Carey retired in 2002 both J**** and Joan were invited to Lambeth Palace for a farewell evening and found themselves hobnobbing with the likes of Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, Claire Short and David Frost. One wonders what Willie Walter would have made of that!
In 1960 at the same church, on the same day and the same time as Tom and Joan 11 years before, Joan’s sister Pat married Eric Holmes and moved to Birmingham where they both worked at the BBC’s Pebble Mill studios. They had two high flying daughters, Gillian and Alison. Gillian married Dr David Nabarro in 2002 and they both live in Switzerland where Gillian works for UNAIDS. Alison currently lives with Paul Given who works for the Australian Foreign Office.
Eric died in 1988 and in 1997 Joan and Pat decided to return to the place of their childhood and moved to Ferring and Goring respectively – just a mile apart and able to meet for Bridge and mutual companionship which is an ideal arrangement for them both.
And what of the last generation? A**** left school at 17 and began his career in the money market. He married Cheryl whom he first met in Halstead and is a merchant banker and frequently called on for monetary advice by the family. They live happily in Chelsfield and have the pleasure of a badger set in their garden. J**** trained as a Physiotherapist and then turned to Theology gaining her MA in 1995. She now works as a Personnel Officer for the Baptist Missionary Society. Viv is the one in whom the teaching trait has come out in full measure and he lives in Rio de Janeiro with Brazilian Lidia and teaching English as a Foreign Language.
One might wonder what Thomas and Sarah would have thought – born, as they were, around 200 years before.
NB: Joan Quarry, the author of this text, passed away at 9am on the 16th of August 2020 after having suffered from dementia for several years. She will be sorely missed by her friends and family. A****, J**** and Viv are the last surviving members of the Quarry family.