It was over a butcher’s shop and overlooked the Molineux Hotel, which at that time had a green lawn, fenced in with a gate, where there were seats where people could go and have a quiet sit down.

They took the flat and we moved in. We liked it because as well as being taken around the shops, Mother would take us to the park, which was about 15 minutes away. It did Mother the world of good. She became more like her old self – but never spoke of the shop or the past. She still made our clothes, and she got us three girls into St. Peter’s Church School and we were doing very well there. Mother and Father carried on with the mail order business but never on such a big scale ever again.

The Molineux Hotel area, about 1901.  There was a butcher's shop in one of the three premises opposite the hotel; and the green space between it and the Hotel can be clearly seen.  This is presumably where the Onions' family flat was.

Now I was nearly eight years old. My father had bought Mother a new treadle sewing machine, (her old one being a hand machine), and soon she was making little garments again. My sister Lena, putting two and two together, asked if she was going to have another baby! Mother said you will have to wait and see, and we did.

Norman was born and what a lovely baby he was too. I just adored him. He was christened at St. Peter’s Church. Mother had a new blue coat with big pearl buttons on it. It was April 1909.

When the school summer holidays started, I wanted to take the baby out in his new carriage – as they were called then, not prams - and eventually Mother said that if I was good I could wheel him round the Green across the road and she would be able to keep her eye on me from the front room window. I was pushing him round when two boys who had fallen out with each other started to throw stones and one came over the top of the hood and hit me on the forehead just below the hairline. In no time at all, my face was covered in blood and a lady who had been sitting on the seats rushed over to me and placed a folded handkerchief on my head to stem the flow of blood and took me home. Mother thanked the lady, bathed my head, bandaged me up and made me lie down. (I’ve still got a dent on my forehead to this day, to remind me of that!)

When Father came in from work, Mother told him the flat was no place to bring up children, as they had nowhere to play in safety, and the sooner we got out of it, the better. So it was house hunting all over again!

It was some time after that when Father hired a pony and trap for the day, and he took Mother, baby, Flossie and Joe with him. We three girls were packed off to Auntie Beaty’s, (Dad’s sister), on the other side of town. She had one son, Sammy, just twelve months younger than me, but Auntie was very house-proud and we had to have our tea in the back kitchen, in case we dropped crumbs on the floor!

We were sent home at about six o’clock as she thought that our parents would be back by then. But they were not, and I can remember how I cried. I asked a lady passing by whether she had seen my mother: " She has a blue coat with big shiny buttons on it", I said, and the lady laughed and said she was sure she wouldn’t be long. And sure enough, my parents soon came round the corner, and Mother was all smiles to see that we were there, safe and sound.

It appears they had been to see our Granddad, Father’s dad. Father had been telling him how they were looking for a house in the country. Granddad lived in a place called Compton, which was only two miles away, yet to us, it was the country. Granddad told them of a house very near to him which was available and he knew who held the keys, so Mother and Dad went to see the lady.

It was one of three terraced houses. She gave them the key and they looked it over. Yes, there was plenty of space for us to play as there was a great big garden at the back with fruit trees – and this pleased Father. It meant he had to get up at half past four every morning to get to the Post Office for six o’clock. I just don’t know how he did it with his rounds and that extra six miles walk. We used to get all the family there on Sundays. My aunts, uncles and cousins used to come. How Mother provided for all of them, I don’t know.

Compton Hill, shown in an old postcard of about the time the Onions family was there.  Their cottages have not been identified but this scene would have been familiar to them.

Now, we girls had to walk two miles to school as well! We had to start out at eight fifteen to get to school for nine o’clock. To get there in time, we used to walk to one lamp post, and run to the next. There were no school meals then. We would take sandwiches and would eat them in the alcoves of St. Peter’s Gardens. I remember the gardener there asking us not to leave any paper behind.

Our other new neighbour was not a very pleasant woman. Mother found out that she used to drink. She had a little girl and she was not very kind to her, and that upset Mother, who couldn’t stand it.

On going to the village post office one day, the Post Mistress, a Mrs Stuart, asked Mother how she liked Compton, and was told that Compton was lovely, but she didn’t like where they lived. Mrs. Stuart told her that Miss Law, who owned the coal wharf at Compton, had a cottage to let, and showed Mother where it was, down a long drive at the back of the post office.

Miss Law agreed to give her the keys and she and Dad went to look at the cottage that afternoon. It was ideal. It was two cottages knocked into one - it had eight rooms in all - and the outside was covered in roses, - and, yes - it was called "Rose Cottage". There were stables, fowl houses, pig sties and a great big garden with all the fruit trees you could mention, and the back of the cottage overlooked green fields where we could play … but there was no gas or electricity or water laid on. The water came from a pump in the yard, and a wash house was across the yard, too.

Yes, Father thought, this is it! Everything we want! So we moved in and I can remember Miss Law sending a ton of coal because the cottage had been empty for a while and it would want airing, as she said. Now in those days, coal was 17/- a ton and Mother thought she had been given a fortune. We were never short of a big fire.

I can still smell the bread Mother used to bake in those big ovens. In order to get over the problem of no hot water, Father bought what was called a kitchener. It held three gallons of water and it stood on the hob of the big range, and it had a brass tap on it. The rule was that whoever took water from it, had to replace the same amount back. It was well guarded by a strong steel fireguard.

Soon the garden was in full swing and we had lots of poultry, pigs, and ducks. Father, ever the entrepreneur, started to breed Airedale dogs which were a fashionable breed at that time, and he made quite a lot of money from this. Then one day he came home with two tiny white dogs called Snowball and Lady. They were called Maltese terriers. Lady weighed only one and a half pounds, and Snowball was just a bit heavier. These dogs only had one, or at most two, puppies at a time and Dad used to carry them around in his coat pocket.

Our dolls’ house, which we had for years, having been made out of an orange box, was used to make a home for these little dogs. Mother made silk cushions for them. The puppies fetched a good price as they were called ladies’ lap dogs.

By now, Flossie had given up the idea of being a teacher and had taken a job in a shop. "Ladies’ Mantles" it was called. She would go to work on a horse drawn bus that had started to and from Wolverhampton to Compton, the fare being tuppence. She would travel in a costume, but would change at work into a black silk dress with a train and wired high collar. Her hair would be all done up in "Merry Widow’s" curls. She was called "Second Sales Girl", there being four of them. The first sales girl was Miss Veal; then Flossie, Miss Onions; third was Miss Salt - and when they were invited to our house, Mother managed to get a girl from the village to come called Nan, Miss Pepper, so we had a good laugh at the surnames, as you can imagine.

Joe, by this time, had managed to obtain a job at the Wolverhampton Post Office and he always went to work on his bicycle. Mother was beginning to think herself well off with two workers in the family.

Our life at Rose Cottage was a very happy one. We used to have such lovely evenings around the piano. Flossie could sing very well, having joined Wolverhampton Choral Society, and had a lovely voice.  Mother had a nice voice, too. The piano would be played and Joe would join in with his violin.  Mother taught us girls a lot of ditties. I well remember some of them now. We were also taught how to sew and knit. All the stockings were hand knitted and you had to do so many rounds of knitting before you could go out to play.

The year was now 1911, and I was taken ill with pneumonia. I must have been very bad, as I had to stay in bed for three weeks, and I know I became very thin. Father would rush upstairs to see how I was, after he arrived home from work, and before he had time to take his uniform off, and was always bringing some little surprise.

It was Whitsuntide when I was allowed up. Mother had made me a beautiful blue dress. I was dressed up in it and Dad took me for a walk to the top of the drive. I remember standing by the gate when one of my father’s friends stopped to speak to him. I heard him say that I was a bonny girl; but when Father told him how ill I had been, he gave me a penny. This man said "How many children have you, Joe?", and my father said, with a smile, "I haven’t counted them lately". I told my mother this, and she laughed, and explained "That’s one of your Dad’s jokes".

This was the Coronation Year of King George V and Queen Mary. All the children in the village had a Coronation mug with a photograph of their Majesties on the front and the three verses of the National Anthem on the back. I remember too, that when we sang the National Anthem, we always sang all three verses. No one these days sings all three and some children are not aware that there are three verses, which I think is very sad.

Our celebrations were held in the grounds of a big manor house. All the children sat in a huge ring with parents and helpers serving us from tables set in the middle. We sang, danced and had games and races.

Mother did not come and I was to know why later. Yes, she was expecting another baby. She was born on 1^st September and it was a beautiful girl. The nurse told my father that it would be her last. She was 46 years old, and I suppose that was why.

I never went to school again after the baby was born, as my mother was so ill, and I had to stay at home and look after her and Norman, who was now nearly two and a half. Mother wanted my other sisters to get their education finished, but I felt very important at having to shoulder such a lot of responsibility. My father would help and tell me what to do. After what seemed a long time, my mother was to get up, so I scrubbed and polished that range, and when she came down, she said it was all lovely, and I felt such pride and very important.

After a few more weeks, the baby was christened Catherine Eugenie - Mother was still clinging to her French ancestors - and there is a lovely photograph of her and Dad holding their last baby on that day.

We stayed at that cottage for another two years. Miss Law, our landlady, called one day to tell Mother she would not have to give her rent anymore because she had sold the cottage and land to the Great Western Railway, as they were going to build a railway right through it. For a long time Mother never paid any rent to Miss Law. One day a gentleman from G.W.R. called to see Mother, and she exclaimed "Oh, I’ve kept all the rent, waiting for someone to call for it". He explained that he had not called for any rent, but to inform her that in a month’s time, she had to leave the cottage. So the whole business of moving started again!

Now, Mother used to make this drink for us. It was made from dandelions, nettles and ariff – that’s the herb with sticky balls all over it. I used to have to pick them. I took the pop, as we called it, and of course, all the men wanted some ….so it got that Mother was making three gallons a day and I sold it at three pence a bottle! We did a good trade. Mother bought a new bedroom suite out of that money!

The bridge is still there, but not used as a railway. It’s a nature walk now, and whenever I go under it, I think to myself … I had a hand in that.

It was 1913 and we were still living in the "Bridge House", Mother not being able to find a house to her satisfaction. They were either too far away or too much rent. By this time my other two sisters, Lena and Lizzie, had started to work, Lena in a grocery shop. She was the first woman in the town to use a Berkley Bacon Machine, - I remember seeing her picture in the local newspaper. Lizzie worked at Boots the Chemist as a cashier.

Norman started school at Finchfield. It was just an Infants’ School and I had to take him every morning and to fetch him back again in the afternoon. Joe, by this time, had left the Post Office and obtained a post as valet to a barrister K.C. in London.