Your blogger at a very early age

This must be one of the earliest pictures of me, probably taken around August 1952 in the front room at Basildon Road. The sofa is a Lloyd Loom. What looks like wicker is actually made up of twisted strands of Kraft paper. We had a few other pieces of Lloyd Loom furniture, but none have survived. For more about this type of furniture - which is still in production - see the website http://www.lloyd-loom-furniture.co.uk/

Chapel Lane and the Beekens

A few of your blogger, his sister and mum at granny Bailey's. We are quite young here so I would put the year at around 1954. The older children are the Beekens, who were granny's neighbours in Chapel Lane. The younger boy with fair hair is Barry; his brother is Terence and sister Patricia. I know they had a henhouse - that might be it in the background. There is also evidence of allotments. Grandad Bailey used to grow runner beans and you can see the poles.

We are older here so this must be a later visit. Pauline is becoming more mobile and is wearing reins. So I guess it is around 1955. This must have been one of our last visits, as granny moved down to join us in Abbey Wood in 1956. You can just about make out a figure in the shadows in the background to the left of the picture. This might be Mr Parker, who was another neighbour.

Don & Eileen at the seaside

This must have been taken sometime between 1946 and 1952, after Don had been demobbed but before they had children of their own. I would guess they must be somewhere on the south coast and it is a shingle beach. It looks a bit breezy too; Eileen's hair is being blown about and they are all keeping their jackets on.

The other couple are my godparents, Dennis & Maisie Smith. I haven't seen they since they emigrated to Australia in the early 1960s. They used to run the off licence in Bostall Manorway, Abbey Wood. They had two sons - the younger one was about a year or so older than me. But that would still leave the schoolgirl on the left of the second picture (notice her straw boater matching her uniform) unaccounted for. But of course the group also included the unseen photographer.

The Mackies and their WAGs (1940s style)

The first picture shows Don's brother Jack, Jack's wife Celia, Eileen and Don. They are outside the house in Chapel Lane. I think this one was also taken prior to October 1944. The second is the only picture that has come to light of Don and Eileen's wedding. It looks like wartime austerity dictated that this was not a lavish affair. They married in June 1945. Although the war was over, there was still alot of soldiering to be done. After his marriage, Don had another tour of duty overseas, this time to Glinde near Hamburg to deal with returned ordnance. He was not finally demobbed until July 1946.

Don meets his prospective in-laws

These are all stamped with the same number on the back, Eileen is wearing the same clothes and the setting is the same (outside the front door of the house in Chapel Lane) so I think they must have been taken at the same time.

Don is not wearing medal ribbons, so I think these pictures must predate him being posted to Caen in October 1944. (For more about Don's military service, particularly the army dance band he played in, see my blog http://bandof14aod.blogspot.com/) Before going overseas, Don had been based at the Ordnance depot at Old Dalby. It was during his time there that he met Eileen, the future Mrs Mackie. Had it not been for the war, your blogger would not have been born!

The other gentleman seen here is Eileen's father Bill (William Kilby) Bailey. There will be more about him later. He worked at Stanton Ironworks and was a keen cricketer; I still have some of his trophies. He died when I was very young, but I dimly remember him.

Eileen goes to the seaside

In the first picture, Eileen is holding a brochure with the word "Skegness" on the front. This was the nearest seaside resort to Nether Broughton. There is a stamp on the back "Walking Pictures". This must have been a photography business that took pictures of people passing by then sold prints to them; a Google search for "Walking Pictures" and "Skegness" finds a number of similar pictures. Eileen is not even looking at the camera. I do not know who the other woman is. The second picture shows Eileen and her companion with Eileen's mother Lizzie. Both young women are wearing the same dresses as in the previous picture, so I guess this was taken on the same day.

The third picture was clearly taken on a different occasion and probably when Eileen was much younger, judging by the age of her companions. This might have been Skegness, but I know her family sometimes also visited Mablethorpe so this is another possibility.

Young Eileen in the garden at Chapel Lane

A selection of pictures of Eileen Bailey taken in the back garden at Chapel Lane, Nether Broughton. This was where Eileen grew up. We used to visit there to see "granny Bailey" in the early 1950s before she moved in with us at Basildon Road. I seem to remember there were no fences between all the back gardens.

You will notice that many of the pictures from Eileen's album have been trimmed down - often none to neatly - so it has been a bit of a challenge to line them up properly for scanning. Also, a number of pictures have white streaks. These appear in the same place where I have more than one print of the same picture. I presume the camera was not completely light-tight.

Eileen Bailey when she was very young

I have been going through mum's old photo album, so there will be a few posts from her side of the family. We start with three of the earliest ones I can find. Eileen was born in 1924 so these would have been within a year or so of then. The lady in the first picture is identified as "Aunt Doll". I remember often hearing her name mentioned, but I am not sure exactly how she was related.

UPDATE 26/08/2020. Aunt Doll would have been William Bailey's sister Dorothy. She married Henry Stokes in 1921. Henry died in 1921. Doll subsequently married James Ainley.