| Collection | Winstanley Oral History Collection |
| Description | Mrs. F. Dadson, born 1895, interviewed in Faversham. Her father was cabinet maker and upholsterer, her mother was an embroideress and upholsterer buisiness in St Johns Road. Her job was a housemaid and later a cook, she is from a family of four girls and two boys.
Track 1 [1:15:55] [0:00:01] Introduction – Interviewee is one Mrs. F. Dadson [FD] of 13 of the alms-houses. [0:00:24] FD was born in Faversham in 1895, where she was one of six children. [0:00:40] FD’s father worked as a cabinet maker and a decorator where he had a workshop in Faversham. [0:01:10] Description of the children’s and mother’s part in the business. [0:02:48] Where FD’s father purchased the wood of his business, along with how he travelled around. [0:03:50] FD’s father’s furniture removal and the mates who would help him with his business. [0:04:20] FD’s father’s earnings from his work, and FD’s admiration for her father. Discussion of her feelings towards her parents. [0:04:56] FD’s mother’s running of the home and making homemade food. [0:05:10] FD’s description of hop picking during the summer holidays. [0:06:02] Brief discussion of doctors and paying doctors’ bill. [0:06:32] Return to discussion of hop picking. [0:07:10] Description of FD’s grandmother and her grandmother’s special hop picking methods. [0:08:42] FD’s family trips to Whitstable on Saturday. [0:9:20] FD staying with her aunt at Belmont Park when her mother had a baby. [0:10:05] Description of FD’s older sister and working with her mother’s needlework. Jealously FD felt about her sister’s beauty. [0:12:37] FD’s time working as a housemaid for the vicar’s wife when she left school. Jobs she had to do as a housemaid. [0:13:56] FD’s mother’s death and her subsequent employment to Lady Cochran in London. [0:14:55] Doing the Lady’s hair and FD running a lunch for Ramsey MacDonald. [0:17:35] FD receiving kisses from the cook. [0:18:23] Lady Cochran’s brother and learning to make him scones and observations about the Lady’s hair. [0:20:57] FD’s return to the vicarage in 1920. Her job as a cook. [0:21:14] FD’s third time at the vicarage in 1926 and her work with the poor. [0:21:37] Discussion of tickets that help disadvantaged people. [0:24:17] Discussion of the vicar himself and his wife. FD welcoming in an Archbishop. [0:27:55] FD describing the powder mills. [0:29:08] FD’s job as a cook with her younger sisters in 1924. The benefits FD received while working as a cook. [0:32:10] What FD’s brothers, George and Bill, did for work after finishing their education. [0:33:14] FD’s experience with older folk when she was younger. [0:33:40] FD's mother’s help with births in Faversham along with the food her mother would make for the home. [0:36:22] How and where FD’s family purchased food that her mother didn’t make. [0:42:42] A short discussion about FD’s father’s allotments and the lack of allotments during the time of the interview. [0:44:30] A short sidetrack about a time FD fell ill when she was 28. [0:46:37] FD’s neighbor at her current alms-house being an old classmate from when she was a child. [ 0:48:43] The drinking culture and FD's family’s ownership of a small brewery in Faversham. [0:51:55] FD learning pillow lace and smocking from a woman in Faversham. [0:55:48] Some details about FD’s pillow lace teacher. [0:58:06] FD’s distinction between a ‘woman’ and a ‘lady’. [0:59:55] Discussion about a man who fell into a large water tank. [1:03:40] FD’s experience with funerals during her childhood. [1:04:35] FD tells about her love for the people of Faversham and their accomplishments. [1:06:40] The conversation flows into a discussion about the working class of Faversham and FD’s frustrations with how money was handled concerning the alms-houses. [1:10:30] FD then begins telling a story about the death of her old boss, the vicar, and how she was present for his death.
Summary created by Ladaya Berrier, volunteer, March 2024. |