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OH611 Interview with Mary Ace (Tales of the Vale)
Please note this is not a full complete transcript but a detailed summary of the recording
Interview is on 3 recordings
Track 01 00.00 MA was a born in a cottage in East Brent Somerset when the family moved there to escape the blitz. Her father was a shipwright who worked at Bristol Docks for 40 years. MA describes how she and her husband lived in rooms when they first married. Her husband was a civil engineer and often worked away. When she had children she gave up working.
05.00 She now has grandchildren and great grandchildren. 06.59 MA describes when she had diphtheria. Her brother was a carrier and she remembers being taken away from home to go into hospital with her sister. 08.52 MA loved having cod liver oil and malt. 09.16 She talks about her knee operation and how it has affected her line dancing and keep fit.
10.00 Talking about her friend Sandra from next door. MA remembers the time Sandra stayed the night and her father wacked her by mistake thinking she was MA when they were making too much noise. 11.01 MA talks about her sister who was brain damaged at birth.
Track ends 13.40
Track 02 00.00 MA remembers her schooldays and how she looked after her sister. 0.31 Talking about playing with her friend Sandra in the park. She describes a photograph of the hut in the park. 01.13 Sandra married an Italian and moved to Canada. 02.00 MA remembers her school days and how she won an art competition to design a cover of a book about Longleat House. The prize was a visit to the house but it never materialised. She loved art and sewing, particularly embroidery. She was taught by a seamstress who lived across the road who left MA her treadle sewing machine when she died.
05.00 MA remembers when she embroidered cross stitch bows on all the pillow cases when she was off school with tonsillitis. She also recalls when the school inspector, Mr Hook, came to see why she wasn’t at school. 06.04 MA tells the story about how she met her husband Vince Ace. The Ace family came by steamer ferry from Devon to Swansea and settled in the Mumbles area.
10.00 MA remembers the concrete shelter in the garden. 11.43 She describes how she enjoyed her childhood living opposite the park. 12.28 MA thinks that Avonmouth has changed. At one time, everyone knew everyone else but it’s very different today. MA shows a photograph of the Avonmouth Docks in their heyday. 14.12 Having ‘scrumpies’ (batter bits) and chips in newspaper were a real treat when MA was a child. 14.50 MA describes how the High Street has changed. 15.00 MA continues the description of how the buildings have changed over the years. She remembers how there used to be people on bicycles everywhere and when her father wore a trilby and later a flat cap. 17.30 MA shows the interviewer photographs of her grandfather’s medals and pictures of places in Avonmouth. 19.28 When she was young MA performed in shows. Now she keeps fit doing line dancing, sit down Zumba and circuit dance.
20.00 When the keep fit instructor died her father took over the classes. 20.46 MA remembers when she was young singing dressed as a Dutch girl wearing a specially made dress. She also learnt a few tap-dancing steps. 24.13 MA talks about her brothers and sister.
25.00 Two of her brothers died. 25.21 MA remembers the main employers in the area. 26.00 She goes on to describe the shops and businesses in the 1960s before the docks closed.
30.00 After church MA went to the Irish Club with her cousin. 30.28 MA had an accident on a Lambretta Scooter when it hit a car and she thinks it was the beginning of her neck problem. She remembers when she started going out with ‘proper’ boyfriends and doing Irish dancing wearing 3 inch heels. Her older sister wore 4 inch heels and everything in an outfit had to match. 32.00 MA remembers the fair at Severn Beach and the Blue Lagoon salt water swimming pool where the changing rooms had just a curtain across. Lots of people from Wales and the Midlands went to Severn Beach on excursions. Where she lived was near the turntable that turned the trains around.
35.00 MA remembers the Severn Salmon Hotel owned by the Sellick family who were family friends. MA talks about her family who all live nearby. She’s lived in Avonmouth for 73 years.
40.00 MA talks about her mother. Everyone liked her and called her aunty ‘F’. MA’s father was a football trainer. She remembers the time she saw him sawing wood and he sawed his knee. He was keen a fisherman and she remembers going fishing with him to Rockingham Bridge. He sometimes caught eels which he loved. 43.29 MA tells the story about her eldest son going fishing with her father and getting a hook from a cast in his eye. Luckily it was in the white of his eye and he didn’t lose his sight. Track ends 45.23
Track 03 00.00 MA talks about her grandfather (her father’s father), an electrical engineer who worked for Jefferies as a degausser. She is not sure if he invented degaussing but thinks it was his interpretation of the invention to deflect mines away from ships in the war. Her was given the British Empire Medal and MA would like to see a blue plaque put up outside his old home. She remembers that he sometimes took her to shows and they were always shown to the front row seats because he was so well thought of. She wasn’t aware of what he’d done until a boyfriend told her. He was presented with his medal in 1944 at Buckingham Palace. MA remembers he lived opposite the park. In those days, there was a park keeper who had his own little hut in the park and everyone had to be out of the park by 9.00pm.
Track ends 3.32
Track 01 00.00 MA was a born in a cottage in East Brent Somerset when the family moved there to escape the blitz. Her father was a shipwright who worked at Bristol Docks for 40 years. MA describes how she and her husband lived in rooms when they first married. Her husband was a civil engineer and often worked away. When she had children she gave up working.
05.00 She now has grandchildren and great grandchildren. 06.59 MA describes when she had diphtheria. Her brother was a carrier and she remembers being taken away from home to go into hospital with her sister. 08.52 MA loved having cod liver oil and malt. 09.16 She talks about her knee operation and how it has affected her line dancing and keep fit.
10.00 Talking about her friend Sandra from next door. MA remembers the time Sandra stayed the night and her father wacked her by mistake thinking she was MA when they were making too much noise. 11.01 MA talks about her sister who was brain damaged at birth.
Track ends 13.40
Track 02 00.00 MA remembers her schooldays and how she looked after her sister. 0.31 Talking about playing with her friend Sandra in the park. She describes a photograph of the hut in the park. 01.13 Sandra married an Italian and moved to Canada. 02.00 MA remembers her school days and how she won an art competition to design a cover of a book about Longleat House. The prize was a visit to the house but it never materialised. She loved art and sewing, particularly embroidery. She was taught by a seamstress who lived across the road who left MA her treadle sewing machine when she died.
05.00 MA remembers when she embroidered cross stitch bows on all the pillow cases when she was off school with tonsillitis. She also recalls when the school inspector, Mr Hook, came to see why she wasn’t at school. 06.04 MA tells the story about how she met her husband Vince Ace. The Ace family came by steamer ferry from Devon to Swansea and settled in the Mumbles area.
10.00 MA remembers the concrete shelter in the garden. 11.43 She describes how she enjoyed her childhood living opposite the park. 12.28 MA thinks that Avonmouth has changed. At one time, everyone knew everyone else but it’s very different today. MA shows a photograph of the Avonmouth Docks in their heyday. 14.12 Having ‘scrumpies’ (batter bits) and chips in newspaper were a real treat when MA was a child. 14.50 MA describes how the High Street has changed. 15.00 MA continues the description of how the buildings have changed over the years. She remembers how there used to be people on bicycles everywhere and when her father wore a trilby and later a flat cap. 17.30 MA shows the interviewer photographs of her grandfather’s medals and pictures of places in Avonmouth. 19.28 When she was young MA performed in shows. Now she keeps fit doing line dancing, sit down Zumba and circuit dance.
20.00 When the keep fit instructor died her father took over the classes. 20.46 MA remembers when she was young singing dressed as a Dutch girl wearing a specially made dress. She also learnt a few tap-dancing steps. 24.13 MA talks about her brothers and sister.
25.00 Two of her brothers died. 25.21 MA remembers the main employers in the area. 26.00 She goes on to describe the shops and businesses in the 1960s before the docks closed.
30.00 After church MA went to the Irish Club with her cousin. 30.28 MA had an accident on a Lambretta Scooter when it hit a car and she thinks it was the beginning of her neck problem. She remembers when she started going out with ‘proper’ boyfriends and doing Irish dancing wearing 3 inch heels. Her older sister wore 4 inch heels and everything in an outfit had to match. 32.00 MA remembers the fair at Severn Beach and the Blue Lagoon salt water swimming pool where the changing rooms had just a curtain across. Lots of people from Wales and the Midlands went to Severn Beach on excursions. Where she lived was near the turntable that turned the trains around.
35.00 MA remembers the Severn Salmon Hotel owned by the Sellick family who were family friends. MA talks about her family who all live nearby. She’s lived in Avonmouth for 73 years.
40.00 MA talks about her mother. Everyone liked her and called her aunty ‘F’. MA’s father was a football trainer. She remembers the time she saw him sawing wood and he sawed his knee. He was keen a fisherman and she remembers going fishing with him to Rockingham Bridge. He sometimes caught eels which he loved. 43.29 MA tells the story about her eldest son going fishing with her father and getting a hook from a cast in his eye. Luckily it was in the white of his eye and he didn’t lose his sight. Track ends 45.23
Track 03 00.00 MA talks about her grandfather (her father’s father), an electrical engineer who worked for Jefferies as a degausser. She is not sure if he invented degaussing but thinks it was his interpretation of the invention to deflect mines away from ships in the war. Her was given the British Empire Medal and MA would like to see a blue plaque put up outside his old home. She remembers that he sometimes took her to shows and they were always shown to the front row seats because he was so well thought of. She wasn’t aware of what he’d done until a boyfriend told her. He was presented with his medal in 1944 at Buckingham Palace. MA remembers he lived opposite the park. In those days, there was a park keeper who had his own little hut in the park and everyone had to be out of the park by 9.00pm.
Track ends 3.32