Back in England again

The Diaries of Russell James Sparrow 1908 to 1991

Mick was on a week’s holiday so on the Monday we had another Xmas Day celebration with all the trimmings and during that week he took us to Needham to see Clifford and Ciss, and neighbours and to look at our old home. We had Ciss over on one occasion and also Ruth and Ted from Chelmondiston. We went to look at 71 Heath Road and the next few days were spent in Ipswich shopping and preparing Heath Road for our occupancy. On Saturday 31st Jan. I purchased an old Morris Minor traveller and this was to be our mode of transport for the next few weeks. It proved to be an ideal vehicle for our purposes as we moved bits and pieces from Needham to Westerfield, to Heath Road and then to Frinton. Mum often says even now that was her favourite vehicle. And it cost £ 75. We moved into Heath Road on Feb. 4th having moved our furniture, with the help of Jack Ansell and our lorry, from Needham the previous day. There was plenty to do here in the way of odd repairs and decoration and of course the garden. We went to Alan Road Methodist Church as well as Bethesda and St. Andrews Churches. Doff had a severe bout of sciatica in March and was laid up for several days in great pain. We had put Heath Road and Needham on the market and had made up our minds to go and look for a new home for ourselves in the Swanage area which we did on the last day of March. We spent the next day on April 1st looking around properties in the middle of a snowstorm, almost unheard of in these parts. One day was enough for us to decide that this part of the country was not for us because of its hilly nature and the lack of anything to suit our pockets! Our next house hunting expedition led us to Walton-on-Naze, Frinton, Holland and Clacton.

After one or two further sorties we eventually purchased “Berryhead”, Elm Tree Ave., Frinton-on-Sea moving there on Friday July 31st, it was fine and hot. In the meantime Colin and Jean were 86

The Diaries of Russell James Sparrow 1908 to 1991

Berryhead 1971

negotiating the sale of our house in Taringa and this of course involved letters, cables, telegrams etc. We had settled the sale of our Needham home but it was left to Mick to complete the sale of 71, Heath Road. While in Ipswich I had applied for job with Wallace Cameron, Industrial Chemists and after an interview I secured the job as a rep. covering the whole of Essex. I started work on Monday 17th August. Another venture had begun! We soon joined the Free Church and the choir. Doff joined the Women’s Fellowship Choir and at one time was the conductor. I eventually became a Deacon of the church with the specific job of looking after the fabric of the buildings. We renewed our acquaintance with Stuart and Doris Hunt (Needham) and once we were established exchanged visits fairly frequently. ( Later addition by Jean. They were Quakers and on one visit to Frinton from Canada we went to Clacton

Clacton Meeting House Meeting with them.) I made the most of the bathing facilities available and had a dip in the ‘briny’ nearly every day in the season. Lots of visits to and from family and friends, and some good walks. As far as the job, it was another new experience and enabled me to see Essex from the small hamlets on the coast and

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inland to the larger towns like Colchester and Chelmsford, up to the fringe of the metropolis to include Ilford and Romford, even to the murky places on the Thames estuary. Good days, bad days, car breakdowns, all went to make the life of a rep. frustrating but interesting The year ended with the electricians striking nation wide with power cuts at all sorts of times and the accompanying state of emergency called.

And so into a new year when in January the Post Office workers thought they would have a go and thus caused all sorts of inconvenience especially to my firm who expected their reps to send in their orders to Glasgow every day. We overcame this by saving orders for a week and then taking them to a collection point for eventual collection. I was involved in this on 4 Saturdays, collecting from Colchester and taking to Ipswich and on one occasion to Cambridge. Doff went to see Mr. Dunn in Colchester about her troublesome knees and he recommended physiotherapy. Fortunately there was a good physiotherapist in Frinton and Doff had rewarding treatment there for a few weeks. I finished by mutual agreement with Wallace Cameron on Oct. 18th and after a short period of unemployment I made contact with a firm, Megafoam, specialists in cavity wall insulation and started with them on Dec. 20th. Jane, a sister for Mark, was born on Dec. 18th.

There were more power cuts as well as a coal strike. In March I had several separate days on the Megafoam stand at the Ideal Home Exhibition at Olympia leaving by train at 8.45 a.m. and returning home again at 10 p.m. A similar experience to the one I had with Premier Blinds in Brisbane but on a much larger scale. I worked in this field until the end of April and decided to leave because of a break away branch set up in Colchester and the manager and I didn’t see eye to eye! Fortunately I had seen a job advertised for a position 88

The Diaries of Russell James Sparrow 1908 to 1991

as Clerk of Works with Frinton and Walton U.D.C. and I decided to “have a go”. I was rewarded with an interview on 18th May, got the job and started work on 22nd May supervising work on renovations and improvements to Council houses in the area. Russell Sparrow was now on the ‘ other side of the fence’, having in the past, on occasions, been pestered by and expected to ‘Kow Tow’ to ogres bearing the same title of Clerk of Works. Jean and Colin and family came over for a holiday in April, from Canada, having moved there the previous year. The Queen and Prince Phillip celebrated their Silver Wedding anniversary, there was a newspaper strike and some of the athletes in the Olympic village in Munich were assassinated by Palestinian gunmen. Mick was able to get a place in the Teacher’s Training College at Brentwood so they sold the bungalow and bought a house in Brentwood.

At the end of April we spent a weekend with Lynn and David and during our stay paid a visit to Paul Whitehead who lived very close to the Keens. That year I had a few problems with my chest and went to see Mr. Greene in Colchester in May who sent me for an x-ray. On my next visit, to ascertain the outcome, I pointed out the peculiar way my fingernails were changing colour and texture. I was referred to other local specialists and finally to St. John’s Hospital for Skin Diseases in Soho, London. I was informed that I was a rarity, one of a handful of sufferers in the world with a rare complaint or disease called Yellow Nail Syndrome, of which nothing was known, cause or cure! But they would give me what treatment they could and hope! I would periodically lose my nails, develop chest and sinus problems already in progress, the whole drainage system of my body would be affected giving rise to swollen ankles etc. all of which has unfortunately proved correct. The treatment consisted of taking tablets and having my fingers and thumbs drilled or injected powerfully in 2 places just below the nails. As Eric Morecombe used

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to say ‘not a pretty sight’. However after 20 visits over a period of time and terminating on 3rd Sept. 1975 I was told quite frankly that nothing else could be done and so that was that.

We were by now fully involved into the life in Frinton, Doff was very active with the Trefoil Guild (old members of the Girl Guides), W.I., and the Church Women’s Fellowship and we were of course both involved with the Church choir. Like other jobs mine was not always a bed of roses and I had some pretty queer clients to deal with I can tell you. All the work on the renovations was drawing to a close which is what I was employed to oversee, full stop; but the Council asked me to take on a similar job on a fairly big contract, also in Walton, for a new Old People’s Home with up to date materials, bricks, door and window frames etc. etc. Everything was metric and here the fun and games really began in earnest.

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Wendy went down with back trouble and Doff went to Brentwood for several weeks to keep house and I soldiered on in Frinton going to Brentwood at weekends. Doff came home on March 10th and shortly after that we both suffered a severe attack of ‘flu. I