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Lynette
was born in 1947 and the family needed a home. Peter started to convert an
old coal barge into a houseboat while the family lived in a caravan nearby
outside
Worcester
. Peter didn’t always see the necessity of haste, or so it seemed to
Pat. But he lovingly worked
away and fitted a lorry engine, boiler, bath, cooker and stove.
By winter it was warm and cosy.
When Peter was offered a job in his father’s works in the
Midlands
they took the boat up the canal network and found a mooring at Kinver.
This is a village near Stourbridge and
Elmfield
School
where Pat hoped to find work. The
mooring at Kinver was a disused coal wharf and to get drinking water it
was necessary to cross the busy road to reach the outside tap behind the
local pub. Lighting was by paraffin tilley
lamps and bath water from the canal. Once
again Pat was having to cope with very primitive conditions.
In 1950
Helena
was born. Both children had to
learn to swim almost before they could walk in case they fell in the
canal. In due course Lynette
entered the Nursery Class at Elmfield School and soon Pat joined her as a
teacher. A suitable child
minder was found for
Helena
. To get to Elmfield she and
the two children had a five-mile drive in Peter’s old 1934
Austin
10. It had very poor suspension and no heating.
But this was the beginning of 16 years of close association with
Elmfield
School
as a mother and teacher – a path of learning, inner struggle and
development.
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