| Description | An interview with Hilary GILTRAP, a married woman with one son, two daughters, who is a Husbands P/A, born in Lincoln and now living in Solihull. Hilary GILTRAP’s father was a Draughtsman, born in England and her mother a Housewife/ Ran riding school born in England. In the interview, she talks about …
'HILARY GILTRAP MS2255/2/045 Logged by Lorraine Blakemore
01
I was born in Lincoln just before the outbreak of the second world war on 3rd July, 1939…. Working class background.
30” Childhood diseases.
53” Remembers food eaten as a child.
02
In those days, on the whole, women tended not to go out to work….mum was housewife ,father was draughtsman.
03
One sister.
04
Memories of the war. Story about POWs.
05
I started school when I was four so the war was still well on….I went to St. Andrews School….For a short time my mum had a bit of a breakdown and I went to stay with my gran….I went to a school there and felt very much an outcast…..
1.28 Failed 11+ and went to a secondary modern school. Enjoyed school and left at 15 with no qualifications.
06
Qualifications, if you’d been to a secondary modern school were well nigh impossible to get in those days. We’re talking 1954 now….I was extremely lucky in that I came in on the beginning of a scheme….I was able to take the same exam to Lincoln Technical College as the children who’d been to grammar schools….From 1954-5 I took what was a commercial course….I left with shorthand and typing skills which have carried me all through my life…. Story about mother putting ad in newspaper for her daughter to get a job.
07
Describes first job. Moved to Fire Dept. and stayed for 6 years.
1.22 I spent a lot of my spare time singing…. Did anything that didn’t cost money. Lists activities.
2.30 Story about singing in her pram.
3.03 Visits to the Usher Art Gallery.
3.29 I’m not a religious person…. Details choirs and operatic society joined.
08
Describes her appearance and how she related to boys as a teenager.
44” Story about first boyfriend.
09
Dated boyfriend for two and a half years.
Story about meeting next boyfriend. He was a lot older than me. I was 20 then and so that takes us up to 1959….He ended up with Bridget Forsyth…Very soon after that I left.
10
In those days what constituted a love affair as far as I was concerned was going out with a person, you found that you had an affinity….You didn’t have an affair, people leaping in and out of bed….( Regarding her own boyfriend ) We had been going out for 6 months….That was our life then, we’d find places to meet up….My mum was quite remarkable actually. She let us stay in the house together….
1.45 Story about leaving Lincoln. Moved to North Acton in London in 1961.
2.43 Worked as a temp.
4.07 My ex-boyfriend…moved down to London….and inevitably we married…
11
We got married in 1962 and I wanted to be married in Lincoln….I wanted to be in a church, having a reception…I had my first baby in 1962.
12
Being a young mum in London in those days generally meant stopping at home. Many people were in our situation….usually in flats….People didn’t go out for meals with children, not in our class anyway….But I was very contented with this baby…. Took an evening class in German.
1.18 Decided to buy a home and moved back to Lincoln. Moved into a rectory, but didn’t have enough money to renovate property.
2.28 We’d just bought that when the company my husband was working for…..offered him a plum job in the West Midlands in West Bromwich….We really had no choice but to come over here…and I absolutely hated it…
3.01 Then all of a sudden there I was in Handsworth in March 1966 totally stranded….and I started morning sickness with my second baby…. Impossible to move back to Lincoln.
3.42 Got a flat in Clarendon Road, Edgbaston.
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I was 27 in 1966… Story about preparing to give birth.
14
Became pregnant with 3rd baby. Separated from husband and left with 3 children in 1972. Carried on with temping work.
15
Describes life in Sutton Coldfield.
Met someone and they lived together until 1986.
1.22 Whilst I was at the Brooklyn Technical College I discovered I could do ‘O’ levels as an adult….I went along and did 1 ‘O’ level a year…. Describes the courses.
16
Children’s schooling. There was a lot of stuff going on about choosing your school and where you wanted your child to go....I was one of the mums who kept their child from school for a little while… Describes the educational system in place.
17
Son went to work for GPO.
18
One of her daughters was dyslexic and had difficulties at school.
Other daughter did commercial course.
19
Not married to second partner but stayed together for 14 years. Then morals were beginning to loosen up a little bit but I didn’t feel fantastically comfortable with it….There was no problem as far as I know for the children…. Describes partner.
1.47 In that day and age, and we’re talking early 70s, you felt like you were the only one this was happening to….
20
21
In 1974, I left the Brooklyn Technical College and I just decided that I would never work again, however poor we were…. Details reasons.
22
Social and educational activities after leaving job.
23
After the move in 1984…I was destined to meet someone else who was going go be my final partner in life. Story about meeting her partner.
24
Continues story. I discovered that I was quite a bit older than him….I went through a very traumatic period then leaving my children and my life in Sutton behind….
2.04 Ex-partner remarried. Father of children helped out financially.
3.42 Describes adjusting to new husband’s lifestyle.
25
Continues to discuss lifestyle.
26
27
My life must have been touched by feminism….what I didn’t like was the almost man- hating that came about….Having said that, to fight for not being sexually molested at work, to fight for equal money for an equal job….
28
Hockley Heath is really on the outer limits of Birmingham…. Doesn’t feel part of Birmingham.
1.35 Goes to Birmingham infrequently. Visits art galleries.
29
My politics were non-existent until I was in my 20s… Parents were Labour. When I reached an age to go off and vote…I discovered I was a Conservative….I certainly could not agree with what was going on in this country in the 70s…. Story about ex-partner’s work and politics.
3.30 Remembers when the term politically correct was beginning to be used.
30
Continued. Elaborates on her views about defining people and their identity.
31
Now feels that she is a Midlander, but not a Brummie.
32
Thoughts about new developments in the City Centre.
56” To me as a working class girl….I could never ever have envisaged having what I have got access to now….
33
Multi-cultural entertainment in Birmingham.
34
Story about becoming interested in car boot sales.
35
Continued.
36
Continued.
37
Lists type of items sold at car boot sales.
38
Continued.
ENDS. |