| Description | An interview with Marigold LANKESTER, a married woman with one son, one daughter, who is a BBC/Teacher/Tourist guide, born in Sutton Coldfield and now living in Solihull. Marigold LANKESTER’s father was a Civil servant, born in England and her mother a Greengrocer/florist born in England. In the interview, she talks about …
'MARIGOLD LANKESTER MS2255/2/089 Logged by Lorraine Blakemore
01
I was born in Sutton Coldfield….I do consider myself a Brummie….Series of elocution lessons whilst at boarding school in Worcestershire. No brothers or sisters. Describes father’s occupation.
1.47 Mother had a florist and greengrocery business in Erdington, and then moved to Hall Green.
2.11 Father worked in Birmingham Market selling potatoes.
3.11 Family background was middle class.
4.21 Describes involvement in Baptist Church from the age of 5.
02
I can remember going to the market and walking through the market and seeing sacks of potatoes…My godfather was also someone from the market who sold flowers…in what used to be called the Bottom Market…the Top Market must have sold larger quantities of only wholesale, whereas the Bottom Market would combine both…
59” Memories of the shop.
2.15 Story about receiving her name Marigold.
03
Mother attended George Dixon Grammar School. Artistic nature.
1.05 Taught how to slaughter fowl.
2.00 Paternal grandparents came from Handsworth.
2.42 Maternal grandparents came from Harborne. Describes grandmother.
04
I had been at York Road School in Hall Green from my 5th birthday in 1939….Memories of holidays. Contracted Whooping Cough.
1.37 Once you are over the initial problems you are left with a cough. I remember the old-fashioned remedies were that if you had enough money…they would take you up in a small aeroplane into the rarefied atmosphere….it was supposed to clear up the cough…details other remedies.
2.44 Storyabout friendship with family who had a farm. Remained at farm after outbreak of war. Describes the experience.
05
Continued.
3.09 Family owned a car.
3.45 My mother had given up her business…more or less as I went to school at the age of 5….because she thought she wasn’t spending enough time with me, and for the era, she was quite an old mum…she was already 30 when she had me….
4.15 Story about being bombed at home.
06
Continued.
40” Memories of hoarded food.
07
Neither parent went to church. Marigold was sent to St. Mary’s Convent School in Worcestershire when she was 7 in 1941.
1.07 Describes school uniform regulations.
3.00 Not particularly happy at school.
3.29 We had to attend…regular mass…..I can remember at the time there were a family of 3 Jewish sisters who’d come from London…their parents had remonstrated that they really didn’t want them to go to mass…
4.29 Describes Sister Cecilia.
08
Memories of school and the nuns.
2.39 At the end of the war, her mother returned to Birmingham.
3.23 Sat exams for King Edward’s High School. Grandfather paid school fees to send Marigold to Edgbaston College in 1945.
4.20 Stories about various teachers.
09
Continued.
2.49 Attended King Edward’s High School in the 6th form.
3.18 At 15 I don’t think I had any conscious idea to go to university. Nobody else in my family had been to university and so it was a little bit of a long shot….
4.04 Talented at French. Last intake to sit School Certificate rather than A Levels. Distinguishes between the two different systems.
10
Difficulties with form teacher who taught French.
1.02 School visits to France.
4.00 Became interested in history of architecture.
11
Reasons for interest in French.
How aunt was connected with the University of Birmingham. Interview with registrar.
4.20 He subsequently after this interview sent me along to see a man….Pearson, the careers man….he said I wouldn’t necessarily think about coming straight up to university. Consider having a gap year and go and work on Birmingham’s buses for a year. That will teach you about life…..
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Still led a sheltered life at 16.
13
I was 17 in May, 1951 and I went up to University in the following October….Cost to parents. Won a minor scholarship from City Council.
2.30 Details studies at university and overseas in France and Spain.
14
Continued.
1.09 Half of the students were from Birmingham and environs.
15
Describes location of university building and how it has altered.
1.00 Student’s Union and some Halls of Residence were already in existence.
1.08 The Barber Institute was nowhere near as accessible as it is today….
2.25 University Carnival.
3.27 I had various vacation jobs…I can remember one Summer working as a cashier in C&A….and cashiers really had to be on their toes….
4.15 Allowed to go to hops but father was strict about arrangements for returning home
16
Several boyfriends at university.
1.08 I’m sad that Edmund Street was eventually pulled down….the front was worth conserving….and of course a very sad loss in all of the developments of the 1960s was the old library….Of course it’s no good listing a building unless you’ve got very strong ideas about what you’re going to do with it….
17
After I graduated in 1954….I applied for the BBC…on their Graduate Studio Manager Entrant Scheme. I was accepted but they couldn’t take me straight away….Worked in France as an au pair.
Story about working for a particular family.
18
Continued.
1.28 Caring for family at home.
2.28 Story about teaching at a local school.
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Continued.
20
In 1955 at the end of September I went up to London….
1.30 Became settled at World Service in Bush House. Describes her role in detail.
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My mother was not very happy in her domestic married state. She put far too much interest into me as an only child….
39” I came back up to Birmingham on a sort of exchange basis…to see if I liked it…Transferred back to the domestic services.
1.10 Meeting her husband at the BBC.
2.31 Working on children’s programmes.
4.00 Working on The Archers.
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Continues to describe programmes worked on and the technical skills involved.
23
In 1959 I progressed to becoming an in situ producer in Nottingham….Describes her role.
1.58 I was married in 1963. My husband had been married before and we waited for his divorce to come through, and in those days that is exactly what you did. You didn’t set up home and live in sin. Again I’m not sure that I condemn that today, I think it’s an opportunity for people to get to know one another…
2.33 Set up home in Hall Green. Mother objected to marriage.
3.29 Two children born in 1964 and 1966 respectively.
4.16 Left the BBC, but worked on Sunday mornings as a reader on a programme.
24
Story about presenter who had a drink problem.
1.14 Discusses children’s education. We wanted our children to do better than the local secondary modern….I don’t think that was as much snobbism as wanting the best…for your children….Both attended King Edward’s Camp Hill Grammar Schools.
3.30 Complications concerning dividing time between family and mother.
25
Continued.
1.41 I certainly didn’t anticipate going back to work….You didn’t in those days…. However, needed to find an outlet from pressures at home.
3.20 Anecdote about meeting a French teacher who invited Marigold to teach French at his school. She remained there for 3 years.
26
I had the last of the grammar school intake….became a comprehensive in 1974…I remember being in teaching from 1973-85…We were beginning to have an influx of people from the Caribbean, from Africa….all sorts of ethnic and cultural differences were beginning to appear, and some of these people were at a tremendous disadvantage…I can remember being expected to teach French to a little West Indian boy who spoke not even English at home….Elaborates on the problems.
2.48 Taught needlework in addition to French. About 1975 new ideas came in about girls doing technical drawing and a bit of woodwork and the boys learning a bit of domestic science and needlework, and I can remember the frustrations of that….
27
After leaving Waverley, went to St. Martin’s School in Solihull as a part-time teacher.
2.00 Left teaching and became a tourist guide in 1985.
3.02 Became involved in running a B&B with husband. Gives details.
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Continued.
1.41 Anecdote about a Chinese man staying at the B&B and how that subsequently led to an invitation to China to teach English.
29
Visited daughter who was studying Mandarin in Shanghai.
54” Taught English in Liaoning Province.
1.33 Describes living in China in 1987.
30
Continued.
31
Returned to work as a tourist guide after leaving China. Describes the extent of her work.
1.45 Birmingham has seen many changes. Some of this is very relevant because one of the things that Birmingham doesn’t follow through is in readily and easily employing qualified guides….Gives examples.
4.35 There is much more concentration on Birmingham and it is a bit of a mission to encourage people that it isn’t what it used to be…
32
I get involved now with…a familiarisation city walk for students from Aston University….and I say to them, I expect when people knew you were coming to Birmingham they looked at you with sympathy on their faces and they grin, yes, of course….But I do think the city authorities are still somewhat short-sighted…Explains why.
2.38 Lists main walks in Birmingham.
ENDS. |