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to Tell Tales Rose Judge
My parents had a shop in 8 Monier Road, Old Ford. We lived with a family with
a sweet shop. My mother was there to look after the shop, and my father went
down to the barges and my sisters and I used to go down and visit my father
with his jug of tea with condensed milk.
We
used to play in the streets around the docks, skip, play knock down ginger,
run away. And as we got older so we went to Smead Road school and later to
Monier Road School, Old Ford Road Bow.
My father was left money by an Aunt Isobel - that was why he went into business.
But at the beginning, as we were told, because my mother was so generous,
people used to come in and say can we have some things on tick or credit,
that eventually they said they’d have to close. But with just a few coppers
to spare, they just used to buy one box of sweets at a time to replenish the
business to carry on.
My
grandma lived in Stratford and I used to walk through the Promenade which
was by the canal. We used to collect daisies along the Promenade and make
daisy chains, but to us it was like we were in the country walking along there.
I
used to go over to Stratford with bundles of laundry which my mother used
to do for her mother-in-law and we would spend the night.
We used to go to Stratford to the cinema and watch the weepy films. I think
we had a wonderful life. Round Dace Road along the canal there was a box factory,
a wood factory, a sack factory, a piano factory, you name it, it was there.
I went to Smead Road School - I was Maid of Honour one May Day. Every May
Day they had a May Queen and a Maid of Honour and they used to have Empire
Day. We used to take a round stick 24 inches long and on the end of that stick
you’d have a bunch of flowers and everyone used to take that to school on
Empire Day and we used to dance round the Maypole - we used to sing ‘Land
of Hope and Glory’ all the patriotic songs.
I
remember when my father worked down the barges, you’d see the barges come
along with the horses, walking alongside pulling the barge. We used to take
my father’s tea down to him when he worked on the barges at dinner time. He
had no time to eat, he was so busy.
I remember one of the men that worked with him was Paddy. He was always looking
at the newspaper when he wasn’t working to see if his horse had won or his
dog had won on the races. When I was 14, I started work at Cohen’s at Bow
Bridge. Most of the local girls went there to learn the rag trade, girls from
East Ham, West Ham., Stratford, Bow. They came from everywhere. I worked there
during the war. We made uniforms.
Interview Rose Judge Waterways Project January 2001