The Eliots at Beechholme - Story by Peter Eliot
April 4th1948 was when I
arrived and although I was 3 yrs old I can still remember arriving at
the gates of Beechholme. In fact the picture on the front of the Beechholme
publication represents the image I have of my arrival. It was night
time when our father took us to Banstead in his ‘Austin 12’
registration number BBM614, he had not long come home from hospital
to find his three boys had been taken into care following our mother's
departure. Our father had been taken to St Charles Hospital suffering
from pneumonia, where he had spent 5 weeks undergoing treatment and recovering.
My older brother Leslie and I had previously been taken to
Langley House and my younger brother Edward taken to Ladywell
Nursery. Back then men were not considered capable of caring for
their children, but my father was granted the care of his youngest
who was fretting too much without his parents. There was a long
waiting list to get into Beechholme, my father managed to get Leslie
and myself admitted, but Edward was too young. Our father was quite
elderly and in 1948 he was 59 years old, we lived in the West End of
London where he had a gowns manufacturing business and a car hire
service. Sadly when he came out of hospital, his wife had left him,
his children had been taken into care and his business had been
ruined.
Initially I was housed in cottage 12 which at this time was specifically set up
for the really young children who needed potty training and nappies
changed. Some months later I joined Leslie in Cottage 5 in the care
of Miss Wulffe and Miss Cobbles. These two ladies managed a house of
20 to 25 children and naturally had a great influence on their
upbringing. Miss Wulffe was quite strict and Miss Cobbles could be
nice or horrid. I remember that at one time I wanted to be a tailor
so Miss Cobbles found a huge amount of tangled thread and made me
untangle it and wind it into balls. I had to do this sitting on top
of a table with my legs crossed (apparently that was what tailors
did). On another occasion I needed some wool, probably for finger
knitting, so I pulled the wool edging off of my blanket. My
punishment, which was well deserved, was to sew it back on - at least
I learned to do blanket stitch. Even from an early age we all had to
do our chores around the cottage and grounds. Each child was given a
specific chore depending on their age and ability. I remember
sprinkling tea leaves onto the dormitory floor and then sweeping the
floor, the tea leaves I believe were to help collect the dust. Later
my chores included cleaning the toilets, peeling potatoes and
cooking.
Cottage 5, which later became known as
Chestnut, housed mainly boys and a small number of girls. It was a
two story house with 2 dormitories, 2 staff bedrooms and staff
bathroom. Downstairs there was a kitchen, scullery, dining room,
staff room and bathroom. The toilet block was located outside in a
semi-detached building which also contained an outhouse for vegetable
storage etc. The house next door had the other half of the building,
which was a mirror image of our side.
During the week I would go to the
nursery which was located opposite the school. Here we would play and
paint etc. I remember the fold up beds where we would have our
afternoon sleep, which was essential for the young children. Later at
the age of 5 yrs I went to the infants school and remember learning
the alphabet by singing the ‘ABC’ song. The junior school
was contained within the same building and the Headmaster then was Mr
Kelly. Mr Kelly with his distinctive mustache, (I believe he was a
military man) lived in a white house just outside the gates of
Beechholme. I remember Mr Kelly always had very shiny shoes and
taught us to use some spit when we polished our shoes. Mrs Bell was a
teacher at the school who would take us for walks to Ewell and Epsom.
She would always point out a house in Ewell and tell us that Petula
Clarke lived there.
In July 1951 we were joined by our
younger brother Edward who had been cared for my our father, but he
was unable to work and look after him properly. He was offered
vacancies for Edward in other institutions, but would not agree to
this and took care of Edward until a place became available at
Beechholme. At last we boys were together and this is how we remained
until we each reached a suitable age to be released from care.
Derby Day was an annual day to
remember. Chestnut was in a row of houses that backed onto Fir Tree
Road and on Derby Day we would climb the fence and wave to the coach
loads of people returning from the races at Epsom. There was a
fantastic tradition of throwing money out of the coach windows for us
poor hungry looking children, which of course created an avalanche as
we dived over the fence to retrieve what ever money we could grab
first. We felt like millionaires because money was a scarce commodity
for us in those days. We did receive some money however, in the form
of pocket money, which as I recall was 2s 3d. My pocket money lasted
for about 1 day and was mainly spent in the sweetshop in the Nork.
I don’t remember the exact age,
but around the age of ten I was transferred to the more senior end of
the Avenue and went to live in Cedar. Initially Cedar was located on
the south side of the Avenue between the houses Beech and Almond, but
later we were all moved to a newly decorated house next to the church
and this house then became named Cedar. Here our houseparents were a
lovely married couple Tom and Dorothy Bray with a daughter named
Susan. We were allowed to call them Uncle Tom and Aunt Dorothy and
life was so much better from then on. In 2004 I visited Aunt Dorothy
in Stowmarket and we were able to share some wonderful memories,
sadly she passed away in 2005. Around the same time as I transferred
to Cedar I came to the age for secondary school and would travel by
bus each day to Carshalton where I attended Tweedale Secondary
School.
For some reason, I developed an
interest in electronics at a very early age. At around the age of
ten, somebody showed me a Crystal Set and from that day I knew my
career path. I quickly learned how to build the sets and would go to
London during the weekends and would buy the necessary components
from the army surplus shops in the West End. There was a rule that
the children were not allowed to own radios with speakers, but it was
OK to own one with headphones. By the time I left Beechholme there
was hardly a tree that did not have an aerial strung into it and I
had launched into the electronics retail business.
I had quite a musical background in Beechholme and played in the brass
band, took violin lessons and sang in the church choir. The brass
band would often play on fete days and other occasions. Although
there were others taking the violin lessons, they all dropped out
with the exception of myself. My teacher Miss Harris would travel
down from London each week just to give me my lesson. The lessons
were held during the evening in the Administration building and Mr
Evans, the deputy superintendent, would stay behind just to hear me
play. The church choir would practice one evening during the week and
of course we would sing publicly on Sundays during the church
service.
Fete days were always a special time,
each house would make a banner with the house name as a theme. A
prize would be awarded for the best banner. There would be races,
country dancing and other activites to entertain the children and the
visiting parents.
My father would visit once each
fortnight on visiting day and we would go for a drive and usually end
up having a cup of tea at ‘Anne’s Cafe’ at the Nork
shops in Banstead.
As time progressed we were allowed to travel back to London during the
school holidays and once again would change from being country folk
to city folk. The streets of London were pretty rough and there
wasn’t anywhere to play so we just played on the streets. I got
to know the cast of ‘Mrs Dales Diary’ who whiled away the
hours at the Duke of York pub and I would run errands for them to
earn a few bob.
Every year there was a pantomime put on
by the children of the home. The pantomime would be performed in the
hall at the eastern end of the avenue and would be attended by all.
Leslie performed in Jack and the Beanstalk (1955) and Robinson Crusoe
(1956).
In 1960 I was released from care and
allowed to go back to London to live with my father and Leslie
(Leslie had left the previous year). Within a couple of months Edward
was also allowed to leave and complete his secondary school education
in London. Sadly my father died in 1961 at the age of 72.
At the time of writing I live in Sydney
Australia and own a successful electronics business. My wife Susanne
of 42 years and we have two children Stuart and Louise and between
them we have six grandsons.
In 2002 I contacted the City of
Westminster council and with their help I was able to get copies of
my files from Beechholme. The information contained includes my
admission records, medical records many letters from and to my mother
and father and interestingly reports from my social services
officer(s) who had been monitoring the activities of the Eliot
brothers during the years of 1948 to 1960.
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