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Blood In The River
My grandfather told me that his father was, originally, a boiler stoker from relatively humble East London stock.
In 1964, Dadum (grandfather Alf) sold some of his business assets, including Meadowbank, and bought a Victorian gothic mansion in Devon. The house at Indio was enormous; in 1850 Count Bentinck had set it on a hill overlooking the village of Bovey Tracey. Four generations of my English family lived there, variously and together, from 1964 to 1997. My grandfather told me that his father was, originally, a boiler stoker from relatively humble East London stock. My Sister, Jenny, adds:
'Dadum’s father is described as a ‘machinist’ on his marriage certificate and as ‘master grocer’ on his mother’s death certificate. Dadum’s maternal grandfather, Charles Potter had been an instrument maker and optician who had moved with his wife and daughter to Woolwich from York to take a better position at the newly opened Sieman’s factory. When Charles died, his widow Sarah took in lodgers. She married one of them: a William Whybrow. William’s younger brother Alfred married her daughter Isabell. Alfred and Isabell were Dadum’s parents. So his step-grandfather was also his uncle who was always known as Uncle Billy in the family. So his mother Isabell’s new half-sisters, only a few years older than him, were both his aunts and his cousins! Doris died in 1993 aged 95.' Jennie Suttie 2006
My grandfather had made good through starting a bicycle repair business that had become a chain of shops called Castle Sports, and a small property business called Meadowbank Estates. We were proud of his achievements and, when the sun shone, summers at Indio were idyllic. With the care and attention that the new middle classes lavished on every detail, the house was restored with a team of builders working there permanently for nearly three years. And the same makeover had been given to our accents and the way we dressed. Alfred Edward Whybrow looked and sounded like a retired country gentleman and he would only let his accent revert to its Woolwich roots when in the company of his best friend and brother-in-law, also called Alf, Alf Martin.
Click here to visit the Nick Nakorn website:
