Archive (4 life histories found)

All water supplies were from wells. The water was pumped into buckets and carried into the house. As for bathrooms, they were non-existent in country houses, except the grand ones. We had a dry toilet in a little shed about ten yards from the house.…

The post office in Glengormley was a very busy place. Staff had to be fast and accustomed to handling cash, yet still finding time to listen to customers' queries and to be especially tolerant with ageing pensioners. A balance sheet was prepared at…

Private houses were situated on either side of our Glengormley shop - all rented property, but the opportunity came to buy all three when one tenant left, and we scraped up all our resources together to achieve this. The empty property was let as a…

In the early days, as I was a working for my father, nothing was properly formalised. I think I started off with £3 and then I went up to £5. From an early age, I saved my money, first with an account in a Post Office Savings account and, later, I…