Grannies' grannies

nutmeg ...a heartwarming and touching message.

My maternal grandparents were both born in Nov. 1861 and married when young ,producing a large Victorian family of which my mother was the youngest.Some of their babies had died but they raised 4 sons and 4 daughters to adulthood. I knew my grandparents very well as we lived in the same house. Gran and Grandad downstairs while we had the upstairs rooms. They died within 12 weeks of each other in about 1943. Grandad was tall and my Gran was less than 5 ft. with curls on her forehead. they always seemed to speak quite gruffly to each other but when gran died, he said, 'that's me finished then' and just sat by the fire puffing on his pipe until he too left us.They had been married for more than 60 years. This was during the war of course and I remember that life was very grim, we lived in east London and slept in air raid shelters , everyone in the area had lost their plaster ceilings and windows, and the houses just had to be bodged up somehow to be made habitable. It was sad for my grandparents, they had lost one son in the first world war and then 2 of their grandsons in the second
I always maintained that Gran's bread and butter tasted better than ours, although my mother did all the shopping so it was really all the same!. I remember how they loved to play dominos with me. I was an only child, quite an exception in those days.
I now have six wonderful grandchildren but sadly my husband didn't see any of them.At the age of 52, I was widowed suddenly, before any of them came along. How he would have loved them.

I was lucky enough to have brilliant grandmothers but sadly they were in their forties when I was born.One was very feisty and always stood up for me no matter what happened.She would buy an ice cream from the ice cream van and bring it up to me in bed!
My Nan was religious and looked after me while my Mother worked and her strongest words when she was upset were "don't vex Nanny" She used to take my head in her hands and smile saying "bless your sweet pretty face"
I always do my best to try and give my grandchildren the feeling of absolute love and acceptance I was given by those two amazing ladies.

My father's parents died when he was a small boy. He was raised by a gang of sisters. The Nana that I knew, had my mother "out of wedlock"...a huge disgrace way back when. At the time she became pregnant, she was a lowly maid in a big and important household. Wonder whether my grandfather was a footman, butler, gardener - or even the Master of the house! Thereafter, Nana's family disowned her. Somehow she managed to raise my mother and continued to live a very hard life to the very end. She married a bit of a waster when my mother was in her teens, and waited on him, hand and foot, until he died. She died in her eighties, in the early eighties. No one cared more for me than my Nana. She went out of her way to help when I most needed support. I wish with all my heart that she could be here, so that I might tell her how amazing and special she was.

I never knew either of my grandfathers, they died before I was born. My maternal grandma died when I was 12, but I can still remember her. We lived with her until I was 3, when my mother remarried, and after that we visited her once a week, and she`d give us a Mars bar cut up between us, there were eventually 5 of us to share it, but I really looked forward to that bit of Mars each week. She used to give us mussels for tea (I think they were mussels, the ones with what looked like teeth?) but I wouldn`t eat them, I thought they were going to bite me! She came to us every Saturday for lunch, and she always brought tomato sausage with her, can you still get that?
My paternal grandma didn`t get on with my mother very well, and as she lived a long way away we didn`t see her very often, but I used to spend each summer school holiday with her. She was a St John`s nurse, took great pride in wearing her uniform and attending occasions when nurses were thought may be needed. She was also the person in the village who was sent for when someone passed away, to "wash and lay them out", she was very proud of that fact, and often used to point someone out and say that she washed and laid out certain relatives of theirs. We lived a few doors away when we married, but she didn`t much care for my husband, although she worshipped our eldest when she was born. Then when I was pregnant again she said we were disgusting, and she never did give as much attention and fuss to our 2nd daughter. She died when our 2nd girl was 11 months old, and I dread to think what she`d have said about us having had 5 children!

em your mention of your Gran being a talented knitter reminded me of my maternal grandmother. She was born on a farm,her father was a hind, and spent all her life knitting and sewing but her greatest talent was crochet work. She created the most delicate blouses from crochet silk and lined them with silk. Every family member had lace table centre crochet work, intricate layers all stiffened so they held a vase in the centre. The village where grandparents lived had an annual flower show and she won prizes every year for her handiwork, as if that was not enough she used to walk off with the prizes for jam, chutney and cakes. My grandfather grew prize winning leeks,runner beans and marrows. I suppose he grew all the things that my Grandmother cooked and preserved.

Phoned my cousin in an attempt to get hold of a photo of my paternal grandparents and was told a wonderful story of how, on my aunt and uncles wedding day everyone had to walk to the church [which wasn't far away]. The fathers of the bride and groom set off and got no further than the local pub, therefore they didn't make it onto the wedding photos.

Crimson made me realise how lucky I am to have our family photographs. There aren't many of them and I can't say I grew up with all of them on display. Some of the most interesting ones only came to light when my aunt died 6 years ago. Oddly enough, of all the younger generation of DDs DS nieces and nephews, the one who is most interested in all aspects of family history is my eldest DD who was adopted. She is also the one who has traced her birth family. My own gran was a talented knitter (as was my mum) and DD is very aware of carrying on the tradition - even using her GG 's shawl patterns and needles although she was born 3 years after my gran died.

super idea crimson have we got any budding authors here willing to collate our rambling memories?

..without spelling errors; oops

My mothere was one of the youngest of a lasrge familyso I tended to think of my aunt as my granny [she was 20 years older than my mum]. for some reason I always thought a photo that she kept on her sideboard was her, but it was in fact her mother. I've now got a copy of it. I don't think I ever met her but having grown up with the photo I feel as if i did. This thread has made me realise that I have no photos of my dad's parents at all. He was fifty when I was born and, although I have a photo of me with his mother I have no memory of her [she looked very old in the photo. I'm going to contact my cousing in an attempt to see a photo of her when she was younger as it's bothering me now that I have no mental image of her. My grandchildren have no living grandparents on their fathers side, and I've told my daughter to have photos of them around so the boys will grow up with a mental picture of them. This is a lovely thread. The S.O's grandfather was atrain driver who used to tell him to be at a certain spot at a certain time so he could throw a Mars Bar to him. How 'Railway Children' is that! Perhaps a book should be written with everyone's memories of their grandparents, oral history being most important imo. Did anyone ever read Melvyn Bragg's book, Speak for England?

This is just the best thread so far! You have all reminded me of long-forgotten memories of my grandparents. I remember two of my great grandparents and all four of my grandparents. My love of dogs comes from happy times spent playing with my grandmother's fox terrier, and my passion for gardening from my grandfather, who used to allow me to help push the heavy roller across his precious lawn (I realise now he was doing the pushing). When contemplating whether a course of action is the right thing to do, I still think what my grandmother would have said about it, 30 years on since she died. I have learned to be less judgemental by remembering how my grandmother reacted to relationship problems or family troubles, and in current hard times, I remember the lovely meals that were produced for us children on a very tight budget - all cooked with love. My grandparents took me on train rides, to pantomimes, and the seaside, and instilled in me the importance of children being allowed to be children.

My grandparents were in their 40's when I was born. My grandmother died when I was 32 and my grandfather about 12/14 years later. Although I lived abroad most of my childhood they were both beloved people and wonderful grandparents. My father was not a good father and particularly hard on me.He adored my younger brother. So to give me a break I quite often stayed with them. I was thoroughly spoilt eating what I like, having Sugar Puffs for breakfast and going to the afternoon pictures with my G/mother - we both liked Stewart Granger and Dirk Bogarde. Favourite lunch time outings were fish cakes at the ABC,Wonder Cake at Lyons and sometimes afternoon tea at Fullers. For my 13th birthday I was taken to the Ritz for afternoon tea wearing my best frock for the occasion. They were comfortably off and wanted me to know how to behave in any given social occasion. By the time we returned for good I was 15 years old and miles behind in my education after 19 schools. So they paid for me to go to boarding school to be 'crammed' and it worked. My G/father was loved by everyone he was one of nature's gents - I adored him, he was the positive male influence in my life. Except for my mother's brother, who is now in his 80's they have all died now. I still remember my G/parents so well I can even remember how they spoke - I used to say when I heard the Queen Mother speak, if I closed my eyes, I could hear my G/mother. They were the same generation after all. I'm about to have my 2nd granddaughter in November and I hope I can be as good a granny as mine were.

So nice that some can recall great grandparents, my paternal grandfather died when I was 2 and he was 84.
My DILs grandfather served in WW1 and my DIL is just in her thirties.

My paternal grandparents lived in Fife, in a big old house overlooking the Firth of Tay and Dundee beyond. Grandpa was the kindest man imaginable. We were the best of friends and I missed him so much when he died when I was seven. 'Wee' Granny was very tiny, but had a dominating personality. I was quite scared of her. She was strict about Sunday observance and didn't like us playing cards on 'the Sabbath'. But when I told her I didn't think God would mind, she relented. There was a huge garden full of every kind of soft fruit plus apples, pears and plums. We would pick raspberries when we went to stay - and eat them with gusto. Granny was a real Victorian matriarch, keeping tabs on the far-flung extended family - she was one of nine children although she herself had only two. She could knit for Scotland and her speciality was socks. She successfully taught me to turn a heel. Once when we had to knit socks in our needlework class at school, she pretty much finished them off for me. I wear her engagement ring with the date 1904 in it.
My English granny lived round the corner from us in Ayrshire where she lived for around sixty years without losing her accent. She had lost her mother when her sister was born and the two of them were brought up by a governess. Granny did go to school and to art school - she was an accomplished artist and did lovely embroidery, even with an arthritic hand. She played carols on the piano at Christmas when the extended family gathered for tea in her house. During the depression, when my grandfather (whom I never knew) lost his family business, she held things together, keeping chickens and growing vegetables in her huge back garden. Poor Granny - I was a lost cause when it came to sewing and embroidery, but she did her best. To this day, I can come out in a cold sweat at the sight of needle and thread! She was very proud of her ancestry which was 'landed gentry' - seven generations of hereditary rectors who were also the local squires. Sadly, any family money had long since gone by the time I arrived on the scene. I have some of her embroidery and a few pencil drawings that I treasure greatly.
When Wee Granny came to stay with us, the two of them would put their hats on, get on a bus and spend the afternoon in Largs, probably having a bracing walk on the prom and taking refreshment at one of the many cafés. They got on surprisingly well together.

My two oldest GC's remember their Greatgran quite well and were old enough to attend her funeral 3 years ago. My greatgran lived until I was 4 and, although I don't have memories of her, I do have photographs and, through my mum, all sorts of hilarious stories about her. I've passed these stories on to my GC's so they do have that link to their maternal great great great gran. 11 year-old GD recently took studio photo into school of the large family of her great great great grandparents on my dad's side. I posted on another thread that we recently found a photo of my grandparents when they were 19 and 21. Only then did I see that my son is the image of my grandfather - to the extent that 2 year-old GS thought it it was his uncle!

I am so enjoying this thread! I have actually posted about my great-gran. I think that these memories are absolutely vital.
Sometimes historians want to tell us that things were a certain way - our own oral history is a way of knowing that it might have been different. My grandmother & her sisters had basic education, but thought themselves lucky to have had that, as it gave them some power over their own lives, and they all enabled the next generation to have a much better education.
Their mother could not read or write, and when the dreaded yellow telegram came during WW1, she knew what it must mean, but had to send to the school for one of her children to come home & read the sad news. What an illustration of the problems of illiteracy!
My other great-gran was a contemporary of Flora (Lark Rise) Thompson, from a nearby part of the country. Mrs. Thompson wrote beautifully about her life, but it was from my great-gran that I felt its authenticity.

My grandmothers were first cousins and when I was small they shared a house, so I called them 'Grandma Upstairs' and 'Grandma Downstairs'. My mother's mother ran away with my grandfather in the early 1900s - they were both married to other people at the time. They went and lived in Egypt for a while and then in Italy, France and finally Sicily, where my mother grew up. I only discovered their rather racy past recently when doing family history research.
When I was about 12 this grandma came to live with us, which was rather difficult as she loved to be the centre of attention and was very self-willed. She and I had several clashes during my teenage years, and never really got on, though before she came to live with us I used to enjoy staying with her in her upstairs bedsit. My paternal grandma died when I was about 13, and I didn't feel I knew her very well. I didn't have the close relationship with my grandmothers (both grandfathers died before I was born) that my children had with theirs, or that (I hope) mine feel they have with me.

wonderful thread! everybodies memories are so diverse and very interesting.thank you all! excitedly waiting for more

What a great thread! My maternal grandparents were Welsh. I think they came to England just before the second World War. Granch had been a miner and his body was covered in blue scars where coal dust had embedded into cuts and grazes underground. He wasn't very tall, but held himself very upright. I was the first born of their first born. When I passed the 11plus, I remember Granch taking me to a lunch time session at the British Legion and proudly (and rather squiffily) introducing me to his friends and telling them I would be going to grammar school. Granch died just a few weeks before my wedding. Nana insisted on attending the wedding in the lovely taupe coloured costume she and Granch had chosen together, and insisted that he wouldn't want her to wear black. Bless her.

Nana was amazing. She adored all of her 18 grandchildren. I remember being sent to fetch her false teeth from her pinny pocket at tea-time. She used to hold a large loaf of crusty bread in her left arm, high up against her bosum and slice immaculately thin slices towards her body with a wicked knife. Does anyone remember the dreadful railway crash at Wealdstone in 1952? Lots of fatalities.It was the train Nana always used to catch to work. My Mum heard about it on the wireless, I was told 'no school today' and we set off by bus to Nana's house. No phones in those days. We sat in the front seat upstairs on the 189 bus from South Harrow to Wealdstone. My Mum cried all the way there. I was 5. We arrived in Wealdstone to find Nana safe and well at home, she'd been ill in the night and taken her first ever day 'off sick'. A miracle. My Mum died when I was 13. Nana took me under her wing and I spent a lot of time with her.

I didn't see so much of my paternal grandparents. Unusually, and quite scandalously for the time, they were divorced. This Nana lived in London in a very smart house. She always bought presents for Christmas and birthdays that were way too old for us. I remember her giving me a 1000 piece jigsaw of a picture of Beefeaters for my 5th or 6th birthday. It was years before I could do it. Just after the Coronation in 1953, she gave me a large book bound in royal blue leather, with the most glorious colour plates of the Coronation. I wish I still had that book, probably worth a bit!

My paternal grandfather was a rather remote figure. We always thought he was posh...don't know why. He lived in a fairly big house with a wonderful garden that he tended himself. A lady and her daughter lived with him, and as kids, we understood this lady was Grandad's housekeeper. She was always referred to as Mrs W. but in reality, was probably a girl-friend. But in those days, it couldn't be said out loud. She made wonderful meringues in the shape of swans!

How brilliant to have the opportunity to recall these memories! I could go on and on. Thank you for the thread!

In an earlier post we were discussing our choice of names and I said I'd opted for Gran. That's because my own (maternal) Gran was the fun one who took me to the circus, to wonderful Christmas parties and, best of all, my first trip to the theatre to see Peter Pan. Her husband died when I was 5 and my only memory of him was his last illness, sitting on his bed telling him about my first exciting days at school. (Paternal) Granny was always the little old lady who wore a floral crossover pinny and never seemed to go anywhere.That Grandad was never particularly interested in us though kind enough. They were the first in the family to have tv and we had to be so quiet on Saturday evening as our visits coincided with the football results and the checking of the football coupon. Oddly enough it was these paternal grandparents who had had the more glamorous life experience when younger - managing jute mills in India and living the life of the Raj with their servants and Mah Jongg parties while Gran and Grandad at home ran the corner shop. They all had happy endings - no care homes or long-drawn out illnesses and with children, grandchildren and greatgrandchildren closeby.

My father was 40 when I was born - he was the last of 9 children - his father dying in 1904 when my father was just 6 months old - his eldest brother was already in his twenties. His mother died in 1944 - the year I was born and she was in her eighties so I obviously never knew either of them. My maternal grandfather died as well the year I was born although my nan was around till my 23rd year - gosh how I missed out on memories such as the ones you girls have posted. Mr B's great grandmother died when she was 100 1/2 and we have a photo of her with our son which made her his great great grandmother! My grandchildren have a two great grans and one great grandad.

My paternal Grandparents were Welsh, born in the Victorian era and in their early 70s when I was born. Granny was tiny and formidable. I can always remember her wearing either suede boots with zips up the front or check slippers with huge red or blue pom poms. She always wore a crossover floral pinny and lisle stockings. No outing was complete without her hat pinned firmly in place with a huge hatpin. A wicker trolley was a must for shopping trips.
Grandad was stone deaf (or at least pretended to be). Although he had served his apprenticeship as a Baker he ended up working for the Railway for most of his life. He still enjoyed baking though and I can remember how wonderful his cakes and scones tasted.

We lived with my maternal Grandparents. Grandad was especially fond of wine women and song and he and my Nin had a very volatile relationship even at that late stage in their lives. Grandad taught me to read and write and tell the time before I went to school. He wore a woollen bobble hat in bed and ate mushroom soup or raw eggs in milk for breakfast.

I loved my Nin the best, she always wore Revlon Intimate perfume and Aristoc nylons. In her day she had been quite a looker as had Grandad. One of my most treasured memories is of her taking me to our local park after school and pushing me on a swing higher and higher it felt like I was flying. Afterwards there was always a trip to the dairy for a homemade icecream cornet.

She also bought me my first pair of nylons Aristoc of course.

Sadly both my Grandads died within 12 months of one another in the mid 1960s. Granny died in 1972 and Nin outlived them all passing away in 1985 age 91.

I remember vaguely my paternal great grandma but didn't know about my paternal grandparents until my father died and we found the half brother he didn't know he had. I discovered my pat. grandfather was Australian and dad was the result of a liaison in WW1. My pat. grandma died at 21 having had dad and then married someone who'd been keen on her for ages and they had another son. After she died her husband and son went to live with his side of the family and dad was brought up by his grandparents who worked their socks off to give him a good education. His grandfather died when dad was 14 and so it was up to grandma. Luckily a wealthy cousin took him under her wing and he was forever grateful to her [she was delightful] and his grandma for all they did.

I remember my maternal grandparents very well. Mum and I visited them most days and it was BORING. I watched the wrestling with 'Bompa' whilst mum nattered to 'Nana' and sometimes made card houses. I occasionally stayed the night as well. They were kind but didn't go out of their way to play. Unlike dad, mum came from quite a wealthy family but the money dwindled when Bompa became very ill and medication and doctors had to be paid for. In the end Nana ran a very successful B & B. Nana was very domineering but when I was older I stood up to her and she said I was the rudest little girl she'd ever come across. But we got on alright and both said our piece. Dad and Bompa got on well playing chess together especially at Christmas. Grandparents had a different role in those days I think?

Grandmaagain - how lucky you were to have remembered all 4 of your grandparents. Just lovely stories of your memories.