The Terrible Two and the kiddly-winks

I was born and brought up in Cambridge; we lived in a rented ground floor flat, with two bedrooms, a sitting room, kitchen and separate bathroom and toilet. The layout of the flat was an L shape and Andy, my sister and I shared the bedroom at the front of the house at the end of the long arm of the L. The bathroom and toilet were off the passageway on one side, and at some point a door was made on the other side which led to the stairs to the upstairs flat. Aunty Gladys lived upstairs and she owned our flat as well as hers.

Although Aunty Gladys, Mrs Benstead, was our landlady she really was an aunty and dear friend of the family. She was an elderly widow, her husband had been a banker, and she had one son Dick who worked in the Middle East, Qatar was one of his postings.

The pair of flats were attached to another pair, mirroring ours, Peter and Eileen Black lived in the bottom flat with their little girl Elaine. These little blocks of four flats, with long, long gardens stretching away at the back to a wall along some allotments, had been built, along with many others along Metcalf Road, by S. Ginn & Sons in about 1950. Across the drive from us was another little block, 16 and 16A Metcalf Road, and one of the sons of S. Ginn & Sons lived there; he was Peter, married to Beryl, Uncle Pete and Aunty Beryl.

Peter and Beryl had two children the same age as Andy and me; I became best friends with Richard, and Andy was best friends with Helen. Richard and I were the Terrible Two, Andy and Helen were the kiddly-winks, although they called themselves Uggy and Nuffy… but no-one now remembers which was which!