This photo

I came across a photo of Mum and Grandma I don’t remember having seen before, which surprises me because I’ve always liked looking through the old family pictures and albums. I inherited my aunty’s photos (Mum’s sister)  so maybe it’s one of hers. It’s a small black and white photo, 3″x2″, of them in the sitting room presumably at the old house they lived in Harston near Cambridge, Newton View. Mum could be any age between fourteen and eighteen, it’s difficult to tell with her hairstyle and clothes, and she’s sitting sideways to the camera, her head turned towards us, so it’s tricky to be sure. I don’t exactly know when they moved to Harston from the Bedfordshire village of Pavenham, so maybe that was where it was taken – but I don’t think so.

You can see the strange black shape between Mum and Grandma, something went wrong with processing the photo maybe.

The angle Mum’s sitting, with her head turned so she’s looking sideways, is unusual and she looks different – but most other photos she has been full face. She’s smiling slightly, in a familiar way – she knows who’s taking the photo, maybe her sister or Beryl. Her dark wavy hair is clipped back at the side and curls down her back, it’s very thick on the top of her head – maybe styled like that with curlers. I can see me in her face, I can see her sister my Aunty Beryl but I wouldn’t say I really look like her. There’s a curious blemish on the picture, but she’s sitting maybe on a piano stool – I know Grandma was very musical and there was a piano in the big old house, Newton View in Harston. Mum’s wearing a skirt, short sleeved shirt with a crease ironed into it, and a sleeveless jumper. 

Grandma is sitting facing out of the picture, her hands clasped on her lap and she looks relaxed and happy. Strangely enough I can see myself in her face, particularly across the eyes – I have never ever noticed that before in any of the other photos I’ve seen of her. Her short dark hair is neatly brushed away from her face, she must have a side parting on the right side. She’s wearing a short sleeved blouse, with maybe a long frilled collar, it’s not very clear.  Maybe her skirt is dark green or blue, it’s not black, but of course it’s now impossible to tell! It’s a simple but lovely photo, they look as if they’re trying not to laugh, their eyes must be sparkling!

They are in the sitting room – did they call it the living room, or the lounge, or the front room if it was at the front of the house? The wallpaper is patterned, maybe birds or flowers, and there’s a fireplace with a mantle piece on which there are pictures and a clock. One of the pictures is of Mum’s brother Alan. He joined the RAF when he was seventeen and he looks in his early to mid-twenties here – Mum was seven years younger than him. I think it’s a large mirror not a picture above the fireplace but infuriatingly, although I can make out some reflections,  it’s angled so I can’t see the photographer. There are various other items – of furniture I guess but it’s not clear enough to see but maybe grandma is sitting on a couch with a back and raised arm – or maybe it’s something else. Behind Mum is part of a table with things on it – have they just eaten? I can’t tell.

IN many ways the family had a hard life although there was definitely a case of “keeping up appearances”. Grandpa was an extremely intelligent man, but he had many jobs, never found work which gave him “prospects” and his personality must, I think, have caused him to move from place to place of employment. He was very rigid, very, very Victorian, and very strict . I think Grandma had a hard life – he was never unkind, never horrible, but they were deeply incomparable.  There was great tension between him and Mum’s eldest sister, maybe they had similar character traits to each other (although she would have furiously denied it) So there was a lot of tension in the family – which is why this photo is so lovely, showing Grandma looking so relaxed and happy, with an almost mischievous cast to her face.

My featured image shows the family during the war, Alan was away serving in the RAF, Grandpa had joined up for the second time having served in the First War War, and older sister Audrey on the right of the photo also joined the Army. Beryl is next to Grandpa (she was his favourite!) then Grandma, then my mum Monica, holding the family cat.