Josephine Fisher – nee Prior.

I was born on May 4th 1944 at my maternal grandmothers home, No 3 the Council houses, Litcham Road, weighing in at a healthy 10lbs 4ozs and named Josephine Decima.

My earliest memory is of my grandfather (Fred Walpole) in his shed at the bottom of his garden mending shoes using a last (Tomboy). I was about 18 months old. Grandad died before I was 2yrs old.

My granny Prior lived in a cottage near the school, next to North View, the cottage has long gone. I remember going to see her, me riding in a child’s basket seat on the back of mums bicycle. I was told not to bother her, as she was very ill. I had a little bat with a ball on a piece of elastic with me. I can see her now sitting on her black leatherette horsehair filled chaise-longue type settee showing me how to pat the ball up and down. I was three years old.
At four and a half, I can remember lying on the bed with my mum while she rested before the birth of my sister, looking at my favourite rag books with zoo animals in them. Later I can remember being taken from home by my Auntie Eileen and my Nanny Walpole- obedient but very bewildered because my mum wasn’t coming with me. When they brought me back I had a new baby sister lying in a carrycot by the bed.

Other Childhood Memories:
-The malodours chamber pots under the bed.
-Going outside to the bucket toilet on a cold winters night.
-Mum boiling the washing on the kitchen table using two primus stoves with containers on top and the kitchen full of steam.
-Rinsing the washing in a tin bath, out side when fine or in the wash shed when wet.
-Recketts Blue Bag.
-Feeling cold mangling the wet washing.
-Long thick navy bloomers ugh! I was nearly eleven before I was allowed to have a pair each of pink and green- bought by my aunt and nanny on a shopping trip- very daring!!
-Liberty bodices with rubber buttons that perished and became sticky and difficult to fasten.
-The threat of having to wear a corset, because I was a plump child (I must have been all of eight years old)
-Chapped inner thighs caused by jumping into ice-encrusted snowdrifts in Back Lane (opposite the wood yard), sometime in the early 50’s.
-Eating “fourses” under a stack with my Aunt Maud and my cousins Madeline & Barbara Prior, their father was the team-man at harvest time he was in charge of the horse and wagon which brought the sheaves of corn from the field to the stack.
-Tramping for miles up lanes, over fields, in and out of ditches and woods to collect wild flowers. I can still list all the best places where we were able to find violets, primroses, lady’s fingers, cowslips, blue bells, wild foxgloves, lily of the valley and orchids. This I used to do with my sister or my cousins. We were always quite safe- such freedom is lost to today’s children.
-Catching stickle backs in jam jars.
-Bringing home frogs spawn or tadpoles in old glass accumulator cases.
-Collecting wild mushrooms, wild strawberries, blackberries and hazel nuts.
-Finding the first primroses, pussy willow, catkins and violets to make a small poesy, kept fresh in an eggcup and hidden in the cupboard ready to give to mum on Mothering Sunday.

-Going to Sunday school in a room at the side of the vicarage and getting a religious ‘sticker’ to put on a special sheet each time I attended. I also went to Sunday school in the Methodist Chapel, which stood opposite the cottage where we lived. This was run by a gentleman called Mr Palmer who lived in Beetley, and kept a flower shop in Dereham. This Sunday school stopped because of the shortage of petrol in the 50’s. I used to love singing the little songs e.g. “Jesus Wants me for a sunbeam and Jesus loves me this I know”.
-Collecting milk in a white enamel can with a lid from Mr & Mrs Daws house, sometimes I did it on my own, sometimes with my sister. One day Mrs Daws told us how pretty we looked in our new dresses “yes” I replied “and we’ve got knickers to match” and I promptly pulled up our dresses to show her- so proud was I of these new garments. Mrs Daws was very generous to us children and gave us a storybook each at Christmas time. In my loft now I still have the ones she gave me signed Happy Christmas from E A Daws- I loved books then and still do.
-Being an Ovaltiney. I still have the badge amongst my treasures and can remember the song, which accompanied each broadcast from Radio Luxemburg, the reception was not all it should have been.
-Listening to “listen with mother” with Daphne Oxenford. This would begin with a musical introduction which went bingdy- bong, bingdy-bong and then she would say ‘are you sitting comfortably___ Then I’ll begin. This 15-minute child time was then followed at 2pm by Woman’s Hour.
- The Archers were a great favourite as was Mrs Dales Diary.
-Journey Into Space- this used to be quite scary to a child with a vivid imagination.
-I was taught by my mother to knit and sew, and to make rag rugs from Hessian sacks and pieces of cut up material from old coats, trousers, skirts and jackets. How those rugs collected dust. I hated having to beat them on the line to clean them.
- From the age of 10/11 I had to cook meals, bake cakes and clean the house on a Saturday while mum was at work.
-As a young teenager I once had to kill a chicken for lunch- my father couldn’t bring himself to do it. He caught it from the chicken run and then I had to put its neck across my knee and pull to break it. Plucking and dressing chickens as well as skinning rabbits were things I learned to do at an early age.
-One of the most scary jobs I had to do as a teenager was to scrape out our chimney pot, as my father had no head for heights I had to climb the ladder, crawl up the tiles and stand on the ridge tiles to scrape the soot out of the chimney pot.

Supplying our needs.
-Furniture was often second had but occasionally we went to see a Mr Phillipo who lived at Guist. He did house clearances as well as stocking some new serviceable furniture, this could be viewed in sheds and old railway carriages.
-On our bed we had a flock mattress with a feather one on top, which had to be turned each week to fluff it up.
-Coal was purchased from and delivered by Tuck Brothers from Brisley.
-Meat came from Litcham, brought in the back of a pony and trap. Often in the summer this arrived with fly eggs on it, it then had to be washed in vinegar and water and then cooked or put in the meat safe. Later when meat was delivered in a van we did not have this problem.
-Bread came from Arthur Minister’s bakery, I can still smell the delicious aroma of freshly baked bread and those straight from the oven hot cross buns collected on Good Friday morning.
-Kitty Goderson brought the letters on her bicycle.
-Jack Merton from Tittleshall brought the newspapers, which included over the years: The Daily Herald, The Daily Mirror, The News Of The World- from which I learned with the aid of a dictionary the meanings of lots of new words!!! The Picture Post, The Illustrated, Tiny Tots, Chicks Own and School Friend.
-Mr Tomlin Kept the Post Office and Stores.
-Mr & Mrs Bow and later Mr & Mrs Donaley kept the General Stores. When sweets came off ration it was to this shop my sister Sheila and I would go to get our sweets on a Saturday. We had 2/- each. It seems a lot but whatever you bought had to last all week. We soon learned to buy wisely I remember Sharps mixed toffees were 10d a quarter and didn’t seem to last very long. One week I bought marshmallows which were delicious but they used up a lot of my 24 pennies and were gone by Monday- I didn’t make that mistake again Aniseed Balls, Liquorice and fruit chews at 4 for 1d were much better value, as were gob-stoppers at 1d each. These felt enormous in our young mouths.
-Mr Goodwin from Bradenham, who travelled round the villages in his van, brought clothes of all descriptions for you to try on in the privacy of your own home. I think he also sold a variety of household items.
-The fish man also had his regular day as did the Corona man- Cider apple and Dandelion and Burdock being my favourite dinks.
-When cars became more popular Mr Charlton had one petrol pump at the entrance to his drive (Taormina)
-There was a gentleman in the village nicknamed Johnny Hardup who used to come round to buy rabbit skins which we used to have hanging up in the shed to dry. He also used to take away Tom cats (the reason was not explained to us young children) and then bring them back the next day or so looking miserable!!
-Sometimes gypsies came to the door selling pegs and telling fortunes.
-Twice I can remember Indian men wearing turbans calling at the door with a suitcase full of brightly coloured items such as neckties. We were quite scared of them- because they looked different, spoke differently and had dark skin, which was something you did not encounter in a rural backwater in the 50’s.
-Cockles’ winkles and samphire were also sold at the door when in season.
-Sheila Edge now Sheila Thomson was the mobile hairdresser- travelling to nearby villages on her bicycle. Most of the time if we wanted curly hair we used curling pins or we had a home perm- Prom Twink, Tiny Twink and Style come to mind- then we ended up looking like golliwogs.

Outings, Excursions and Holidays.
An Austin 7 was our first car followed by an Austin 10. Going to London in the 50’s was a long arduous journey. We used to go on occasions to visit my mums Uncle George and Aunt Dolly who lived in Leytonstone. I can still remember gaps in the rows of terraced houses where bombs had dropped. It was here that I had my first encounter with a flush toilet, you still had to go out side to get to it but it certainly felt ‘posh’ compared to our bucket job back home with it’s squares of Daily Herald or Farmer & Stock Breeder hung on a nail. I can still remember the smell emanating from aunt Dolly’s kitchen as she whale meat for her pets. The boredom of the journey was broken by looking for certain landmarks which we children found entertaining for example Six Mile Bottom and Ugly, there was also a pub on the way called the Whalebone which had a real Whalebone outside but where it was or is I do not know. Once we got to Epping Forest and saw signs for Whippscross Hospital we knew we were nearly there.
We also went once to Chingford to stay with mum’s cousin. Here I saw my first television-black and white of course. I was allowed to watch a children’s story about Mosses. We were also able to go to Walthamstow market. The fish stall fascinated me as it had a tray of live eels on it, all slithery and slimy, that is until a customer came to buy her eels. She choose the ones she wanted. The stallholder picked them out and chopped them up live and wrapped the still wriggling pieces in newspaper. “I was horrified”.
When I was about six we went to stay with an uncle and aunt in Leicester. I couldn’t believe how ‘posh’ they were as they had their milk delivered to the door in a rattly milk van.
We also sometimes went to Wroxham, either for the day or for a holiday. Here uncle Bob and aunt Mary lived in a cottage on the edge of the railway embankment in a yard behind Potters Grocery Shop off Castle Street. When the train came by the house shook. If we weren’t having our meals we used to run out and stand by the bridge in Castle Street and watch the train. Ahh!! The smell of the smoke and steam. Just before the bridge a man used to hang out of the cab and grab a leather bag from a pole. I was told this was something to do with a key to change the points- true or not I do not know. To get to Wroxham we used to go along all the back roads through Attlebridge and Felthorpe, emerging near the Recruiting Sergeant pub just outside Coltishall. This was because my dad wouldn’t drive “on that very busy Norwich ring road”. That was in the 50’s, what would he have thought of it now? Walking down to see the boats from the top of the original Wroxham Bridge while devouring a 3d cornet was a treat for us. Whenever we stayed in Wroxham, one afternoon had to be spent at Ben Jordans Motor Scrap Yard in Coltishall- not an exciting out for two little girls.
Uncle bob was a retained fireman and his brass helmet always stood on top of a tall cupboard by the front door. One night while we were staying there the summoning bell in his roof went off. I can still hear him clattering down the stairs and across the yard on his way to the fire station.
We occasionally went to Dereham or Swaffham Market on a Saturday afternoon with a few pennies in our child’s handbags to spend.
Our chapel Sunday school outings took us to Yarmouth on Carters bus. The most I ever had to spend was half a crown, this had to be earned, or saved from my birthday money in May. To earn money my dad paid me 1d (one penny) to pick up a 5 gallon galvanised bucket of potatoes, which he had dug up.
These had to be pick up according to size, carried across our cottage garden and tipped into a Hessian sack, which he would remove when full. This was very hard work for a girl of 7,8,or 9 years old.
Apart from these outings Sunday walks were often taken with Aunt Maud, Uncle Ben and cousins Madeline & Barbara. We would also go to Beeston on occasions to see Auntie Eileen, Uncle Ronnie Rye and cousin Michael. The land near their house used to form part of Beeston Airfield on which these were concrete bunkers like buildings- (dugouts), which had steps leading down to the dark dampness. Here we would find frogs. It was fun to run across their meadows full or tall grass, buttercups and oxeyed daisies.
Auntie Eileen was more modern than us, she had a pump near her kitchen sink to give her a fresh cold-water supply- that’s if you raised and lowered the handle fast enough. We on the other hand had to collect our drinking water from a well near Mileham Bakery. This dad carried home two bucketsful at a time. For bathing, washing up and laundry. We used rainwater from the tank outside, heated on the coal fire in the early days until mum earned enough money fruit picking to buy a Burco Boiler.

My school days
I started at Mileham School at the beginning of the summer term1949, with Miss Gwendolin Forder as my infant teacher. I was only in the infants for 5 terms, going up into the Junior room in January 1951 because Miss Forder and Mrs Cheyney thought I was bright enough to do so- quite daunting for a six year old working in the same room as 11yr olds. Because of my short stay in the infants I have only a few memories of my time there.
-Being the only child banned from going on the lovely dappled grey wooden rocking horse because they said I was too fat (I weighed about 4 stone).
-Doing dictation using a slate, chalk and a cleaning rag. Every time I did dictation I spelled the word WHO as HOW – nobody ever told me how to spell it correctly.
-I was a child who sucked my thumb- this would annoy Miss Forder and she would grind the offending thumb into a bar of red carbolic soap in order to break me of the habit- it didn’t work.
-Another girl used to wriggle her knees while she sat at her desk, Miss Forder used to tie her legs to the desk. (I wonder what would happen if a teacher tried that today!!).
-The one and only time I was punished as an infant was because while the teacher was out of the room, I jumped up and down in the gangway near my desk shouting “Holidays Tomorrow”. The teacher returned and heard me. For this I was sent to sit in the cold cloakroom with the admonishments of Miss Forder ringing in my ears. I was terrified my parents would find out that I had been naughty.
-We were allowed to take something to eat at break time. One day my mum gave me a few sugared almonds wrapped in a paper bag. While going to the outside bucket toilet, these fell out of my pocket onto the toilet, I retrieved them, wiped them and tried one. I didn’t like the taste so I swapped the rest with another girl for a pear. She said they were lovely, I never did tell her where they had been or why they were sticky.
-My first steps into the realms of acting was as a five year old with black curly hair. I had to be a gollywog in a toyshop. My face was blackened with a burnt cork and I had to say, “Why do you stare at my black face and my curly hair. I have trousers of red and a coat of blue.”
-It was when I moved up to the Junior Room that I had my first taste of bullying, I was plumper than the others of my age, so I was “picked on” by some of the older children- boys & girls- thumps, nips and name calling were everyday occurrences. I carried the name ‘Fatty Prior’ for the remainder of my time at Mileham School. This led me to tell the biggest white lie of my time at Mileham School. I told Mrs Cheyney that the doctor said I was too fat and didn’t have to drink my 1/3pt of milk each day. I hated milk sour in the summer and frozen in the winter and I still do.
Teeth were also examined at school, if these were any problems we were taken in an old Bedford van to Crown Road School in Dereham where there was a dental caravan. Here the dentist had a pedal driven drill- “such agonies”.
-When I joined the junior class I had to sit at the front. As I got older I gradually moved to the colder region at the back of the room. The fire was in the right hand corner of the room surrounded by a metal fireguard, which seemed to absorb all the heat.
-The teacher’s desk and chair were on a raised platform at the side of the fire. On the front of her desk she always kept the cane as a timely reminder to us all. It was never used on me, but I did get my bottom smacked because of my poor handwriting.
-Reading books were kept in a tall cupboard- there was a very limited supply of these. The covers were red, blue or green with few or no pictures in them. The only book I can remember having one coloured picture was the bible. Every day we had a scripture lesson, maths and English of some form or another. We also had some lessons from the radio, singing together and nature study come to mind.
-As we grew older we had certain duties in the class room such as filling the ink wells, ringing the bell at the beginning of the morning and afternoon sessions, being a dinner monitor and serving food to the younger children at the table and milk monitor also it was the job of two children to take a plate of school dinner to the head teachers husband at the school house.
-Highlights and only outing of my junior school era were an excursion to Grimes Graves near Brandon and a visit to Dereham cinema to see the coronation in glorious Technicolor, with the ‘B’ film being the Living Desert, both of these I found extremely enjoyable. I well remember the day king George VI died. At about 11.45 the classroom door burst open and Elsie Twaits who was are dinner lady rushed up to the teachers desk and announced “The King is dead”. Where upon she burst into tears, which quite astounded us children seeing an adult cry. We were given a New Testament Bible and a little purple pamphlet by the Rev Squiries also a coronation mug.
-For the village celebration my mum made a fancy dress outfit for me and my sister. I was to be queen of hearts with red white and blue hearts sewn onto an old bridesmaids dress, but it rained at the time of the parade and I was not allowed to participate. I watched it from our window feeling very disappointed. Missing the parade spoiled the evening at the school where there was an entertainer doing magic tricks.
-Each summer at school we attended our ‘plots’- a small piece of ground each sheared by two children. We grew flowers and veg seed, watered and weeded. Was it here my love for gardening was born?
-We had a sports day each year. If you won an event you received a threepenny bit, second got 2d and third 1d. The only event I could achieve in was skipping- an endurance event. Here I did win the coveted 3d.
-Summertime also meant we went out for at least one “Nature Walk” up Rudds Drift collecting flowers and leaves. Whether we used any of our finds for artistic or discussion purposes I do not remember.
-In 1954 and1955 a group of us older children attended a country-dance party at Litcham School where we joined with other children from neighbouring villages to perform the country dances we had learned- refreshments were supplied.
-In 1955 I took the 11+ exam. The school was closed for a day and a teacher from another school helped to invigilate. Julian Cason passed “straight through” to go to Hammonds Grammar at Swaffham. I was a borderline case and had to take a second part. Instead of being Fatty Prior I was the hero of the day because the whole school had a day off while I spent just the morning doing some more exams. I did pass and gained a place at Dereham High School for girls.

My father didn’t believe in girls receiving grammar school education as they would eventually get married and “all that education would be wasted”. Thankfully my mother had other views. She worked hard to provide the money for my uniform- my blazer alone cost her a weeks wages. This uniform could only be bought from greens in Norwich- a Saturday outing on Carters bus.
-That 1955 summer holiday, I spent working along side my auntie Edie at Colley Hill Farm rowing in- i.e. putting sheaves of corn into stooks for the men to cart away to the stacks after it had dried sufficiently. For my work Mr Albert Daws paid me £2, which went towards my uniform. This set the pattern for earning money until I got married in August 1965 at the age of 21, having just qualified as a primary school teacher. Jobs that I did to earn money included current picking, strawberry picking, and egg washing plus cooking and cleaning. The worst job of all was when I was 20 and that was being shut in a factory for the whole summer holiday period at Great Witchingham working as an evisorator- pulling entrails out of still warm turkeys for Bernard Matthews. What ever I did it did enable me to buy my own clothes and to be fashionable like other girls of my own age.
-I started at Dereham High School in September 1955 travelling there on Carters Bus. Only one day were we unable to get there because of snow. Apart from that I attended every day with two days out for collage interviews.
-I managed to secure a place at St Osyths Training Collage For Girls at Clacton-On-Sea for September 1962 leaving there as a qualified teacher in July 1965.
-As a child I knew I wanted to be a teacher. I also wanted to earn enough money to own my own house with a proper bathroom and flush toilet (with proper toilet paper).
Having watched many planes go into Sculthorpe and Raynham airfields, I wanted to find out what it was like to travel in a plane and to see other parts of the world I had only read about in geography books. All these things I have achieved. For all this I have to thank my mother who was determined that if I had the ability to get a good education then she would work hard to see that I took advantage of it.

Festivals, events and happenings.

I can’t ever remembering celebrating the New Year until I became an adult and in my late 20’s.
-The first event of the year that was celebrated as a child was Valentines Day when Jack Valentine or Father Valentine used to visit our house in the evening- surprisingly enough when my father when out to check on the chickens or to go the outside toilet. A knock at the door and when we when to see who was there, there was a box or a parcel on the step. Inside was a small gift for my sister and myself.
-Mother’s day came next. For this we would take a walk along Tittleshall Road to find the first spring flowers- primroses, violets, catkins and pussy willow. These were made into a small posy, which was then hidden ready to be given to mum on Sunday morning. When we had some pocket money we also bought a little gift from the village shop.
-When Easter arrived it was usually the job of us children to walk up the road to Arthur Minister’s bakery to collect our pre-ordered bag of hot cross buns. Sometimes we had to wait in the bakery until they had finished cooking. Then we would carry our bag of warm spicy buns home to be spread with margarine or butter-“delicious”. We also had an Easter Egg or two but being thrifty I preferred the small solid ones to the hollow ones- much better value for money.
-As a teenager it was usual to have a new outfit to wear to church on Easter Sunday- bought with some of the money I had earned the previous summer.
-Just before my birthday in May, the tulips in the garden began to open. We had a particular one- pink with raggedy edges, which came up every year. I was told that this was where the birthday fairy lived and when the tulip opened she would come out and bring me my present. It was quite an anxious time for a small child, worrying in case the flower would not open in time. When it was my birthday my sister always got a small ”unbirthday” gift. This was reciprocated on her birthday in November, then neither of us felt left out, an idea I used when my own children were small- “they loved it”.
-Harvest thanksgiving was an important event in the village. Most families sent homegrown contributions and it seemed that everyone turned out for the evening service. For some this was the annual visit to church.
-Bonfire night was fun, we used to collect our hedge clippings and other bits and pieces and make a big heap in the middle of the garden. Nearer the date my sister and I used to stuff an old boiler suit, make a brown paper head and find an old cap to make the Guy. On the night he would be placed on the heap and saved newspapers were put around the bottom.
Purchasing our fireworks was a time of great deliberation to get the best value for money. We never bought prepared boxes because they contained ‘bangers’ Little Imps. We liked the pretty ones and Jumping Jacks. Our cousins usually joined us with their fireworks so we had a good display.
-Christmas or the anticipation of it was a very exciting time, trying to guess what you would get for a main present. Every Christmas brought a water bottle, an annual, a game, a small toy and a selection box. These were put in a named pillowcase on the chair by the hearth. My favourite ‘big’ present was a Patsy Doll with moving eyes and feeding bottle. When I was very small a stocking was hung up and some food and drink was always left for Santa.
Before Christmas paper chains and later crepe paper twists had to be made or bought. The Christmas tree- often a fir or holly branch cut from the wood or a hedgerow, which was found by my parents. The baubles were brought down from the top shelf of the cupboard and hung on the branch. When sweets came off ration and it was possible to get chocolate shapes in foil and sugar mice, these too were hung on the tree. Before the sweets were hung, they were counted and into a box or tin an equivalent piece of card was put with the name of the sweet on it. Then when we had our Christmas party each child took turns to pick a piece of card and have that sweet from the tree.
The party was eagerly looked forward too. There was myself, my sister, my cousins Barbara & Madeline Prior, my cousin Michael Rye from Beeston with his playmate Keith Skipper (what ever came of him). On one or two occasions one of Keith’s sisters or brothers came too. I loved our parties, sandwiches, jelly, blancmange, chocolate biscuits and various small cakes soon disappeared into young mouths. Then it was time for games such as pass the parcel, cutting the jelly or Mars bar (we took it in turns to throw a dice, if you threw a 6 you had to dress up in an assortment of over large clothes and then try to cut and eat a piece of jelly or Mars bar before someone else threw a 6) remembering an assortment of items on a tray and postman’s knock were some of the games we played. Before home time we dipped into the box in turn to retrieve a piece of card and had that sweet from the tree, this continued until all the sweets had been removed. All good homely fun and the highlight of the year for us.
-In 1958 the lady at the shop (a member of RADA) rallied a number of villages plus one or two from elsewhere to take part in a Nativity play to be performed in the church. I was lucky enough to be chosen to play the role of Mary. My dad was a shepherd and my sister a page to a wise man. We held a number of performances inviting audiences from other church congregations.

-Also around this time her husband started a Youth Club but this folded after a while, as he was unable to get any help with leadership.
-I began confirmation classes at the age of 11 and on Assention Day 1956 was confirmed in North Elmham church by the Bishop of Thetford. From then on I was a regular attender at morning service where my jobs included laying out and collecting the prayer books, ringing the bells and taking the collection. I was also involved with door-to-door carol singing.
-As a teenager I occasionally went to the cinema at Dereham or Fakenham, it cost 2/- to get there and 1/9 to go in the cinema. The first film I saw was Bridge over the river Kwai.
-As a young person growing up in a relatively isolated village there were not many activities which I could join in within cycling distance and any way I had the added burden of what seemed at the time, endless homework which restricted any social life, as did the strict- no later than 8-30pm bedtime.
-As children we were not allowed to play out in the street, we amused ourselves in our own garden. We had a swing which was a rope tied to a tree, a see saw which was a thin trunk of a tree fitted in a crotch of our cherry tree. We also played skipping, hopscotch, five stones or snobs, two balls on the wall, marbles and later on hula-hoop.
-We also had a dolls pram, dolls, and tea sets. There were jigsaws, board games (Ludo, snakes and ladders, Blow football, flip-a-cap, crown and archer). Little Woman, Jo’s Boys, Little Men, Black Beauty etc. Endless Enid Blyton books e.g. Secret Seven, Famous Five, Noddy and Big Ears, Rupert Bear and Toby Twirl provided our reading matter (now all safely stored away in my loft). Colouring and painting books along with a John Bull printing set also kept me busy.