Mr. & Mrs. Ray were in the churchyard tending her parents grave. They were George and Marjorie Botfield, who died within a few months of each other in a nursing home. Joan’s daughter became interested in clairvoyance, and at a meeting the clairvoyant told her that a grumpy old man was trying to get in touch with her to ask why no one came to clean their gravestone. She replied that he was not grumpy, but following this news, Joan and Alec made the journey to Mathon and the gravestone was cleaned.
Joan and her brother Tony were born at Virginia cottage at the bottom of Harcourt Road., and lived in Mathon until she married Alec Ray, who worked as a civil engineer for the Port of London Authority. They lived in Tottenham until 1963, then Enfield for 20 years then South Mymms. Mathon to Tottenham was quite a change. Joan says “I must have been in love”
Joan’s father George had various jobs. He was a good gardener, a popular man who liked a drink at the “Old Bell”, sang in the choir, worked at Ballards, then at the Wyche Quarry, then for Mr. Davis at Ham Green Farm driving what must have been one of the first combine harvesters seen in these parts. He did contract work, and advertised the service at the Three Counties Show.
Joan remembers wartime very well, and the glow in the sky from distant air raids, and the occasional bomb (South Hide) One or two evacuees stayed with them from Birmingham, but seemed to expect to be waited on, or thought city life with bombs was better than country life without. Joan remembers her absolute terror when she saw her first black Americans, and how she fled into the house.
War time food was quite good. There was often a pheasant or rabbit available and not too many questions were asked about the provenance, and berries, nuts, apples and pears were always available.
She remembers Captain Harrison well; a tall military figure. His wife was the daughter of a baronet. Joan’s mother worked at Mathon Court, and Joan found herself cast in a play, and included rather unwillingly in games of whist, of which she had no experience and dreaded being scolded for making mistakes. Old fashioned dances were popular, and at Colwall Village Club, a penny entrance fee made you eligible for table tennis dancing and refreshments.
Joan attended West Malvern Primary School, Ledbury Grammar then worked in a Ladies Hairdressing Salon, a career choice that got her a scolding from her Headmaster, who “thought she should have done better” Joan had been told to have nothing to do with soldiers, so it was well that when she met Alec who was on “Z” reserve training, he had changed into “civvies” for the evening. When she was driven down the village street to be married “everyone stood at their doors. You knew everybody.”