Stratford St. Andrews Suffolk

Always known as May

Her mother died soon after she was born. She then lived with her father, and grandmother [Mary Ralph], and Aunt Tiny (Anna Maria) at Carlton. Later lived at Stratford St. Andrews at the end of a row of three cottages near the church which she looked after, including tolling the bell. The cottage had no electricity or gas, and water was from a well at the back, the toilet was an earth closet at the end of the garden. Gladys and her family stayed several times in the 1950s. Water for washing in was brought up in a ewer in the morning and poured into the matching bowl which stood on a marble wash-stand. There were chamberpots under the beds to save going out to the toilet which was an earth privy at the end of the garden.. When the well ran dry in hot summers you had to walk through the cornfield to the Geaters farm which had a deeper well. She fostered several children.

1901 census Kelsale St Peter RG 13/1791 with father & grandmother
Millicent M granddaughter age 10