Title:
Interview with Monica Nash, September 2003
Level: Category
Sound Archive
Level: Fonds
MEMORIES OF CASTLE HEDINGHAM IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Scope and Content:
Interview with Monica Nash about growing up and living in Sible and Castle Hedingham.

Side A of original recording
[Part 1:] Early life; her first house in Swan Street, Sible Hedingham; lived near shoe shop proprietor [Reggie Allison?]; other neighbours (4 minutes 44 seconds).
[Part 2:] Family background: her father’s work, including work at Ripper’s [joinery firm] and gardening; move to Pottery House, Castle Hedingham in 1939, near Old Vicarage in Pottery Lane; childhood toys; childhood friends; Christmas and birthday celebrations (4 minutes 1 second).
[Part 3:] Layout of Swan Street house; father’s role in ARP [Air Raid Precaution] unit; attended school at St Peter’s School in Sible Hedingham, School Hill; journey to school; more detail of move to Pottery House (3 minutes 31 seconds).
[Part 4:] Layout of Pottery House; more detail about schooling: lessons, number of children and classes, teachers and headteacher Mr Baker [break in interview] (3 minutes 52 seconds).
[Part 5:] Facilities in Pottery House: outdoor toilet, tin bath, electric lighting [break in interview] (1 minute 30 seconds).
[Part 6:] Move to Castle Hedingham church school, now Memorial Hall: sharing school with evacuees, lessons in the Women’s Institute (WI) hall; aged 11 moved to secondary school: taking eleven-plus exam, use of building, teacher Dorothy Clark (4 minutes 39 seconds).
[Part 7:] Left school aged 14; started work in office at Ripper’s; at age 16 diagnosed with tuberculosis, left work; spent six months in Black Notley sanatorium; treatments; never returned to work; start of National Health Service and earlier subscription societies; Doctor Bromley’s surgery at The Meadow (6 minutes 19 seconds).
[Part 8:] Other local facilities: food shopping in Castle Hedingham during rationing; mother’s work as housekeeper for doctor; childhood games (2 minutes 43 seconds).
[Part 9:] Involvement in local groups including Brownies and Girl Guides, Guide leaders; leisure time as child, summer holidays; holidays in Clacton[-on-Sea] or Walton [on the Naze] (2 minutes 57 seconds).
[Part 10:] Memories of the Second World War; British soldiers billeted with them; houses bombed near Ripper’s (3 minutes 38 seconds).
[Part 11:] Met [her husband] Morris while working at Ripper’s; story of courting; married at age 21, when Morris was 25, in St Nicholas Church, reception in WI hut; honeymoon in Torquay [Devon]; their early cars; honeymoon interrupted because Morris came out with chicken pox (5 minutes 31 seconds).
[Part 12:] Lived in house owned by Ripper's on Yeldham Road, then called Christmas Field, Morris worked for Ripper’s as secretary and in accounts department; bought current house in 1967/1968; mother’s death in [1955?] (3 minutes 52 seconds).
[Part 13:] First son born in Sudbury, died of cystic fibrosis; two further children born [ends mid-conversation] (2 minutes 25 seconds).

Side B of original recording
[Part 1:] [Continues conversation from Side A] Castle Hedingham in the 1960s: layout of the village, different shops, pubs, and facilities (9 minutes 47 seconds).
[Part 2:] The Falcon Inn, layout and facilities; the post office on St James’s Street, by the Bell Inn; other shops in the village; plumber on Pye Corner [break in interview] (3 minutes 32 seconds).
[Part 3:] Father’s work as groundsman at secondary school; father’s second marriage and move to Sible Hedingham; father’s death from cycling accident in [1965?] [break in interview] (2 minutes 45 seconds).
[Part 4:] Grandparents’ house in Castle Hedingham, facilities [looking at photographs]; grandparents’ deaths in 1952 and 1954; grandmother’s trips to cinema in Halstead; garden at the house; grandfather’s work as brick-maker; grandparents’ move from Woolpit / Rattlesden, Suffolk [break in interview] (5 minutes 32 seconds).
[Part 5:] Celebrating Empire Day, dressing up in Welsh costume [ends mid-sentence] (43 seconds).
Dates of Creation:
September 2003
Extent:
72 minutes 18 seconds
Admin History:
Monica Nash was born Monica Pettit on 24 December 1931 in her grandmother's house in Castle Hedingham. She lived in Swan Street, Sible Hedingham until 1939, when she moved to Pottery House, Castle Hedingham. She developed tuberculosis when she was sixteen years old. She married Morris Nash in 1953 in St Nicholas Church, Castle Hedingham. They had two children together.
Copyright:
Copyright Essex Sound and Video Archive
Physical Characteristics:
Originally recorded on cassette tape.
Related Unit of Description:
See SA 54/64/1 and SA 54/65/1 for two further interviews with Mrs Nash.
Not Available:
Use digital copy available on Soundcloud

Key terms

TypeKey termsDescription
Subjects Education Interview with Monica Nash, September 2003
Subjects Holidays Interview with Monica Nash, September 2003
Subjects Housing Interview with Monica Nash, September 2003
Subjects Housing Interview with Monica Nash, September 2003
Subjects Second World War Interview with Monica Nash, September 2003
Subjects Shopping Interview with Monica Nash, September 2003
Subjects Tuberculosis Interview with Monica Nash, September 2003
Personal Names Mrs
Monica Pettit
Nash 		Interview with Monica Nash, September 2003
Document Types Sound recording Interview with Monica Nash, September 2003
Institutions Black Notley Hospital Interview with Monica Nash, September 2003
Institutions Rippers Ltd Interview with Monica Nash, September 2003