My name is Marguerite Boughton (nee Jepson). I was born on 28th January 1926 at No. 2 (now No. 5) Castle Vale, Knottingley Road, Pontefract. Many people knew me as Babs Jepson.

In 1935 when I was five years old I started school at All Saints' Infants. I stayed there for about two years before going on to Northgate School. School meals were not provided in those days so I used to walk home for lunch and then return to school, which meant I did the journey four times per day - I seem to remember it being quite a long way; through the three arch bridge and past Wilkinson's Liquorice Works, the Skinyards, Schofield's, the Co-op and All Saints' Church. I remember that two sisters, the Misses Cooke, ran a little club for us after school on Mondays. We had tea and played games. One day I took a piece of seed cake which I didn't like but I had to eat it up. Before we went home we all had a bowl of mushy peas. We did a little play once and I was a nurse and my friend Dorothy was a doctor. I had to say, "Oh doctor, dear doctor, will you please to come in, the poor little baby has swallowed a pin". My mother made a lovely top hat for the doctor out of black shiny paper and card.

During the holidays I played with the local children who were my friends - my cousin Bernard Cockshaw (whom I think died young), Irene and Leslie Vause, Renee Shay, Cynthia and Peggy Wright, a boy named Dunhill and Dorothy Mann. We used carts for pirate ships and on one particular occasion I had to walk the plank, falling into a bed of nettles. We used to play on my grandfather's farm. We had a large plank on a huge stone which was our see-saw. Bonfire night was a lovely time - I would be given sixpence with which I bought twelve fireworks and we would sit round the fire eating home-made toffee and parkin. My grandfather had a lovely orchard which we children used to raid but he always came out and chased us away.

Harvest time was another special occasion when we watched the threshing machine working and in late afternoon my uncle and grandfather would come home from the fields riding side saddle on the big cart horses. Imagine this in Knottingley Road today! After being unsaddled these giant horses would gallop up to their stables to enjoy their food. My mother took me to the Statutes Fair in November and I would go on the small flying chairs, amongst other things.

My grandfather was David Cockshaw and apart from having a small farm he was also a local builder. On Saturdays he would take a cart full of vegetables and sell them. I would sometimes go with him and buy fish. Cod was 6d per lb and Halibut was 1/- per lb. Grandmother was a member of the Dawes family who ran a cake shop in Leeds but sadly I never knew her as she died in 1916. As grandfather lived alone, my mother would bake some special tea-cakes on a Saturday night and the following morning I would take some for him. If I was wearing a new dress he would say I looked a 'Bobby Dazzler'. He eventually came to live with us.

I used to go to Sunday School and attended All Saints' Church. My mother had ten children but only three of us survived. Sadly, my eldest brother, Charles Edwin, was killed in the late stages of the First World War, aged 19. My sister Ruth also died aged 19 from kidney failure. The others all died in infancy due to lack of medical care but thankfully we have made so much progress since then. My sister Phoebe worked at the Pontefract Workhouse. One day when she was bathing a man she discovered he had over £100 in a belt round his waist! She eventually went to Essex and met her future husband. My other sister, Thelma, worked in the accounts department at The Pontefract Box Co. Phoebe and Thelma had a double wedding at All Saints' Church on Boxing Day 1934. Thelma married Hubert Moxon who worked for Mr H. Holmes. After the wedding they moved to Ipswich where Hubert took up his position as assistant secretary at Ipswich Hospital. After Ruth's death we also moved to Ipswich.

Sadly I shall not be able to visit Pontefract any more as I am now confined to a wheelchair, but your magazine's contents and pictures give me great joy and bring back many happy memories of my life there. Keep up the good work!!

Marguerite Boughton
Suffolk