Nell Hart

Nellie Alice May Hart Autobiography Part 1

Nell Inglis

Recollections of my Family

I can remember my Great Grandmother on my Dad's side of the family.

Great Granny Lacey we called her. She lived in one of Lord Wimborne's cottages in Wimborne Road near the New Inn. Her husband had been dead a few years by then. She spent the last years of her life in her cottage with her two sons Henry and Ted. The two boys never married and were dockers on Poole Quay for years. The one and only daughter was named Eliza Lacey but was always called Ellen.

When I was about seven years old my cousin Nell and I would visit Great Granny Lacey every Sunday afternoon and have tea with her. She seemed very old to us children but she was always very jolly.

Granny Lacey's Ellen married John Hart and went to live in one of Lord Wimborne's houses in the Ringwood Road near the Shah of Persia. In due course she had twelve children - Bill, George, Jim, Bessie, Alice, Jane and Mary were the only ones to survive. Ellen's husband was a paviour and worked for Poole Corporation paving the streets of Poole. Granny Hart was the loveliest person you could meet.

Uncle Bill was Granny Hart's eldest son. He was tall, broad shouldered and a bit of a lad. He worked on Poole Quay during the day and went poaching for rabbits at night at Canford Heath with his Lurcher dog. Bill married Martha and had two sons Walt and Ted. They all lived in the top room at Scaplen's Court which were later blown down in the gales. I used to spend every Saturday night there while Uncle Bill, Aunt Martha and my Aunt Mary went out together and spent the evening at the Antelope next door.

Coo! Memories of long ago.

George Hart who later became my Dad married Alice Jane Burden from Lytchett Minster. They went to live at Kingston Road, Heckford Park, Poole. My Mum had six children and at the age of twenty-six died in childbirth. Three of the children lived and three died. The survivors were my brother George, the eldest, then me, born one year later then Percy two years after that.

When Mum died we were all taken to Granny Hart's to live, where we stayed until we left school to go out to work.

After a time my Dad married again to a Miss Eliza Sargeant from Mapperton in Dorset.

Dad was Bricklayer Foreman for Burt and Vick's the Builders. He was sent to do a job at Major Wheatley's house where he met Eliza who was the cook and eventually married.

Dad rented the old cottage next to the Shah of Persia where they lived for many years. He was the Treasurer of the Slate Club at the Shah for twenty years.

None of us children ever returned home as we could not stand the sight of Eliza and thought her big, fat and horrible. Se hated us too. Ugh! Years later Dad bought a bungalow in Harbour Hill Road and they both died there eventually.

Uncle Jim was a very cheery little fellow, not like his brothers. He was very fond of pigeons and was called pigeon crazy. He had a large pigeon house at the bottom of Granny's garden. He worked as a gardener at Branksome Park.

He married Minnie Ashdown who was a nurse and they went to live in Kingston Road, two doors away from where we had lived with Mum and Dad when we were children.

They had two boys, George and William.

Uncle Jim was not very strong and died at the age of thirty leaving Aunt Minnie to bring up the two boys and go out to work.

She was cook at the house in Branksome Park where Uncle Jim had worked before he died. Aunt Minnie had to walk there and back every day and then work half the night looking after the house and seeing to the needs of her children. There was no help in those days.

Later on in years when they were older George and Bill bought the house where I live now. Sadly Aunt Minnie only lived two years after moving there and soon after George and Bill had to join up in the war.

Aunt Jane was a lovely person and a great help to my Mum when she was ill. She married Bob Rigler, one of an old Poole family. They went to live in Garland Road which is a few minutes away from Kingston Road and spent the rest of their lives there. They had five children, George, Fred, Charlie, Isabel and Edie. Edie is the only one now living - she lives in a Council Warden flat in Hamworthy.

Uncle Bob was a very jolly fat man and used to make us all laugh a lot. Aunt Jane took the baby which Mum had when she died and looked after it but it became very ill and she had the clergy come from Longfleet Church come and christen it in her front room where it died the next day. When we went to see it she had the little coffin filled with lilies of the valley - my Mum's favourite flower which were also on her memorial which I still have.

Aunt Alice married a John Hoban and went to live in London. When the South African War broke out John Hoban had to go there to fight where he was later killed.

Aunt Alice had a baby daughter which she brought back to her Mum (Granny Hart) to look after, then returned to London and later married a Mr. Peckam, a butcher. They had five children, Phyllis, Louie, Bert, Edie and Win.

Part 2
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