Biography of Malcolm Archbald SMITH
[Ref. S.1]
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Part B: Shaftesbury House | |
Wedding | |
Cottage | |
Children | |
Holidays |
Part A : Manor Road, Verwood
Malcolm married Brenda Audrey Parsons at the Parish church in Farnborough in Hampshire on 11 November 1967. The reception was held at the Frimley Hall Hotel on Portsmouth Road in Camberley after which they took their honeymoon in Paris. On their return they started their married life in the cottage they had bought in Dorset.
Malcolm had previously moved into the cottage, having managed also to get relocated to Southampton with his existing employer, George Wimpey & Co. Brenda was a hairdresser and was lucky to find employement in a salon very close to the cottage. However, he employer did not pay good wages and also refused to pay for holiday time. As a result, Brenda gave up working for him and started working from home. This required planning application which was initially refused but, on appeal, was finally granted.
With the benefit of a good sized vegetable and fruit garden, Malcolm started preserving fruit and vegetables, also making country wines. He considered these to be conducive of living in a cottage in the countryside. He had aquired a large selection of Kilner jars that had originally belonged to his grandparents.
Brenda and Malcolm kept pet cats for most of the time they were in the cottage. Much of their time at home was spent in progressing refurbishment of the cottage and developing the garden. They did take a break now and again to go down the coast which was one of the attractions of living where they were. They also often went down to Somerset to stay with Malcolm's parents at weekends. Malcolm continued with his cycling and went out a couple of times each week exploring the Dorset lanes. One weekend he decided to cycle to his parents whilst Brenda went in her car. Despite stopping for an ice cream and also getting a puncture, he actually got there first. Coming home was a different storey as his backside was so sore that he could not sit on the saddle for the first few miles.
In the early days they had made the aquaintance with a couple who lived a short way along their road, and used to visit them to play cards. One day the wife suddenly left the husband leaving him distraught and unable to stay in his house so Malcolm and Brenda offered to put him up until he could get sorted out. He stayed for a week then moved away from the area.
Brenda had a Triumph Herald car so Malcolm sold his shabby old van for £12 10s. It was not long before he took his wife's car and traded it in for a maroon Wolseley 1500, a car that he had hankered after.
Malcolm had become very friendly with Dave Johnson from his office. He and his wife would come and stay with Malcolm and Brenda and vice versa. In the summer of 1968, they took a joint holiday on the Norfolk Broads. About that time, Brenda's twin sister separated from her husband and together with her two children, she came to stay in the cottage as she had nowhere else to go. It took Malcolm a little adjustment to get used to this instant family, especially when the children woke up early, but he was glad to have been in a position to be able help. Brenda's sister married again the following year and moved io Wiltshire with her children and new husband.
Brenda and Malcolm joined their friends Dave and Flo' on a holiday in Cornwall in 1969. Each couple hosted the occasional party at their home. Brenda and Malcolm held at least three such all-nighters which did not do much for their standing with the neighbours.
In 1970 Malcolm and Brenda stayed in a cottage in Looe, Cornwall. The cottage was owned by a colleague of Brenda's father so was obtained at a reasonable rate. That year Malcolm decided that it was time to change his job as it was getting stagnant and he found employment in Salisbury with the City Council. That proved to be very dull so he moved on again later that year having found an appointment with Lesser Building Systems whoe were located close to home in Verwood.
There was an annual carnival in Verwood and the street procession came right past the cottage so there was a perfect view from the garden. After Malcolm joined Lesser Building Systems in Verwood, there would be rivalry between him and his colleagues participating on Lessers float whereby water would be squirted in both directions. There was quite a bit of social life attached to Lessers. Malcolm and Brenda attended medieval dinners at Beaulieu on a number of occasions. Malcolm also got into the habit of joining in a boys night out at the pub once a week which developed into extending the evening to going to a late night club. He had formed an attachment with a girl called June in the office which caused his wife Brenda enough concern to think she was going to lose him but it was more of a flirtation than anything more serious.
Malcolm's father passed away in 1972. Malcolm amd Brenda were present with Malcolm's mother at his passing at Taunton Hospital. Brenda's father passed away in 1973 and Malcolm acted as his executor. Malcolm and Brenda started another holiday in Cornwall in 1974, camping on a site near St.Just in Roseland, but their tent got blown away on their first night so they went home again. Brenda was a few months pregnant at the time. They had been hoping for a family but had waited over seven years before their first child, James, was born in January 1975. The mortgage on the cottage was paid up on 27 October 1975.
They returned to Cornwall in August 1976, camping on a site near Polzeath. Brenda was pregnant again but unfortunately tripped in a rabbithole which caused her to miscarry which required her to stay in Truro hospital for some days. In October that year they went over to Holland on the Harwich ferry to stay with their friends for a few days in their new house in Huizen.
Starting in February 1977, Malcolm was despatched by his company to provide technical advice on a number of building contracts in Africa. These turned out to be a bit adventurous and were not without risk but were financially well rewarded. Malcolm did return from one of these trips with a broken arm which caused alarm with Brenda when she opened the door on his arrival and saw him looking quite pale and his arm in plaster.
Their second child, William, was born on 6 July 1977. It soon became evident that the cottage was too small to accommodate the whole family, despite the original intention of it being a home for life. Malcolm considered the possibility of extending the building at the back and drew up some tentative plans. One problem was that the roofline of the new extension would be higher than the existing cottage. It was decided eventually that it would be a better prospect to move house so they started looking. They found a very large house called Riverside on the banks of the river Avon at Fordingbridge. It was far too big for them themselves so, having discussed with their mothers who lived by themselves locally, decided to buy the house and divide it up into separated accommodation. However, the sale fell through. The cottage in Manor Road finally sold on 26 June 1978 for £21,000 to Mr & Mrs Stokes, publicans of The Horns Inn of West Parley. Unfortunately they were not suited to the cottage and did not remain there for long. Malcolm managed to keep in touch with successive owners of the cottage so was able to monitor it's development over the years.
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