MRS DENISE GREEN TALKING TO MARY TREACHER AND MURRAY ROSE ABOUT HER MOTHER,
JOY BEAZER, ON 9TH FEBRUARY, 2022 AT 22 FLEET STREET, BEAMINSTER
TRANSCRIBED BY SALLY WAKEFIELD MARCH 2022
MT = Mary Treacher
DG = Denise Green
MR = Murray Rose
Murray Rose introduces the interview.
MT I only knew your mother Denise during her final years but I know that she had a very difficult start to her life and I wondered if you would like to tell us a litte bit about that.
DG Yes, of course. She was born on the 11th September, 1928 to Muriel Robinson of Swindon. Unfortunately Muriel wasn’t married so my mother was advertised in the Western Gazette in October of ’28 and Cecilia Radford, who was a spinster at the time, decided that she’d like to have her so she wrote to them and she had a reply to say that she could come and see the baby and she was bought from these people for £50 and she brought her home and changed her name then to Dorothy Joy. So she was then Dorothy Joy Radford. At a later date Cecilia married Christopher Coles and they went on to have a son shortly afterwards so my mother then was known as Dorothy Radford Coles.
MT And where was she brought up?
DG In Thorncombe. Well, just outside of Thorncombe.
MT And would you say that she had a happy childhood?
DG Yes, very happy. My grandfather – I call him my grandfather – they had a smallholding and then they had a wooden bungalow built and they lived there until my mother got married.
MT And where was your mother educated?
DG In Thorncombe at the village school.
MT And she went through to what sort of age?
DG Must have been about 14 or 15.
MT And she went to work after that?
DG Yes, she went to work for Colonel & Mrs. Casson who lived in Blackdown looking afer their dogs. They used to breed dogs as part of what they were doing so she helped them out with that until she got married.
MT And where and when did she meet your father?
DG I think they met at a dance in Blackdown, in Blackdown Village Hall and they were married and then went on obviously to have the six of us children.
MT And then they moved to Beaminster did they?
DG Yes, they moved to Beaminster in 1949. They had two of the boys, John and Douglas first with them and then , shortly after they arrived in Beaminster, Robert was born and after that they had Frank and then myself and my sister Janet.
MT And they came straight to the house as it now is in Fairfield?
DG Yes. Yes they did. They were new houses, Council houses, that had been built.
MT You needed elastic walls with a family of that size!
DG Yes we did.
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MT But you all fitted in to it alright.
DG We did, yes, we did.
MT And you said that your mother and your father had six children, that was the four boys and then the two girls and one boy in particular was with the Metropolitan Police in London?
DG Yes that was Robert.
MT Robert who……………. would you like to tell us a little about Robert?
DG Yes. He first of all was in the navy but then they were making redundancies so he joined the Metropolitan Police and really enjoyed it. He had just been accepted to do CID work when he had an accident and died. He was going to the aid of a young boy that was being savaged by alsations and unfortunately he had an accident in the police car and died subsequently. It was very difficult at the time.
MT It must have been a terrible blow for you all especially your parents. But I gather that you felt that he was very much honoured amongst other Metropolitan Police that died during their course of duty?
DG Yes, they gave him a wonderful send off here in Beaminster. A lot of policemen came down and carried the coffin and there was a big march up through the street and the shops and things closed and it was a wonderful send off for him.
MT That was wonderful. Have you got any idea of the date? Is that difficult to……………….
DG That was in – I have it at home somewhere.
MT How old were you at the time?
DG I was 19 at the time and he was 21. That must have been ’61.
MT That must have been devastating.
DG Yes it was because I was very fond of him. I used to see him quite a lot, well we all did, but I probably saw him more han most but he was very well thought of and it did hit us all very hard.
MT I bet it did. And all the rest of you, the other five children, you all remained in the vicinity?
DG Well, I was actually away working at the time. I was away in Newcastle but I came back and then the rest – John and Doug were in the army, or joined the army, and Frank was local and my sister was still at school. Then she went on to university. But we’ve all come back to this area.
MT That must have been a great comfort to your mother certainly in her latter years. Your father, how long did he live?
DG He died unfortunately at 55. He was 55 and he had cancer and died. He had three years really of bad luck. He had cancer and he had his lung removed and then it went to his oesophagus and things and he bore it very well. But it wasn’t to be unfortunately.
MT Was he still living when your brother was killed?
DG Yes, he was.
MT So he had all of that anguish to go through. It must have been a terrible time.
DG It was a terrible time.
MT And your mother was a stalwart supporter of the family I’m sure.
DG Yes she was. She was really good. And Doug, my brother, he was still technically living at home then although he was in the army. So he was very helpful during that time as well for us.
MT And your mother, I imagine the six children kept her fairly busy for quite a long time. But she soon became involved in Beaminster society didn’t she.
DG Yes she did. Afte rmy father died she started up the Macmillan Committee in Beaminster and Cancer Relief and that was in 1983 and she used to hold jumble sales, she would have coffee mornings and she had a shop in the White Hart Yard where we used to sell things and she also used to arrange an annual plant fair in the Town Hall. That was all for the McMillan and I got involved with her as well. We gave up in 2012. She wanted to reach the £100,000 and thankfully she did. We got to just under £120,000 by then.
MT Well, I might say, and I can remember, that you were a tremendous supporter of hers and during the time that I knew your mother you were always there with her and organising these things so that gave her a tremendous lot of joy I’m sure. And what about the other things in Beaminster that she was involved in?
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DG Well she always, for Fairfield community, she always provided food for bonfire nights because we had wonderful bonfire nights then, in those days. Everybody came out and we all had food and lots of things. She also arranged a street party for the Queen’s Silver Jubilee so we had everybody out in the street with tables and things, so that was good. She used to ……………… she joined the garden club, she joined the British Legion – she was secretary at one stage – but she joined that. She also used to put up the bandsmen from the Fairey Band in church and do that. She also, actually, used to put up French students from the school when they came over.
MT Was she involved with the Twinning Project, was that part of those?
DG Yes. She also used to put up men who came to work or came for short times to Pneumatic so she used to put them, she was asked if she could put them up for that. She instigated the Zebra Crossing that we’ve got. She stood on the street getting signatures for the Zebra Crossing so she was really up with that. She used to do pottery with Joan Biles at the old Grammar School. She loved that. She did flower arranging with Marlene Stansford in church. She also used to go to Walk in Wednesdays and she also did ironing. She used to iron all the nativity clothes ready for the Christmas thing and she used to do a lot of knitting for charities. You know, they used to knit blankets and things so she would do quite a lot of that as well. So yes, she did quite a lot really.
MT And I remember her coming to church and she always sat in the front row latterly with Joan Holland and Mary Sadler and she usd to say to me, ‘It’s much better than it used to be’.
DG That’s because she could hear!
MT Probably
DG Because in the old days she probably………….
MT She couldn’t hear. That’s interesting isn’t it. Yes. And she was a Friend of the Festival?
DG Yes, she was a Friend of the Festival.
MT And what was the other one?
MR The Museum.
MT The Museum wasn’t it?
DG Yes, she was.
MR And the Strode Room.
DG Yes, and the Strode Room.
MT All these things you’re involved in.
MR I was delivering letters to 14 Fairfield many times.
DG Yes. She loved that. She loved to be taking part in lots of different things and after my father died she was a lady who……… they were very old fashioned my parents. My father was the boss if you know what I mean. I can even remember he used to choose her clothes. And ours come to that. But you know he was very much the boss and we thought after he died ‘Goodness, how’s she going to manage because she’s never done any bills or anything like that’, but she did. And she went on – because they had planned a trip to Canada – and we never thought she’d do it but she did. She went to Canada and that was the start then. She began travelling a lot. She went on lots of cruises and different things. She used the local Ring and Ride and……………..
MT Did she work for the Spicers? There was some connection with the Spicers?
DG No, They were in with us with the Macmillan.
MT It was the Macmillan was it? Yes I know she always spoke warmly, especially, of Lady Spicer.
DG Yes, well she was a great friend of ours for raising money for the Macmillan.
MT That was good. That was wonderful. And, meantime, when she’d got nothing else to do she’d go round and do ironing for people you said.
DG Yes, she would. She’d do anything for anyone because even at Fairfield when mothers were going out to work and things my mother would babysit for them and also it got to the stage when the next generation from us were born around Fairfield, the children used to come and play games with my mother. Board games and different things, or they’d come in for their biscuits or sweets, or whatever. It was wonderful because they really thought the world of her. They were lovely. Really kind and helpful.
MT She had a great gift didn’t she because I do remember going down to one of your functions in the public hall and I had my sister with me and Ruth was just a little bit shy but she stopped being shy the minute she saw your mother because she beckoned her over and made her sit down and made her feel at home. She had a great gift like that.
DG She did, and she absolutely loved Beaminster. As you know she used to go out to lunch at Pickwick’s, she used to go to the Greyhound, she used to go everywhere. Lunching with lots of different people and she loved to mix with people in Beaminster and really believed in the good of Beaminster. She really did.
MT Well, that was wonderful and she lived on to, nearly got to 90 didn’t she?
DG Yes, she had a big birthday party for her 89th up at the Playing Fields in the Pavillion because I think we all knew that she wasn’t going to be here for her 90th so she wanted to make the most of the last one. So she had all her children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, nephews, nieces, everyone there. It was lovely.
MT Yes, well thank you.
MR Yes. 14 Fairfield. It’s interesting that your mother went in the council houses at the age of 21. It was obviously much easier to get council houses then than it is now. And also I think you did quite well in using it because there were a lot of people there. How was it living with six children, grandfather and all sorts……………..
DG There were three bedrooms. Two doubles and a single. To start with my sister and I had the single and we slept top to bottom in a single bed and the boys had the back room and my mother and father the front room. Then when my grandfather came to live with us the girls were turned out so he lived in the single room, my sister and I moved into my parents room and my parents had a put-u-up downstairs in the sitting room. But unfortunately, my grandfather was one of these that liked to sit up and watch television until the dot came up so they couldn’t go to bed early, they had to wait for him to go to bed first. And then, of course, my cousin who was a baby lost her mother and she came to live with us so she came in a cot beside my sister and I. So that’s how we used to fit them in.
MR Well I think we’ve covered everything. Thank you very much Denise for what you’ve told us.
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