Tag Archives: Fred Kelsey

Phil Kelsey: WWII food 1940s

We managed and that was it.  I think we had always been a pretty careful family.  Of course Dad always had the garden going; he never wasted any bits of garden.  He used to grow everything.  His favourite was growing onions.  He still had his little boat and eventually you could use it up the river, but first of all you couldn’t.  The RASC had one of these boats anchored – just for living in – he used to go up round there and got in with them, and take them up onions and if he had any other veg.  He got well in with them and eventually I think they let him go just out off the pier fishing.  Phil Kelsey b 1920

Jean Maitland, Phil Kelsey: Allotments 1930s

When we were living down the Square my Dad had an allotment up “Pigs Alley”
OOH I mustn’t say “Pigs Alley” because people these days get cross. “Pigs Alley” is the lane behind Victoria Road, that people now call Garage Alley. Yes, its proper name always was “Pigs Alley” because pigs were kept up there, but that was before my time. Jean Maitland nee Levey b 1928

Of course all that was allotments right through there.  Before the war they were all well cultivated too.  I remember like on a Good Friday there would be everybody up there if the weather was right, digging away. When they built the council houses there was a bit left where the flats are now. Dad had that until I took it over after him until they built the council houses.  Phil Kelsey b 1920