Eleanor's Life - 1930s - 1940s

Eleanor in her 20s circa 1935

I just love the car in this photograph, unfortunately I don't know the model, but it could be a 1934 Morris 10/4.  This car did not belong to the family, I believe it was a car that Norman drove as a chauffeur. Like a lot of us, Eleanor wanted to have a photograph taken in a 'posh' car.

Eleanor in her 20s circa 1935

1935 Reference for  Chauffeur Norman Stafford

"Tyne House

Prudhoe on Tyne

April 12/35

To whom it may concern

Norman Stafford has acted as chauffeur to me many times. I consider he is a careful, capable driver, who takes a pride in keeping the car under his charge in a clean condition and good running order"

Again an Auntie in 1946, Eleanor now 34, with her two nieces Dorothy and Pauline - her brother Norman's children, who lived opposite Eleanor and her mother and father. By this time Eleanor already had three other nieces, two from her brother Albert (Joan and Christine) and another from her sister Barbara, who a year later had a son (Ann and Barrie). Living so near to Eleanor and their grandparents Pauline and Dorothy saw a great deal of them. When we were young children Eleanor and Grandma always seemed a bit strict, but in those days the hated phrase "Children should be seen and not heard" was the way children were treated and were expected to behave. War had not long finished, there was rationing, and at this time society was pretty oppressive and puritanical, none so, as much as the close-knit society of a village. 

1946 Winter in Greenside Baby Pauline, Eleanor and Toddler Dorothy Stafford

Eleanor and her Mother Margaret (Maggie) Stafford on holiday probably in Derbyshire with sister/daughter Barbara. I believe this photograph was taken in the late 1940s which would make her mother in her mid 70s, Eleanor around 40.