Wednesday 6 October 1976

Mum’s Diary

Had letter from P. Hard to wake up. Difficult to concentrate at work. Went to Tesco first then work. Mr A told me to pencil Dec 2 for my op. He had discussed it with Mr Green. Went to see Mr Cook in aft. He gave me a written reply to my letter, he’s going to write to Roy again to ask for a reply within 14 days. I’m to ring him on 25th if I’ve heard nothing. Went to YW at night. KFE on ‘Renewal 77’. I did coffee with Anna Clarke. 1M 1L 1S.

Roger’s/My Diary

This lunch-time I drew up one poster for the raffle but the other one didn’t get done as I had a meeting. I am taking part in a reading-scheme which entails helping backward children to read. Mum bought me some shorts this lunch-time as I appear to have lost mine. In P.E. we kicked a ball around as both the first and second elevens had matches against the U.E.A. 2nd 11 lost 1-4 and 1st 11 lost 0-7. This evening watched T.V. Wales lost 2-0 in an international v W.G.

Notes

Letter from Tricia

P refers to my older sister Tricia (Patricia). She had just started at Cambridge University,see Chapter 120. Mum had taken her there the previous Sunday. Mum was an outstanding correspondent and she wrote a letter to Tricia the same day that she had taken her to Cambridge. While on one level this was great, it also imposed a burden as a reply was expected! This was something I struggled with when I was at university. I resolved this by writing to mum once per week regularly and she grew to accept this.

I think Tricia may have handled this better than I did. She certainly did well on this occasion. If mum had posted her letter on Monday, Tricia would have received it on Tuesday meaning that she must have replied the same day for the letter to reach mum by Wednesday. It is of course possible that this had been a “preemptive strike” by Tricia writing to mum before she received the letter she knew would be coming!

Medication Hangover Effects

Mum had increased her dosage of sleeping tablets and antidepressants the previous day, see Chapter 116. Presumably, this is why she found it hard to wake up and difficult to concentrate at work.

Supermarket Shopping

Before work, mum went supermarket shopping at Tesco, see Chapter 125.

Tesco

Tesco was, and is, another very well-known supermarket chain, see Chapter 125. It was formed by Jack Cohen in 1919. The name came from the initials of his tea supplier, T E Stockwell, and the first two letters of his own surname. I assume the Tesco mum went to was the one on Guildhall Hill. Tesco appears to have opened in Norwich in the 1960s at 4 Market Place and, since at least the early seventies, was based at 5 Guildhall Hill. I think the Market Place/Guildhall Hill addresses probably refer to the same place under different names. This shop was previously Chamberlin’s department store. Tesco closed their store here in 2022. Although plans were approved for a hotel on the site, it remains vacant currently. Apparently, there are plans to turn the upper floors to residential use while keeping the retail space on the ground floor.

Mum Worked for Mr Ashken and Mr Stephens

During this period, mum worked as part-time medical secretary for the private practice of two surgeons, Mr Ashken and Mr Stephens, see Chapter 121. This practice was based at 41 Newmarket Road. She worked all day on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and half day on Fridays. On this occasion, as it was Wednesday, she worked all day.

Pencilling in the Date

Mr A refers to Mr Ashken, the urologist for whom mum worked. At the beginning of August, mum had had surgery for a kidney stone carried out by Mr Ashken, see Chapter 116. She had been found to have had high levels of calcium in her blood (hypercalcaemia) due to an overactive parathyroid gland (primary hyperparathyroidism). She had been referred to surgeon Alan Green and he had agreed to explore mum’s parathyroid. As Alan Green was a urologist, he and Mr Ashken were close colleagues. They had discussed mum’s case and fixed a provisional date for surgery for 2 December. Mr Ashken told mum to pencil this date in.

Mr Alan Green

I found Alan Green’s obituary in the EDP. In 2015, he died at the age of 87. Norman Alan Green was born on 2 July 1927 in Leicester. He studied at St Bartholomew’s. He married nurse Doreen Wright in 1951. They had four children. He spent three years in Norwich from 1954. He won a Fulbright scholarship in 1958 and went to Boston Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Then, he returned to Norwich in 1961 and established the city’s first urology service in 1966.

He retired in 1990. After retiring, he wrote obituaries for professional journals. He was a founder member and then President of the British Association of Clinical Anatomists and an external examiner for the Royal Colleges of Surgeons in England and Edinburgh. He was a musician playing piano to a high standard. I found other biographies on the Royal College of Surgeons of England website and on the Travelling Surgical Society website, see Chapter 116.

Mike Cook

Mr Cook refers to Mike Cook, mum’s solicitor who worked for the firm Mills and Reeve. Mum had been seeing him in connection with getting a divorce from dad. My parents had separated in 1973 and, at this point, dad was living and working in Birmingham, see Chapter 114. Mum went to see him in the afternoon (aft). He gave her a written reply to her letter. He told her that he would write to dad (Roy for Royle Drew) again, asking for a reply within two weeks. If mum had not heard anything by the 25^th, she was to ring him. I think the letter Mike Cook was sending was relating to divorce proceedings but it had probably been triggered by dad’s decision to reduce the money he gave mum each month by a quarter now that Tricia was living away from home predominantly.

Young Wives

Mum went to a meeting of Young Wives (YW) at night. This was a women’s group that mum was part of at St Peter’s Park Lane Methodist Church, see Chapter 124. The speaker was Rev Ken Elworthy (KFE) who was the junior Minister at the church at this time. He spoke about “Renewal 77“. I assume this was some programme of renewal for the church for the following year but I have not found out more details.

Rev Kenneth F Elworthy

Born in 1943, Rev Elworthy entered the Methodist Ministry in 1966. He was sent to Park Lane by the President of the Methodist Conference and had a specific focus on young people and students, serving as chaplain to the University of East Anglia. One thing he became known for was a “Punch and Judy” show although he only took this up after his time at Park Lane. After leaving Norwich, he went on to serve in Gant’s Hill and the Isle of Man. He appears to have died on the Isle of Man in May 2019 following a long struggle with Parkinson’s disease. He was married to Heather and they had three children Peter, Nicola and Tabitha, see Chapter 124.

Rev Ken Elworthy in 1989 from interview for St Peter’s Park Lane Methodist Church 50^th anniversary vid e o

Serving Coffee

Mum noted that she served coffee at the Young Wives meeting, see Chapter 124. She did this with Anna Clarke. As far as I can see, this was the only time she was mentioned in mum’s diary and I have not found out more about her.

This photo shows mum (centre) serving refreshments in St Peter’s church hall

Mum’s Medication

Mum tended to note the tablets she took each day, particularly at night, see Chapter 116. On this occasion, she noted that she took one nitrazepam (M for Mogadon) tablet to help her sleep, one long-acting amitriptyline (L for Lentizol) tablet for depression and one senna-containing tablet (S for Senokot) for constipation. She had been trying to wean herself off both antidepressants and sleeping tablets but had been advised by her GP to increase them once again because of her current feelings of severe depression.

Poster for a Raffle

I had just started in the sixth form at the Hewett School, see Chapter 118. I had been elected to represent my form on the sixth form committee and had been chosen as one of three lower sixth members on a working party which was meant to make the main committee more efficient. We had agreed to hold a fundraising raffle. I had volunteered, or been volunteered, to make two posters advertising this. I managed to make one at lunch-time but did not manage the other as I had to go to a meeting about a reading scheme I was getting involved in.

Meal Teminology

Based on my family’s working class background in Nottinghamshire, we had tended to refer to our meals as dinner and tea. However, given that we had moved to Norwich in 1960, and possibly because we were becoming more middle class, some of that usage was changing and family members sometimes, and perhaps increasingly, referred to a midday meal as lunch, see Chapter 92 although we continued to refer to an afternoon or early evening meal as tea. Here, I referred to lunch-time.

Starkey comics have produced this really excellent map which shows how people refer to evening meal in different parts of UK and Ireland. It is interesting that “*tea*” is the common form in the north including Kirkby whereas there is no clear majority in Norfolk. This map has been accessed from the Brilliant Maps Facebook page

The Reading Scheme

I attended a meeting for a reading scheme for which I had volunteered. This scheme was to help children in the lower part of the school with their reading, see Chapter 118. I referred to them as “backward” children but I don’t think the term then has the stigma associated with it that it does now. However, I do wish I had used a different term though!

I suspect my reasons for volunteering were not purely altruistic! The scheme operated during assembly. I was not a huge fan of assemblies so having a legitimate reason to miss them would have been fine with me!

Missing Shorts

I noted that I had lost my shorts which presumably I needed for PE which I was doing as part of general studies, see Chapter 118. Mum bought me some at lunch-time. I wonder if I meant “brought” rather than “bought” as I assume I would have had more than one pair of football shorts. Interestingly, mum does not mention this although it must have been disruptive for her.

Kicking a Ball Around

In PE, I noted that we just kicked the ball around,, see Chapter 118, as both first and second eleven had matches against the University of East Anglia (UEA). The second eleven lost 4-1 and the first eleven lost 7-0.

Although I was nowhere near good enough to play football for the school, a number of my friends were. They are featured here in a photo of the first eleven I was kindly given by Mark Jermy. It shows the Upper School tower block in the background. I am not absolutely sure if this was the first eleven in 1976 or the following year.
Back row – Mr Marney, Peter Dooley, James Beale (possibly Nicholas Bush), John Pestle, Andrew Ellson, Ova Arup (possibly), Edward Cross, Everard Mascarenhas
Front row – Mark Jermy, Andrew Smith, unknown (possibly Perry Playford), Dr Roy, Kevin Piper, Michael Grey (possibly Paul Nicholls), unknown

Wales v West Germany

In the evening, I watched highlights of the friendly between Wales and West Germany (WG), see Chapter 123. These were shown on ITV from 10.30 to 11.25 pm. The match was was called an FA centenary international which celebrated the formation of the Football Association of Wales in 1876. Wales lost 2-0.