|
We moved to Bramley (c. 1941) and I lived there until the time I went into the army (1955). We lived at 1 Daisy Row, Bramley, Leeds, close to the Daisy Inn (which is still there).
I was known simply as 'Barrie Rhodes', my brother as 'Rodney Rhodes' and my mother as 'Mrs Rhodes' or 'Dolly'. I went to West Leeds High School in 1948. Some of the other lads of similar age in the area were Thomas Maiden, Brian Gaunt, Brian Beesting and (Brian ?) Varley.
My father was Wilfred and my mother was known as 'Dolly' (though her proper name was Evelyn Mary). My father left home in 1948 but my mother continued to live at Daisy Row until c. 1958 when she was allocated a council house in Swinnow.
Our next door neighbours for many year were Mrs Alderson and her son (Charlie ?). Further up Daisy Row was a family called Van Damm.
From Bramley I went into the army in February 1955 and signed on as a regular, first in the RASC, then in the Parachute Regiment. I met my wife-to-be when I was serving on Salisbury Plain.
In 1958 I was sent to serve on the Permanent Staff of the Territorial Army parachute battalion at Thornbury Barracks, Pudsey, and stayed there for the rest of my service, leaving in 1969.
During that time we bought a little house in Farsley, where our first daughter was born, then we moved to another house on Intake Lane,
Stanningley. In 1968 we adopted another daughter -- an abandoned Chinese refugee girl, from Hong Kong.
After 3 years working as an office manager for the Engineering Industry Training Board, I went to teacher training college. From 1973-83 I taught as a primary teacher in the West Riding, then in Leeds, becoming
eventually deputy head teacher.
We moved to Canal Rd., Rodley, in 1973 and stayed there until 1999.
In 1983 (having notched up a couple of higher degrees) I took up an appointment as Senior Lecturer in Primary Education at the University of Wales, Cardiff, though I continued to live in Leeds.
I moved to Leeds University in 1986, in a similar capacity, and accepted early retirement at the age of 52 in 1989.
Since then I have occupied myself with large-scale DIY projects, part-time lecturing at Trinity & All Saints College, Horsforth, and the University of York, some occasional guest lecturing in Scandinavia, and a bit of voluntary primary school teaching.
My mother, father and brother all died a few years ago. At present, we have 3 grandchildren.
In autumn 1999 we moved to this smallholding in a tiny, tiny village in Spaldington in the depths of the East Riding. Our elder daughter, her husband and 3 children moved with us (they too were living in Rodley) and they occupy their own part of what is quite a rambling 250 year-old property.
Our younger daughter lives in Bramley, not a stone's throw from the Daisy Inn, would you believe ?
We are all kept very busy renovating the property and it is not unusual for the whole of our immediate family to be involved in some project or other here.
Dr Barrie M Rhodes, 2002
| |
