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It was soon after starting at the Lancastrian School in Chichester during the 1930's when Harold Taylor got a little job, although one officially could not work till they were 12, Harold being only 11.
The music master, Don Hanson, who lived in New Park Road, asked if there was any boy who would like an early morning job. No one else was interested, so I applied.
It was to work for one hour pre-school each morning, Saturdays and Sundays included at 2 St Richard's Walk. The job entailed cleaning the shoes and knives and filling coal scuttles, plus some cleaning of brass. The pay was 4/- per week.
This house is now the refectory at the cathedral, the front rooms of the house being offices.
The garden was where I carried the scuttles to fill them from the coal bunkers down by the garage, which is now a house in Canon's Close.
The entrance to the house is now a new made entrance to the west of the square doorway that I used. Through that doorway I would enter a small hall, straight across from which was the little boot hole where all the shoes from the house would be placed for me to clean.
There was a rubbing board on which I would polish all the household knives for the meals to follow. I would also polish the scuttles here before filling them for the housemaid to take to the rooms.
Turning left into the kitchen there was a large Aga stove. For this, I filled two coke hods and one phurnacite hod each day. The kitchen was roughly where the service counter is today. To reach the garden I had to go through the kitchen into a scullery and turn right.
I would take the swill bucket and empty it into a wooden barrel at the bottom of the garden for the pig man, Walter Grainger, to collect. He collected from various sites in the city. When I first knew him he kept his pigs in Clay Lane, Fishbourne, but later moved them to behind The Blackboy.
The garage served also as potting shed, I am not certain whether they had a visiting gardener, but possibly the chauffeur, King, filled both functions. Other staff at the house were Nellie the cook, Hetty the housekeeper and Annie the housemaid.
My brother used to fill in for me if I could not go either from illness, or later on when I left school.
In between whiles, the Ainsworth's, for whom I had originally worked, left and moved to West Lavington. The new occupant was more penny pinching and got rid of Annie, and placed more work on my shoulders, which necessitated taking the scuttles to the upper floors and polishing the fenders in the upper rooms. She was not a good person to work for and all the staff eventually left.
I do not know what business the Ainsworths were engaged in, but the son was in the army, possibly a major. I think King went when the move took place, but whether with the Ainsworths, I am not sure. I did meet him again in later life when he was working for the Eastwoods at West Stoke.
Whilst I was still working for the Ainsworths I took on another job on Saturday mornings at the Post Office as telegram boy. For 4 hours work I was paid 2/6d. I was called upon to work full-time during holiday periods, as well as times such as Christmas.
I once did a stint at Fontwell Races for the Associated Press. This involved sitting in the weighing-in room, waiting for the correspondents to make out their reports, then cycling with them to a man at the local Post Office, who would telephone the report through. For this I got the handsome sum of 30/- and the Post Office got me off school for the two day event.
The reason I needed this extra job was that, of my original 4/-, I used to give my mother 2/- and spend the rest on myself. I had not got a bike at the time, not even a second hand one. I therefore had gone to Curry's, which was then in South Street on the corner of Cooper Street, and purchased a cycle on hire purchase, of course with my parents permission. This cost me 2/6d per week, so I was in debt. Hence the need for more income.
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