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The following are memories recalled by Wynne Creighton Davies, as recorded by Hanover Housing Association in their book 'Tale of the Century' published in 1999.
 I was born in 1914, the beginning of the First World War, and lived by Regents Park, London. The first zeppelin fell near our house. I saw one of these great balls of fire falling out of the sky and remember being taken several times to the cellar in the middle of the night to be safe from them. It was terrifying.
We had ration cards and I remember that what was called raspberry jam was really made with turnips and colouring. My father trained disabled men and as there was no plastic in those days he used real skeletons in his work. His students hung our three skeletons out on the balcony on Armistice Day which caused a great furore!
School was the other side of Regents Park which meant a long walk four times a day because we came home for dinner. We sat at long desks which seated five. One of my early memories of infant school was our procession on Empire Day. Specially chosen children dressed in the national costumes of the Countries and waved Union Jacks. I headed the procession dressed in red with white and blue ribbons.
I had two sisters and we three were always dressed alike. A needle woman made our clothes and we once had blue satin party dresses with little roses and wide sashes. I loved sewing myself, and I was allowed to use the sewing machine with which I made clothes for our dolls. We had beautiful dolls with china heads which sometimes broke and could be mended at a dolls hospital.
Our home was lit by gaslights then. The gas mantles were frail and easily broke.
Cooking was done on a kitchen range which was black with brass knobs and had to be lead polished. The front door step was whitened daily.
Washday was momentous as it started very early in the morning with lighting the fire under the copper already filled with water. Sheets were put in when the water was warm and a 'posh' was used to pummel them. They were taken out by a strong stick and rinsed in the zinc bath full of cold water, and then put through the mangle to squeeze out the water. Then they went into a bath of blue to improve their whiteness and then through the mangle again.
Drying was a nightmare on wet days. The laundry was eventually ironed using a flat iron heated on the kitchen range. We always had cold meat on washday.
Food was delivered by horse and van - milk came in a churn and we bought it by the jug-full. Coal came in sacks delivered by a horse and cart. The brewers used large carts drawn by shire horses for their barrels of beer.
Easter and Whitsun were very exciting, as there were parades of the horses and carts. The tradesman took great pride in their horses and on these days they were groomed and decorated and prizes for the best.
 In 1924 I went to a Grammar School where we wore a uniform - heavy navy tunic, black woollen stockings, blazers, Panama hats in the summer. On Speech Day we wore white dresses. We travelled to school by open top buses and by tram.
In those days we rarely travelled far but I can remember occasional trips by Charabanc to the seaside. I remember sand castle competitions, Punch and Judy shows, and a puppet theatre at Hastings. My first trip in a motor car was in 1926 - an open Morris Oxford, a very uncomfortable ride. In 1928 we had a Morris saloon. It started by the driver winding the crank (a handle at the front) and it was a real problem to keep it going, especially in the winter.
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