There were no wedding photos, I was told, because of the obviously expected arrival of their only child, Ivy Elizabeth Sweeney b. 5 Mar 1924. My mother didn't have her birth certificate, the original having been lost when their home was bombed in WWII and she'd always been adamant that she was born in one of the
Peabody Buildings. Had she ever obtained a copy, then she'd have discovered that she was, in fact, born at 35 Gladstone Buildings,
Willow Street,
Shoreditch. (And therefore missed out on a historical 'claim to fame' too, because
Police Sergeant James George Byfield, witness in one of the
Jack the Ripper murders, had lived in Gladstone Buildings, Shoreditch in 1881.)
GLADSTONE BUILDINGS, WILLOW STREET.—"
In these model dwellings there are 168 suites of apartments, each suite having a separate water supply, and closet accommodation, situate in the scullery. None of the closets were properly supplied with water, so as to flush the pans effectually. The cisterns in which drinking water was stored were all uncovered, placed over the closets close to the ceilings, and immediately under the closet of the apartments above. Several of the tenants complained that their drinking water was polluted with foul liquids dripping from the ceilings, by reason of defective closet arrangements, and many of the ceilings bore evidence as to the fact."
|
This Charabanc excursion must presumably date to 1924 or 1925. Joe and Bet, with baby Ivy on her lap, are in the rear seats of the vehicle. |
My mother frequently claimed she was
Confirmed at
St Paul's Cathedral, but I've been unable to confirm (pun intended) if this is true. And even if it were, it
should have been unlikely, as there's no record of her ever being baptised - a not-at-all uncommon omission with a baby's such 'premature' arrival.
They were still in Fore Street in 1939, with Eliza L Sweeney, Housekeeper; Job Thomas Sweeney, Supervisor Tobacco Packing (employed by
W.D. & H.O. Wills); Elizabeth Sweeney; Ivy E Sweeney, Shop Assistant and James Edward Bird, Police Constable (who I can only assume was lodging with them) and remained until
their home was destroyed in WWII, thought to have been
on or around the night of 29–30 Dec 1940, during the so-called
Second Great Fire of London. They were away from home that day, so suffered no physical injury, but lost their home and every material possession they'd owned.
They then moved out to
Hornchurch and in the 1960's, Bet & Joe 'retired' to
Pitstone, in the countryside of Bedfordshire. There, granddad carried on his hobby of fishing and was a bailiff on the nearby
Grand Union Canal; he did detailed woodwork, inlay and
marquetry; embroidered
hassocks that were (maybe still are) in the church of
St Mary the Virgin in
Ivinghoe and grew very tidy rows of vegetables in his garden.
(
Right: Bet and Joe on the seafront at
Weymouth in the early 1960's.)
Bet Sweeney died on 22 Dec 1980.
It was absolutely no surprise that, without his lifelong love, Job Thomas Sweeney died eight months later to the day, on 22 Aug 1981.