My Birthday

This is an 8x 8 scrapbook page that I did for a circle journal on a forum.

My mother was Jean Margaret Algar and my father is Thomas William Richard Jellis. I was the 2nd of 5 children, and I was born on the 9th September, 1953 on a wet afternoon at my parents rented cottage on Racecourse Farm, Fulwood, Sheffield. My Mum told me that my Dad went out shooting on the farm, while I was being born. It was common for women to have their babies at home at that time, you only went into hospital if there were complications.

We then moved to a farm near Eckington. I must have been about 2 or 3 years then. I remember that there were 3 terraced cottages, and a few moments come to mind, but they are a little bit vague. After we left, we still called back to visit my Mum's brother, Uncle Len and his family. I remember the old stone floor slabs in the kitchen, and the big high fireplace that was used for cooking, heating and drying. My Mum used to have a photograph of me and my brother Tommy, playing in the garden, and I had a cowboy hat on that looked too big for me. There is also another one of me sitting out in the front garden and I am covered in chocolate. I can see my Mum at the kitchen sink and lots of washing hanging up to dry when it was wet outside. It is nice to reminisce, and I do so wish that my Dad had kept all the old photos, but they are nowhere to be found. One day they will turn up, but it might be too late for me to scrap them.

When my Grandma died, my Mum did give a couple of black and white photos that used to be in frames on her sideboard. I will go and look them up later. My maternal Grandma lived in Sheffield in Cottam street and we used to visit regularly, throughout her life. My paternal grandmother preferred to be called Nanny, an she lived in Hathersage, Derbyshire.