Jean continued in her letter after writing about the wedding of her friend Yvonne near Manchester in mid July…
“I came straight up then, by train and bus, to Judy’s place (you may remember that she’s the Yorkshire lass I used to go to dancing school with. I’m staying on their farm for a few days, at ingleton. It’s a lovely spot, about an hour’s run in the bus from Lancaster. It’s really typical English countryside and a quaint old farmhouse.
On Sunday morning I went to a christening – Judy’s baby nephew. We sunbaked in a field in the afternoon, and after tea, hiked about 5 miles around Ingleton Falls. Just behind Ingleton are some barren rocky hills (at least, they are on the top, but farmed most of the way up). And between these are steep rocky valleys with rushing waterfalls. We climbed up one of these (there are steps and paths laid for the purpose), then across on of these hills, following an old Roman road, where grass had grown over the old paving and now looked like a lawn, with the cobbles showing only here and there and where you could hear the legions tramping in their armour (yes I know it’s only imagination!), then down by the falls in another valley.
Yesterday Judy and I went to Morecombe on the coast for the day. What a place! Just like Blackpool, but more tawdry, and swarming with holiday makers from the crowded industrial cities of this part of England. Noise and people! The sand is little more than mud and you pay sixpence for the “privelege” of sitting on a deck chair, jammed and crowded on the mud (and they call it!). It was a hot summer’s day, and we were glad to get home.
Judy’s nerves are apparently bad again, she cannot sleep, so we went into Bentham where she visited the doctor today and obtained sleeping pills and tonic.
I’m hoping mum will come down if I can arrange accommodation either in the Lakes District or Wales for a few days at least.
I’m ringing the Indian lad who accompanied us on our trip tonight. He lives in Blackburn and I’m hoping to be able to call on him, and the people he lives with while I’m in this area. But it will mean staying a night in Blackburn, and I don’t know yet if that’s possible.
I’ll write again as soon as there’s more news, and hope to hear from you soon.
Joe* must be just about finished at dental school now. Do you know if he got through and what he’s doing now?
I’ll try and write to Marj some time; I’m afraid I neglect all my correspondence rather badly.
Remember me to Mr & Mrs Bates and Urwin. Cheerio now.
Love from Jean”.
Jean’s letter to her sister Mary, written in Stonehaven, 31 July 1951
*Joe – Jean was engaged to Joe Pretty, a dentistry student from Essendon, an engagement that was subsequently broken sometime before Jean’s 1951 journey.
