Description
Growing Up in Godshill – The Memories of Joy Draper (nee Thorne), 1907-1995.
Joyce Thorne (known as Joy) was born in 1907, and lived in Godshill and Rookley all her life. The daughter of a farm labourer, she left the village school when she was aged 13, going into service at the Old Vicarage in Godshill until she left to marry Maurice Draper when she was 24. This book is based on her memories of growing up in the village, first describing family life in a farm cottage on a Saturday during WW1, with her father at work on a local farm, her mother managing the household, and the children all with their own tasks until the family came together in the evening. In the second part of the book she gives a vivid and detailed account of her life as a young ‘House Parlour Maid’ in the 1920s. The book includes 25 black and white photographs, some from the family, others from the Ventnor & District Local History Society collection.
