born 28th September 1921in Audley
died 9th February 2014in New Brotton near Saltburn - by - Sea. Clevland.
Married August 31st 1946in Italy
Ivy was the daughter of Florence Lucy Austin and was born in Audley in 1921. She was given the name Lavinia after her grandmother.
Ivy Lavinia Austin married Dennis Collings on 31st August 1946 and lived in Saltburn - By - Sea. They had seven children.
| Rodney Derek Collings | born 7th June 1947 in New Brotton. Single. |
| Stuart Neil Collings | born 27th October 1948 in New Brotton. Married Maureen Ann Cordell. They have two children Ann Clare and Noel. |
| Terence Dennis Collings | born 1st January 1951 in New Brotton. Married Carol Welch. They have two children Faye and Laura. |
| Clive William Collings | born 13th January 1953 in New Brotton. Married Maureen Fergerson. |
| Denise Lavinia Collings | born 26th May 1955 in New Brotton. |
| Gillian May Collings | born 5th August 1957 in New Brotton |
| Christopher Collings | born 10th April 1960 in New Brotton. |
Personaly I never met Ivy even though I now live near Durham which is not that far from New Brotton. I did request to see her but I think she didn't want me to see her housebound so I respected her wishes. My father made contact with Ivy after meeting Lottie Lee who was already keeping in contact with letters. Both my father and myself sent birthday cards and christmas cards. I think my dad really appreciated making contact with both Ivy and Lottie and wished he had known her better and sooner. They lost contact a long time ago possibly through my fathers dad dying ( Leonard Austin ) then his mother ( Nellie )remarrying.
I recieved several letters from Ivy and she always inquired about myself and my wife and seemed facinated with the thought that my wife kept bee's and had a few hens.
Ivy was born on the 28th September 1921 in Audley to Florence Austin. Ivy was raised mainly by her grandparents and as such had quite a strict Victorian upbringing. On leaving school at the age of 14 she went straight to work in service. Ivy worked in a large house in Prestbury where some of her duties included looking after the family's children and she was often included on days out with the family. She worked in service for six and a half days a week. Most of her half days would be spent cycling the three hour round trip back home to Audley to see her family.
A few weeks after her 18th birthday, World War 2 broke out and Ivy spent some of
her time working in a mansion house which had been taken over to house evacuee
children from the big cities, many of whom were in poor health, she found this
hard work but enjoyed it.
Wanting to play a bigger part in the war effort she applied for the Land Army
but was turned down so instead she joined the NAAFI and was sent to Scotland for
part of her training. This eventually led her to board a ship, travelling alone
and having no idea where it was taking her which was a very daunting experience
for such a young girl.
Eventually she arrived at a train station in Italy in the middle of the night
and arriving at her posting she was given the job of handing out cigarette
rations to servicemen who were recuperating after injury. One of the men was
called Dennis and was at the rest camp after being shot. They began chatting, a
relationship soon blossomed and they married in a chapel at camp on the
outskirts of Rome and they honeymooned in Sorrento.
However their relationship was interrupted briefly when Dennis was discharged
before Ivy. An expectant Ivy
was discharged soon after and she travelled to New
Brotton in Clevland where she went to live with her husband's parents. Here
Ivy
went on to raise seven children, and had eleven grandchildren and twelve great
grandchildren.
Ivy was always full of fun and loved writing letters and poems for her family,
always putting a verse in almost every birthday card. Ivy managed to stay in her
own home although her health began to deteriorate. Her family looked after her
and sadly she passed away peacefully in her own home on 9th February 2014.
This letter was written by Ivy and sent on the 26th April 2005. It was sent to the wrong address before being passed on and finally published in June 2007.
I have just recently recieved a copy of the Audley Community Newsletter, which was kindly sent to me by my cousin who lives in Miles Green [ Lottie Lee ]. As I am a much older exile of Audley, I was suprised but delighted with its contents. I was born in Booth Street, Wereton Road Audley in 1921 and lived there until I was 14 1/2 years old.
I attended the Infants School, Junior School and Ravens Lane Senior School. I don't recall any of the teachers names from the Infants School, but at the Junior School, the Headmaster was a Mr Higgson , I recall a Miss Brassington and a Mr College . At Ravensmead our Headmaster was Mr Bowers who taught music and also trained the choir. There was also Mr Smith (History), Mr Thorpe (Geography), Miss Bailey (English and French) Miss Riley who took the girls for P.E. netball amd hockey. There were other teachers of course but there names elude me. By the way boys and girls had both seperate play grounds and cloakrooms in the Junior and Senior schools.
I left home when I was 14 1/2 to work at Prestbury in Cheshire and every other Saturday I was allowed to go off a little earlier to enable me to catch 2 trains and 2 buses to get home. After a while I was able to buy myself a bicycle and during the summer I used to cycle home. I remember we had glorious summers in those days and the traffic was nil and although it was a long way I did enjoy the journey. So you see I didn't dessert Audley until much later on.
In your newsletter there are some names that were around all those years ago. In my days there must have been 4 or 5 butchers shops and 2 chemists, Mcellins and the other Mcloghans . There was a pub opposite the junior school and if one turned left at the school gate and walked a bit along the street, that was where the cinema was situated. The children had a Saturday morning matinee, which cost tuppence (in old money) to get in and it was the highlight of the week. I wonder if it is still there ? Also in the same street was where Mainwarings Buses used to park whilst waiting foe passengers to go to Newcastle. At the corner was Warhams shop, I think amongst other things they sold wallpaper. Further up on the same side was a fruit shop, florist, the Post Office and the double fronted Co-op with the drapery upstairs. Carrying on up the road there was the Methodist Chapel and opposite across the road Heaths paper shop, so you can see that name has been in Audley for a very long time. Moving on up the road passing houses on both sides is Horseleys shop, set back a little from the road and next but one to the Doctors big house (someone in your letter mentioned it) at the top of Houghers Wall. Many is the time I used to walk to the bottom of Houghers Wall and turn left to go up Grassy Lane to visit my Aunt and cousin who lived there, only about five cottages, ( I bet it is all built up now ) Returning to the top of Houghers Wall, the shop on the corner I think was Proctors , turn left and Wereton Road begins. Carrying on along the road is Tayor's sweet shop and at the back of it were a few cottages, ( I suppose they have been pulled down now ) where my friend Mildred Heywood lived. I used to call for her every morning so we could walk to school together. Still on Wereton Road, houses on either side and higher up was the Labour Exchange, next door to the Doctors house where the surgery was and after a while a new surgery was built on the back drive way.
Opposite the surgery was Mr Booth's farm (another name mentioned in the newsletter) the front being on Wereton Road, but the back way to the house was in Booth Street. I remember the Salvation Army Hall being on Wereton Road next door to which was a fish and chip shop belonging to the Darlingtons .
A lady wrote in the newsletter that she was born in Mellard Street and I used to go to an old ladies house in the same street for a bottle of ginger beer or my Grandad to have with his Sunday dinner ( the old lady made it herself ) Also Grandma had two brothers living in Mellard Street by the name of Stubbs . At the entrance of Mellard Street was Warburton's grocers shop and at the end corner Heath's bakers shop. Still on Wereton Road Road passing numerous houses and a bank going down to the gas works (I wonder if that is still there, the smell was awful when one passed it ) was a lovely house on its own, where Grandma's sister lived. I remember many years ago a relation of mine sent me a Weekly Sentinel and on the front page was the headline Still skipping at ninety yes it was Grandma's sister Mrs Scrivens .
Thanks for listening.
Read about my experiences during the war next.
After working in Cheshire for a few years during the war, myself and a girl I was working with applied to join the land army. She was accepted but I wasn't, probably because she was a local girl and managed to get a job on a local farm and her family were well known in the village.
I returned home to Audley and after a few days called at the Labour Exchange to see what was on offer, only to find out all that was available was munitions or the NAFFI. The NAFFI were wanting women for overseas, so I joined, but to get overseas one had to belong to an army unit. After filling in papers and having a medical (which I passed) I was finally told to report to Birmingham station, where I found there were loads of people waiting for the same train and on the same mission as myself. We eventually ended up at Dalkieth in Scotland for basic army training. After about six weeks we were sent down to Dulwich to await news about embarcation. It finally came and we were sent up to Scotland again where we boarded a ship at Gourock for a place unknown at this stage.
However when we reached the Straits of Gibralter half of the convoy left presumably to go to the Middle East and we finally landed at Napley where we stayed for about ten days. We then departed in an army truck for Rome and after an overnight stay, we left on our final journey to Florence. We had to supervise the Italian girls in the NAFFI and we now belonged to the A.T.S. EFI and we came under Army rules. We were on a rest camp for soldiers who had been in the front line. As the troops moved further up the country towards the North there were fewer soldiers coming to the camp and as newer camps were being set up higher up the country it was decided to close our camp and we were split up and sent to different places. I ended up in Rome and had to report to the station as I was going on L.I.A.P leave home.
I finally arrived back in Audley, 18 months after the last time to spend Xmas 1945 at home. I had to report back to one of the stations in London by 12 o'clock on the 19th January 1946 and I returned once more to Rome. I was assigned to a Transit camp where my job was to serve the soldiers with their daily cigarettes and chocolate rations. Once the queue had gone I was able to sit for a while and that was where this tall Coldstream Guard used to come and chat to me, day after day. We started going out when it was my day off and of course we got engaged and finally married in the church on the camp on August 31st 1946.
We stayed in Italy for about another seven months as my husband still had his time in the Guards to finish. However in April he was posted back to England to finish his army career at Purbright. I followed on about a week later and my husband met me off the train and brought me to his home in Yorkshire where I have lived ever since.
I have kept in touch with my family of course and returned once since I left in January 1946. It was during the summer of 1971 and we were passing through, but everything was just the same, nothing seemed to have changed since I left. By the way did you know that Jackie Trent, the singer, had a mother and grandparents and possiby aunts and uncles who lived towards the bottom of Booth Street.
When I was a child there was a railway station in Audley, is it still there ? and Halmer End was spelt as one word. Did you know that if you go along Alsager road just past Lower Foxley farm their used to be a small humped bridge with a wall either side. I don't think there is any water underneath, its just a dry ditch but it was the boundary where Staffordshire ended and Cheshire began.
It is about 34 years since I was in Audley but the recollection of it is still in my memory. Oh dear, after reading this epistle I do seem to have rambled on a bit, I do apologise but it was necessary for you to see why I'm an Audley exile. I do wish to thank you for the sentimental journey back to Audley via your newsletter and I certainly renewed old memories.
Thank you again Mrs I. L. Collings (nee Austin).