Interview with Robin Good
“My Aunt Doreen, she knew how hard my mother worked on me. She was asking later on in, very much later on in my life, how my walking was and she said I had a bit of a limp and she said 'Mary, if it wasn’t for her...' I might not have walked... I had a dog called Burly, on wheels, my mother christened my toys and I used to push him around and we had a playpen so that I could pull myself up....”Born 29 May 1938
Educated Manor Road School; Clare House Prep School; boarding school near Gravesend in Kent
Tape 1, side 1
Born 29 May 1938 in Wembley. Parents Ronnie (violinist in the BBC symphony orchestra) and Mary Good. Children’s concerts. Went to Manor Road School until evacuated in 1944 to 14 Yatesbury, Wiltshire. Younger brother Tim born in 1942. Night splints. Aunt Doreen. Toy dog on wheels helped mobility. Moved to Beckenham. Father didn’t pass the hearing test for airforce. Childhood antics. Wartime food. 1971 went to Clacton. Living in Beckenham. Holiday in Isle of Wight. Clare House Prep School. Bullying. Family car, Woolsey Wasp.
Tape 1, side 2
Childhood sweetheart Patricia. Father died in 1959. Freelance musician. Paternal aunts Dora and Binky were also musical. Charades at family reunions on Boxing Day. Henry Wood and the Proms. Wireless and television during the 1950s - Children's Hour, Cally's Farm, Jennings at School, The Bell Family. Clare House Prep School. Left school at 14. Operations. Horticultural School. Grandparents in Broadstairs in Kent. Check-ups at the Royal London hospital. 1954 Easter term piano lessons on Saturday afternoons with Julie Andrews (another pupil). Whooping cough in the summer of 1954 - kept in quarantine until August. Form teacher Miss Adams. January 1953 boarding school near Gravesend in Kent. Death of aunt Sheila. Having the ‘bumps’ at school. Lord Darnley owned the house. Robin shared a room with two other pupils. Tuck shop. Games. Miss McIndoe and Mr Veal.
Download transcript of tape 1
Tape 2, side 1
Spastics Society school Thomas Delarue. Mr and Mrs Bowyer. Coombe Farm. Puckle Hill. 1961-’62 in hospital in Farnborough Kent for operations on hip and foot. Family had TV from Christmas 1956. Filing coffin handles and packing bath salts at Bromley Work Centre, Park Road in April 1963 to 1971. Relationships. Father’s classical concerts. Otto Klemperer. Family moved to Cornwall in 1971. The Spastics Society hotel in Clacton. Holiday romance.
Tape 2, side 2
Delarue school. Teachers Mr Davies and Mrs Gladwin. Friends. Music lessons. Coombe Farm, Spastics Society residential centre 1959-61, Surrey (near Croydon). Workshop stripping telephones and making twin locks for files. “Wilfred Pickles Have a Go.” Fairfield Halls. Camping with the Scouts at Woodlarks. Mr Roach piano lessons. Girlfriend at Delarue School. Thoughts about marriage. Friendships. Description of atmosphere at Coombe Farm.
Download transcript of tape 2
Tape 3, side 1
October 1971 went to parents in Cornwall. Stayed at Bentford Hotel, Clacton. Moved to Gladys Holman House on 3 May 1972. George Cook, friend at Jacques Hall in Manningtree, Essex. Care staff at Gladys Holman House. Polishing pre-decimal coins and making jewellery in workshops. Open days. Music school at St Austell. Rug work. Fellow residents.
Tape 3, side 2
Atmosphere of workshop. Activities garden. Church wives came to help at Gladys Holman. Broke ankle at Christmas 1973. Truro City Hospital.
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Tape 4, side 1
Cousins Myra and Olwyn. Robin’s mother had family dolls. Both Uncle Ron and maternal grandfather were sailors. He was drowned at sea. Family Christmases. Musical background. Grandfather worked on the News Chronicle.
Download transcript of tape 4