Introduction

Gladys Waite is a senior, respected and well loved member of our Burgh le Marsh community, and is now approaching her 95th birthday on 15th February 2007. She is Burgh W.I's  oldest member and is still extremely active in the group, recently conducting the choir in local carol services.  The article featured below is from the Skegness News as it was then, dated 19th June 1996 and gives an interesting account of Gladys' history.

(The Standard has been consulted on this article.)

Poems by Gladys Waite

Christmas

W.I.: Our Early Days

Lincolnshire

MRS GLADYS WAITE needs no introduction to the people of Burgh-le-Marsh, the village which has been her home for 50 years. Lincolnshire born and bred, Gladys is just about the liveliest 84-year-old around. Her life has been spent doing things and getting involved and in her 85th year, nothing has changed. She is still enjoying the activities which have brought her lifelong pleasure and she hopes to be part of the action for some time to come!

Musician, artist, needlewoman and with a great love of poetry, Gladys was born at Bratoft in 1912 - 'just after the Titanic sank'. She was christened at Irby and Bratoft Methodist Church and could play the piano proficiently at the age of seven. "I can't remember a time when I couldn't read music," she said. " My mother taught me to play the piano, along with the ABC."

Disappointment

At the age of 13 Gladys was accompanist at the school concert, much to her disappointment.... "I cried," she recalls. "I really wanted to be a fairy!" When only 11 years old, she played the organ at the chapel at Sloothby where her parents had made their home in 1917, during the First World War. Gladys couldn't know then, that in 1984, she would play at The Embassy Centre for the Burgh Singers, an occasion she regards as ' momentous'.

Village life in the 20's meant real remoteness; transport was invariably limited to pony and trap or-your own two legs. The doctor lived five miles away and everyone knew everyone else - "and their pedigree, too!" said Gladys with a wry smile.

Great activity

Home in Sloothby was a big, rambling farmhouse where the only warm place was the kitchen, which was always a place of great activity. Colder still, apparently, was their former home at Mawthorpe and

 

Gladys recalls an occasion which sends shivers down her spine. "I had a new, pale blue party dress," she said. "I walked elegantly down the stairs and the draught from under the door was so strong, it blew the skirt right over my head!" She was so thrilled, she made several re-runs just for the fun of it!

Skegness News Wednesday 19th June 1996

Gladys comes from a well-known farming family.

Her maternal grandfather,Bartholomew Simpson, was a Victorian gentleman who farmed at New Leake. As a child, she found an old wooden chest which belonged to him and she believes this was a relic from his boarding school days. "I discovered some of his work, written in beautiful copper plate and I can't imagine he learned that at a village school," she commented. "He was a stern but kind man, educated and talkative and I was eager to learn."

Lincolnshire born Her paternal grandfather had been a groom at the former Scremby Hall and had worked at a hall near Sleaford. Gladys' parents were also Lincolnshire-born. Alice Simpson was born in 1880 at Thorpe Fendykes. She was, says Gladys, "an exceptional scholar," but being one of eight children, she left school early to care for the younger ones. She subsequently attended a 'Dame School' in Hogsthorpe under the guidance of Alice West, mother of well-known Chapel St Leonards resident, Miss Mary Hipkin. During winter months, Alice lodged at the school, coming home at weekends. In the summer she walked three miles to school and back, each day.

Alice soon moved to Manchester where she lived with relatives, studying typewriting and shorthand. She gained distinction as being almost entirely educated in a small village school, yet securing a position with the Royal Insurance Company as a shorthand-typist, before 1900...."An achievement in those days," says Gladys.

Father, Charles Garlant Grant was bom at Hale, near Sleaford. He started working life as a groom and later went to Manchester to live with an elder sister, where his love of horses earned him a job caring for shires. Horse-drawn wagons in his charge carried goods from the docks and the railway and Gladys says that Lincolnshire men were very much in demand in those days, because of their skill with horses.

Love of music

Not surprisingly, it was a love of music which brought Alice and Charles together in Manchester and they obviously passed this on to Gladys in good measure. Gladys says that her parents were 'enlightened' and they believed in educating their children to the best possible standards. In the village of

 Sloothby, they caused something of a stir, because they went dancing! They were obviously able to enjoy both the serious side of life and the more relaxed pursuits.

Busy, happy lives

Gladys has six children and, in her words, 'Numerous grandchildren which I've happily collected on the way!"

Her family is a bit scattered now, but they do all keep in touch. Said Gladys: "They are all enjoying busy, happy lives".

In 1950, Gladys joined the WI, when 'subs' were only two shillings. "I'm very grateful to the WI," she said. "I gained a lot by being a member and soon extended my interest in crochet, tatting and embroidery." In her living room, Gladys has a lovely embroidered picture which she completed in 1970 and this is only one of several; she also paints and there are some in evidence at her home, with many more hidden away in cupboards.

There seem to be no end to her talents and in fact only last year Gladys joined the handbell ringers. "I enjoy this tremendously," she said, and as we mentioned earlier, she writes poetry. The one we print here will appeal not only to all 'Yellowbellies', but to those who have adopted beautiful Lincolnshire as their home. Adventure

Gladys obviously has a sense of adventure; the front page of the 'News' dated March 9, 1988 carries her photograph, revealing that she had just returned from a safari in deepest, darkest Africa where she came face to face with a herd of 70 elephants! She accepted an invitation for a holiday with her cousin Hubert and thought it meant two weeks in Bournemouth ! Gladys thus spent her 76th birthday on Mombasa beach.

Other activities? Giving talks to WIs and other organisations; carrying on her interest in crafts. Gladys has given hundreds of free music lessons and says she owes her musical talents to her mother who encouraged her from the age of three.

Her pleasures come from her family and looking back through the records of all she has done over the years; she enjoyed a very happy childhood. She recalls the time when her children left home, but returned every Sunday for lunch, when the week's events were discussed in detail. Never a dull moment

From her window, Gladys doesn't just enjoy watching the world go by; she joins in it and admits, "There's never a dull moment!" Good health has been a contributory factor to 84-good years, for which she is grateful.

What of life today? Well, Gladys expressed it in the words of Maurice Chevalier's

song   "I'm glad I'm not young anymore." We have to say, she seems eternally young to everyone she meets.