EILEEN PEARCE (1944 – ) & HAZEL BROWN (1931 – )
Mrs Eileen Pearce and her sister Mrs Hazel Brown were both brought up in Leatherhead where their father ran a well known record shop. Both worked for years at Ronsons and were active in the company’s amateur theatre productions. Eileen is now a longstanding volunteer at Leatherhead Theatre.
Interview date: 21 November 2016
Location: Leatherhead
Interviewer: Tony Matthews
Eileen remembers the record shop
My place of birth was Rose Hill Nursing Home at Dorking, my full name is Eileen Margaret Pearce and my date of birth was 9 October 1944. My parents’ names were Alice Lillian Hawkins and Alfred Louis Hawkins. My mother was from a very large family of originally 13 children but only eight survived, and my father was the only son in a family of four. He had three sisters.
Their first home was over the Oddfellows Hall in Bridge Street, Leatherhead, which was where my father belonged to the Grand Order of Oddfellows and they lived in the flat above the shop virtually.
The earliest memory I have of my father working was when he bought a shop in North Street, Leatherhead, which started off as an electrical shop. He sold radios and he also rented out radios at that time because that’s what people did. Then he started selling records, the large 78 rpm records, and found that this was going to be the up and coming thing. So he sold his shop, moved into the High Street, and reopened it as a record shop. He sold record players, all record equipment, needles and everything to do with music [including] sheet music].
The shop stocked all types of records. This was nearly into the 1960s when the pop record scene really took off. On a Saturday afternoon you could hear the music blasting out of the shop and the shop was absolutely packed with teenagers buying the latest discs. The other chap that worked in the shop with my father was a man who was totally into classical music and knew everything about it. So the public would walk into the shop, hum a tune and either my dad would know it or his assistant would know it and they could then purchase the record.
Eileen’s childhood
The first school I went to until I was six years old – I started about four, going on five – that was Fetcham Infants School. I was only there a short time when the family moved to Leatherhead so I then went to Poplar Road School, finished my junior schooling there. Because I failed my 11 plus I then went to Leatherhead Secondary School which was along Kingston Road and I absolutely hated. But I was fortunate in that I was allowed to then take my 13 plus, having just missed out on my 11 plus. Because I passed that I was then transferred to Dilston Road School which had only been open a few years and was absolutely super.
My earliest memory of going to school was thinking how dirty it was. This was Poplar Road School which was an infants school with outside toilets that smelt absolutely terrible and were absolutely freezing in the winter. I never enjoyed Poplar Road School very much because of the headmistress who was a very stern lady, very religious and at the drop of a hat would have us down on our knees at the local church. I think I spent as much time in the church as I did in the school. I then went to Kingston Road School which was unmemorable really but I did enjoy my time at Therfield, Dilston Road School.
Did you have hobbies?
I don’t remember a lot of my childhood years being very interesting particularly. I remember doing a lot of walking. We had a small dog and we used to take the dog for walks. It was quite safe in those days to be out on one’s own. Then when it got to 1952, 53 – the Coronation Year – we had a television and that was quite a novelty. I’m afraid I spent as much time as I could watching it. The first programme I remember watching and enjoying on television was Muffin the Mule but I can’t remember any other programmes that I watched.
I think my favourite radio programmes were something called Radio Luxemburg which had all the big bands on, especially the big bands coming over from America. But unfortunately Radio Luxemburg was a very hard station to get so you had to walk around the room holding the aerial trying to get tuned in. Very often I was trying to listen under the bedclothes so that my Dad wouldn’t say: “Time to go to sleep, Eileen.”
Eileen starts work
My very first job was a Saturday job working in a dress shop called Collette’s in Church Street. I wanted some money and they gave me a Saturday job ironing the clothes that came in. I wasn’t allowed to serve customers and for that they paid me ten shillings, a nice crisp ten shilling note. I then left school and went to work in the offices right opposite Ronson Products. I went there as a junior in the wages department, making the tea, doing the odd jobs, and worked my way up from there.
I got married in March 1967, having met my husband at the same place that I was working at Ronson’s. The offices had been based in Church Street next to the cinema. It was then decided that the offices would move to Randalls Road where the main factory was. We all dreaded this but the best thing for me was when we moved there I found my husband was working there. From that, friendship developed and we were married for 35 years. His name was Ron Pearce and he worked in the work study department there. He stayed there until Ronson’s went into liquidation in 1980.
Eileen volunteers at the Museum and the Theatre
I started to work at the Museum in about 1980. I had always been interested in local history, went along to one of their open days and commented on the fact that I thought the Museum needed a good clean. So somebody said to me: “If you think it needs a good clean we need a housekeeper. You’ve got yourself a job.” So from that I started helping out with the cleaning, setting up the displays, being there on open days talking to people which I quite enjoyed. But my one love was Leatherhead Theatre – it had been all my life. I was then asked whether I would be interested in working at the theatre so that’s where I went to next.
I’ve been working at the theatre for coming up to 11 years. I started in 2006 in January as a volunteer. I was asked if I would like to go in there for a couple of hours a week and just do the theatre mailing , sending out brochures and things which I was quite happy to do for a few hours. But then there were other little jobs came up and from that I eventually ended up as being a receptionist on the front desk.
The theatre has always been short of funds ever since I’ve been there as the Arts Council grants were stopped and we had to become self-sufficient. So in the 11 years that I have been there the paid staff have practically halved. Many of the staff stayed there a long time.
I see the theatre as encompassing as many arts as possible. That includes live shows, films, art exhibitions – anything of that genre really. Unfortunately, live shows are very expensive to put on these days. Because we are self-sufficient and can’t risk losing money, we are unable to put on as many as we would like. But we still have the annual pantomime and as many live shows as it is possible to put on.
We are now integrating the theatre with television programmes in as much as Strictly Come Dancing is one of the most popular programmes at the moment on television and we have stars of that putting on live shows at the theatre. We also show films and the biggest change has been since the installation of digital films. We had to do this because the large films were no longer made for the old projector. So we took a chance, went digital and this has proved to be very popular.
Eileen and changes in Leatherhead
In my lifetime I think the Leatherhead town centre has greatly improved, mainly because it is now pedestrianised. Although the old shops were lovely and quite a selection of them, it was almost impossible to stand in the High Street and have a conversation with somebody. It became very dirty and very noisy and the traffic went through the High Street. Personally I think it is much better these days since it has been pedestrianised. Shopping habits have changed and although we don’t have the variety of shops that we used to have, we still have all the day to day shops for our day to day needs. There are not as many pubs as there used to be because generally pubs have closed. But we do have loads of coffee shops and cafes. I can remember as a teenager going out for the evening and there was absolutely nowhere in Leatherhead where you could get a cup of coffee or something to eat. Now there are so many place to go to, including the coffee shop in the Leatherhead Theatre which makes it a very cosmopolitan town.
Hazel’s childhood
My full name is Hazel Patricia Brown and I was born on 20 September 1931 over the Oddfellows Hall in Bridge Street which was where we lived at that time. My father already lived in Leatherhead. His family lived in Gravel Hill. My mother came from Hampshire. They met when Mum was working in Leatherhead and their first home was 45 Bridge Street over the Oddfellows Hall.
He was self-employed for quite a lot of the time. He worked in Moulds in Leatherhead originally where he was a plumber and when they still in Bridge Street he had his own business. But then the war came along and we moved to Kingston and he was working at Hawkers Aircraft then.
Do you remember the war?
Yes I do. It was the height of the war. Dad was working at Hawkers which was just up the road from where we lived and we had to sleep in the air raid shelter in the garden every night. I remember vaguely they closed the school for a while because of the bombing and we had to collect work to do at home. When the bombing got really bad my mother and I went to live at her original home in Hampshire. Dad used to just come down at weekends.
I remember I didn’t like the school there because the children had broad Hampshire accents so I was regarded as a foreigner really. So there was a lot of bullying that went on. That’s what I remember most.
From Kingston we came to live in Fetcham on the Cannon Court estate where there were lots of shops at that time so it was quite nice there. I was at school and I won a scholarship and went to Dorking County Grammar School from there. The war was still on at that time so I remember but it was not as bad as in Kingston. It was a little quieter there.
What about your schooling here in Surrey?
I had quite a long walk in the mornings from Fetcham to Leatherhead Station to catch the train to Dorking. I think I enjoyed school. My favourite subject was English because I have always been a bit of a scribbler.
I have always been interested in music so that was one of my main interests. As the war was still on – or just finishing – there wasn’t really a lot to do at that time.
When we lived in Bridge Street when I was very young there was a little kindergarten next door to the Oddfellows Hall run by a Miss Hewlins and I used to go there before I started school at Poplar Road. But at the time that I was at Poplar Road School that was when we moved away so that started my series of ten schools in my schooling years because we moved around a lot.
Father was also a wartime fireman
Before the war we were in Oddfellows Hall then, living above it rather, and there was an auxiliary fire service. They had two fire engines which were based in Emlyn Road……..
………….one was called the Princess Elizabeth and the other Princess Margaret Rose. Because it was only an auxiliary fire service there was a fire bell in the house. So if there was a fire in the middle of the night the bell would ring and all the men would have to run down the road to the fire station. It was all quite elementary really.
As part of the VE celebrations there was a large event that the fire service took part in. They built this tower and they were supposed to put the fire out but things got rather out of control. I don’t think there were any casualties. But I remember I was at school then and we had to march in the shape of a big V and we all had to wear red, white and blue.
Do you recall anything else of the war years?
I can’t really tell you anything about Hawkers except that there was a lot of bombing around and we lived in a road called Cowleaze Road in Kingston and the cinema at the top of the road was bombed. So I think that was about the time that my Dad decided that Mum and I should go down to my grandparents’ in Hampshire because it would be safer there.
Working at Wakefield’s
I think it was 1941 when we came back to live in Fetcham. I left school then and I didn’t have a proper job so I worked for my father for a while. He opened a shop in Fetcham really just as outlet for the plumbing business he was doing. It was called Surrey Heating Company. But it was after that he went into business in Leatherhead.
My first proper job was in a drapery store called Wakefield’s in Leatherhead. It was an old fashioned drapery store on the corner of North Street and the High Street. A very old fashioned place. It was very cold working there because they just has a few radiators. It wasn’t a very comfortable place to work but it was one of the biggest shops in Leatherhead and very well patronised. It was while I was working there that I got fed up with working on a Saturday and of course the magical Ronson’s was just up the road. So one day I saw a job advertised for an accounts clerk, no experience necessary. I thought I’ll try that. So I said I had a dentist appointment and went off for this interview at Ronson’s and fortunately got the job.
What else can you recall about Wakefield’s?
The first part of the shop that you went into was the fashion department. There was a fitting room by the window which was just curtained off. But I don’t think ladies realised that when they were changing in this room that in double decker buses going by, people sitting on the top deck would get a wonderful view of them.
Working at Ronsons
I think I probably worked at Ronson’s for about 15 years but I started in the accounts department which was in one of the offices next to the Crescent cinema as it was at that time. Ronson’s had a block of offices on either side of the cinema. It was very entertaining because I had a desk by the window so there was plenty going on. Ex-employees that had left to have babies used to come by on their way to the clinic and they would perhaps bring the baby up to the office to show us and let the baby play with the typewriter. It was all quite free and easy there. We didn’t want to go to Randalls Road when they decided to move us down there but we didn’t have any choice.
When the operatic society used to do their shows at the cinema they used to leave their hamper and all their bits and pieces, props, in our office. There was a lovely big hamper full of costumes whicgh we were told we must not touch. So of course at lunchtime we used to get dressed up in these costumes. The only trouble was they dropped face powder all over the typewriters and made a bit of a mess.
The comedian Arthur Askey, then a household name, made a guest appearance opening a premises in the town. Do you remember that?
I do because my desk was by the window so I had a prime view. He was very entertaining, stopping all the traffic as it went by and there was a big Drinkwater lorry that came along. He got out in the middle of the road and said: “Come on Mr Drinkwater.” I think it was a bit of a surprise for the driver. And Max Bygraves lived at Pachesham Park and he often used to come by and wave to us. He always seemed to be having trouble with his toaster which he took into Clear’s electrical shop to be repaired so we saw quite a lot of him.
What do you remember of the Randalls Road site?
It was very different when we first moved there because the building wasn’t even finished. They hadn’t put the hand rails in and it was a bit of a hazard walking up and down the stairs because we moved in before it was really finished. It was quite different because I worked in the credit sales department. It was one large office so it was very open. But the best thing about being down there was that quite a lot of people were interested in amateur dramatics so part of the sports association became the Ronson Concert Club. Rather an unimaginative name but that’s what we were called. We did pantomimes at Christmas and summer shows going round to mental institutions, entertaining them whether they liked it or not. The pantomimes mostly were very good, though we say it ourselves. They were excellent.
You performed together at shows.
I think we started in the chorus like most entertainers do. The first pantomime that Eileen really a big part in was Sinbad the Sailor. The lady that was playing the part of Sinbad suddenly went sick the week of the show. I didn’t fit the costumes but Eileen was smaller than me so the costumes which were lovely fitted her beautifully. So in the actual performances I was in the orchestra pit singing and Eileen mimed the songs. So nobody knew really. Eileen was so used to my singing that she knew exactly how to phrase it and that was really a big hit. Later on I was Aladdin, Cinderella. We enjoyed it very much [and had good audiences].
Eileen and the pantomimes
Ronson Products, based in Leatherhead, were an enormous company who also had sites in Australia and America. They had in Leatherhead a Ronson Social Club which was mainly for sports and occasionally had dances there. While I was working in the offices there, a man came to me and said they were thinking of forming a Ronson Concert Club in order to do pantomimes and variety shows. Would you be interested? I of course jumped at the chance having always been theatre minded. The first pantomime they decided to put on had to be on a fairly small scale as we had never done it before. We were all amateurs and we put it on at Ashtead Peace Memorial Hall. This was an enormous success as the other workers all longed to see their colleagues making a fool of themselves. This show was so successful we decided the following year that we could seat more people and we could do with a bigger venue. So we took a chance and put the show on at Ebbisham Hall. The next four shows were all at Ebbisham Hall at Epsom.
On the first pantomime they put on at Ebbisham Hall the principal girl went sick. She lost her voice. So having been in the previous show as the Fairy Queen, I was asked if I would take the main part. This was on the day of the opening night so very, very short notice. But I agreed to do it. One of the reasons I agreed was because I had met somebody working in the offices and he played the guitar. We had a small orchestra from some people who worked in the offices – drummer, pianist, double bass player – and Ron was playing the guitar. So I was very anxious to take this part and of course was very popular because I had taken over at short notice and saved the show. It also gave me a chance to get to know the guitarist a lot more and on the closing night of the pantomime when there was a very heavy fall of snow we were standing outside the theatre saying good night and he asked me to marry him. And I did!
Hazel and changes in Leatherhead
Although a lot of the old buildings still remain, the shops of course are very different because they were mostly family-run in the old days and we did have a good variety of shops. But saying that, I do think that the town has improved a lot over the years, especially with the Swan Centre and with this Transform Leatherhead we are hoping for great things. But I do remember when we lived in Bridge Street all the shops up the road. There was one shop run by Mr Dutt and he had a model ice cream outside the shop which my mother used to try and stop me rushing up to lick as I tried to do all the time. There were a lot of individual grocery shops because I think in those days women used to shop daily. They would go and get the day’s shopping instead of getting the piles of shopping we get these days.
Going back to Wakefield’s, that was the mainstay of the town because it was a big draper’s shop and there was a men’s outfitters as well in there. They ran a Christmas Club. People used to have a little card and spend their money at Christmas. There was a nice atmosphere about the town, which I think is still a friendly town now because people do stop and speak to you. Because it is pedestrianised in a way it is more sociable because you can stop and chat to people.
I was married in Leatherhead parish church on 3 October 1959 and when we first married we went to live in Chessington. Then we moved to Leatherhead. We always seem to gravitate back here again.