Florence Houlbrook Hannah Leyland’s Voices project June 2005

Family Florence was born in 1890 in Cheshire, and was the youngest of 7 sisters. Her favourite sibling was her sister Anne, who was the next youngest. She was the daughter of John Houlbrook and Harriet Phillips, and attended the local school until she was 12.

John Houlbrook and Jack

Churchtown When she was 12, Florence was sent with her sister Anne to serve in a large house in Churchtown (Southport). She had to take public transport all the way from Cheshire and she was scared. It was the normal thing to sent young girls off to serve in wealthy houses in those days.

Churchtown When she and her sister reached Churchtown, they became lost looking for the house. Becoming worried about not finding the house before night-fall, they found two teenage boys and asked for directions. Unbeknown to them, they were the sons of the family they were going to be serving.

The Pickup family As the girls were walking away, one of the boys, Walter Pickup, said to his brother he would marry Florence one day. Florence and Anne found the house, and worked from before dawn to late at night in return for their board and lodgings, and a small amount of spending money. Walter and Florence “took up”, which highly displeased the family.

Bacup This reached a head when Walter was issued with an ultimatum by his family:- marry Florence and lose all his inheritance and be cut off, or to never see Florence again. He chose Florence, and they married and moved to Bacup. He and Florence had 2 daughters, Dorothy and Viola. In 1923, Water became the town surveyor.

Viola

World War One When conscription reached Bacup, Walter did not have to go, as he was considered too important to the town to risk his life. He signed up anyway, as he did not feel right watching all his friends leave to fight whilst he was safe. This left Florence at home, on her own, with two children to look after. She lived on money he posted home.

Walter’s death Walter was killed in the First World War, and the Pickup family re-appeared. They offered to take Violet and Dorothy to the United States with them, but would not take Florence. She bravely refused, considering that she was living on a very small war pension, claiming “no-one was going to part her from her daughters”.

Michael Mochan Florence met Michael Mochan (alias Bill, because she didn’t like the name Michael), a young Glasgow man who had run away to join the navy, about 2 years after Walter died. Women couldn’t be on their own for very long then, as they were not expected to work or have their own money. Florence and Bill married soon after.

India Florence and Bill had a son called Jack, but when Jack was still a small baby, Bill was sent with his naval unit to north-western India. As Jack was too small to make the 3- week crossing, Florence stayed at home until he was old enough. When Jack was 3 and the girls 6 and 8 (in the 1920’s), Florence followed Bill to India.

Florence and Jack

The crossing She crossed by boat, to a foreign place where she did not speak the language, and then took a crowded train (with 3 young children) across India to join her husband. There her 3rd daughter, Myrtle, was born, but Florence also lost some babies, before having twins, Pauline and Freda.

Cooking in India Florence wasn’t allowed to cook in India, as she was considered un-clean (because she was a white woman). When the cooks baked a pie, they would leave them on the window sills to cool. The local monkeys learnt about this, and used to wait until they were put out, and climb over to steal them.

Aldershot When the family returned to England, Florence had two more sons, Rae Anthony (after Walter’s brother) and James Bertram. She was now in her 40’s, but she was still very meticulous about her house. She had taught herself to read and write, and had spices shipped over from India to make the fantastic curries she had had there.

Bill When Bill was serving in India, 6 men of his group were captured and tortured by Afghani rebels. He led an attack to free them, and won several medals for bravery. Florence did not let this bother her. When Bill was 82, and frail old man, she said “Look at him there, in his chair, and there’s all that garden needs digging”

Peace Florence died in 1992, aged 103, from old age. She was still very alert and aware of what was happening. Bill died of phenomena in Jack was shot down in the 2nd World War. Viola died of a long-term illness she had caught in India.

Peace Myrtle died in 2004 of cancer. James died of a heart attack in Rae died of a heart attack on 12th January Dorothy is still alive and lives in Cheshire. Freda died in 2000 in Rawtenstall. Pauline, her twin, is still alive and lives in Bacup.