Biography of Joan

Joan was born in Scotland in 1950 but mostly grew up in Widnes in Cheshire. At 17 in 1967 she came down to work at Pontins, the holiday camp at Camber Sands (against her mother’s wishes!)

She took a job for a couple of seasons as a waitress. She loved it! There were people from all over the country working there; she made lots of friends, some she is still in touch with now over 50 years later!

Pontins looked after its staff very well indeed. She lived on site in a chalet with another girl.  The bathrooms were some distance away at the end of the block and they were fed in the dining room.  You only spent money if you went off site on your day off.

On days off Joan and her friends would go sunbathing on Camber Sands using a mix of olive oil and vinegar instead of suntan lotion “we smelt like a chip but got really really brown”

Pontin’s vans ferried staff, particularly chalet maids, back and forth. Joan remembers persuading the driver to drop everyone off at the 58 Club in Winchelsea Beach in the evenings (and then pick them up again!)

Joan remembers in the evenings families left babies and young children sleeping in the chalets. Every half an hour one of the staff rode round on a bike listening for any crying and then made an announcement on the tannoy if any of them were awake!  “You wouldn’t get away with that these days, but there were never any problems,” said Joan.

Joan found a permanent job in the bar at Pontins and never went home! She married a local lad, Alf and fell in love with Rye!  She lived in Kings Avenue for 30 years with their 2 boys “there was an amazing community spirit, everyone looked out for each other although I was an outsider as everyone was born here”

Joan made lots of friends, playing darts for a ladies team at the Bedford, she was astonished that she, as a woman was allowed to go into the public bar! “You didn’t go into a public bar up north”

When the children were young Joan started to work in The Hastings and Thanet Building society (which later merged to become the Nationwide Building Society in 1987). She stayed for more than 30 years until she retired.

Joan and the Nationwide became the mainstay of fundraising for all sorts of causes in Rye, running quizzes, doing the pram race, raft races, raffles and raising money for Macmillan (the Nationwide wanted to support the local community)

Joan talks about Landgate with great affection about a time in the late 60’s when you could get everything you needed there, from the butchers, grocers and a  huge range of other shops.  At this time Rye had 5 banks and 3 building societies!

In 1985 the Bonfire Society had died out. In the 1993 Andy Robertson approached Joan and asked her to get involved with him to start it up again. With the support of the Nationwide, she started fundraising to bring the society back to life.

The first “new” Bonfire Society night was held in 1994. Nationwide and lots of companies helped raise funds (Nationwide paid for the fireworks)

Joan, Andy and their small team had no idea what they were doing, they just approached other bonfire societies who gave them advice on challenges like how to get roads closed. But fundraising was the biggest challenge.

• The processions were very different from the Bonfire Society processions held today as they had decorated floats put on by local business’. Local haulers would lend lorries for the floats.
• The event was bigger back then in 1994, there was live music, burger vans, fairground rides for the young children; but no Rye drummers. Celebrities would also be invited to participate, Spike Milligan was the celebrity one year.
• Around 6 years ago the drumming group was set up again by Ruth Palmer. Joan is now one of the drummers in Ryebellion.
• Once she retired from the Nationwide she got involved with ARCC and the Canterbury Oast Trust working with people with learning disabilities (paid for and volunteering) and now works occasionally doing office work down at Atlas in Rye Harbour “I like to keep busy”.

 

Audio of interview with Joan