Mary Irene Newiss

• General Notes
  • @NI47@
    Irene has very little memory of her mother Ada Thornton, but has many happy memories of her time in Sherburn in Elmet where she lived with her new step mothers parents while her father was away in the army. She remembers  going to school there and making freinds with Dorothy a girl that lived next door. After Sherburn in Elmet she moved to Spring Row in Long Lee Keighley with Frank, his new wife and her brothers. It was with great reluctance that she left Sherburn in Elmet. She would return again for a holiday, and be disappointed when calling on her next door next door to be told that she had gone to collage.
    She remembers that airplanes were such a common site flying over that no one took any notice, but when a car passed through every one stopped to stare and was the unusual event.
    
    
    Should have been reg at birth with the name Irene, but her aunt Mary was sent to register the birh and wanted her to be named after her, so she had her registered as Mary Irene. All her life she was known as Irene.
    
    Would regularly go to dances with her cousins Edith and Maggie who were twins and Miss Kadberry
    Irene was a keen dancer and from an early age attended dances with her cousins.
    She continued to dance into her nineties. She had always had a keen interest in gymnastics and went to keep fit in her later years.
    In her youth she had played the piano, gaining certificates of merit.
    
    Irene was a great needle woman, and her skills extended to being able to taylor a garment giving it that bespoke look. She made all the wedding dresses for her daughters, or assisted in a supervising roll, as all the girls inherited her needle working skills. Although to my knowledge none are able to do tatting, a form of fine crocheting used for making delicate and intricate mats and covers. Due to poor eye sight Irene had to give up sewing, but passed her time knitting and crocheting for the family.
    
    Irene was also brilliant at French polishing and other cosmetic woodworking skills.
    
    She had gone through WW1 in her childhood, and when WW2 arrived had a family of four children to raise. Despite shortages and a small income, due to her homemaking skills she was able to feed and cloth her family better than most, making them very fortunate. Because of her sawing skills s he was able to recycle cloths and household goods, in some cases improving them from their former condition. Because Norman was working in textiles, pieces of fabric would often come their way. A pair of curtains with matching Cushion covers, arm and back covers, woven in the cellar on a loom built from scraps by Norman, for many years graced one of the rooms of their home in Lawkholme Lane.

Click here for details of Mary Irene's family with Norman Petyt

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