DATA BASE REF: Z/R 1017

FLORENCE JACKSON – The Village Policeman’s wife at Castor

Florence Elizabeth Jackson nee Taylor was born on 18 June 1909 at Grimsby Lincs, the youngest child and only daughter of William and Florence Taylor. She met Wilfred Wright Jackson, whom she was to marry in Grimsby Parish Church. They had three children as follows:

1. Ralph, who married Pam, (later to become Mrs Cooper). They had one child, Sue Jackson who married William Mc Kenzie, and they had one child: Suzanne. Florence, Pam, Sue and Suzanne all live in Castor and Ailesworth, making four generations in the village at once.

2. Beryl (born in Peakirk) who married Gordon Turner and they have three children.

3. John (born Castor), whose second wife was called Ann. He had a daughter Tracey who married Mr Webber at Castor Church.

Florence worked for the Singer Sowing Machine Company as a Demonstrator, and saw the first machine that had its own motor. Florence went on to teach people how to use the new machines; £5 got you a new machine and five lessons in those days. Wilfred Wright Jackson had always wanted to join the police. He started life as a shop-manager in Grimsby (his parents knew people who kept a hardware shop in Corporation Rd Grimsby), Wilf used to ride by on his bike, and took Florence to the theatre etc. Wilf met a Police Sergeant in Grimsby who got Wilf to train hard to be a policeman, and he was eventually accepted on the Soke of Peterborough Police Force as a probationary constable.

You had to be in the police force for a year before you could marry; meanwhile Florence and Wilf were engaged. At one stage, the Chief Constable came into the office and told Wilf that there was a vacancy in Eye, and if he were to get married the station there was his. Wilf sent Florence a telegram which read “ I will be established if we can be married and take over Eye Police House, but we have to be married in six weeks.” And so they were married in haste and Florence wondered what their family and friends would think! Florence made all the dresses, there was no honeymoon; having arrived at Peterborough they took a taxi to Eye and took over the house; it was a cottage opposite the Co-op and was in a poor state. Wilf was very handy and decorated it. Ralph their son was born in Eye and when he was a year old they moved to Peakirk, where Beryl was born, and Florence learnt to drive a Bull-Nosed Morris Car. They moved to Glinton just as war was imminent, where the front of the Police House had been turned into an ARP Post. The War started in 1939, and “no-one was ready only the police”. The telephone had to be manned, it could not be left. All air-raid warnings came to the police house. They had 40-50 calls a day, night and day.

They moved to Castor where John was born, to a Police House on the Peterborough Road near the old Village Hall. Florence was hurt and shocked to see the state of the house. The house had a tin bath, outside WC with a wooden top and had to be emptied, but it did have electric and running water. They sorted it out. The police were at the centre of everything, and were kept very busy with air-raid warnings. It was hectic. In the event of an air-raid warning Florence rang Joyce Herbert at Upton (Manor Farm) to pass it on. When the Upton girls came to dances at Castor Wilf would never let them ride home by themselves, but would accompany them. Wilf had a bicycle for the job; they had no car having got rid of the Bull-Nosed Morris Car.

Wives put in many hours as a police wife; and this was expected of them. The wives were definitely the unsung heroes, and never did get any recognition. She dealt with everything from air-raids to hit and run accidents, One day a woman dumped two children at the door – it was washday- and said “I can’t stand him any more, I’m leaving him”. Florence gave her a cup of tea. If a girl was in the family way, the parents would appear at the Police House and ask what they were going to do about it, and ask them to try and persuade the girl to name the father.

One day a German plane came down, the pilot was not injured. Wilf rang Florence and said he was going to bring the pilot to Castor, so Florence took out her curling pins. On the way, Wilf changed his mind, and brought the pilot to a camp on the main road. They offered the pilot a drink of water which he would not drink, until Wilf drank some of it.

The Americans used to come to dances at Castor, but they couldn’t take our beer, and couldn’t walk. Wilf would settle them against the gate-post, put their hats on and ring their camp. A truck would come and collect them, they would be chucked on and driven back to base. The Americans seemed to love children. Florence was dying for a tin of fruit when she was pregnant, and the Americans brought basket-loads of it for her.

Being the policeman’s wife you had to be very discrete. You were taken into people’s confidence. “It was hard work being the policeman’s wife and bringing up children, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.” Florence vowed that when Wilf left the police she would join everything going. After the war she joined the WI, became President of it, and joined and ran Drama Groups, and all sorts of things. They were the first couple into the new Police House, just a bit along from the Prince of Wales’ Feathers. Here Wilf kept bees.(Note this has now been sold by the Cambridgeshire Police. It was bought by our Village Policeman Richard Weaver and his wife Janet who still live in it – Richard is still in the Police –having been in the RAF- but we no longer have a Village Policeman as such. 2002AD.)

Once Wilf retired, they moved from the Police House to the bungalow in Silvester Road Castor, and Wilf worked for the Winfrey’s on day security duty at the papers..

These notes were made by William Burke , while talking to Florence in 2002 when she was 93.