Leonora talks about the church's carol singers, 200-250 in total, bringing trumpets and a trombone, splitting into 4-5 groups due to numbers. They sang at pubs, asked which people wanted a house visit, with about 6-7 stops (with food!) per night.
Leonora describes meeting her husband, who was in charge of rebuilding stations on railway line, and the shrimp sandwiches her mother prepared for him.
Leonora describes her father’s additional voluntary work in the city’s League of Health- similar to CAB now. He had many friends who were JPs [Justices of the Peace], including her future in-laws, and he also visited prisoners.
Leonora describes her family making use of their father’s free railway passes, with frequent Saturday trips to Southport; holidays on the south coast and in Scotland; frequent trips to London for shopping; and journeys to exhibitions and festivals…
Leonora passed her 11+ for Levenshulme High, but wanted to write shorthand so instead attended Ardwick Central School. Her father taught her the shorthand alphabet, which she enjoyed, but she did not enjoy typing.
Leonora tells us how she eventually joined the civil service, but worked in a solicitor’s office after leaving school, taking shorthand notes. She moved down the road to John Dalton Street, working for the ‘Fine Cotton Spinners and Dobblers…
Leonora talks about her job taking minutes at Council meetings, traveling all across north-west, with locations ranging from south Cheshire to Barrow in Furness. She would take 200 pages of shorthand each meeting recording all the sanitary…