Mavis Jean Hallam (Our Mave)

Mavis was born in Liverpool in September 1942.  Her father was a Merchant Seaman and was away at sea at the time.  It was a while before Mavis saw her Dad, owing to war commitments of the Merchant Navy.  He was away so much in the first two and a half years of her life, she even thought her Uncle was her Dad.  At the end of the war her Father left the Merchant Navy and decided to get as far away from the sea as he could.  He chose such a different life and became a farm worker and brought all of his family of a son and two daughters down to Blakenhall Farm Barton-under-Needwood.  This is when Mavis was just three years old.  Her Mother found country life a bit difficult after spending all of her life in the City of Liverpool.  Then another son was born whilst at Barton.
    In the following years they had an annual pilgrimage for their annual holiday up to Liverpool, with a return visit of a lot of relations down to Barton.
    When Mavis was thirteen her Dad changed his job and this involved a change of address to another cottage at Grange Farm Croxall.  Mavis then changed school to attend Perrycrofts School at Tamworth.
    
      On leaving school at fifteen Mavis got a job in Wallace’s seed and gardening shop in High Street in Burton-on-Trent.  This shop had previously been Hallam’s the Chemist and various medicine bottles were still in the basement with their labels on.  She enjoyed this job and although she was a shy person, this work overcame her shyness.  Her daily journey to work involved a bike ride from where she lived at Croxall the three miles to Alrewas, then a ride on the Midland Red Bus to Burton.  Then the reverse of the journey in the evening after the shop closed at 5.30, six days a week.  The road between Croxall and Alrewas was quite prone to flooding from the River Tame.  Often Mavis would pedal through the floods on her way to work in a morning filling her shoes with floodwater, then after her days work would then have to face these floods again in the evening when the water would often be deeper.  On one occasion the wave from a passing lorry forced her off her bike and she had to wade through until she got to a point where she could then get back on again to continue her ride.  Getting home soaked through to the skin and freezing cold.
    It was in June 1958 when Mavis’s life would change forever.  It was a Monday night.  Mavis had cycled from her home a little over two miles to attend the weekly Youth Club at Edingale Village Hall on that evening.  It had been a generally wet day, but during the evening the rain started to stair-rod down.  David happened to be outside that village hall at Edingale in his recently acquired Austin 10 Sherbourne saloon car.  As Mavis came to leave David said “I know you live a little way up the road.  Can I give you a lift?  I can put your bike on the back.”  She accepted.
That was the start of fifty eight years of friendship and marriage of almost fifty three years.
    During their courtship they took an interest in ballroom dancing and got a few medals.  They would from time to time go on a journey to Liverpool to visit Mavis’s Aunts and Uncles including her Uncle Arch who she had lived with in those very early years.
    
    During one of the dances that were held regularly at the Burton Town Hall Mavis entered the competition for the Carnival Queen of Burton-on-Trent in 1960.  She won and during that summer became the Carnival Queen of Burton and attended various events in Burton during the summer.  What a lovely Queen she was too.  It was during the time Mavis was Carnival Queen that David and Mavis became engaged to be married.  June was the chosen date of the Engagement.
    As they became engaged the need to start saving money was a new priority.  Mavis was reluctant to leave her job in the seed shop, but to get more money Mavis got a job in a factory in Burton making toilet rolls.
    

    Their home was made in a farm cottage at Flint Mills Farm Drakelowe a nice little quiet place right on the tip of South Derbyshire.
    They set out the next morning to travel to Cornwall for a Honeymoon, but due to a road accident, their honeymoon was spent in the Warwick Hospital in different Wards.
    It was three more years before they finally got to Cornwall for a holiday.  They went with friends and the weather was the best that Cornwall had seen for years.
    In December 1965 their first Son was born.  They were delighted with the addition to their family.  The two had become one and had now become three.
    It was in 1967 when they were out one Sunday for a ride out, that Mavis spotted a Steam Road Roller in a scrapyard at Little Stoke.  A quick turn around and there it was.  The roller was purchased in the following three weeks.  It was bought with Mavis’s savings while both David and Mavis were working.  She was now the owner of a steam road roller.
    Later in November 1968 number 2 Son was born.  Mavis and David now had Philip and Jonathan the family had now grown to a total of four, with the fifth following before too long Nicholas was born in December 1969.
    September 1969 saw David and Mavis instrumental in the setting up of the Klondyke Centre for Steam Engines and the preservation of machinery.
    Around this time David and Mavis sat watching an item on television one evening.  It was a car hopping and bouncing over a really rough piece of grassland and finishing up right near the front of quite a large house.  Before the car came to a stop Mavis quipped “Really Martha we must get that drive repaired.”  This saying would be joked about time after time, year upon year.
  

    Over the next few years Mavis helped with the organising of a lot of steam events with herself and a little handful of friends always organised the making and selling the refreshments at all of the events to be held at the Klondyke site.  They always produced an electric ten gallon boiler full of the most delicious stew for everyone who brought an engine or anything else to the event, just as a recompense for their help.  Exhibitors would fall over themselves to bring their machines.  The stew was legendary at that time.  All this as well as looking after her lovely family.
She even loaded herself with more work by joining the committee of the Traction Engine Club, a position she held up to the end.  Well over 30 years.
    For a while Mavis also ran the Draycott Children’s Playgroup.  Herself and Daughter Stephanie also played a big part at Draycott Church and attended weekly.  She helped with Village Hall activities as well as the Committee of Draycott Show, even helping to plant all of the daffodils around the village, paid for by profits from the show.  All this and lots of other little things too numerous to mention.  The smile on her face was infectious.  She made everyone feel happy.
    Her illnesses started with contracting Diabetes.  This in turn led to a heart attack at the age of 45.  Mavis was soon back taking part in her busy schedule without a complaint of her illness.  Mavis managed to control her diabetes for a long while by diet, but as the years passed her condition got slowly worse.
    Over the next six years or so her three boys got married and before long she had been presented with four Grandchildren, two boys and two girls.  Her family base got bigger.  Mavis’s love for them all seemed to grow with the size of her family.
One regular weekly trip Mavis did, was to pick up Daughter in Law Kate and Granddaughter Sophie to go to the cattle market in Uttoxeter to see the cows.
    Her illness continued to worsen but Mavis still took on more work by becoming a volunteer for Oxfam and spending time on that in the Uttoxeter shop.  Still continuing with most of her other activities.  The Oxfam venture only ceased when the Uttoxeter shop closed and brought to an end of over eleven years volunteering.
    

    
    With all of her health issues no-one ever heard one complaint from Mavis and her lovely smile will live with us all forever.  Everyone loves you Mavis.  Our Mave.