A new blog series written by our volunteer, Katherine Bett, about the diaries of Winifred Hoyle (1880-1952).

Chapter 1 - The Diaries

One of the Archives’ earliest accessions is a collection of household accounts and diaries of “Mrs F J Hoyle of Sonning”, and they provide a unique insight into middle-class life in the late 1920s and early 1930s.

They are the accounts of Winifred Bower Hoyle (b. 30th April 1880, d. 23rd June 1952 aged 72), who kept these diaries when she was aged 45-54 and living at 37 Devonshire Road, Palmers Green, North London. Her husband, Frederick (Fred), who worked as a clerk in the War Office was from Sonning; they later moved there, and it was where she died. Winifred’s diaries were given to the Archives two years after her death by her husband, and were catalogued under the reference D/EX88. 

The front covers features images the publishers thought would appeal to ladies

Winifred and Fred had four children: Freddy (b. 1910), Russell (b. 1915), Dora (b. 1918) and Thomas (b. 1922). Winifred's first entry in these diaries are the weekly accounts for the week ending 7th November 1925, when the children were 15, 10, 7, and 3. She had been keeping a cash book since her marriage in 1909; but these diaries marked the start of a new system of keeping accounts where it was easier to add up the weekly spend. The trigger for this may well have been the £50 deposit paid on a house on 20th December - they had got a mortgage and she needed to budget for it.

An example of the weekly accounts

Her weekly accounts are meticulous. It is interesting to see which purchases are itemised at the bottom of each page - often it is clothing, but sometimes buying oranges to make marmalade. It may be an idealised picture, but Winnie clearly had to budget carefully in order to afford everything on Fred’s salary of just over £600 a year. For the most part, their costs are similar each year, aside from the grocery bill, which grows from £73 in 1926 to £117 in 1933. She had to buy more food for her family which were growing up and eating a lot!

The written diary entries do not start until 1926 and are not regular, but are frequent enough to build a picture of family life. The diaries are not used for planning, or for reminders, but for recording stories, events, and trips. For the most part, these entries provide a picture of a middle-class idyll. The children were all in the Scouts (even going on a trip to Switzerland, and to a Baden Powell talk), they grew prize-winning vegetables on their allotment, and spent their summer holidays by the sea at Corton, Suffolk. Outings included trips to the cinema, to the pantomime and to exhibitions at Alexandra Palace. The family got a kitten as a pet, and they wrote an epitaph when it died. 

The children were all very sporty - the older boys cycled to Sonning, Russell regularly played cricket, and all of them (even Dora) won prizes at various sports days. As the children got older, we also learn more about Winifred's interests as she became increasingly involved with the church.

These diaries give us a glimpse into life 100 years ago and we can see both similarities and differences to our lives today.

The subject of the next blog is health - the family were ill a lot, and in the days before vaccinations and antibiotics, looking after sick children was a significant part of Winifred’s life.