Aunt Win

Aunt Win (Winifred Mary Knowles, born April 22, 1906, died October 5, 1999) was the oldest member of the junior cohort of Knowles children. These last four (Win, Harold, Esther and Muriel) were closer to each other, I think, than they were to the older ones. 

Win married Fred Baggott, a glassworker from Stourbridge.  Many of the cut-glass pieces in our home come from him, via Win and my mother.¹ 

Win had a miscarriage and thereafter either could not or would not attempt childbearing.  Fred died January 21, 1964, and Win lived on for thirty years in the little cottage they'd shared, with one corner set up as a shrine to Fred.  

Uncle Fred Baggott was not a skilled worker.  ("He was too slow"--Muriel.)  He seems to have been employed at odd jobs and clean-up tasks around the glassworks.  At the time Win first met him, he was actually unemployed, doing outdoor relief gardening at a workhouse called Sandfield House in Kingswinford, Staffordshire.  She was doing some sort of uncredentialled nursing at the place.  There was a general feeling among the Knowleses that Win had married beneath her.  She had the thickest Staffordshire accent of all the Knowles siblings; yet Muriel says that as a girl she spoke beautiful English.  (Told of my mother's death, Win responded: "'Er's gone, 'as 'er?") ²   "They dragged her down to their level," is Muriel's explanation. 

At Win's wedding, the Baggott women — mother and daughters — scandalized Granny Knowles by turning up in starched white pinafores — their notion of elegance — and bearing a large jug, which they pushed at Granny, saying:  "Come on, duck, let's us go an' get some beer!"  Granny, a straight-backed Victorian woman who cherished her respectability, was not amused.

1.  These pieces are "seconds"--items that were found to have some minor defect (usually undetectable to a non-expert) at the quality-control phase.  Workers were allowed to take these pieces home.

2.  Staffordshire people of these generations pronounced "you" as "yo", with a clear round vowel.  They pronounced "four" to rhyme with "tower", and used "her" for the female nominative case:  "Her's marrying a feller from over Walsall way."  Their dialect had a gentle, humorous quality about it which I always found very attractive.  Grandad Knowles had a broad Staffordshire accent, Grandma less so.  Of their children's, Win's was the strongest, with Harold a close contender.  Bill was quite broad, though not as broad as Win and Harold.  Jack and Nell had little accent, Muriel very little and my mother none at all.  The others I can't recall.  My father (while I am on the subject) had a slight Shropshire accent, and occasionally used dialect words like "clemmed" (= hungry, starving) or "mardy" (= ill-tempered).  Noel's accent is stronger than Dad's.  Cissie spoke beautiful standard English, though her husband had a bit of Shropshire in his speech.