Title
Jean Penfold Oral History Recording
Subject
Jean Penfold
Description
An oral history interview with Jean Penfold
Creator
Michael Romyn
Publisher
Kent's Sporting Memories
Date
Interview recorded on 25 April, 2019
Contributor
Jean Penfold; Michael Romyn
Rights
Kent's Sporting Memories
Format
MP3 file; also available in WAV (1:36:52)
Language
English
Type
Sound Recording
Identifier
Jean Penfold
Transcription
Kent’s Sporting Memories Oral History Summary
Interviewee: Jean Penfold
Interviewer: Michael Romyn
Date: 25 April, 2019
Location: Jean Penfold’s home in Appledore, Kent
0:00 Name, place and date of birth; born in Cuddesdon Manor, Oxfordshire, where her mother had been evacuated during the war while pregnant; mother was an unmarried housekeeper in Surrey; Jean was sent to boarding school at six – St Margaret’s Convent in East Grinstead – where she stayed until she was twelve; her mother, meanwhile, married Jean’s stepfather; the family moved to Appledore in 1953; when Jean married she was given the same house that the family had initially moved into; in 1963, the council gave her a new house which she has remained in ever since.
2:50 Jean’s mother and grandmother both from London; father was a married man in the Canadian army who met Jean’s mother during the war; Jean’s attempts to trace her father.
8:05 Jean’s mother ran for Croydon Harriers, and her grandmother ran too; how Jean played an array of sports at Rye Grammar School – ‘I loved my sport’; taking up football, and playing netball in Woodchurch; taking part in historical reenactments and Morris dancing; her long love of the musical group, Oysterband, and her involvement with medieval archery.
12:30 Living with her grandmother in Annerley, near East Croydon, as a child; her grandmother’s move late in life to Hamstreet and her eventual death at 98 in a nursing home in New Romney; her mother’s work as a housekeeper in Limpsfield, Surrey, and recollecting Limpsfield and the Glazebrook family, for whom her mother worked.
19:20 Jean’s mother move to Stone in Oxney, near Appledore, to work for another member of the Glazebrook family; Jean’s dislike of convent school, the bullying she received, and her attempts to run away; playing netball at convent school and how the nuns taught Jean how to ‘fall’ correctly, and how, as a left hander, to knit and sew; the segregation between Jean’s part of the school and the adjacent ‘posh’ part of the school;
26:20 Her long commute from Stone in Oxney, and then Appledore, to Rye Grammar School; sport at the grammar school, including hockey – ‘they always used to put me in goal for some reason and I hated it because I got knocked out three times’ – and cross country – ‘we used to cross country down to Camber, and we used to go into our Auntie’s pub, and have a packet of crisps or a lemonade or something and then slowly trot back’; her love of tennis and netball, and the 440-yard dash, for which she represented the school; how girls were unable to play football while at school, and the lack of opportunity to play sports in Appledore – ‘there wasn’t even any tennis courts here in those days’; her husband played football for Appledore for twenty-five years.
37:07 Working for John Lewis in London after leaving school through a connection with the Glazebrook family; moving home, getting engaged at 17 (after meeting him at the village dance when she was fifteen), and working various jobs, including running the Post Office in Appledore; getting married age 20 and having her first child a year later; applying to the council to move to her current house, free from the privations of the old one; buying her council house after the implementation of Right to Buy; working on the land and as a cleaner after the birth of her second son; running the Brownies in Appledore and helping out with the Scouts in Ivychurch.
50:00 Living in London and working for John Lewis, which she ‘loved’; shopping at one of the first Waitrose shops in Oxford Street, London; helping out with the Appledore football team – making the teas and washing the kit for two separate teams – ‘it was great fun’; her wish to be playing in the games rather than watching – ‘I always wanted to do that’; Jean’s support for Crystal Palace, who she watched as a teenager, including the club’s first game with floodlights.
58:27 Starting a ‘scratch’ cricket team in Appledore while still at Rye Grammar School – ‘I don’t think we were ever official’ – and the subsequent lack of women’s cricket in the area; the origins of women’s football in Hamstreet, which she began to play in the mid-seventies, and her experiences playing for the team – travelling for away matches, preparing the pitch in Ruckinge, team practices with a ‘vicious’ chicken intervening; hitting an opposing player in a match – ‘I felt really satisfied’; changing the team name from White Wanderers to Yellow Star, and the reasons behind the team names.
1:09:30 Attending the women’s cup final, the Mitre Cup, at Crystal Palace in 1971; condescending attitudes toward women in football; playing Chelsea ladies football team, and getting thrown out of a pub in the process; the popularity of playing for the team; Jean’s lone goal scored for the team; the coaching the team received and the social life around the club; Jean’s reasons for leaving the team and stopping playing football; the lack of women’s football in Hamstreet or the surrounding area ever since the team wound down; playing at Folkestone and Maidstone football grounds; the support the team received, including Jean’s husband who drove the team on away games.
1:23:45 Jean recounts the episode in which her young son broke his leg playing football, and his subsequent hospitalisation; further injuries her son sustained playing football.
1:31:15 Playing netball in Woodchurch after she finished playing football; the eventual folding of the team due to a lack of enthusiasm; the enjoyment she found participating in archery; fond memories of her footballing days – ‘we did have great fun’ – and socializing with the opposing team – ‘it all depended on how friendly the match had been!’
Interviewee: Jean Penfold
Interviewer: Michael Romyn
Date: 25 April, 2019
Location: Jean Penfold’s home in Appledore, Kent
0:00 Name, place and date of birth; born in Cuddesdon Manor, Oxfordshire, where her mother had been evacuated during the war while pregnant; mother was an unmarried housekeeper in Surrey; Jean was sent to boarding school at six – St Margaret’s Convent in East Grinstead – where she stayed until she was twelve; her mother, meanwhile, married Jean’s stepfather; the family moved to Appledore in 1953; when Jean married she was given the same house that the family had initially moved into; in 1963, the council gave her a new house which she has remained in ever since.
2:50 Jean’s mother and grandmother both from London; father was a married man in the Canadian army who met Jean’s mother during the war; Jean’s attempts to trace her father.
8:05 Jean’s mother ran for Croydon Harriers, and her grandmother ran too; how Jean played an array of sports at Rye Grammar School – ‘I loved my sport’; taking up football, and playing netball in Woodchurch; taking part in historical reenactments and Morris dancing; her long love of the musical group, Oysterband, and her involvement with medieval archery.
12:30 Living with her grandmother in Annerley, near East Croydon, as a child; her grandmother’s move late in life to Hamstreet and her eventual death at 98 in a nursing home in New Romney; her mother’s work as a housekeeper in Limpsfield, Surrey, and recollecting Limpsfield and the Glazebrook family, for whom her mother worked.
19:20 Jean’s mother move to Stone in Oxney, near Appledore, to work for another member of the Glazebrook family; Jean’s dislike of convent school, the bullying she received, and her attempts to run away; playing netball at convent school and how the nuns taught Jean how to ‘fall’ correctly, and how, as a left hander, to knit and sew; the segregation between Jean’s part of the school and the adjacent ‘posh’ part of the school;
26:20 Her long commute from Stone in Oxney, and then Appledore, to Rye Grammar School; sport at the grammar school, including hockey – ‘they always used to put me in goal for some reason and I hated it because I got knocked out three times’ – and cross country – ‘we used to cross country down to Camber, and we used to go into our Auntie’s pub, and have a packet of crisps or a lemonade or something and then slowly trot back’; her love of tennis and netball, and the 440-yard dash, for which she represented the school; how girls were unable to play football while at school, and the lack of opportunity to play sports in Appledore – ‘there wasn’t even any tennis courts here in those days’; her husband played football for Appledore for twenty-five years.
37:07 Working for John Lewis in London after leaving school through a connection with the Glazebrook family; moving home, getting engaged at 17 (after meeting him at the village dance when she was fifteen), and working various jobs, including running the Post Office in Appledore; getting married age 20 and having her first child a year later; applying to the council to move to her current house, free from the privations of the old one; buying her council house after the implementation of Right to Buy; working on the land and as a cleaner after the birth of her second son; running the Brownies in Appledore and helping out with the Scouts in Ivychurch.
50:00 Living in London and working for John Lewis, which she ‘loved’; shopping at one of the first Waitrose shops in Oxford Street, London; helping out with the Appledore football team – making the teas and washing the kit for two separate teams – ‘it was great fun’; her wish to be playing in the games rather than watching – ‘I always wanted to do that’; Jean’s support for Crystal Palace, who she watched as a teenager, including the club’s first game with floodlights.
58:27 Starting a ‘scratch’ cricket team in Appledore while still at Rye Grammar School – ‘I don’t think we were ever official’ – and the subsequent lack of women’s cricket in the area; the origins of women’s football in Hamstreet, which she began to play in the mid-seventies, and her experiences playing for the team – travelling for away matches, preparing the pitch in Ruckinge, team practices with a ‘vicious’ chicken intervening; hitting an opposing player in a match – ‘I felt really satisfied’; changing the team name from White Wanderers to Yellow Star, and the reasons behind the team names.
1:09:30 Attending the women’s cup final, the Mitre Cup, at Crystal Palace in 1971; condescending attitudes toward women in football; playing Chelsea ladies football team, and getting thrown out of a pub in the process; the popularity of playing for the team; Jean’s lone goal scored for the team; the coaching the team received and the social life around the club; Jean’s reasons for leaving the team and stopping playing football; the lack of women’s football in Hamstreet or the surrounding area ever since the team wound down; playing at Folkestone and Maidstone football grounds; the support the team received, including Jean’s husband who drove the team on away games.
1:23:45 Jean recounts the episode in which her young son broke his leg playing football, and his subsequent hospitalisation; further injuries her son sustained playing football.
1:31:15 Playing netball in Woodchurch after she finished playing football; the eventual folding of the team due to a lack of enthusiasm; the enjoyment she found participating in archery; fond memories of her footballing days – ‘we did have great fun’ – and socializing with the opposing team – ‘it all depended on how friendly the match had been!’