Mosh & Trudy Saunders
From Lacey Green History
Research by Joan West. Facts from census and deeds also conversations with Mosh & Trudy, his wife. . . . Also, beneath, see report written In 2005 by Alan Luxford published in Hallmark, on the occasion of Mosh and Trudy's Diamond Wedding.
Maurice 'Mosh' James Saunders born 1923 was the son of William John & Florence Saunders
Trudy came from Wolverhampton
Mosh and Trudy married in 1946
Mosh and Trudy had 1 child as follows :-
Kay Saunders born
In 2021 Mosh published a book entitled "Children in a Bodgers World" recording his childhood experiences with his grandfather Owen Smith and the bodgers, click Owen & Minnie Smith for more about Mosh's grandparents. (put bodgers in Search for men who were wood turners)
in 1923 Mosh & his twin sister Millicent were born in a little cottage at Idle Corner but the family moved to The Reading Room soon after. Mosh called Idle Corner the ‘Black Horse Yard.’
Mosh spoke of the Reading Room bungalow opening straight onto the track, which was the Main Road of Lacey Green, virtually unused by traffic, his feet in the road.
1929 Extract from "Children in a Bodgers World" by ‘Mosh’ Saunders. "1929 aged 7 the pond was a source of great attraction to me, having fallen in three times in my very best Sunday clothes. It had a walk with slatted timbers to the very middle of the pond, and my young mind was drawn to walking backwards along it and thus falling over the end into the water".
Mosh also wrote - "In the nineteen twenties, two recluses lived in Hampden Woods, a tall, tough character named ‘Stoney’, who was deaf and caused much excitement with the young girls who walked through the woods with their boyfriends. Stoney would follow them and suddenly appear from behind a tree. He would sidle up to them and say: “A very pretty girl and very well dressed” Needless to say, they were soon making a hasty retreat, but we knew it was his way of making conversation, and quite harmless. Another recluse was the ‘witch’ Betsy Kitson. Granddad, Owen Smith, who lived at no.4 Parslows Hillock Cottages, and was a bodger in Hampden Woods, had told my twin sister Millicent and me “If you see her, keep out of sight. The first time we saw her was about 1929, when we were 7 years old."
WW2. On D Day plus two, Mosh had been injured and brought back to England where he was taken to a hospital outside Wolverhampton.
Trudy was one of the girls doing “war work”. She was involved with fixing tappits for Merlin engines, also oil seals in crankshafts, & gearbox work for tank engines. Hospital Visiting The girls were encouraged to make up baskets of food, fruit or even just a cigarette to take to the men at the hospital. A room was set aside where they could have family visitors and a rota was established for the girls to serve coffee for them. And it was there Mosh got to know Trudy
Mosh Goes Home One day he wasn`t there, he had been transferred to Stoke Mandeville. Trudy got a letter and they kept in touch until Mosh was better and at the end of 1944 he brought her to Lacey Green.
After the War the “war workers” had to either go into factories or on the buses. Mosh`s twin sister Millicent worked for Marconi in Sands and got a job for Trudy there, but she was obliged to be a conductress, taking the money on the buses in Wycombe because that had been her choice before she left Wolverhampton. She hated it. She lived in digs down Loudwater, High Wycombe near the then bus station. For more about Mosh's twin Millicent click Bob & Millicent Martin
Mosh and Trudy married in 1946. They moved into small bungalow behind Mosh's parents house 'Chorlton'. In 1947 they had a daughter, Kay. They were now very short of room and looked for somewhere to build. Then in 1951 the Council built Greenlands and Mosh and Trudy moved into Greenlands no 6. click 1951 Greenlands First Tenants. for a list.
Trudy had been welcomed into a truly socable, very musical, family, so she was quickly feeling at home. She found Millicent, Mosh's twin sister a great friend although she had now married Bob Martin. click Bob & Millicent Martin for their life story.
2nd December 1958 Conveyance
Percy William Simmons of 61 Lambert Road, Banstead, Surrey, instrument maker sold to Maurice James Saunders of 6 Greenlands, Lacey Green, builder, for £500 :-
All that land frontage to Lacey Green Road of 73 feet with covenant to maintain boundary fence on SE and SW.
Reseach Note. This was now bare land. Maurice ‘Mosh’ and Trudy Saunders cleared the ground. Trudy spoke of the amount of rubble from the old flint cottage that had been there and recalled barrowing many loads of stones to clear the site and build the back up level, and helping to lay floorboards. They then built the house ‘Dry Hillocks’ on the site. The site of the old cottage became the drive for ‘Dry Hillocks’ For more click Dry Hillocks
November 1962. Conveyance
Dry Hillocks purchased by Mr and Mrs P L B Pilkington for £2500
1962 Move to Bergamot, Loosley Row ??
c 2003-2006 living at bungalow, 'Marlins' New Road, Walters Ash
Mosh died 21st March 2006 at 'Marlins', New Road, Walters Ash. (The first property on New Road on left from Lacey Green to Walters Ash).
-
Connie Baker (Fred & Connie Baker) mentioned Mosh as playing the piano at dances in the Village Hall. click 2005 Memories of Con Baker for the full article
Article by Alan Luxford, written in 2005 on the occasion of Mosh and Trudy's Diamond Wedding.
My first memory is when my Mum told me that in the summer of 1923 she took Mosh and his twin, Millicent, in their pram for a walk down to The Foundry in Loosley Row. It wasn't until she got there that she realised she had the return journey UP Loosley Hill to face. Mum was of slight build and only 13 years old!!
We are lucky to have Mosh with us today. At the outbreak of war in September 1939, we were living next door to "Chorlton", Mill Road (as the road was then called before the more imaginative name of Main Road replaced it!!), where Mosh was living with his parents, and brother and sister. I believe it was 1941 when Mosh joined the army, and at the end of the war in 1945 he returned to lacey Green with a lovely young lady. My 14 year old thought was 'War can't be all that bad'. There followed their wedding and the small bungalow behind "Chorlton" became their home.
Musical Ability. Mosh and I share a Great Great Grandfather and I have never understood why he had the ability to pick up any instrument, musical or otherwise, and play a tune, i.e. the accordion, piano, a carpenters saw etc. etc. Seemed so unfair - I could just about play the gramophone!! I remember Mosh building a two tier trestle and placing jam jars on it, filled with various amount of water, and then playing them with drum sticks. To hear Mosh and his brother Ted playing the same piano together was an absolute joy.
Painting and poetry as well as music, has always paid an important part of Mosh's life. He formed a group with Len Cappal, George Bapping and Tony Goodchild, calling themselves 'Harmony 5'. He and made quite a lot of money for charity, supporting Multiple Sclerosis (put 'charity' in Search for other charily events) and put 'artist' in Search for other performers.
They were next door neighbours 'second to none' and in 1952 my parents decided to build a bungalow on the other side of "Chorlton". The move from the cottage was some 20 yards - we didn't employ a furniture van!!
N.B. Our shared Great Great Grandfather was William Saunders, born 1815, tenant of Speen Farm (now the Home of Rest for Horses).