Mosh & Trudy Saunders

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 James Saunders, know as 'Mosh' was from a family that had lived locally from the late 1700s.

Mosh born 1923 was the son of William John & Florence Saunders

Mosh published a book entitled "Children in a Bodgers World" recording his childhood experiences with his grandfather and the bodgers, (put bodgers in Search for men who were wood turners)

Birth at Idle Corner

C. 1920 – 26.   Tenant. William John Saunders, 23, Bertha Saunders, Edward ‘Ted’, born 1921, Millicent and Maurice ‘Mosh’, twins, born 1923.   Mosh called Idle Corner as the ‘Black Horse Yard.’

The Reading Room. Conveyance to John William Saunders of Lacey Green, builder.

Schedule.   All that piece of land at Lacey Green, containing 5 poles, together with the bungalow, formerly The Reading Room. click 1886 The Reading Room.

More room needed

John's son, William John Saunders and his wife Flo. were living in a tiny cottage at Idle Corner.   They had 1 son, Ted, and were expecting twins and needing more room, so John bought the old Reading Room for them.   He extended it one end, making it 3 rooms with a narrow kitchen at the back.

Mosh spoke of the bungalow opening straight onto the track, which was the Main Road of Lacey Green, virtually unused by traffic, his feet in the road.

Mosh Injured

On D Day plus two, Mosh had been injured and brought back to England where he was taken to a hospital outside Wolverhampton.

Trudy from 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.

ON THE BUSES

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.

MARRIAGE. Mosh and Trudy married in 1946. They had one Daughter, Kay

1951 Greenlands

Mosh and Trudy moved into 6 Greenlands, a new close built by the Council in1951. See 1951 Greenlands First Tenants.

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

Schedule.

All that land frontage to Lacey Green Road of 73 feet with covenant to maintain boundary fence on SE and SW.

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 on the site.   They 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

Move to Loosley Row ??

Move to bungalow, 'Marlins' New Road, Walters Ash 2003-2006? ??

Mosh died 21st March 2006 at 'Marlins', New Road, Walters Ash.

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.

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, tenant of Speen Farm (now the Home of Rest for Horses)