My Autobiography
My name is Susan Ann BURTON nee DOVASTON. I was born in my maternal grandparents' house (see left for how it is now) in Caterham, Surrey in 1948, the only child of Reginald Alfred John DOVASTON and Margaret Ada BEESLEY. When I was 6 months old, we moved down the hill from Caterham to Whyteleafe, Surrey but from the age of three, I attended a small, private Nursery School called Elseferry Lodge on the edge of Coulsdon Common, near my grandparents' house. It was run by a lady called Mrs. Littlechild and her assistant, Mrs. Edwards. The schoolroom was what I can only describe as a shed in her driveway, with a corrugated iron roof. But my memory tells me it was a bright room with lots of pictures on the walls.
Mrs. Edwards' husband played the side drum in the Guards Band and occasionally the Band would march along the road outside the school and we would all be shepherded outside to watch them go by. And they must have been good teachers as when I was seven I passed the entrance exam for Croydon High School for Girls in Croydon, Surrey, where I remained for the rest of my schooldays.
I remember being a shy, rather stolid child. My main interests were reading and playing the piano. My great aunt, Ada, had given us her piano when I first started lessons at the age of six and with it, there came a great pile of old sheet music of songs of the 1920s and 30s. By the time I could play this music, we had moved back to Caterham to look after my grandfather, who was by this time a widower and the piano was in my bedroom.
I can remember sitting at it for hours on end, playing and singing along to such memorable works as 'When you played the organ and I sang the Rosary' and 'We'll gather lilacs in the Spring again'! In my teens, I also learnt the organ and was for a while, organist at St. Michael's Church in the Guards Barracks at Caterham. I also tried the violin and the oboe but not really liking either, I plumped for percussion lessons, which led to membership of the Croydon and Surrey Youth Orchestras.
At the age of eighteen, I started three years teacher training at Trent Park College in Cockfosters, Middlesex. My first teaching post was at St Paul's Secondary Modern School, just off the Balls Pond Road in Islington, Middlesex and during my time there, I met and married John BURTON, a police constable serving in the Metropolitan Police. He had been born and raised in Horsham, West Sussex but we met at the 'Starting Gate' pub on the edge of Alexandra Palace where I was working as a barmaid to supplement my teaching wage. After two years St Paul's was closed when the Comprehensive system for education was introduced and I moved to Brooklands Junior School in Cheshunt, Herts. We were living in Lower Edmonton at the time. I spent three and a half happy years at Brooklands, only leaving because of the birth of our first child. Stephanie Jane was born in London but not wanting to raise children in a city environment, when she was three weeks old, we moved to Lewes, East Sussex and John transferred to the Sussex Police. After a further two and a half years, our second daughter, Adrienne Clare was born and we decided our family was complete. By this time, John had left the Police and had become a long-distance HGV driver, travelling throughout the British Isles and often into mainland Europe.
We now had two small children and a mortgage to support and so to earn a little extra money, I started doing some piano accompaniment for a dancing school in Burgess Hill, West Sussex. This not only led to me being asked to do two mornings a week teaching Music at Hamsey Primary School in Cooksbridge, East Sussex but also to my becoming the Pianist for the annual Plumpton Pantomime; an association that was to last for over 20 years.
When both our children started full-time education, I was able to return to teaching full-time. I obtained a post at an Infant School on the outskirts of Brighton, East Sussex where I was to remain for 19 years. Besides having a full-time class, I was also responsible for all things musical and wrote, directed and accompanied many Nativity Plays, Summer Concerts, Harvest Festivals and the like during my time there. The most nerve-wracking experience was probably having to play the National Anthem for a Royal Visit!
By 1995 we had outgrown our house in Lewes, despite already having built an extension, and moved three miles to the village of Ringmer. It was quite an eerie experience when, late one night, I discovered David Haines' Family Tree which showed that some of John's direct ancestors had lived in the village over 300 years previously. Although we have had little time to involve ourselves in the village community, I was able to transcribe the 1891 and 1901 Ringmer Censuses for the Village Website. I also somehow become heavily involved with the FreeBMD Project which is transcribing the GRO Indices to make them available for searching online.
2002 was a year of great change in the BURTON household!
The paperwork and continual changes to the Education system had finally became too much and I retired early from teaching. John became a Driving Examiner, having had his own business as a Driving Instructor for 6 years. Adrienne moved out to set up home with Keith but continued in Retail and now manages her own Store. And we started completely revamping and extending our house to accomodate Jack, John's dad, who was coming to live with us. But the latter was not to be as Jack died quite suddenly in the November of that year.But the extra space was to be put to good use. Steph's Internet business, Javaslublu Perfume, was doing well.
She had been compiling an Encyclopedia of Perfumes for some while and returned home, after living in Brighton, accompanied by well over 2000 perfume bottles! She was able to computerise this work and establish her ever-growing website, which is now a detailed reference to over 900 Perfume Houses - and set up the business to support this. She bravely invited me to join forces with her and extend the variety of items for sale. After dabbling in several areas we decided that books would be a good thing to sell - they bounce! We now have an Office full of books, books on the landing, books in the guest bedroom, books in John's Office. We normally have about 15,000 books in stock at any one time but they are constantly changing. We seem to have hit upon a never-ending supply! We now sell books through our own website - Javaslublu Books, through Amazon, Abebooks, Biblio, eBid and eBay.
I had been accompanying at rehearsals and shows for several local amateur Societies in order to fund my research into our Family Trees and the hunt for my DOVASTON family. In 2003 I decided to extend this and to also try my hand as a Musical Director. I can now be found tinkling the ivories somewhere in East Sussex several evenings a week! I play regularly for Seaford Musical Theatre, where I am even trying my hand at directing, Herstmonceux Amateur Theatrical Society, Ubends of East Hoathly & Chiddingly and many others, as well as being the resident Musical Director for The Uckfield Singers.
Adrienne & Keith were married at Ringmer in 2006 and have now made me a Granny!
Emily Margaret ROGERS was born in January 2008.
