I was going to and from work on a motorbike by then, which saved time and a lot of bus fares.  This mattered because I was married and we were expecting Beverly at that time (1959).  I married Margaret on February 9th, 1957, during my time at Elford Plastics. 

We moved into a little back-to-back house at Primrose Hill (Industrial Street).  We had spent a few days decorating and Uncle Willie came and straightened up the interior doors that were leaning and wouldn't close properly.  It only had one room downstairs, quite big, and we  had one armchair, a table and two dining chairs, a small rug on the floor.  We had a matching sideboard and the latest Ferguson radio.  The cooker was at the top of the cellar steps, just inside the main door, together with a sink with a cold water tap.  Upstairs were two bedrooms: one was quite large, with room for a double bed, wardrobe, chest of drawers and mirror, and also enough room for a cot.  The other bedroom was very small, but would have  held a single bed, if nothing else.  We shared an outside toilet with the house that backed on to ours.  I fitted a parafin lamp just underneath the cistern, to stop it from freezing in the winter, and also to give a bit of light when needed through the dark hours.

In the summer of 1959, I was on short time at work and not feeling very  happy about it, and I started thinking that life would be better for us in Portsmouth.  We talked it over and decided to go.  We arranged for Pickfords to store our furniture until we found a place of our own.  I sent the motorbike by train to be collected at Portsmouth station, and we set off.  When we got there, we stayed with Vera and Fred, and their two girls (Pamela and Marylin).  They made us very welcome but Fred's sister Evelyn, who lived across the road, didn't. 

I looked for work and started  night shifts in a factory at the Airfield Industrial Estate, working on a lathe making bolts and things for the aircraft industry.  Each one was meticulously inspected on completion and I only got paid if they passed OK, so the money was paid out a week or two after the job was done.  When I finished work, I would go back to Vera's for a meal, then go to bed for five or six hours.  I would then go on the motorbike to look at houses for sale.

It took a while before we found the house on Eastney Road, all the while Evelyn was making our life miserable.  Then all of a sudden, Vera was taken into St Mary's Hospital and, within a few days, she died. After the funeral, we moved to our own house.