MARGARET MORRIS -- A BRIEF LIFE-STORY
Margaret Morris was born in Sheffield in August 1940, just 3 months before German bombers shattered the city centre and some of the steel industry; but she and her parents were safe in their NW suburb. Her father Albert was a clay-miner in an industry making ceramic pipes and bricks for the steel furnaces, and being in a protected industry, acted as air-raid warden when not at work. Her mother Mabel had been ‘in-service’ for 14 years before marriage to a business family in the leafy suburb of Fulwood, honing her domestic skills. They bought a small bungalow, and their children, Margaret and Alan, grew up in a rural situation on the edge of town.
As a youngster, Margaret was always one of the boys gang on our street, playing football and cricket on the back field, building dens, climbing trees, fighting with the boys and peddalling her scooter and bikes around the local cutlers dams and into the surrounding countryside. Weekends were spent visiting or entertaining their parents’ brothers’ and sisters’ families and playing with their cousins; even going on annual holidays with them to Blackpool.
Margaret attended the local primary school and passed the 11+ exams to go to the Secondary school. She was a keen sports-woman and played in the school netball and swimming teams. She was a keen fan of Sheffield Wednesday Football Club all her life, and went with her father Albert to most home matches, where she was a noisy spectator in the crowd.
After leaving school at 16, she worked for Bachelors, a Sheffield canned-pea factory, in their stock-control offices, and then later for a furniture shop in central Sheffield. During dinner-breaks at the local pub, she met Wilf Childs, the manager of the pub, and eventually went to work in the pub. Before long in 1960, at age 20, she announced she was going to marry Wilf, an older divorcee, and this led to much family opposition. But she did marry him, and they took a lease on a pub, The Norfolk Arms, at Grenoside on the busy A61 north of Sheffield. They ran the pub successfully for 10 years, but the 7-day working and lack of holidays, and the fluctuating popularity of pubs made it uneconomic and forced them to change jobs and make a move.
Wilf, an ex-army man, got a job at Chilwell Army Depot in Nottingham, and Margaret took a job at Boots Chemists factory in Nottingham in their stock-control office. They bought a house and lived at Attenborough on the River Trent, where Alan’s family saw them more often, as they had moved in 1970 to Derby after 10 years in Manchester, and not having much contact with Margaret. Margaret rose quickly in Boots and was soon in charge of merchandising and displays of Boots Babyware in all the local shops. She had her own car and loved driving, usually at speed, and travelling about – she could find her way easily.
But relations between Margaret and Wilf deteriorated and they separated in late 1970's, Margaret taking a promotion with Boots to run the Babyware merchandising for all the shops in the South-West of Bristol, Somerset, Devon and Cornwall. She had her own car, loved driving about, and moved into a flat in Bristol. Sitting in a pub one day in Bristol, she met John Morris, a widower and 20 years older than her. John was a native of Watchet, but living locallyl, and toured the SW like Margaret, supplying goods to market-gardens. They got on well together and decided to get married, after she had got her divorce in 1981. They bought a house on the square of the pretty Cotswold village of Sherston, and settled down to a rural life, both Margaret and John continuing with their jobs.
From then on, with John’s support, Margaret developed an interest in plants, which was surprising because she had shown no interest or had experience in them in her previous 40 years. So they both gave up their Boots and Garden-centre jobs and decided to open a small garden-centre in Sherston village, specialising in clematis. They rented a plot of land in Sherston Manor estate, created a new entrance through the estate wall and set up poly-tunnels to grow clematis. In a few years the garden-centre was thriving, with many local landowners purchasing stock and seeking advice on plants and garden design. Margaret, with John’s advice, toured grand UK gardens and began designing garden-layouts for local customers and estates. She also began giving talks to local clubs and groups on UK gardens and clematis. All this was remarkable for some-one who only a few years before knew nothing of gardens and clematis.
Margaret joined the British Clematis Society (BCS) and became an active member in the Society, particularly taking part in staging its Exhibitions at Chelsea and Harrogate Flower Shows. Her willing and out-going nature soon won her the Chairmanship of the British Clematis Society, which she and the Committee ran for 3 years, exhibiting and winning prizes at Chelsea. In 2004 she went to New Zealand with the BCS group of friends to see gardens there.
Since getting married, Margaret and John had loved travelling, both in the UK and abroad for holidays, from Scotland to Jordan to Venice, Israel and the many off-shore European islands, like Madeira, Canaries and Balearics, where they visited spectacular gardens. Margaret continued her love of driving, usually fast, with a series of special cars.
Eventually as John aged before Margaret, and the clematis business slowed, Margaret sold the garden-centre and concentrated on giving talks to interested Clubs over a wide range of the South-west, and continued her activities with the BCS, particularly with the Exhibitions. These talks and the BCS work and her out-going nature earned her many friends and contacts, which she enjoyed. John deteriorated in the early 2000’s and went into a Nursing Home and died in 2004. Margaret sold the Sherston Cottage and moved to the new village of Bradwell Grove, near Burford, for a few years, and then moved to Malmesbury, but was not settled and wanted a new start.
She had enjoyed holidays in the past on the Isle of Wight and decided she would like to live there close to the sea. So in 2012 she rented a modern flat at Totland and then a flat at Freshwater, where she met Bruce, her companion for the last 10 years – they went everywhere together. Continuing her interest in plants, Margaret did voluntary work at Ventnor Botanical Garden, and gave her talks. She kept on travelling, with holidays in France, Scotland and Cornwall with relatives, and on cruise-ships to all the European islands with friends. She met regularly with her friends and enjoyed the Thursday Lunches at the Royal Solent Yatch Club, where she was a member.
Margaret moved to Niton in 2018 on the cliff looking south out to sea, where she spent her last walking days. After a hip replacement operation in 2019, she was never fully mobile again, but continued driving her changing range of cars, accumulating speeding fines regularly. Following a series of falls in the winter of 2020/21, she struggled more and more to walk her companion dog ‘Brad’, and finally needed attention in hospital. In May 2021 they diagnosed Motor Neurone Disease and her mobility ceased, so she was looked after by The Goldings at Freshwater and then moved to Solent Grange Nursing Home at Wootton in September. She had to get rid of all her loves, her car, her dog, and eventually her flat at Niton.
For such an active person, her new immobility was frustrating, but she bore it bravely. She died peacefully at Solent Grange on 7/3/2022 aged 81, after a vigorous and interesting life. Margaret was loud, she was opinionated, she was demanding, but paid back favours, and she was concerned about others -- you could not ignore Margaret. She will be much-missed by her relatives and her many friends, whose lives were enhanced by her presence.
Alan Bradwell -- Brother . 18 March 2022.
