Minor Project: Audio of Rachel and Sharon's Account about Mr Plimsolls

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Transcript

Mr Plimsolls, what do you remember of him?
Sharon: Well I’m older then Rachel, I’m five years older so I think my memory would perhaps be clearer? Um I remember him being very short, I don’t know if that’s because as a child I was very tall and he did look quite small with his white dirty rain mac on, that had a very thick rope like tie around the middle and he had a very very pointy fierce looking face, obviously wore plimsolls. Only came out in the dark, walked exceptionally quickly for somebody who looked so old and frail, he had great speed about him didn’t he [Rachel: He did yeh…yeh] he really flew along, and he always had a bag but the bag always looked empty so it was similar to a roy cropper sort of shopping bag with short handles on it that were always in the hook of his arm, but then there never appeared to be anything in that bag did there? [Rachel: No] but he never left the house without it

Rachel: That’s right, and he never spoke [Sharon: never no] I never heard him speak I don’t, yeah I never heard him talking at all. But yeah, my memory is the same as Sharon’s that um, yeah he just scuttered around, he just scuttered around and he never wore anything other than his dirty rain coat

Sharon: And never made eye contact with anybody [Rachel: No, head down] and a stoop on his back [Rachel: Yeah] I don’t think that he probably could lift his head up actually [Rachel: No]

Rachel: And his house, um, was just so overgrown wasn’t it? All these trees in front of it and it just looked really eerie

Did he scare you at all?
Rachel: No he didn’t scare us because he never said anything, it’s just because he didn’t look right, because he, he, because of his appearance you would be scared and because of what his house looked like, it was so run down this bungalow, and then of course we’d heard stories, his wife had drowned um, way before we had moved there

Sharon: I think it was shortly after he got married wasn’t it, the story goes

Rachel: And yeah, she drowned herself in the bath, and as the story goes – her clothes were left on a chair in the bathroom and apparently he never ever moved them. Now how we know about that story I don’t know, but it was obviously just from [Sharon: from here say] yeah from here say yeah   

Mum said that you guys used to play Knockdown Ginger on his door, want to talk about any occurrences with that?

Rachel: -We probably did I would imagine yeah definitely we did do that because we probably egged each other on who was gonna be the bravest to knock on his door

Sharon: Yeah I think that the dare was to approach the door and knock it but I don’t recall anyone being brave enough to go up that footpath, because that footpath was bleak wasn’t it [Rachel: Yeah] the gate went “rrrrrgh” cos it sort of hung of the hinges didn’t it? [Rachel:Yeah yeah] the windows where all covered in ivy [Rachel: Yeah yeah, you couldn’t see it really] and the footpath was all overgrown with trees

Rachel: You know what the more I think about it the more clearer I can see it in my head, I can really picture it

Sharon: But it was like a film, you would imagine if you went up to that door you’d never be seen again because he would put his hand out, grab you, pull you in, shut the door and that would be it, so I never knocked the door

Rachel: No no and I definitely wouldn’t of been brave enough, your mother was definitely brave and probably your uncles

Did you want to describe his house in a little more detail?

Rachel: As I say it was just from the outside, it was just completely overgrown and as Sharon said like, [Sharon and Rachel: tiny little windows]

Sharon: The way you would draw a house

Rachel: Yeah, and well it was a bungalow, um the garden was so overgrown just loads and loads of trees in front of it … really run down… did the roof have some holes in it?

Sharon: It’s like a corrugated roof wasn’t it?

Rachel: Yeah…

Rachel: But yeh that’s just how I pictured it yeah its just its, just ivy, you couldn’t see what colour it was could you?

Sharon: Wasn’t there a car parked on the drive?

Rachel: There was! Yes, a really old like triumph sort of thing

Sharon: A green triumph, [Rachel: That’s right yeah] that was camouflage with all the trees

Rachel: Yeah but again, well he obviously never drove it unless he did drive it maybe?

Sharon: No, because it was all blocked in and there wasn’t a gate, the car must of been driven in and then the wall was built

Rachel: Maybe yeah

Sharon: Remember there was nowhere for that car to come out

Rachel: Yeah Maybe…

Sharon: Remember that?

What about in the Summer, What did he wear then?

Both: The same

Rachel: It definitely wasn’t seasonal! He had the same coat and the same… [Sharons: Shoes, the same plimsolls] shoes and the same flat cap! Yeah the same.
Mum said that he wore a white vest top and shorts and that

Rachel: Really?

Sharon: Yeah that does ring a bell actually, a white vest…

Rachel: I don’t know I don’t remember that, don’t forget that I’m a baby compared to these two, I don’t remember that, I definitely don’t remember that

Sharon: When was the heatwave, what year was you born in?

Rachel: 73

Sharon: 73, I think maybe the heatwave was 75? Yes that is fact, there was vests and shorts yes

Rachel: I don’t remember that at all no, I obviously blocked that one out of my memory

Sharon: Like erm, like a little Dad’s Army character, that’s what he looked like [Rachel: Oh really?] yeah, when there were back in the mess yeah, little shorts and vests yeah

Rachel: Crikey, yeah no I don’t remember that at all no

Did he give you nightmares at all?
Rachel: No it’s just someone that you’d wouldn’t…

Sharon: We didn’t run away from him did we? But we also didn’t run to him either

Rachel: No no, I’d suppose would’ve been scared if you met him on your own, but I never had any nightmares, not that I can remember that I wouldn’t, no I didn’t have any nightmares… Yeah but no he didn’t, he he- I’d say that he didn’t scare me, as in but you would be scared as in you wouldn’t want to approach the house for the Knock Down Ginger but he wouldn’t be giving me nightmares no. I wouldn’t of had any bad experiences with him

What about his behaviour? Anything odd?

Rachel: Well because he never spoke, it would have been different if he sort of shouted things at you, did he shout?  

Sharon: No he never spoke, but on reflection now, you know when you look back on it, and I never given him a moment’s thought in adult life, we never laughed at him, so we obviously thought that he deserved some sort of respect

Rachel: Yeah, we didn’t jeer at him, did we? [Sharon: no no] there was no jeering

Sharon: and there was a lot of kids in Park Avenue, there was [Rachel: and there could have been a lot of jeering going on] probably twelve playing out the front wasn’t there, but nobody every laughed, they just sort of cleared the way as he scuttled along, we just sort of stood to one side

Rachel: And I think because he was really out at night time anyway ya know sort of… maybe we just gave him respect, and maybe it was because maybe because mum maybe told us that his wife drowned maybe

Sharon: Thankfully he never invited us swimming because we’d knew then that we would never be alive after the outing

Rachel: Yeah no, I think that if he spoke…I think that if someone speaks to you you get a clearer picture wouldn’t you?


Rumour of being chopped up and put in the fridge/freezer

Rachel: But that’s why because that was obviously the story about his wife according- he didn’t drown her, apparently, she’d committed suicide

Sharon: He kept his wife in the fridge? I don’t know about that, I think, I think Ricky Dillon, was trying to give Catharine Dillon nightmares

Rachel: Yeah no I wouldn’t know again, and I normally got a really good memory for things as well haven’t I? But maybe it was because he was weird

Sharon: She was killed years before we came on the scene though

Rachel: Yeah, but whether mum heard that story from Mrs Lana

Sharon: And I wonder how old he was, he looked 90, but he may well of only been 60

Rachel: He may well of been our age

Sharon: Oh no

Rachel: He might be

Sharon: What our age now?

Rachel: Yeah

Sharon: No no he was older then that, but he did look like a really withered old man, but I would guess maybe he wasn’t, he probably was only about 60

Rachel: Yeah possibly yeah, but that was only because mum had said it wasn’t it? About the um drowning and then it was like ‘oh I remember that now’

Sharon: And everyone puts such emphasis on the clothes were still on the chair where she removed them, if your gonna drown yourself, you might as well keep your clothes on really mighten you

Rachel: Probably easier to put her in the fridge or the freezer

Sharon: I’m surprised that he had such white goods, like a fridge freezer

Rachel: Back in the day yeh   

Last Words
Rachel: Mr Plimsolls didn’t have any children, I think we’ve kind of-

Sharon: Oh definitely not, didn’t have any animals, didn’t have anything

Rachel: I wonder what year he died in then… he died in that house…do you remember that?

Sharon: did he die, when I still lived at home?

Rachel: Yeah I’d say so..

Sharon: What he was still alive or he had died?

Rachel: No, he would have been dead by then wouldn’t he?

Sharon: I have no idea Rach, I’ve got no idea when that house was renovated, I looked at that house to buy it at some stage in my life. That freaked me out though, when Craig said that the house was going up for sale did I want to go look at it, I just couldn’t get his little face out of my mind when I was looking round it. I didn’t even mention the drowning in the bath room.