Gardening

George Matthews interviewed by Margaret Maguire

Photograph of George Matthews

We moved to 221 Corporation Street, West Ham only about 300 hundred yards away that had two bedrooms, dining room, what was called the front room and the kitchen.

And a garden?

Well, we called it a back yard; there was no garden there, a back yard and an outside toilet.

So was that where you prepared your first garden or developed your first garden?

Yes, I lived there until the war started in 1939.

So when did you start to take an interest in gardening?

I suppose I was sixteen years old and I hated West Ham and I hated....I got out, I became a cyclist and got out into the country as much as possible and decided that I would make a garden out of this back yard.

Right, so how big was this backyard, soon to become a garden?

Probably about fifty feet long and twenty foot wide.

So you called it a backyard?

Everybody called it their backyard.

Sounds like there was nothing in it.

Oh, nothing at all.

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