Edith Agnes Leather 1901 - 1986

My maternal grandmother, Edith Agnes Leather was born on the 4th August 1901 in Rotherham. Her father was George Robert Leather who had moved to Rotherham from Castle Northwich in Cheshire to play football for Rotherham Town, more of him later. He married Hannah Elizabeth Boler in 1892. They had seven children of whom Edith was the fourth. I can only remember one of Edith's siblings, her younger sister Nellie. When John and I used to stay with Edith (Nanan to us), we would always make a visit to Auntie Nellie (actually our great aunt). She had married a Mr Clifford and we would often see their son Peter from whom I have a note about our mutual footballer ancestor.

Nanan lived in Rotherham all her life. She married Ralph William Askew on the 1st August 1921, and their life together is recorded in my posting about Ralph of 2nd November 2009. He died on 13th April 1945, so I cannot remember him. Just a few years later Edith married again to Harry Frost. He is in the photograph above with Nanan and Mum. He had lost an arm in a mining accident and I remember very well the false limb he would attach when we went out. He had a son Douglas from his first marriage who lived at home, along with Nanan's sons Geoff and Donald when John and I used to stay for a week over the summer holidays. All three sons worked shifts at the Tinsley steel works, so there was a lot of coming and going. I'm not sure now where there was room for all of us. I think John and I used to sleep in Nanan's bed, so where they slept is anyone's guess. I know they had a very loud clock in their bedroom as it stopped me getting off to sleep, but probably only for the first couple of nights.

I have written more about our times there in recollections of my early life. Enough to say here that Nanan was very generous, and patient on those many occasions when John and I would fall out. She was a wonderful cook. We were extremely well fed on our visits. A cooked English breakfast and superb dinners. Her Yorkshire puddings were fantastic. Hard to say if they were better than Mum's, but memorable nonetheless.

Nanan had lived at 58 Wordsworth Drive in Rotherham for as long as I can remember. We continued to make the occasional trip there when we were older, and Nanan sometimes came to visit us in Braintree. By this time all her children had married and so it was just her and Harry until he died sometime in the 1960's. Nanan died on 24th March 1986. She had outlived mum which was always a source of sadness for her. I went with Dad and Margaret to her funeral, but we did not stay afterwards.