'Needless to say, one of them was to be my wife, eventually'

'Needless to say, one of them was to be my wife, eventually'

Peter remembers meeting his wife in work and their first date together.

Peter Layton

Trinity College Dublin

1953

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Peter Layton

Marriage and Family

Life Story

Isle of Men

1950s

So I went back to the Isle of Man,the same lodgings with a newer bike,and more money. After a while,they decided to branch out,to include manufacture of yarn. I was sent to Galashiels on a short course on carding and spinning,and after return to Laxey a small carding and spinning plant was installed,with me to look after,as well a the weaving looms. We now had seven power looms. So I was looking for staff to train .One day three girls arrived,looking for a job. After interviewing them,I engaged them. Needless to say,one of them was to be my wife,eventually. Eventually all this work was becoming too much for me,and we engaged another loom tuner to attend to the weaving. Meanwhile I got married. Somehow I had a shine on one of the girls,and one day after work,when they were all clocking off,I managed to happen to be just at the door. When they were on their way out,I managed to screw up my courage and asked Linda,whether she would like to go for a bike ride one day. To my relief,she did not refuse,and things went more or less smoothly from then on. She asked me to come to a dance with her one day,I did go,but what a disaster. We never went dancing again,to my relief. On December 6th 1951 we got married at the local parish church. My landlady's nephew was my best man,and the reception was held at Brown's Cafe in Laxey. Even my parents turned up. The honeymoon was in Southport. Our first home was a cottage in Agneash,a small village above Laxey. Linda's grandparents lived in that village. The cottage was sparsely furnished,no WC,that brought back memories from Tremsbuttel,as I had to empty the bucket regularly into the river. After some time we moved to another cottage this time in Laxey village,a little more modern. There was an outside WC. Our first daughter was born on Sept. 24th 1952. The second followed in December 1953.We eventually got a modern house,with all mod. cons. and life became more 'civilised '. The mill was not doing too well,and I obtained a job with the 'SPAMOUNT WOOLLEN CO. near Castlederg in Co. Tyrone,Northern Ireland.

Irish Research Council for Arts,Humanities & Social Sciences (IRCHSS)

Dr Kathleen McTiernan (Trinity College Dublin)

Dr Deirdre O'Donnell (Trinity College Dublin)