1980's

Colchester Quaker Housing Association

Draft text for reflection on and celebration of the history of CQHA

STRIVING FOR  EXPANSION

The 1980s began with a number of changes:  Chris Graves took over the chairmanship from Derek Crosfield who had been in post from very early days. Chris Clucas, another Colchester Quaker, became Hon Treasurer following on from Richard Warner who had never been happy in the position. Ted Dunn resigned from the Committee he had founded and chaired initially and Mary Frank also left the Executive Committee though her involvement with sub-committees continued for many more years. Derek Crosfield was to continue working on the Committee until he died but he resigned the chair in order to have more time to work on the Charles May House development.

Development Partnership

The Association had been approached by Ogilvie Trust who wished to develop the garden at St. Mary’s Cottage at the top of Church Walk, Colchester to build supported housing for the elderly.  They were a Suffolk based housing association and, as such, Colchester Borough Council would not recommend them to the newly formed Housing Corporation for grant funding as they were only prepared to support a local housing association. While Christian Action (Colchester Quaker) Housing Association were not interested in managing flats for elderly people, they were happy to undertake the development on behalf of the Ogilvie Trust, and qualify for the grant. This development took a great deal of Derek’s time, and gave him many grey hairs, but in April 1983 the work was finished, providing 11 delightful flats for the elderly, managed by the Ogilvie Trust.  In November 1987 the property, now known as Charles May House, was handed into their ownership as well.

Further Administrative Staff

As a direct result of the Association receiving grant, the Housing Corporation came to carry out a monitoring visit in Aug 1981.  The Association was criticised for a lack of records especially on rent collecting and finance and the monitoring officer found it difficult to make his inspection as much of the information was in Bernard’s head and he only spoke through his letter board. Their report was gently critical and in particular demanded that much more rigorous rent accounting was put in place. After this visit Liz Taylor-Jones worked voluntarily to produce a rent ledger from a cardboard box full of rent receipts. In May 1982 she became the third paid person to join the administration team, as book-keeper working 2-3 hours a week from home. The Association was still run from Bernard's room in the house in Creffield Road.

The problems of Maintenance

As the slow but steady growth continued, maintenance became too much to be undertaken by Denys Rendell and other voluntary committee members. The partner of the Hythe House warden was the first paid maintenance man. When the warden and her partner left in 1981, a new maintenance man was employed and managing him was a nightmare! It was discovered that a disproportionate amount of his time was spent on the maintenance requests of some of the younger and more attractive of the lady tenants! However, Laurie Baldry replaced him in 1985 and worked very hard to keep the housing stock in good shape for over 15 years.

The death of Bernard Brett

Bernard Brett died in the autumn of 1982.   From that point, Ann Rouse and Liz-Taylor Jones worked in his room, 2 or 3 mornings each, keeping it manned 5 mornings a week to continue the housing advice that Bernard had offered 7 days a week. People with problems poured into the office and a large box of tissues was always on hand, vital equipment. Ann did the secretarial work and Liz undertook the finance, between listening to sad stories and keeping an eye on the residents in the house. Never a dull moment!

Liz Taylor Jones remembers one such occasion. One of the short-life houses was let to a mother and her teenage son recently arrived from India. The boy was a demanding and persistent youth probably about 15 years old, anxious to help his mother with her needs and to ensure that the Association responded. He used to come to the office every day to tell Liz and Ann about his mother’s knees which were arthritic or, as the boy said, ‘ arturic’. This short-life house had no bathroom. According to her son, it was against her religion to pray until she had washed, and she couldn’t eat until she had prayed. He demanded we installed a shower because she was getting very hungry! The Association was not able to help with this problem. However, the rent collector later discovered he had rigged up a shower in the corner of the living-room with a tray and a hose pipe .......... but no drain!

As was said, never a dull moment.

Meanwhile in Clacton

David Bain was introduced to the Tendring Sub-Committee by his colleague, Audrey Hind, also a Social Worker. David writes;

Braintree Hostel Development

In the early 1980s, a major turning point for the Association came from the unlikely direction of Braintree, in the form of a unique alliance between two unusual and determined men.

The Senior Probation Officer in Braintree was Alan Twyford. Braintree’s Chief Housing Officer at the time was Derek Campbell, a forceful man with an amazing talent for taking up the challenge of any new piece of funding legislation and working out precisely how to bend it to Braintree’s advantage. Fortuitously, at this time the government was keen to promote hostel schemes for young single homeless people, and provided capital funding, but access to this pot of gold was via a housing association.  Alan and Derek were keen to provide such a resource for Braintree, but knew that to get a controversial project approved by the Council he needed to demonstrate that BDC would have a significant element of control, and a small housing association was what he wanted (he had worked with some larger ones and found them less than tractable.) Alan and Derek had met Bernard Brett and were very impressed by him.  They knew of his work with a small but very committed housing association in Colchester  and suggested Christian Action (Colchester Quaker) Housing Association as a partner. This Braintree project would be managed by a local Braintree Sub-Committee, including Derek and Alan, who thus had hands-on control.

This first project for single homeless people was Leahurst Hostel. Leahurst was a handsome building, originally built as a nurses’ hostel by the Courtauld Trust in the 1930s, and later acquired by Braintree District Council and used as offices. By the early 1980s the building was redundant because of the development of their new headquarters at Causeway House so Derek earmarked it for this new scheme. It was relatively simple to convert the building into 10 self-contained bedsits and staff flat with Housing Association Grant. 

In a hostel project, the rent covered the accommodation costs only.  The cost of providing a live-in warden to give the required support was met partly by Government funding, called Hostel Deficit Grant, and partly with funding from the local Council, Probation Service and Social Services. Each agency had to commit to a share of the revenue as a precondition of being able to refer their clients for housing at the hostel.  The scheme was a model for a number of future hostel projects and was the start of a close working relationship between CQHA, Essex Probation Service and Essex Social Services.  

In an interview in 2007 with Janet Turner and Colin Lawson, Alan Twyford remembered the opening of the hostel as a particular nightmare.  Only days before the opening by Tony Newton MP, there was no electricity, no telephone line and no beds. Threats to go to the press with the story sorted out the electricity and telephone, but the beds had been confiscated as bankrupt stock. Luckily, through his contacts in the Rotary, Alan was in cahoots with Lesley Thomas, manager of a furnishing store, so in return for promise of “a big order coming his way”, alternative beds were provided in time for the big day.  Alan always used local networks to solve problems.  The hostel opened in 1982 with Barbara Wagstaff the warden.

Trafalgar House – Move-on Accommodation for Leahurst

With Leahurst up and running, the next requirement was for more independent ‘move-on’ accommodation, so that Leahurst tenants could progress to living with less on-site support (though the eventual scheme was only a two minute walk from Leahurst Hostel!) Again Derek Campbell master-minded the scheme, identifying a suitable 6 room house and persuading the Housing Corporation to make the funding available to carry out the project. Trafalgar House opened in June 1986, and was also managed by Barbara Wagstaff.

The appointment of a Housing and Development Manager

However, being the de facto “Manager” of Leahurst took a great deal of Alan’s time, and the Essex Chief Probation Officer began to wonder quite who Alan was working for, as he spent so much of each week supporting the warden and dealing with naughty tenants. So within a couple of years, the Braintree Sub-Committee recommended to the  Executive Committee the need to appoint a new member of staff to manage Leahurst, and take pressure off Alan Twyford.  At the same time CQHA’s own priority was to acquire more family houses and, especially, to build a Colchester Hostel.  The increasing complex form-filling that accompanied development funding from the Housing Corporation meant that the ageing committee members were no longer able to cope with the bureaucracy that was an inevitable part of expansion.  Thus the post of Housing and Development Manager was created. Janet Turner had worked briefly in the CQHA office a couple of years earlier, covering a period of sick leave, and had enjoyed the work. So Janet applied for the post, and, rather to her surprise, as she had no other relevant experience, Janet found herself, in January 1985, starting work.

Janet writes,

Janet describes her first few months in this new appointment,

The Bernard Brett Memorial Fund

In January 1983 the Bernard Brett Memorial Fund was launched, managed by John Cole. The original intention was to raise funds to buy 42 Creffield Rd. only part of which had been left by Bernard to the Association. This was then to have been converted into the much hoped for Colchester hostel for young single homeless people. However, in September, planning permission for the scheme was refused, in spite of the fact that it had been used as a house in multiple occupation for many years in Bernard’s life-time. An appeal was also lost and so the Association lost the office as well as the projected memorial to Bernard. The office moved to 2A Church Walk and 42 Creffield Road was sold.

With their share of the proceeds from the sale, the Association bought 33 Mersea Road, Colchester a house suitable for conversion into two small flats for families. The renovation was paid for with funds from the Bernard Brett Memorial Fund which was now well in excess of £10,000, and a short-term interest-free loan from the Quaker Housing Trust. An exhibition of photographs of Bernard’s life had been shown in Colchester and considerable donations had been received from the Spastics Society and the Housing Associations’ Charitable Trust. The flats were opened by the Bishop of Colchester in May 1986.  CBC agreed to buy the large garden at the back to build a much needed play area for local children, a scheme which would have delighted Bernard Brett.

The Homeless Families Sub-Committee and a Housing Survey

At the same time another building scheme in Colchester was underway: the rehabilitation of three houses in Nunns Road. These had been rented on a short-life basis from CBC for many years and were seriously dilapidated. Housing Corporation finance was provided to buy and do up the houses to a good standard thus increasing the number of houses for homeless families owned in Colchester to 15.  The renovation took a long time as there was a national shortage of brick-layers that year and the cost soared. However, the Housing Corporation paid up and the houses were ready in the summer of 1986. This came at a good time for the Homeless families Sub-Committee as the 7 short-life houses in Burlington Rd and Denmark St were returned to the borough this year and demolished to make way for the new Police Station.

The results are shown, by clicking on the world icon (in the margin), of the 4th annual housing application survey carried out by the office staff in the year Sept 1986 to Aug 1987. The number of applicants for housing who completed a form is a little down on the previous year as in this year the borough opened a Housing Advice Centre. Thus CAHA was no longer the primary centre for housing advice in the town.  It can be seen that the vast majority of applicants were single parents or couples with children and 13% of these were housed by the Association. The survey also states that 48% applicants were under 20 and 80% were under 30 years of age; 83% were from the Colchester area, of which 63% had been here more than 3 years.

The Impact of Changing Housing Legislation: a Change of Direction

The Annual Report in 1988 mentions a problem arising from new Homelessness legislation. Because of the acute housing shortage in Colchester, the Council would now only house people qualifying under the Homelessness legislation, and therefore stopped rehousing our tenants, as they were no longer deemed to be in housing need. As a result, the Association had to restrict itself to housing only families nominated by the Borough, who would guarantee eventual rehousing in council accommodation. This took away our independent role.

At the same time Committee members were recognising severe housing need among young and often vulnerable single homeless people, for whom Councils had no statutory responsibility.  This marked a change in the direction of Committee policy away from family housing towards the development of hostels for single people.

The Development of Bernard Brett House, Colchester

In line with the Colchester Committee’s main priority, the Association, in 1986, bid successfully for the funding for a Colchester Hostel. However, finding a site for a single homeless hostel is a politically sensitive business. Spearheading the campaign for a site was Colin Lawson, then Assistant Chief Probation Officer for Essex, who had re-joined the Committee  in 1979 with a particular aim to achieve this hostel. He and Janet paid many visits to the Colchester Chief Housing Office to press for a suitable site. He came up with various plots of land, only to have local Councillors vote them down. No-one wanted such a development in their ward!  So for the next two or three years, the Housing Corporation would allocate funding to develop the Colchester Hostel – and Derek Campbell would sit in Braintree waiting for the deadline by which the funding from the Housing Corporation had to be committed.  With no Colchester site in prospect, and in line with Derek's grand plan of a comprehensive housing provision for single homeless in  Braintree and Witham, he would helpfully offer land in Braintree for move-on schemes for Leahurst tenants “rather than see us lose the funding” which the Housing Corporation was happy to re-allocate in Braintree.  This secured the land in Witham and Braintree which was purchased  by transfer of funds allocated for the Colchester hostel.  However, the development of these two sites did not take place until the early ‘90s.

Eventually, in 1987, Colchester Borough Council came up with a site on the Southway, the busy Colchester inner bypass, and Bernard Brett House, a 19 bedsit hostel, began to arise from the ground at last.  The development was not without its problems, however.  The soil was sandy and unstable, and the foundations of a wiggly Georgian wall and a Victorian ice factory had failed to be picked up by the soil survey.  Another crisis was the international telephone cable, shown in the survey as running under the pavement fronting the site, but in fact running at least a metre inside the boundary.  The expensive solution, rather than lose living space in an already narrow building, was cantilevered foundations along the frontage, over the cable.  It was fortunate that this scheme was eligible for 100% Housing Association Grant, and the Housing Corporation took the financial over-run on the chin!

It had always been the Committee’s intention to provide an Activities Room in the hostel to use for training in housekeeping, employment skills and simple DIY. This sort of facility was not eligible for funding from the Housing Corporation.  At Leahurst, the Association itself had funded the conversion of an existing the garage for this purpose and it had proved to be an important amenity for the tenants. For the building contract to include an additional room at Bernard Brett House, the Committee needed to raise over £20,000.  They decided to use the residual Bernard Brett Memorial Fund for this purpose and John Cole wrote to all the donors to get agreement for this change of use and to raise more money.  Eventually the fund reached nearly £25,000, which was sufficient for the room and some equipment.

Young Single Homeless – 1980’s – The Fulfilment of a Dream

For CAHA the creation of Leahurst breathed new life and confidence into the long cherished hope of a similar hostel in Colchester. The tide was changing at a national level too for, around the same time, the Home Office announced ambitious plans for all probation services to establish and run Bail and Probation Hostels. The Essex Service was offered funding from two projects.

Legislative change, and the natural sense of rivalry that exists between neighbouring authorities led Colchester Housing Department to become more cooperative, but it was still a struggle to win the argument among Councillors. The behaviour of young people can be the cause of concern and alarm among adults. Here again, when it could be shown that Leahurst could be run without causing mayhem and disorder in Braintree’s streets, this helped mollify the fears of the undecided and lessen opposition. The creation of Southway, a duel ring road with its absence of nearby domestic property appeared to offer the least objectionable site. As Janet Turner remembers this was in a Lib-Dem Councillor’s Ward, then in the minority, so councillors from the other two main parties were happy to nod the scheme through and so, in 1990, some 20 years after CAHA accepted the challenge, Colchester had its own hostel.

And so, in April 1990, Colin Lawson’s long held ambition for a Colchester hostel for young single homeless people was realized, and Bernard Brett House had an official opening, conducted by Ann Yale, Bernard Brett’s sister.  The first manager of the flagship Colchester project was Jane Jiggens (later Helliwell). Jane first came to the Association in 1985, as Assistant Manager, and later Manager of Hythe House mothers and babies hostel.

Bernard Brett House

This was the most socially difficult, politically controversial and time-consuming project CAHA ever undertook. It is entirely appropriate that the building should bear the name of its inspirational spirit. This will remain CAHA’s most viable legacy to the town, now that the Association’s name has disappeared. As with Leahurst, a sub-committee reporting to the main committee was set up. Colin Lawson was the first chair and served along with representatives from Social Services and the Council. This broader representation confirmed the inter-agency nature of the project and the linkage with the three paying authorities.

As with other Management Committees of hostels in the association, the main business of the monthly meeting was the report from the Manager and the ensuing discussion helped promote understanding between staff and committee members to their mutual benefit. Members became aware of the demanding nature of the working with a very mixed group of young people at Bernard Brett House many of whom were unsettled, challenging of adult authority and lacking basic life skills, for example, in cooking and budgeting. For its part members were able to convey their appreciation and support the staff through his forum which met in the hostels.

LEGISLATION AND SOCIAL CHANGE

Social workers and probation officers have long been involved with CAHA. They have sat on, even at times chaired sub-committees and have played a week-by-week “hands on” role particularly before the expansion of in-house staff.  Some reference to the provision of “public” housing and the changes of government policy is necessary to discuss the climate in which this much respected housing association has operated. Prior to the 1977 Homeless Person’s Act the plight of the homeless was a central issue for welfare services notably those working in criminal justice and with families. To this day accommodation issues loom large but with local council housing departments having the statutory lead role it is generally less stark for other agencies. 1977 obviously did not improve matters overnight but set in place better safeguards. Subsequent housing legislation, notably in 1985, 1996 and 2002 has clarified and strengthened the position of the single homeless that increasingly became CQH’s predominant tenants. Paradoxically council housing departments had the prime responsibility for tackling homelessness for only three years before Mrs Thatcher’s 1980 Housing Act began the reduction in public housing stock by introducing tenant’s right to buy and constraining replacement new build in public sector. In 1980 for instance Tendring had 6500 council houses today it only has 3300. Private landlords for some time discouraged by rent restrictions after the exposure of Rackman were freed to charge higher rents. Housing associations under the regulatory eye of the Housing Corporation were encouraged to grow and fill the gaps resulting from the depleting council housing stock, with HAG funding to assist purchasing, in CQH’s case, mainly flats. Other larger projects have involved more complicated financing. Strong mutual ties with local councils of cooperation in tenancy allocation and specific housing developments have been crucial. There was a danger with this of losing the early campaigning ethos but independence of decision-making has been rigorously maintained, including area sub-committees over most of their business. A The collaboration that launched Leahurst hostel in Braintree was a model that inspired us to strive for similar much needed provision in other local areas.  The government through the Housing Corporation’s encouragement for continued expansion of housing stock declined early in the new millennium for smaller housing associations unless in larger partnerships. It was in this situation that CQH expanded quite rapidly existing Floating Support through the new Supporting People initiatives to vulnerable people not in CQH accommodation. This seemed a natural evolution as many CQH tenants had received ready support and acceptance rarely offered by other landlords – that has been one of CQH’s strongest qualities. It was this that probably attracted social workers and probation officers among others, even after the charismatic drive of Bernard Brett was lost in 1982. A willingness to take considered risks in giving tenancies to people shunned by others went along with this support. The increasing focus on vulnerability as criteria for housing eligibility has resulted a many people gaining tenancies that in the past would not be readily available

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THE PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN ALAN TWYFORD AND DEREK CAMPBELL

In his 20s Alan Twyford had run a Mission to Deep Sea Fishermen hostel in Milford Haven.  He became a Baptist minister and worked in the Shetlands, Glasgow and Aberdeen.  The fishermen were quite a revelation (very rough!)  The Peterhead fishermen were devout, but the Aberdeen men were not.  Alan married Pat in 1954, and in worked in Aberdeen and Peterhead in 1955. 

Alan  had worked in Stratford (East London) and was strongly influenced by the Senior Probation Officer, John McCoy – “a fine fellow, a passionate and extraordinary man”.  John believed strongly that stable accommodation was “make or break” for people on probation i.e. it was a pre-requisite of successful work with offenders. In 1964 Alan joined the Probation Service as a trainee, becoming a full Probation Officer in 1966 and moved from Stevenage to Braintree, working for Sydney Eshelby, the first Principal Probation Officer in Essex.

In Braintree, Alan met the Chief Housing Officer, Derek Campbell – they got on well, and Alan introduced him into Rotary.  Derek had started his career working in housing in the private sector but had moved into the public sector.  “A great mind with a single vision”.  He and Alan were mutually supportive and worked together to bring their shared vision (of a comprehensive housing provision for vulnerable young single homeless people) into being.

Alan and Derek began to put their plan into action.  The first thing was to find a Housing Association to work in partnership with – this was necessary in order to access Housing Association Grant and to secure revenue funding, as a new scheme that encouraged agencies such as Probation, Social  Services and the local council to come together to contribute to a scheme’s revenue funding in return for guaranteed bedspaces had recently been introduced. They chose Christian Action (Colchester Quaker) Housing Association.

Commenting on Derek Campbell, Alan Twyford remarked ‘how they made a good team – how creative Derek was, particularly in the funding area, and in finding his way through the all the bureaucracy that surrounded Housing Association Grant.’ Alan’s strength was in supervising and supporting staff, dealing with tenants and managing people.  The mutual trust between Derek and Alan was a major reason for the success of the project. And the successful development of the Braintree project was crucial to CAHA’s future development.

Alan retired in 1989.  He gave up both Probation Service and Chairman of Leahurst Hostel purposely, as he believed that the Senior P O needed to be on the Leahurst Committee and it was better for the new incumbent if the predecessor was not around.

“Working with homeless families led to my introduction in 1981 by my colleague, Audrey Hind to CA(CQ)HA’s Tendring committee. All the  Associations’ accommodation in Clacton and Parkeston at that stage was for families on a short-term basis until council housing became available. I remember, when working in N Lancashire, the days pre-1977 when Social Services faced the dilemma of children going into care due to homelessness. I was involved in running a rent guarantee scheme [underwritten by Social Services] with the private landlord of a grim tenement in Barrow-in-Furness. As well as often furnishing the flats, I always collected rents early on a Friday morning before tally men called for their share of meagre social security benefits!  When I moved back to Essex in 1980 Social Services still had County Council-owned homeless family units in New Farm Way, Stanway. As a Tendring committee member one was linked to certain CA(CQ)HA properties and as well as offering support, collecting rent was a routine task. The cat and mouse antics with bad payers were very reminiscent of my Barrow experience. Nowadays housing benefit is routinely paid direct to the landlord with a simple consent from the tenant.

When DHSS paid rents, the claimant’s right of handling all their own benefits was generally axiomatic, even though homelessness was often due to rent arrears of families on benefits. The rationale appeared to be that working families are responsible for paying their own rent so non-working families should be treated in same way. It may seem now that a high price was paid in those pre-housing benefit days for that high-minded principle. However direct payment of rent can abnegate the tenant of budgeting responsibility and assume virtual lifelong dependency on benefits.”

'At interview, the most impressive thing I could come up with as evidence of any practical management or organizational experience was helping to set up the Wivenhoe Gilbert and Sullivan Society. Luckily for me, extending the office opening hours was an important issue for the Committee, so when it turned out that the much better-qualified candidate from CBC’s homelessness department was only willing to work a three day week, I was offered the job.'.

‘By this time the CAHA office had moved from Bernard’s house to a tiny room

(15' x 8') within the Ogilvie Charities suite at the top of 2c Church Walk.  With careful manoeuvring it was just possible to squeeze in a third desk, and I joined Liz and Ann, and gradually worked out what I was supposed to do. Firstly there was getting to know our tenants, and familiarising myself with the often sad state of our housing stock as well as doing my share of the Housing Advice work, for which we received a grant from CBC.

A very early job was making regular visits to wherever the association’s first paid, and rather elusive, maintenance man was supposed to be working ‘to see how he was getting on’ (a tactic that produced his resignation in less than 6 months). This enabled us to appoint Laurie Baldry, who proved more satisfactory at carrying out some much-needed improvements. Then there was visiting tenants to collect rent (or otherwise, as the case often was); responding to neighbour complaints; clearing and cleaning up the mess in houses where the tenants had left suddenly – all these things added a great zest to life. I remember checking an empty house in Nunns Road  -  I can’t remember why it was necessary to climb in the back window to gain access, but for whatever reason, I did so - and finding a man asleep on an old settee.  I don’t know who was more surprised, but I said “Excuse me…” and asked politely if he would mind moving out as we needed to start work on the property.  Even more to my surprise, he did!

Supporting Barbara Wagstaff, the Manager of Leahurst Hostel was a weekly task. Leahurst was an eye-opener for me.  Rent arrears seemed an insurmountable problem, and then there were all the creative but usually illegal things the tenants used to get up to.  My main function, I think, was to provide Barbara with a chance to get it all off her chest, and to send out warning letters to those in rent arrears. But it was here, particularly, listening to Barbara talking about her tenants and their lives, that I began to understand a little of what life was like at the bottom of the heap, and to see that many of them were survivors of chaotic family backgrounds I found hard to imagine.

In many ways Development was the most exciting part of the job. It provided a pleasing contrast to the ingrained thriftiness of most of our operation (delivering letters to Committee Members or the local council by hand to save postage, or recycling envelopes) to go and negotiate major funding packages with the Housing Corporation or land purchases with local councils.  I enjoyed building up good long-term relationships with the councils in Colchester, Braintree and Tendring. Council support was crucial in accessing Housing Corporation funding, and the support was forthcoming because we were prepared to take on schemes for client groups that many housing associations tended to resist. The first scheme was the  conversion of the Mersea Road house in Colchester, and in Braintree Derek Campbell quickly came up with the Trafalgar House scheme to provide Leahurst with its first stage move-on accommodation.

Within a year or two we had moved from the tiny upstairs office into a vacant office suite downstairs – three rooms, one of which we sub-let for a couple of years to SHAPE, another housing association dealing with young single homeless people. We furnished it in economical CQ style with some redundant desks, tables and chairs from Probation Service, an unwanted carpet from a lady in Delamere Road, and a large shelving structure that we got for a proverbial song at the auction rooms across the road.  There always seemed to be a shortage of funds, and Liz often worried  whether there would be enough money in the bank to pay the salaries at the end of the month – we could apply for deficit funding a month at a time to cover unforeseen shortfalls, but you had to make sure you knew in good time if you were going to need it. We acquired a cheerful (though dyslexic) part-time secretary as well as a part-time book-keeper, not to mention a computer and a book-keeping programme, and we slowly began to organize ourselves for dealing with our growing empire."

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