“First I was in Mellish Road. It was a home, they had a lot of little children. I was going to school there... and that was lovely. From there I moved to Croxdene Avenue [Children’s Home], Bloxwich.

After a certain age you had to move from there. I think it was Mrs Grant who was bringing me here [to Hampton], and we got lost and she stopped and asked someone where ‘Hampton Court’ was. I said “What am I going to court for? I’ve done nothing wrong!”. I moved there when I was 15. There were 4 girls there when I went [in 1952], Iona, Margaret, Anne and Pat... They all slept in the same room.”

“In the old days, when I first went there, it was “go straight to bed”, no telly, no radios… and the tin baths. It was cold water.

We couldn’t go out at weekends, we stayed in the library, in the hard chairs… I was bored, really bored.”