Porchester Farmhouse ‘Murrills’ 1925
Our Life at Murrills An extract from a book by Barbara
Curtis, daughter of the owner of Murrills House from the late 1800s
My mother, Daisy (nee Edmonds), was a town girl from Portsmouth who had absolutely no idea about life in the country. At Murrills we had a cook, a house parlour maid and Kate Cousins. Kate was a member of the Girls’ Friendly Society created by my mother’s sister, Dora, who lived in Southsea. Aunt Dora would take these girls in sometimes having one for a cook and sometimes having one for sewing. Kate was born with
Left: Barbara Curtis
what we called in those days ‘curvature of the spine’. She had a kind of ‘waist coat’ that was about eighteen inches high and made of plaster of Paris. It was set quite firm and I recall that she kept it on tied with laces. At night she would put it on her dressing table and my sister and I used to love to go in and look at it. It was known as her KUR - I don’t know why though. She was a great sewer and very good with her needle.
40 | The Report • June 2019 • Issue 88
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