They seemed antiquated in their day, but many is the time that I and my younger brother accompanied my mother on the No. 6 tram from the top of Martineau Street to the Bartons Arms, then a walk up Potters Hill, turn left into Bartons Bank, then a right turn and down a zig zag path to what was originally known as Bartons Place. But it had always been known to my mother as 2 back of 15 Bartons Bank. The house had a rather elegant front door, which was never used as we always entered via the back door into the kitchen, as did every other visitor. That front door would have opened into a hall, with stairs to the three upstairs bedrooms, and beneath the stairs, a door behind which were steps leading to the large cellar - our shelter from Hitler's bombs in the early part of WW2.
My grandmother's youngest son, Albert was still living with her at the time and in the early 1960s the place was torn down and they moved to Albert Road, Kings Heath. Forum member Eric Gibson would have made a similar journey as his grandmother lived in the same group of houses, yet we never knowingly met at that time. In the large living room was an upright walnut-veneered piano in excellent condition, though never played since my Uncle Stan moved out, first to Southampton to manufacture aircraft parts during the war, and some years later to Worcester. The piano later became mine, but many years later. In an alcove to the right of the fire grate was a sideboard and above that hung a large chiming pendulum clock. My grandmother's Singer sewing machine stood under the solitary window of that room, and next to that on a table was my uncle's radio. But she hated that radio as she was very deaf and to her it was just an annoyance!
I never knew my grandfather or my great grandfather as they passed away within a year of each other some 17 years before I was born. But his legacy was still there on my visits - both red and black currant bushes fruiting well, loganberries, and a large black Hamburg grape vine which, like the loganberries, was stil laden with fruit over 40 years later. But long gone was the goat and the angora rabbits that he apparently kept at one time. Of course the copper and the big old mangle were still in the large kitchen when we visited. Happy days.
Maurice