• Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.

    We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team
  • HI folks the server that hosts the site completely died including the Hdd's and backups.
    Luckily i create an offsite backup once a week! this has now been restored so we have lost a few days posts.
    im still fixing things at the moment so bear with me and im still working on all images 90% are fine the others im working on now
    we are now using a backup solution

kathleen dayus the girl from hockley

katyboo

katyboo

ladywood lass
good morning people just browsing through the forum as you do and decided to add to the good book at bedtime the autobiograpy of a fantstic lady called kathleen dayus her story is amazing she was known as the girl from hockley i and i would recomend this very highly a very enjoyable read that will make you laugh and make you cry the triology is wheres theres life my people and all my days :)
 
Her books have been mentioned on site I think a lot of us have read them. Our member Charlie's (lady) grandparents are mentioned in one of her books as they lived in Camden Drive. Charlie took us on a walk a couple of years ago to where Camden Drive was. It was so nice to be there with someone who remembered the place before it was bombed. It also made Kathleens books come to life!
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Katyboo another good book to read which is similar but not by Kathrine Deyuss is a Paddle in Hockley Brook - by Smudger Smith (I think) but I am not sure it is still available. I got mine from ebay.
 
Strangely enough a few weeks ago i was shopping on dudley road and as i was coming home i spotted an elderly gentleman ahead breathing was very bad and i offered to help him we took aleisurely walk together as he told me where he lived and it was on my street i had never seen this man before but in the art of conversation he told me of his life and travels it was amazing when he asked about my hobbies and interests i told him i was an avid reader he went on to tell me he is kathleen dayus nephew named albert vincent apparntly if i heard him right his grand mother was kathleens sister mary a lovely gentleman eho lives right opposite me i call maybe once a week to make sure he is ok as he is blind and you would never believe it if you walked with him
 
How lovely is that! It's my grandparents that lived in Camden Drive, in the next yard to Kathleen Dayus. Their name was Chapman and they're mentioned in her books. She remained in touch with my aunts until their death. A lot of Camden Drive was bombed during the war and I believe Mary and her mother were killed. I think it's wonderful that you stopped to help this man, I bet he has some lovely tales to tell and very much appreciates your company.
 
hello charlie yes it was a trange meeting really i was a little worried because it can be rather intimadating round by me with young kids loitering around and it was a chance meeting i believe a lot of kathleens family went to the states her sister mary married twice albert is a lovely man lives alone is very independant and he re collects his younger years with fond memories funny enough metions her brother charlie and dosent say much about liza and apparantly the vincents were all bookmakers around bham many years ago he tells me that mary was his grandmother so on that fateful night this poor man lost his gran and great gran
 
I have just managed to get Kathleen Dayus,s Omnibus edition from Amazson books. The first I knew about Kathleen. was when I switched on the TV here in California,about 20 years ago, and there was the Bullring , in a movie of A Bakers Dozen an adaptation from the book Her People By Kathleen Dayus., I phoned my friend Norah Dando in B,ham & asked her to get me the book. (I would have like the Video but no luck) She told me that it was her Niece Elaine Dando that Kathleen chose out of a number of schoolgirls to portray her in the video. I am also a proud owner of Elaine,s photograph from the video. I was born in Hockley and although I was much younger than Kathleen & thankfully not as poor I can relate to a lot of the things she wrote about. and will treasure and keep her book. Jean.
 
hi jean...i keep meaning to get that book...must really make the effort...

lyn
 
I managed to get Kathleen's Omnibus edition due to the kindness of two of our great members on this site. :)
First MaggieUK was giving away a well read and worn copy to anyone who could meet her, or Tom (That counted me out:( as it's a long drive from NZ to Brum :) ).
Then Mike_g who took the copy for his wife, very kindly after she had read it sent it out to New Zealand for me.
I'm only half way through it and find that she and her family lived only a few doors away from my Granddad, his first wife and children who all died, it was after that he married my Gran and had my Dad. Although unlike 'Charlie' the family name does not appear in the book as yet (as I said I'm only half way through it ), the families must have known each other, or at least passed in the street, shopped at the same shops and drank at the same pubs. :)
 
Last edited:
This is such an amazing thread and so interesting to read. Katyboo, you are so lucky to meet Kathleen Dayus's nephew. Charlie, it's great to read about your family being mentioned in Kathleen's books. I haven't as yet read any of Kathleen's books but I fully intend to. Last year when I was visiting Birmingham I was headed down Newhall Street to meet up with some members of the forumin the Jewellery Quarter for a trip to Key Hill Cemetery and the Pen Museum. A man came up to me as I was studying a local map to make sure I was heading in the right direction. He put me right and he was heading in the same direction as me.

As we walked along he asked me if I had ever heard of Kathleen Dayus and I said I had and he went on to tell me that he had read her books and on this particular day he was going to visit as many places as he could that Kathleen had written about. He was just starting to visit the places mentioned in Kathleen's books that Saturday. He was very keen and was thrilled to be going on this special investigation. He would have been in his early 40's.
 
Lyn: I'll lend you the Omnibus edition when we meet next (Canal Cruise). Not for keeps though, only lends :p!
 
morning charlie...thanks very much its very kind of you:) yep i understand its only a lend:D

lyn x
 
After the success of her first couple of books Kathleen Dayus spent some time visiting old peoples homes and listening to the stories of the old folk, she then wrote a book "The Folk of Lavender Court" a novel but with many true stories of the lives of the people she met who had a very similar background to herself - well worth reading.
 
Can anyone tell me which one of Kathleen Dayus' books talks about her mother having an abortion,I know I read it in one of her books but can't seem to find it.I'm beginning to think I dreamed it!
 
I have a surplus copy of 'The girl From Hockley Brook' by Kathleen Dayus which drew her various books together (so it says on the cover). It was due to be raffled for the forum but the PO tried to deliver (they allege) but nobody in (not true but that was what they said) it is available for a donation to forum funds.

Yours for just the postage. IM me if interested and I will supply an email address. If more than one reply 'first past the post' will apply.

51Y5sZeNK-L._SL500_AA300_.jpg
 
katyboo said:
Strangely enough a few weeks ago i was shopping on dudley road and as i was coming home i spotted an elderly gentleman ahead breathing was very bad and i offered to help him we took aleisurely walk together as he told me where he lived and it was on my street i had never seen this man before but in the art of conversation he told me of his life and travels it was amazing when he asked about my hobbies and interests i told him i was an avid reader he went on to tell me he is kathleen dayus nephew named albert vincent apparntly if i heard him right his grand mother was kathleens sister mary a lovely gentleman eho lives right opposite me i call maybe once a week to make sure he is ok as he is blind and you would never believe it if you walked with him
Click to expand...
Hello Katyboo. Albert Vincent was my lovely grandmother's brother. Kathleen Dayus was their mother Mary's sister. Tragically their father, also called Albert Vincent died in 1918 in the dying days of the war and their mother during an air raid in 1941. Such hard lives they lived. It was so heartwarming to read about your friendship and the kindness you showed to Albert. Sadly he died in 2014.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top