• 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

Nechells

K

Kandor

Guest
Times change, things fall apart, the centre cannot hold.
In the 1950's things that had stood in many cases for a hundred years were ripped out of the heart of the City.
Lets face it, it had to happen and was in many cases overdue..
I remember reading about Adams St and how it had been one of the poorest places in the City, when I worked there in the late 60's there was certainly no evidence of poor housing...those houses were long gone by then..Yet when you think of some of the other 'inner city' areas that it compared to, I'm amazed they could single out an area never mind a street..
All of Nechells was poor then, so were large parts of a declining Handsworth, Lozells, Witton, Aston...the list goes on.
So to point out one street as being poor among that lot, I guess things must have been pretty dire.
I keep returning to this theme but for me it was true..
The fact I was poorer back then than an evicted Church mouse didn't really make an impact, I never had anything of value except the people in my life, and the thing about people is you dont know the real value of them until they're gone.
We were all from the Council back then, that was my world see, everyone I knew either rented from a Landlord or lived in a Council house.
We had heard of a fabulously rich Aston family living in Phillips St who did own their own place but in the main, such stories were in the realms of Fairy tales.
Nechells was poor...full stop.
It wasn't a place where dreams came easily or came to fruition.
Most people were born there and Nechells lay in wait until the day they died, back then Nechells was reluctant to give up its Sons and Daughters.
Stephen Hawkins and Kip Thorne wrote about Black Holes where nothing can escape...Nechells beat them to it by many years.
It was a bit like Dantes Inferno, 'Abandon all hope, ye who enter here'
We did though, we broke the mold..
Norma married John who came from Kingstanding..I remember when she told Dad she was buying her own house in Brownhills..
I remember dad saying 'yow must be cowin' barmy, nobody can afford £5 a week mortgage'..Norma could and did and even now 40 years on, they still call it home.
Then came Johnny, my dear and great brother Johnny.
It was he who showed me that life could be better than the Lemon Nechells had handed us.
Johnny gave me dreams and the vision to pursue them..he showed me there was life beyond Inner city Brum.
I can never repay what he did for us.
The seven of us all own our own houses now, in fact some of us own more than one..
We are all financially richer than any Robinson who has ever lived before, but are we happier?
We're spread over the Midlands, only Rita and Peter are left in Brum,
the one in West Heath and the other in Castle Bromwich.
That's the curse of modern life, you trade a 'better' area for Community spirit..
Sometimes the cost in not in the Mortgage you pay, but in the happiness you are forced to relinquish.
I hadn't had any debts now for many years, the recent turmoil in my life has turned that all around..
Oh..dont feel sorry for me, instead of 3 to 4 holidays a year I'll now be down to 2 or 3..no big deal.
I'll survive, I always have and I always will, I guess I'd gotten just too used to the 'Easy life'
At the moment I feel like my sun has set but I do know there will be a tomorrow and I know that it's light will blind me...and I know it will leave me in the brightest day.
 
Kandy my children are of the 60's, talk to them about Nechells, and they would paint a wonderful picture. Great Gran and Grampa Roe's house on a Friday night, where we all fetched up at the end of the day. First pinch a bit of gt Uncle Harolds cheese on toast, then round to the park with their Gt Uncle and Aunt, Jack and Betty, to climb 'Grippy Shoes Mountain' Laugh when the dog, Susy Green, tried to bite Grampa Poppitt when he walked through the back gate. Out in the back yard to feed Gramps pidgeons with corn, then a kiss, but only on the forehead when Grampa said 'Where do you want it' before being taken home to bed. :D
 
Les your comments about Adams Street are so true,my father in law is 94 born 1910 and his memory has faded now but when he was more alert his memories of his childhood in Adams street,Coleman st,lupin st and Henry st show such terrible poverty.
His mother died in 1912 and in those days the only thing for a widower to do was marry again to provide a mother for their kids,his father remarried in 1913 a widow with 3 children she then died in 1917.This 7 year old was then cared for by girls aged about 12 and 11.He remembers an aunt who used to come to see if he was Ok,she brought him a pair of boots but his father sold them so it was back to bare feet again.
One day whilst playing conkers he was told by another boy,'your Dad has got married and lives in our street',he went home with the boy and through an open front door saw his dad reading the evening paper.
Left in the care of these girls he does not remember how they survived but eventually they were given a place to live in Lupin Street by the girls uncle who was George Silk of the Silk coffee house family(ancestors of Robert Kilroy Silk.
Another world is'nt it.
 
Back
Top