This is all a bit distant from Specials in 1915 but I think we are still in the spirit of the thread, which is Foden family history. So....
Thanks, Glennys Jean, the information about households ties it down wonderfully. In summary:
At no.105, Chester Road, Streetly, there lived in 1939 Frederick Lyon, his wife Alice Emma (Foden) Lyon and Alice's sister Ada Foden. Ada, presumably a spinster, died in 1940, the beneficiaries of her estate being Alice, Fred and her brother George Henry Foden.
Fred and Alice continued to live in the house for several years until their eventual deaths, probably in the 1950s. I was born next door but one to them. Unfortunately I have no recollection of Ada, of her presence or of her passing. The latter would have been a major event locally but I was only four and was perhaps protected from it. I imagine that Ada can only have been in her sixties when she died but that, to me, would have been a very great age.
Social history and personal reminiscence alert..... Skip as appropriate!
And so I only remember their home as occupied by Fred and Alice Lyon. Perhaps Ada had been part owner of it. The house was a little older - perhaps 10/15 years or so? - than those adjacent to it which were built in the early 1930s. It had running water but was lit by gas with its gentle hissing sound (and occasional pop!) There was one of these ceiling lights over the table in their living room. It was there that we played cards, my mother and I and the two of them, on many a winter evening and these were occasions when I recall laughing to an extent which I think I rarely experienced again. Fred would trump Alice and she would turn on him and yell "You miserable old BUGGER"... Music to the ears of a five or six year old from a household where the strongest language ever heard, in the times of greatest frustration, was "Damn!" or "Blast!".
The very fragile gas mantles had to be carefully removed from the ceiling lights from time to time and replaced, being handled with great care. The precious wireless set was powered by an accumulator which had to be taken from time to time for recharging – possibly at a local garage like Cutler's. And in the hall stood a massive aspidistra plant which towered over me. Part of Ada's legacy, perhaps?
I have mentioned before that Fred and Alice ran this market garden operation which required considerable physical effort. Alice played her part but she was moderately disabled, physically, and walked with a stick. I remember, to my shame, hanging out of our bedroom window, looking across at her as she hobbled up their garden path and shouting "Hurry up, Slowcoach!" My elder sister was horrified and instructed me on the error of my ways, the importance of other people's feelings and so on - a lesson which I took on board. The incident never affected Alice's attitude to me, however, and she and Fred always treated me with kindness and patience, however much a nuisance I must have been to them. It is strange that Alice was a Foden, although of course I didn't know it. From a very early age - hence the "slowcoach" reference, perhaps - I always likened her to one of those late 1920s/early 1930s Midland Red buses as she walked, swaying from side to side, cheeks puffed out and huffing and puffing more than a bit, labouring up the garden path.
It's a shame I cannot provide an image of either of them. The best I can do is show you their bedroom window! (Left hand third of image, from July 1942)
And a glimpse of Fred's market garden (top left hand edge of image from 1936 – you can just see the chicken sheds; and the land on which Fred grew his vegetables stretches right down to the distant hedge and by the side of the ploughed field. I wonder if he is there, somewhere.
It will be good to know for definite how Alice, Ada and brother George Henry fitted into the vast Foden family and connected with those following this thread who are part of it.
Chris
PS
Finally, just for the record and whilst it's in my mind, I'll make a brief comment about most of the households which have been mentioned, just to show how the War affected many of the families in a typical suburban row of houses at the time.
91 - Darlington, an older couple with a married daughter, son-in-law and young child living with them. Son-in-law away in the Far East (perhaps Burma?) for most of the war and the child did not knowing him on his return
93 – Richards. An elderly couple, the wife known as Nurse Richards and undertaking voluntary community work never seen out of her grey uniform.
95 – Farrington, a younger/middle-aged couple, the husband, a civilian, died on a business trip to the Middle East, probably Egypt, in 1939 or 1940.
97 – Jessop, unknown but succeeded 1940-ish by Holt, a youngish family with a baby, the husband owning an engineering business
99 – Behague, a younger couple with, during the war, two young children, the husband full-time in the AFS/NFS throughout the war, in Birmingham and other cities subject to air raids.
101 – Myers, middle-aged with three children, husband Home Guard 1940/44, wife WVS, elder son from 1942 Royal Artillery, 8th Army North Africa, Sicily, Italy.
103 – Bacon, from late 1939/very early 1940, one daughter born March 1940, husband from shortly afterwards until the end of the war Royal Artillery in Malta.
105 – Lyon, elderly, feeding the nation, as above
107 – Morgan, middle-aged with son who probably served in Army later in the war
109 – Parkes, unknown to me
111 – Stainsby, unknown to me
113 – Markwick, younger with children, husband our local ARP warden.
Chris
