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They Were Caught In Our Old Street Pics...

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He's got some nerve driving a herd of pigs along Deritend although it was back in 1903. No one seems put out by it. I wonder if he had driven them all the way from a farm...and where's he going to ?
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The slaughterhouse maybe? My Grandad was a slaughter man in Deritend.
 
Yeh and all the women do now is press a couple of buttons they don't know they are born Raz X
Looking again at that old pic reminds me that my Mum had a mangle just like in the pic and a posh like the women are holding, but with a galvanised metal tub. Washdays in our road were a Monday ritual when every housewife did their household washing.

It started with the gas boiler being lit early in the morning ready to boil the whites such as sheets and pillowcases. These would be rinsed using 'Recketts Blue' to make them look extra white. When not at school I would help turning the mangle making sure I did not get my fingers in the gears.

'Poshing' in the tub was a strenuous job and then rinsing and wringing before everything was hung out to dry on the clothes line. I remember the clothes up and down the road flapping in the wind with the occasional disaster of a clothes line breaking and some washing having to be done again.

There are a number of photos on the forum which were taken on days when everyone had hung out washing to dry. The pic below shows washing pegged out on lines in gardens behind the Kingstanding Odeon.
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Perhaps the collective 'washing Mondays' came from times when folk who lived in courtyards did communal clothes washing on set days. Towards the the end of the 1950s low cost washing machines started to be sold in Britain and things started to change.

Our old gas boiler was used for steaming homemade Christmas puddings ... for hours !
 
Yes Eric ... I seem to have heard the term 'Dolly' but for some reason my mum called it a 'posh'. I don't know where these names came from.

I do remember my mum looking up and down the gardens and commenting about the whiteness (or lack of it) of neighbour's sheets etc.
 
I have a friend here who comments more on the order the stuffs hung out than the whiteness although she does comment on that too.
If socks aren't hung in matching pairs or towels hung separately from shirts or coloureds mixed with whites etc. they get a thumbs down. :)
 
I have a friend here who comments more on the order the stuffs hung out than the whiteness although she does comment on that too.
If socks aren't hung in matching pairs or towels hung separately from shirts or coloureds mixed with whites etc. they get a thumbs down. :)

Even though I have a tumble drier I do love to get my washing blowing on the line. Eric, I too am a bit fussy about the order I peg it in... I know... I should get a life!
Lynn.
 
Where I lived anyone who left their washing out overnight was always got a thumbs-down ... :rolleyes:

In 1920s Selly Oak the factory chimneys were smoking but it was 'washing day' and most housewives in the district hung out their washing. Some people standing in Gleave Road looking up at an aeroplane were caught in this pic ..;)
SellyOak1920.jpg
 
I've always known it as a dolly
I believe the wooden version was a " Dolly " and the copper version was a " Posser" . Both did the same job , the Dolly perhaps with more brute force and the Posser was more sophisticated and more kindred to modern day washing machines, but in a manual way. There was also the Scrubbing Board which we shouldn't forget, immortalised in the Skiffle groups of the 50's.
 
Yes, marched many Sundays behind the Army Cadet bank, used to leave from "Thorp Street", drill hall and down " The horse Fair", sometimes round the city centre, but as you say less traffic then and a society still with millions of ex service men and women from two, World Wars who were living and appreciated this type of entertainment. Paul
Hi ,i am new to the forum , born and bred in Ladywood , I joined the ACF at thorp st in 1959 , aged 13 , I of course was in the band , when I first joined we were badged Royal Artillery , a few weeks later we rebadged as Royal Warwickshire reg , 10 batt C company , I had a wonderful time , the band performed at B,ham town hall and outside Buckingham palace for the changing of the guard for the Anzacs , also at the Bath tattoo , On 2 occasions I was honoured to be guard commander to welcome Monty to the drill hall for the RW regimental dinner , I was appointed Company sergeant major at age 16 , we were joined at the drill hall by 23rd SAS , commanded by Capt Blakely , I attended many training excersise's with him and CSM Warrender , happy times
 
It's early afternoon long ago on Soho Road and crowd of men in this pic are eager to get on that tram ... football match maybe ... the tram in front looks packed and some sit on the balcony.
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NIce foto...I was stationed at Thornhill Rd Pol. Sta between 1978 and and 1991,completing my 30 in 02..I mention this because for a while I had the station beat, part of which is this foto..Take the trams and horse and cart out and it would not look much different than in my time around there..The building the two officers are standing outside is the Frighted Horse which was still there but |I dont think its a pub now. Happy days...
 
I love this 1930s photo, its sunny with blossom on the trees, nice bus shelters. That bowler hatted man marching towards Snow Hill Station, he's in a hurry, maybe he's late back from lunch. Is that a teenage schoolboy arm-in-arm with his mum, probably hoping his school mates did not see the photo !
Colmore_Row_1930s~0.jpg
The many many times I have waited at those bus stops in the cold and wet. memories!!
 
John,

That's why governments will have a hard time persuading people to use public transport rather than their own cars. Covid has just made public transport even more of a risk.

Maurice :cool:
 
John,

That's why governments will have a hard time persuading people to use public transport rather than their own cars. Covid has just made public transport even more of a risk.

Maurice :cool: Don,t worry Maurice there will be plenty space for people to distance themselves on the HS2 it will only be rich people who will be able to afford the fare by the time its built Raz X
 
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