I Am Nico
master brummie
I mulled this over with Vivienne I hope it is of interest. One of my birth relatives Claribel Williams wrote a book about her life which I have found it fascinating. She called it The Years Between. It begins in 1896 and I have taken snippets from it.
Her mother was the boss of their upmarket greengrocers shop in Cradley Heath which also stocked meat and other produce when they could get it. She skinned rabbits, and the skinman collected the skins, and as well as providing catering her mother cooked sucking pigs on a range called a Jack, sold poultry, pickled pork made ice cream and jam, and they delivered to the richer folk. They also had another stall in a poorer area selling at lower prices. Both outdoor stalls had to be rigged up and taken down every day. She was the baby one but still worked hard but also observed much. Her dad a builder was always in the Hollybush Inn gambling. Although they had a prestigious business they were looked down upon because they were 'trade'.
She recalls brass and Brasso becoming popular and demonstrated by a black gentleman. She had only met black actors who were in a production once.
Claribel did the deliveries aged 8 which she found strenuous, one place called The Hall a home for alcoholic wives. She passed strings of Draught horses tethered on chains one behind the other, which was scary in the dark wee hours. She delivered before school so was always late and in trouble. Her mother and sisters and employees, all female wore men's type shirts with ties long black skirts stockings and boots. One employee became pregnant and they eventually hid her in the storeroom as they would have lost trade. They were looked down upon anyway by the vicar's wife who was caught stealing eggs by her mother. They never saw her again. They had their own pew at the church they attended and another was a makeshift one in a cottage.
Doctors actors and business folk gathered in their back room to take tea as they were well respected and it boosted trade.
Grapes arrived in sawdust and had to be hosed down, then hung, the apples polished. Fire buckets topped up to heat the shop in winter and swung like incense. Coal miners' lunches. Stew and bread with a hole for cheese and butter tied in a spotted handkerchief between two plates Trips to Clent. Small oranges were put in to a copper with a lardlike substance, heated up then rolled from side to side in sacking which made them swell and the skins become shiny. They sold fruit and chocolate at the Picture Palace. All their summer fruit produce came from the markets in Birmingham which her mother fetched in a pony and trap. Especially strawberries and cherries. Although she went by train to buy them at auction. Their shopped backed on to the theatre and they had many musical and theatrical gatherings, one Leslie Bridgewater a pianist often played for them. He became famous. I looked him up. She mentions seeing the Titanic anchor, and gigantic iron rods for shipyards being ferried from an ironworks drawn by draught horses . She writes that the Titanic sank in 1912. A song was written the next day, The Day The Ship Went Down. She also mentions the owner Sir Benjamin Hanly from Dudley Castle who was knighted.
Animals were slaughtered near the back of their shop, cattle wrestled by rope to put their head through a hole in a wall then despatched with an axe. They often fought back and escaped.
They worked till midnight in the shop and outside clearing up under flare lamps. She says their shop had the ever first cash till. Before that it was a drawer set net to a bowl of water as they always had cleans hands.
Her mother held gypsy folk in high regard and such a man played a hurdy gurdy outside with a monkey which collected the money in a tin. Then came the Depression
so finally the family underwent the six weeks passage to New Zealand where she made her home. In 1960 Claribel returned with her grown up daughter at one point to show her, her roots. They then found England too costly to stay in hotels so they stayed in womens' hostels. In Birmingham they stayed in one such a place. Ruskin House for working women. Issued with a 1lb packet of tea teapot and sugar basin, cups and cutlery kept in the dinging room lockers. They slept in small cubicles, a small bed wardrobe and a cupboard, stained tongue and groove walls 5 feet high then chicken wire up to the 12 foot ceiling. All the women sang and talked to each other via these all night. Everything came with spam! She describes Birmingham as looking bombed out shrouded in tarpaulin but they liked it so much they stayed four months.
Her mother was the boss of their upmarket greengrocers shop in Cradley Heath which also stocked meat and other produce when they could get it. She skinned rabbits, and the skinman collected the skins, and as well as providing catering her mother cooked sucking pigs on a range called a Jack, sold poultry, pickled pork made ice cream and jam, and they delivered to the richer folk. They also had another stall in a poorer area selling at lower prices. Both outdoor stalls had to be rigged up and taken down every day. She was the baby one but still worked hard but also observed much. Her dad a builder was always in the Hollybush Inn gambling. Although they had a prestigious business they were looked down upon because they were 'trade'.
She recalls brass and Brasso becoming popular and demonstrated by a black gentleman. She had only met black actors who were in a production once.
Claribel did the deliveries aged 8 which she found strenuous, one place called The Hall a home for alcoholic wives. She passed strings of Draught horses tethered on chains one behind the other, which was scary in the dark wee hours. She delivered before school so was always late and in trouble. Her mother and sisters and employees, all female wore men's type shirts with ties long black skirts stockings and boots. One employee became pregnant and they eventually hid her in the storeroom as they would have lost trade. They were looked down upon anyway by the vicar's wife who was caught stealing eggs by her mother. They never saw her again. They had their own pew at the church they attended and another was a makeshift one in a cottage.
Doctors actors and business folk gathered in their back room to take tea as they were well respected and it boosted trade.
Grapes arrived in sawdust and had to be hosed down, then hung, the apples polished. Fire buckets topped up to heat the shop in winter and swung like incense. Coal miners' lunches. Stew and bread with a hole for cheese and butter tied in a spotted handkerchief between two plates Trips to Clent. Small oranges were put in to a copper with a lardlike substance, heated up then rolled from side to side in sacking which made them swell and the skins become shiny. They sold fruit and chocolate at the Picture Palace. All their summer fruit produce came from the markets in Birmingham which her mother fetched in a pony and trap. Especially strawberries and cherries. Although she went by train to buy them at auction. Their shopped backed on to the theatre and they had many musical and theatrical gatherings, one Leslie Bridgewater a pianist often played for them. He became famous. I looked him up. She mentions seeing the Titanic anchor, and gigantic iron rods for shipyards being ferried from an ironworks drawn by draught horses . She writes that the Titanic sank in 1912. A song was written the next day, The Day The Ship Went Down. She also mentions the owner Sir Benjamin Hanly from Dudley Castle who was knighted.
Animals were slaughtered near the back of their shop, cattle wrestled by rope to put their head through a hole in a wall then despatched with an axe. They often fought back and escaped.
They worked till midnight in the shop and outside clearing up under flare lamps. She says their shop had the ever first cash till. Before that it was a drawer set net to a bowl of water as they always had cleans hands.
Her mother held gypsy folk in high regard and such a man played a hurdy gurdy outside with a monkey which collected the money in a tin. Then came the Depression
so finally the family underwent the six weeks passage to New Zealand where she made her home. In 1960 Claribel returned with her grown up daughter at one point to show her, her roots. They then found England too costly to stay in hotels so they stayed in womens' hostels. In Birmingham they stayed in one such a place. Ruskin House for working women. Issued with a 1lb packet of tea teapot and sugar basin, cups and cutlery kept in the dinging room lockers. They slept in small cubicles, a small bed wardrobe and a cupboard, stained tongue and groove walls 5 feet high then chicken wire up to the 12 foot ceiling. All the women sang and talked to each other via these all night. Everything came with spam! She describes Birmingham as looking bombed out shrouded in tarpaulin but they liked it so much they stayed four months.
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