Hi Lynn
Hope you are well, on the subject of the sirons ,as I recall living between the Three main manufactering
Business,s in Aston as we lived virtually next door to them
I recall as kids in the early fifties all Three factory's ,IE, Ansells brewery,Buttons,Portland street
Facing Ansells, and of course HP Sauce on the Cross, all had these sirons ,what was termed in
Those days was the word, the Bull, for all the factory workers to there Lunch time Breaks
Usually one o'clock break ,either Half an Hour or one hour it all depended on which
Factory it was ,one or the other ,there was a different time for sounding the bull
For its workers to return to work or go home,
The women used to say oh I had better get Albert,s lunch on now that's Button, s bull
As we only lived across the road from the factory ,or in the case of An sells
We would know by to things one is the one o'clock bull,and secondly by an Army
Of men and women charging down from the Aston cross in brown overalls with there
Turbans , and most of all there foot ware they would be warring there cloggs, clattering
Down the Lichfield roads either going to As tons the cake shop ,or Thompsons
To get there meats or what ever they may be cooking when they go home on the night
Some would pour into to watty greens newsagents across the road
When I was a little kid at the age of six years old I was fasicated by seeing all these people
Wearing wooden cloggs but for some reason there was a little old man not much bigger
Than I was and he would stop every lunch time when the bull started he would walk down
With everybody but he always stopped and asked me would I like a bag of biscuits
He would always go into As tons the cake shop next to our terrace
And he would get me a penny bag of broken biscuits as that's it was at them time
People used buy them all day long, and then he asked if I would like a comic
He would buy me the dandy every week, but eventually he never came back
He was a very old man whom worked at Ansells in his brown overalls and cloggs
So yes I can recall the sirons in the fifty,s eventual they all stopped using the bull
But it was HP Sauce was the last factory to use the sirons for its workers
I actually worked at The Button Factory along side my younger brother David whom worked in ware house
Section along with Mr frenchie the fruit and veg shop on the Lichfield road a couple of doors
From Mr Robinson's fruit and veg merchants, he had the larger shop
He covered every think from wild animals hanging up out side and every think you can name
In the fruit and veg lines frenchie son was a very good friend to my brother they used to go at week ends
On his motorbike with a side car and feth the cabbage and other items from the farm for his father
My brother was on the back saddle until he bought his own bike A 125 BSA Bantom
Have a nice day Lynn and keep up with the good hard work you are doing for us all
Best wishes Alan,,, Astonian,,
). They were summoned, when required, by a siren which sounded the 'all clear' tone. This continues today except firefighters carry pagers and have done so since the 1970's.
