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Betty Burden - Picture Post photos 1951

M

Mark Tooze

master brummie
These photos were on Getty Images and seem to show a day in the life in 1951 of a lady called Betty Burden who, according to the details worked as a hairdresser and lived in somewhere called Back Chapel Court (possibly Back of Chapel Court) in Edgbaston (although it does not look much like Edgbaston - possibly somewhere adjacent like Ladywood or Lee Bank - someone out there must know). They were apparently taken for a Picture Post article and whilst being obviously posed, do show life in the 50's back to backs very well.

Perhaps someone can nail the exact location and, more importantly, does anyone know anything about Betty Burden?
 
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One picture made me smile, the little boy getting his knee treated, my old friend told me that as a child her school teacher asked them to write a story about her day, she had written "My mom cleaned my face with spit." her mom wasn't at all pleased. :)
 
Perhaps someone who has access to old newspaper / magazine archives can look up Picture Post from 1951? Sorry I do not have any more info.....

Location wise this one may give a clue as there is some sort of a chapel in the background by the looks of it:-
1725008411063.png
And she also seems to live on the top of a hill. Quite a big hill by the looks of it........
Getty Images is another of those online archives that is worth a few nights exploring. Thousands of local (to us) photos and all of exceptional quality.
 
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mark i am sure our researcher will want to get involved in this...what i always think about is what if bettys rellies know nothing about these photos of her...what a joy it would be for them to find them...i am just thinking that although called betty her first name could have been elizabeth

lyn
 
Pedrocut said:
And in December 1950.


View attachment 194519
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Well found Pedrocut! The Edgbaston and hairdresser bits tie in with the picture captions anyway - perhaps the whole photoshoot was part of the competition prize?
I think the photos with the Midland Red bus stop in them were taken in Paradise St as you can just about see the Town Hall and Galloways corner in the background. Not sure about the dance hall?
 
The quote below is from the Cregoe Street thread Post #40.

cregoe kid said:
The first photo is of a butchers shop corner of Cregoe Street and Grt Colmore Street, we called it the Butchers Corner where I used to hang about with Brian Burden, Denis Beard,Eric Shaw and others, second photo of Bradshaws we used to hang about on the other side of the road, corner of Latimer Street and Cregoe Street, third photo, if you look at that sign over the entry by the car it says Meeting Room, Brian Burden lived down that entry (as we used to call them) went to Sunday school in the Meeting Room, Brian had a brother called Jimmy, sister Brenda and an elder sister called Betty, she appeard in an issue of the Picture Post, we all went our seperate ways when they pulled the area down, but Denis and I used to go and see Brian who moved to Bartley Green.
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It appears many of the Betty Burden photos were taken around Cregoe Street. The building on the right in Post #9 above looks like Morton's Chapel .... presumably giving the name Chapel Court. It was in Court 11 Cregoe Street.

Cregoe Street 1888.jpgCregoe Street Morton's Chapel.jpg
 
BrummieGeoff said:
The quote below is from the Cregoe Street thread Post #40.



It appears many of the Betty Burden photos were taken around Cregoe Street. The building on the right in Post #9 above looks like Morton's Chapel .... presumably giving the name Chapel Court. It was in Court 11 Cregoe Street.

View attachment 194522View attachment 194523
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i know that photo well geoff....my gt grandparents lived in cregoe st 1900 to 1908

lyn
 
Well done Geoff! Excellent detective work!!!!! You would win the award (if we had one!)
Can you lick/scan and post the whole article please? Interestingly the photo on the cover is not one of the ones I could find on Getty Images.
 
Hi all, just stumbled across this. I am Betty's son, Gareth. Mark you are right, Geoff has done a great job, Betty was the oldest of 4. Jimmy was next and then Brenda and Brian (the twins) arrived making up the family for Jim and Rose. Mum was working as a hairdresser in John Lewis and Picture Post decided to do a story on a post war hard working, working class, inner city girl, and they chose Betty, from Cregoe Street.

The Picture Post was actually shipped out all around the world and Mum ended up with many pen pals all around the World (including a Sheik). It then turned into a fantastic romantic story as my dad, Roy was serving in the Royal Navy and The Picture Post made its way out to the ships where he was serving out in the far east. They became pen pals, whilst on leave he then turned up & knocked on her parents door (much to their disgust ..... Mum's Dad didn't like the Welsh!) they fell in love and the rest is history. They married, moved to Shirley, Solihull and had two children, myself and my elder brother David. She was a wonderful caring mother (bit biased of course but it is true) and she continued to work as a part time hairdresser and worked at Oakenshaw School, for special needs kids, which suited Mum's caring nature down to a tee.

She stayed fit healthy and oh so active, had so much energy and was also a bit of a rebel (didn't really care much for Covid Rules). She was still full of life at 89 when at the end of 2022, she unfortunately suffered a huge Stroke and passed away a few weeks later.

It's so lovely to see people communicating about this story over 70 years later. We still have a couple of copies of the Picture Post she appeared in and if anyone wants me to try to post the full story on line I will upload the pages.
 
hi garath and welcome...how wonderful that you stumbled on us and spotted this thread dedicated to you mom...firstly so sorry to hear that your mom has now passed away....also it is so nice that you could confirm she lived in cregoe street..would you happen to know what number she lived at..

what a lovely story about how she met your dad...if you look at post 3 photo 11 the romantic in me suggests it could be your mom and dads first meeting (although i know it isnt) also would you happen to know if the photos taken of you mom walking a street with a friend was taken in cregoe st ? it would be great if you could put the exact locations of any of those wonderful photos..

would love to read the full story if you can post it please as your mom is now part of birminghams history and we can tell just how proud of her you are

lyn

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Wow, didn't have the house number so thanks 'master brummie' for the house number. The cover photo is my Mum with her sister Brenda, my cousin Kevin (Brenda's son actually has the Chatterbox book that is in the photo and bought it to show my Mum in her last few days in hospital. I will get the picture post pages scanned over Xmas but in the meantime I have a photo of Mum reading a Reader Digest Mag that my wife found in 2022 and actually had a photo from the Picture Post in it of Mum with Nan doing the washing outside (hope you can make it out)Mum with readers digest.jpg
 
Betty's Son said:
Wow, didn't have the house number so thanks 'master brummie' for the house number. The cover photo is my Mum with her sister Brenda, my cousin Kevin (Brenda's son actually has the Chatterbox book that is in the photo and bought it to show my Mum in her last few days in hospital. I will get the picture post pages scanned over Xmas but in the meantime I have a photo of Mum reading a Reader Digest Mag that my wife found in 2022 and actually had a photo from the Picture Post in it of Mum with Nan doing the washing outside (hope you can make it out)View attachment 197548
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What a wonderful picture and piece of Birminghams history. Thank you for sharing Garath!
 
if we go back to post 15 and look at the map...2 back of 54 was right in view of mortons old chapel also marked on the map..in fact the photo on post 9 showing betty at the window must have been taken inside her house as we can see the chapel from the window

lyn
 
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Astoness said:
if we go back to post 15 and look at the map...2 back of 54 was right in view of mortons old chapel also marked on the map..in fact the photo on post 9 showing betty at the window must have been taken inside her house as we can see the chapel from the window

lyn
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Yes Lyn .... I didn't have access to the electoral register, but I worked out the house location from that photo on Post #9, and the position of the entry in the first photo on Post #2.
 
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