Furnace Lane Lozells.

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Lyn

Would you could you eat it now ?
Dave/Lyn
When you look at the cheap cuts that we ate then, pigs feet, ox tail, ox cheek, now the restaurants charge the earth for these cuts. I remember when we ate ox tongue because we could not afford boiled ham and how ox tongue is more expensive than ham ?
The one food I cannot eat, childhood did it to me . Brawn.
Are there any foods you two would not eat now because of eating them in childhood ?

Phil

Well it's academic right now as I don't eat meat at all. Haven't since 2009, but I do eat fish! I was a very picky eater as a child, never really liked meat because of the fat and gristle. The thought of Brawn still revolts me, even though I have no idea what it was, Google? Dripping I would eat on bread as long as I got the real brown stuff on the bottom. I would eat lard & salt too.

Dave A

 

[adap2it]

phil i cant say as there is anything i ate back then that i would not eat today....there is one thing though and its not really food...COD LIVER OIL AND MALT..came in big brown jars and our mom used to shovel it down us every day especially during the winter..i can still taste it now...yuk it was awful stuff

lyn

I remember that stuff. It was like treacle but really hard to swallow. My mom would get it from the chemist on the corner of Summer Lane & Cowper St. She also got Scotts Emulsion, anyone remember that awful stuff?
Dave A

 

[PhilFurnacelane]

Hi Dave and Lyn

I found out what Brawn was in about 2003.
There used to be a real and I mean a real butcher in Bewdley and he sold brawn and I asked what it was.
He told me it was a pigs head all the bone, skin and bits remove. it was then cooked and them pressed into the shape, with the jelly made from the cooking juices.
When you malt extract. It was like tar in the cold weather because the viscosity decreased,it was a job to get it out of the jar, let alone eat it.
I have not heard of Scott's emulsion. What was it for ?
I used to go to that chemist on the way to school and buy a penny stick of 'Spanish root'

Phil

 

[Astoness]

morning phil...you can still get brawn..to be honest we ate a lot of things back then without knowing what went into it..the info just was not about but it still did us no harm....i still love black pudding...never heard of spanish root but we used to buy sticks of liquorice root from the sweet shops...used to chew on it all day until it became just a stringy thing

lyn

 

[mikejee]

I used to quite like brawn as a kid, but this was different to what is sold in the shops today. The brawn I tasted was little pieces of meat in jelly, and you could see a fair bit of what looked like real meat (it was made by my uncle who, as did many then, kept pigs in the back garden). The stuff I've seen in the shops today seems to be a grayish mush with jelly

 

[adap2it]

Hi Dave and Lyn

I found out what Brawn was in about 2003.
There used to be a real and I mean a real butcher in Bewdley and he sold brawn and I asked what it was.
He told me it was a pigs head all the bone, skin and bits remove. it was then cooked and them pressed into the shape, with the jelly made from the cooking juices.
When you malt extract. It was like tar in the cold weather because the viscosity decreased,it was a job to get it out of the jar, let alone eat it.
I have not heard of Scott's emulsion. What was it for ?
I used to go to that chemist on the way to school and buy a penny stick of 'Spanish root'

Phil

Scotts Emulsion was cod liver oil too, but without the malt, it was all about fighting the common cold, which was REALLY common in those conditions back then. Spanish Root was the same as liquorice root Lyn. You can still buy it at an Apothecary in Niagara on the Lake, close to me. I did buy some a while back but I got bored with chewing on it very quick.

 

[PhilFurnacelane]

Hi Dave
The spanish stick or liquorice root was for a penny a good buy, you could chew it all day, even when the taste had gone out of it. I think the reason we did have cold was because the houses were cold. The one I lived in only had a fire in the front room and one in the sitting room. The upstairs was cold and damp, during the winter, the inside of the window condensed and then froze. Hot water bottle kept the cold at bay for a short while, until in the middle of the night you pushed your feet down to the bottom of the bed and touched the cold water bottle.
I had a conversation with a man a few years ago regarding the last pig farm in Birmingham.
He said it was in Saltley by the gasometer. I said that I thought that it was at the back of the Bell in Northfield.
Any thoughts ?

 

[adap2it]

Hi Dave
The spanish stick or liquorice root was for a penny a good buy, you could chew it all day, even when the taste had gone out of it. I think the reason we did have cold was because the houses were cold. The one I lived in only had a fire in the front room and one in the sitting room. The upstairs was cold and damp, during the winter, the inside of the window condensed and then froze. Hot water bottle kept the cold at bay for a short while, until in the middle of the night you pushed your feet down to the bottom of the bed and touched the cold water bottle.
I had a conversation with a man a few years ago regarding the last pig farm in Birmingham.
He said it was in Saltley by the gasometer. I said that I thought that it was at the back of the Bell in Northfield.
Any thoughts ?

First, the cold..unlike you, we didn't have a sitting room or even a pantry, just one room with everything in it. I think that our house and probably some other back houses close to ours were the same. My friend Brian's house, he lived at 1/52, and I lived at 4/52, had a small scullery with a sink,at the top of the stairs down to the cellar. Our sink was in our living room. We backed on to the gardens of Geach St, so our back wall was exposed to the elements. It was damp and dripping water most of the year. Our mom would put pitch paper on before wallpapering, it didn't do much good. There was no electricity until the late 40's or early 50's, we only had gas. Regarding the pig farm, I have no idea...passed the Saltley gasometers many times on the #8 bus, don't remember any pig farms, it must have been before my time.
Dave A

 

[Astoness]

..talking about damp our dad used to put that black pitch paper on our walls before papering over it...this was when we moved from paddington st villa st

hi dave as you know i was also born in paddington st...easy to remember the layout of our nans back to back as there was not much of it..2 bedrooms..1 for our nan and the other for our mom.dad..myself and brother.. and as you say 1 very small room downstairs with everything in it...the cooker was in the living room...1 small scullery but what we did have was always kept clean and tidy...sad to say that a lot of people think that just because you come from poorly built houses that we are less worthy than some...well both our nan and our mom were both very proud people who did the best they could with what little they had and we never went without the main things in life.. any road up it cant have been that bad as they had to drag our nan away from paddington st...she did not want to move after being there for about 60 years...surfice to say i am very proud of my roots..always will be

lyn

 

[adap2it]

..talking about damp our dad used to put that black pitch paper on our walls before papering over it...this was when we moved from paddington st villa st

hi dave as you know i was also born in paddington st...easy to remember the layout of our nans back to back as there was not much of it..2 bedrooms..1 for our nan and the other for our mom.dad..myself and brother.. and as you say 1 very small room downstairs with everything in it...the cooker was in the living room...1 small scullery but what we did have was always kept clean and tidy...sad to say that a lot of people think that just because you come from poorly built houses that we are less worthy than some...well both our nan and our mom were both very proud people who did the best they could with what little they had and we never went without the main things in life.. any road up it cant have been that bad as they had to drag our nan away from paddington st...she did not want to move after being there for about 60 years...surfice to say i am very proud of my roots..always will be

lyn

Yes most people were very proud and spotlessly clean. No appliances, just elbow grease. Red Lead, Black Lead, Brasso, Silvo, Mansion Polish and many more...Brewhouse on Mondays...woman did most of the work. The poor living conditions were absolutely no excuse to be tardy. I am still affected by our state of poverty to this day.
Dave A

 

[Astoness]

dave our nan lost her hubby a few months before ww2 started..he was in the RFA in france ww1 which affected his health leaving her with 3 girls to bring up...she held down 2 or 3 jobs and never remarried..i can only admire her for that..

lyn

 

[adap2it]

Not to get too political, but women were the REAL dominant force...and Lyn, I have posted a photo in the Speedway thread. It shows my dad on Geoff Bennetts speedway bike. This is the premises on Hamstead Rd where your father in law Eric Hardy had his shop. As you may recall, my dad worked for Eric after Geoff passed on.
Dave A

 

[Astoness]

ok crikey dave i had forgotten about that...i shall go post haste to the speedway thread...cheers

lyn

 

[PhilFurnacelane]

Hi to you both

I was out with a mate last night and talking about out youth and he reminded me about making fire lighters for the coal fire.
He said that he used to screw up the news paper tight, well I told him that my mother taught me how to make plaited fire lighter out of newspapers, something I can still, however there is not much call for News paper plaiters these days.
He also told me that his father use to hold a newspaper over the opening to the fire to draw it up and many a time the news paper caught fire. We were fortunate enough to have a cellar and the coal was dropped into into it from the front of the house and I spent many a happy hour breaking up the coal for the fire.

Phil