I would have been 8 when the picture was taken, I think we left 3 or 4 years later when we moved to Kings Norton. My memories are a bit hazy but I remember being happy living there even though when I think back the house was pretty grim with an outside toilet and a tin bath (folks don’t believe me when I say we had one) hanging up on the back of a door, I remember how steamy the kitchen would get filling up saucepans with hot water for the tin bath. Our neighbour at No. 13 was an elderly lady who would get down on her hands and knees to scrub her front doorstep until it shined. Occasionally we’d be invited round for tea and cake, she would get out her best china and tablecloth and put on a posh voice, at the time I believed she was posh for real! I can’t recall her name at the moment but it will come if I stop thinking about it!
I remember a newsagents up the road where my Mum used to send me to buy her 10 No.6 cigarettes. There was a hairdressers Mum used to go to just down the road I think, for her regular ‘Grecian style’ hairdo. Mum used to wear short skirts and white patent leather knee length boots and would quite often get whistled at. There was a butcher somewhere nearby where we would go to buy our meat and get off cuts for our black Labrador ‘Judy’. The butcher always teased me and one time I went to buy some lights (remember those) for our dog but instead he threw some sheep’s eyes on the counter, I flew out of that shop utterly horrified and ran home to tell my Mum. I’m not sure I ever went back.
I remember an Irish lady, Mrs Hegarty I think she was called and she had a lot of children. She lived further up the hill on the other side I think and if she came out to tell us kids off in the street we all took notice and behaved ourselves. I have only nice memories of her.
There was a family opposite who we were very friendly with but I can’t remember any details. I may have dreamed it but I think they were Jewish. They were lovely, I vaguely remember missing them when we moved, or maybe they moved first, it’s all a bit hazy.
I haven’t thought about these memories for a long time, so glad I came across this thread about Potters Hill.