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Lyn, I think Ray is referring to the thread - 'Migration to Brum' which gives that description of the Gullet.

Judy
 
think i need a lie down judy lol..i read rays post 19 and took it he wanted to know about LPS..talking about that i wish we had more pics of that but they are so thin on the ground..
 
I dont understand why people get all romantic and dewy eyed about the old back
to back houses, you wouldnt be allowed to keep pigs in those conditions nowadays
nevermind about , four, five or six children. Bernard
 
Perhaps Bernard it is because we admire the resilience of the people who brought up their children ,our forebears, in such
conditions.
 
hi alberta;
i put it down to ya roots which one should never forget; and its a chapter of ones life
and remissing of your birth of your life ;and you can remember the fondest memories you had growing up ;
at least the houses was warmer and more solid than these cheap card board plaster boards and pigion lofts they are building today along with neibours whom whom was neibours you had today you never see or speak to your neibour its a sad society we are living in ;
to a certain degree its a pity we could not put the clock back ;
compared to this fast pace of human and greedy society we living in today;with money grabbers and the idle race we have got today ;
yes conditions are better today but the human race ; definatly no ; i enjoy going to these old propertys especialy in the black country musuem
have a nice day keep warm and keep safe astonian
 
I don't think that the older people miss the run down back to backs essentially when they reminisce about the "good old days", it's the community and the close friendship they miss when all in the same boat shared what they had. I saw it time and time again in those old communities in old Birmingham. So sadly missing in our current society.
paul
 
hi paul...i totally agree with all you say and i must also say it does annoy me when people knock the back to backs so much..i was born in one in 1953 and although i cant speak for others folks memories of living in them i can assure you that i didnt live in squalor and i do object to the fact that so many people seem to think thats what they were all like...our house was spotless clean as was the yard.. toilets and the miskin area....my nan bought up her 3 young daughters by herself from 1938 after losing her husband and so it followed that when mom and dad married they moved in with nan until they could find their own house so it was nan in one bedroom..mom..dad me and my brother in the other until we moved to villa st...i have many pics taken of us when we lived in paddington st which i think i will post one day as they are all happy pics and give no sign of dispair at living in a back to back house..in fact they had to drag our nan away kicking and screaming when they were demolished..i just wished that some people were not so quick to condem and judge the back to back houses...they were not all the same..some were better than others and not everyone who lived in them should be looked down on...the majority of folk took pride in what little they had and made the best of things..
lyn
 
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So very true Lyn, and I remember the spotless homes, and yards, and the old ladys scrubbing the steps and yard bricks for hours. The kids always tuned out beautifully, and when years later in the large estates they had moved to on the edge of Brum talking about those days and how much they missed them.
paul
 
its true paul...the community spirit of those days has all but gone now..i wonder how many of us can say we know everyone who lives in our road or street now...all i was trying to point out was that not all back to backs should be tagged as slums as that is a tad offensive to those who lived in them..of course the housing in the 17 and 1800s were far worse but even then i bet they still did their best...this pic taken in villa st in the late 50s when i lived there ..my house was more or less opposite..it just makes me laff so much...the lady looks like she is about to attack the photographer with her broom..but it does show just how much pride was taken in those days even with the pavements..

Villast2.jpg
 
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Is that lady washing the pavement? Now that certainly is a brilliant example of taking pride in your surroundings and valuing whatever you have. Viv.
 
I was born in Acocks Green, three bedrooms, living room and kitchen with the pantry coalhouse and bathroom off the kitchen, and an outside lavatory. The front garden was about 18 feet square and the back garden was about 18 feet by about 60 feet. The houses were built in blocks of four and ours was in the miidle so we had a covered entry. All the neighbours were about the same age as mom and dad and they were all quite nice and friendly. Later in life when I was married to my first wife we were re-housed in Freeth Street Ladywood, a back to back but the front door opened onto the footpath with a side door that opened into the covered entry. Communal lavatoties and brewhouse, two bedrooms and a small living room, a cubby hole for a kitchen and a cellar. Just a traditional back house I suppose. The neighbours were all lovely and I soon realised that they were all like my mom and dad and their neighbours in Acocks Green. Everywhere was clean and people cared about where they lived and about each other. If only it were possible to return to the peoples attitude of those days whilst retaining todays technology.
Oh dear, happy thoughts.
 
john i have wondered that for a long time...ive zoomed in but cant quite tell what they are..

viv the lady will be sweeping the pavement and putting the rubbish in the bucket you can see..this was a very common sight back in the day...
 
Lyn
No reason why it should be in that position, but do you think the little can on the right is a Brasso can?
 
mike you could well be right about the brasso as folk did have funny little ways back then..bless them...

lyn
 
Thought they were little figurines - like gnomes. Lyn, thought the pavement looked wet!! Viv.
 
ahh yes viv i thought that was a shadow but it looks like she was as our mom would say swilling the the pavement down..

lyn
 
That's a blast from the past Lyn - " swilling down". Must try the phrase out on the kids! Viv.
 
Hmm. The palings and the trimmed private hedge. Don't think most kids would cotten to a swill in the back kichen sink using the single brass tap in the house...on the end of a cold water lead pipe. Still I suppose even that would be luxury in some parts of the world even today. Watch your palings on Guy Fawkes night.
 
Like a lot of us I am enjoying the first proper snow of the winter.

Tucked up inside with a week's supply of food in the freezer, and central heating to stop me freezing!

But let's try to imagine for a moment what it was like in the back-to-backs in the days not just before central heating, but before even gas fires.

How did they survive?

Paul
 
Paraffin heaters and coal, but like us in the 50's we never really minded the cold some how in Brum.
paulS
 
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oh gosh i can still smell the parrafin even now...i used to get ours from the hardware shop on the corner of nursery road and church st also the bundles of wood or maybe zip firelighters..im sure parafin came in pink and blue colours..
 
Forgotton about paraffin Lyn. Yes it did come in pink or blue. When I had a summer job at Midland Counties Ice Cream, the regular staff used to combine their jobs at the ice cream factory with work at the Valor heaters factory. Bit like chalk and cheese! One of my favourite jobs when we had a coal fire was to draw the fire with an open newspaper held across the front of the fireplace. Several times I managed to set fire to the newspaper, then all hell was let loose!!! I also think you could put sugar on the fire to give it a boost. We once had a chimney fire and had to get the Fire Brigade in, that was scary too. Then there was cleaning out the ashes from the tray beneath the grate - we sometimes put them on the icy or snowy footpath. Good old coal fires.Viv.
 
we dont all have to imagine it Paul, some of us can remember it, I was born in a back/back house, or hovel, in Hick Street Balsall
Heath, we had gas lighting! that was in 1930. Bernard
 
Vivienne14 said:
Forgotton about paraffin Lyn. Yes it did come in pink or blue. When I had a summer job at Midland Counties Ice Cream, the regular staff used to combine their jobs at the ice cream factory with work at the Valor heaters factory. Bit like chalk and cheese! One of my favourite jobs when we had a coal fire was to draw the fire with an open newspaper held across the front of the fireplace. Several times I managed to set fire to the newspaper, then all hell was let loose!!! I also think you could put sugar on the fire to give it a boost. We once had a chimney fire and had to get the Fire Brigade in, that was scary too. Then there was cleaning out the ashes from the tray beneath the grate - we sometimes put them on the icy or snowy footpath. Good old coal fires.Viv.
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oh yes viv more than once our dads sports argus went up in flames lol...also remember cleaning out the ash pan...cant recall having a chimney fire but we may have done..and the sugar...i had forgotton about that..ok so coal fires may not be central heating but they sure made the rooms look cosy...ive got a coal effect fire in my living room and just to add to it ive got a companian set at the side...
 
I think paraffin heaters were latterly. Gas fires were prior and some had the old coal fire, even with the built in cast iron oven on the side and a high grate and the clothes drying rack over head on lowering ropes. Anyone remember The Esso Ble Dooler ad on steam powered TV. Mostly pre war (Crimean) low tech...hmmm...into the sixties for some.
 
Now this wasn't a hardship by comparison, but we had a boiler at the back of our coal fire which heated the hot water. Once that had been used up, tough .... no more hot water until the fire heated up the next lot and that took for ever. But this must have been 5***** luxury compared to the tin bath. Viv.
 
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