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Slums

viv when we moved from nans back to back to villa st we did have a bathroom which must have been a real luxury for our mom and dad..im just wondering now how our water was heated up...must ask dad when i visit him..
 
Hi Lyn. It's funny the things we now take for granted. We just flick a switch today and hey presto. Another little 'essential' in our house was a couple of those miniature paraffin lights. They were only about 5" high and we put them in the bathroom by the pipes to stop the pipes from freezing. Viv.
 
Jeesh...pipes...hot water tanks...inside bath rooms. Darned rich kids anyway. The single coal fire better have been cheery. At least something to cheer you up whilst all huddled close to it, trying to keep warm on a winters evening...and getting chillblains on your legs at the same time.
 
rupert i was for ever getting told off for sticking my feet in front of the fire to warm them in the winter...wouldnt mind but our mom used stand warming her legs lol...
 
This cold snowy morning reminded me of the days of having to go to the outside "Lav" with the little "Kelly Lamp" under the cistern to stop it freezing, the cold wind blowing under the door and the neatly torn squares of newspaper hanging on a nail on the back of the door.
regards Reg
 
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Where are the peaceful Inkleys fair?
Where I did roost at nights,
And murder and manslaughter were among it's pleasant sights.
Thus spake this ancient villager
with tears in both his sights.

That was written in The Town Crier in 1882 and it desribes someones view of the above location. Greens Village and the Inkleys, situated at the junction of what is now Hill Street and John Bright Street, once known as The Irish Quarter and one of the most notorious areas in Birmingham. It was finally demolished in May 1899.
 
What about ice on the inside of the bedroom windows and females with "cornbeef" legs after sitting too close to the fire.
Good old days? I don't think so!
 
Although we lived in a modern house in Quinton my parents put in a back boiler and although we had a big fire, often encouraged with the paper (and set fire to) the rest of the house was freezing and ice on the inside of the windows!!! I have ancestors who lived in the Inkleys and other slum area of Birmingham - we can't imagine what it would have been like.
How rich we are - even if we think we are not - compared to how most of our families lived.
Sheri
 
Stitcher
I think the Inkleys were slightly south of the Hill st. john Bright St junction. Certainly New Inckleys and greens village were south of where Cross St was. The street New Inckleys had gone by the time of the mid 1880 ordnance survey (pub c1889) though Greens village was still there. The picture is shown in "Central birmingham 1870-1920" and here it states it was the junction of John bright St and Greens village, taken just before demolition in 1888
 
roverman said:
This cold snowy morning reminded me of the days of having to go to the outside "Lav" with the little "Kelly Lamp" under the cistern to stop it freezing, the cold wind blowing under the door and the neatly torn squares of newspaper hanging on a nail on the back of the door.
regards Reg
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At least we always had something to read Reg.

Barrie
 
Bill123 said:
What about ice on the inside of the bedroom windows and females with "cornbeef" legs after sitting too close to the fire.
Good old days? I don't think so!
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Hello Bill,

I remember my sister once saying "I will be glad when this fire has gone down. It is burning my legs" She did not think of moving further away from the fire.

Old Boy
 
Hello again Mike, I have no idea and can only repeat what is with the picture, that is if anything is with the picture. I am sure we are all grateful for the input from yourself and several others regarding corrections or added information. Thanks again.
stitcher
 
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I remember reading that St Marys Ward was, at the turn of the century, considered to be the worst slums in Birmingham. Only the authors opinion of course.

I do know that my mother was born there in 1912, but tbh I have no idea whereabouts it was. Does anybody know, was it a ward as in electoral wards, or a street in the area of Windsor St Barracks ??
 
I also believe that the worst of the slums were close to the city centre, and I believe that I lived in some of the worst, being Moreton St, Grosvenor St West, and Browning St. All facilities were shared by several other families, like the brewhouse, outside loo's and yards to hang the washing. Living in Browning St, I actually caught dysentry. The outside toilets had no slates left on them, and the smell from the lined up dustbins in the yard was awful.
 
I really must talk to mom and dad some more, never really thought about where they were born/brought up when they were young, I know and stayed at their homes from when they were older, in Station Road Stechford for Dad and Holland Road Sutton for mom - but momdidn't have an indoor bathroom there when they forst moved, it was added later using the back bedroom. Mom was born in Rose Cottages and moved to Tyseley where they were bombed out and then to Olton Boulevard before Sutton and Dad was born in Wash Lane, then waas looked fater by my Great Aunts in Victoria Street Bordesley until they moved to Stechford when dad was 9. Lots of the things you have all mentioned are familiar though, can remember nan washing steps and the Cardinal Red, my Aunts used that too and Micks nan. She had 2 small cans on the lintel over her door,one was an old fashioned oil can and one was a watering can, both meant to keep the house healthy apparently - neary caused a riot when I suggested moving them!
Moms friend lived in a back to back off Summer Lane (Asylum Road maybe?)and mom says how tiny it was but always spotless.
Thanks for all the memories, they are fascinating
Sue
 
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We had one of these until about 1955/6, then we had a modern tiled fireplace put in, still coal,I don't think ours looked quiet this smart.
 
The Inckleys..would that be where Hinckley Street is now?
I also remember drawing the fire with newspaper. Set it alight one afternoon and tried to put it out myself - ended up with a bad burn on the inside of my arm, which quickly blistered. The neighbour put some butter on it (so that was OK then) but my teacher made dad take me to the doctors the next day to have it dressed properly. Fortunately, the paper was the Despatch and dad had read it, otherwise I'd have been lamped as well.
We didn't live in a back to back, but a tunnel back in Handsworth, one coal fire, one cold water tap, a lavvie down the yard (next to the coalhouse), complete with newspaper bundles behind the pipes (no posh squares for us) and a tin bath. There was another fireplace in the front room, but I never remember that ever being lit (we didn't have many visitors obviously).
 
We had nowhere to keep a tin bath Charlie, so it was always a visit to Edgbaston baths to enjoy a soak. In between in was strip wash, having put the kettle on for hot water, because like you, we only had a cold tap too, and that hadn't always been the case. There was a time when water was collected from the brewhouse. It's odd the way we could hurt ourselves, as you did with the Dispatch setting fire, and still getting a wallop.
 
It's difficult to imagine now, but remember there was not much help about in those days, no free hand outs and no NHS, a lot of women around where we lived had multiple births and by the time they had reached 40 they looked 60, a lot of their husbands were heavy boozers and this contributed to their poverty, the haves and the have-nots lived in two totally seperated worlds, there were lots of people whose houses were spotless and who looked after their kids well, but there were lots of poor kids who went hungry on a daily basis.
 
And if reports are to be believed Astonite, those days of the haves and have-nots are returning, withreports of families not being able to both feed and keep their families warm - I wonder how they would have coped back then, so much more is expected to be given today!
Sue
 
Now that is indeed a smart fire and stove assemblage Liz. and I suppose that before gas was a common you had to have something to cook on. I suspect that the whole thing...mantle and front was cast iron maybe. As you say the ones that I saw also were not so nice but can not remember. Perhaps they were but older.
Latterly some of the houses were 'modernised'... meaning I think a regular, coal fireplace and gas for cooking, with a coin meter and, in our time, modest electrical equipment with a little electrical fuse box above a door somewhere. The outside loo persisted though...maybe it still does. I'm pretty sure it does; there still seems to be a lot of 'that era' houses around even though not BTBs. Yeah recycling newspaper is not a new phenomena.
 
Hi Sue, Although things are much better nowadays, poverty has always remained with us, admittedly not the absolute poverty of the 30s and 40s, an interesting read is the Black Report, it was commissioned in 1977, and released in 1980, it has some startling findings, even for those enlightened times, it is available in PDF form to download.
 
ASTONITE said:
It's difficult to imagine now, but remember there was not much help about in those days, no free hand outs and no NHS, a lot of women around where we lived had multiple births and by the time they had reached 40 they looked 60, a lot of their husbands were heavy boozers and this contributed to their poverty, the haves and the have-nots lived in two totally seperated worlds, there were lots of people whose houses were spotless and who looked after their kids well, but there were lots of poor kids who went hungry on a daily basis.
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and this is what i have been trying to get over astonite..i have no wish to make out that living in back to back houses was a picnic..it was not..i have read enough and heard enough privately from members and friends who had the most horrific times in the 40s 50s and the 60s but i cant share them with you all because of confidentiality..i have always said that i was lucky enough to know and remember that times were hard for our mom and dad and nan but at the same time i was also lucky to have had a happy loving upbringing being the eldest of 6 children and for that i make no excuses...wether we had a good time of it or a very bad time this is history and must be written honestly so that future generations get the true picture..

this is a great thread and thank you all for posting your memories good or bad keep them coming and lets face it..at the end of the day we all survived..

lyn..
 
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Hi Lynn, I think in some cases it made us a lot stronger, A lot of the kids I knew pulled themselves up by their boot-straps and made great lives for themselves after all their experiences as a child.
 
again astonite i agree with you totally..even now and being honest i still sometimes have to pull myself up by me boot straps..probably because i saw first hand how our mom and dad had to do it..i can well recall when i was at lozells girls school there was a trip to stratford and mom managed to scrape the money together for it but the main problem was that i had nothing nice to wear..well nothing new anyway..i had mentioned to mom a few weeks before the trip that i had fell in love with this organge shift dress with buttons up the front and a pair of beige platform shoes..i so wanted them that i would dream of them but to me it was only a dream as i knew that i would never have them...the day before the trip i came home from school and mom said to me...bab there is a parcel in the back room for you.i opened the wrapped parcel and it was the organge shift dress and beige shoes...that night i cried myself to sleep..its things like this that i will never forget...

lyn
 
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Yes Lyn, we did all survive and most of grew up honest and decent in spite of the harsh conditions we grew up in. I loved the story of your mom getting the orange shift dress and beige shoes for you...what a lovely mother she was. How I envy you that.
 
Lyn, thats lovely, but what parents did. I know mom and dad had some hard times as dad was a carpenter on building sites and the work wasn't always there, luckily for us , they were careful and saved when the work was there, but they always say my Aunty was their saviour sometimes when cash was not there at Xmas.
I can recall really wanting a new bike as mine was way too small but knew that as dad had been out of work there was no way, but then on Xmas day, the bike appeared, not till years later did I find that Win had helped with it, but that was families then that doesn't always seem to follow now.
Sue
 
maggs said:
Yes Lyn, we did all survive and most of grew up honest and decent in spite of the harsh conditions we grew up in. I loved the story of your mom getting the orange shift dress and beige shoes for you...what a lovely mother she was. How I envy you that.
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thank you for those kind words maggs..i know only too well how lucky i was to have parents such as mine..sue i shall start blubbering in a min but i see you too have memories that will never leave you...and having met your mom and dad on more than one occasion i can quite see why you adore them both so much...oh and auntie win of course lol..

lyn
 
I was born in Hospital Street and my gran lived up a yard in Tower Street, both houses were always spotless, certainly not hovels, maybe I was lucky but I never felt deprived of anything although now I know a lot of folk had it rough. I do get annoyed when people give the impression that all kids were dirty and starving, we weren't either.
Lynne.
 
img117.jpg
No.6 Court, Bagot Street in 1903. Though a great number of slums were demolished in the construction of Corporation Street, many remained. Due to the rather mild weather in the first quarter of that year the death rate in the slums was remarkably low; 9 people died from smallpox, 42 from scarlet fever, 24 from diptheria, 109 from typhoid, 59 from measles , 23 from whooping cough and 40 from diarrhoea.

That is unbelievable but that information is part of the piece of paper/ page that the picture is on.
stitcher
 
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