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The Meadows during the War
The Meadows during the floods of 1947
The Meadows during the demolition of the 1970's
In Lunacy, the story of Mary Yale of Leeds.
My Family History
My Meadows
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Me, aged 3 months, with my cousin, Phillipa. This picture was taken in 1957 |
Me again, with mother. 1957 |
We lived in an old two up two down terraced house, with outside toilet and coalhouse, no bathroom in those days. We had an old tin bath which we had to fill up with water boiled in saucepans on the gas stove. In those days the water had to last for several kids baths, perhaps topped up every so often with more hot. Conservationists haven't come up with anything new when they suggest "save water, bath with a friend. People in the Meadows, and probably a large part of Nottingham had been doing it for years.
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| Me aged 4, with Jack Brown | Doll Brown and Ida Bennett on the park at the end of Midland Cresent |
No washing machines and tumble driers either, not in the early days anyway. I can remember my grandmother's scullery (hey we didn't even have kitchen's in those days.) where everything was crammed into a room little bigger than a small shed. The old dolly tub and the smell as the washing was being done and then the mangle outside on the backyard to squeeze most of the water out before the washing was hung out on the line to dry. The large stone sink in the corner of the kitchen with just one tap, cold water. I think the "ascot" water heater came later. How she ever managed to juggle cooking the dinner and doing the washing in such a small space, I'll never know.
Meals, especially on a Sunday, were always eaten at the table and the table always had a cloth, in fact there were two. The cloth that was on all the time, to protect the table top I should think, and the best one over that. Sunday dinner was always preceeded by beer bought from Berry's "beer off" and carried over in a jug. Beer was available from the barrel at off licenses in those days so everyone would trundle over for their pint of "Shippo's" bitter, stout or mild with their jugs. Nearly all other beer was in bottles as not many breweries had got round to the innovation of canned beer. Not much lager about then either
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| My brother, Martin, aged 3 with Jack Brown | Me and my brother, Martin, on Midland Cresent about 1961. Behind us is Wadstaffs, the cobblers and Newcastle Road. |
Sunday dinner for my family usually meant us all going round to "aunt" Ida's and listening to the latest hits on the record player. Stars like Del Shannon, Billy Fury, The Batchelors and Cilla Black were the prominent stars of the day. I don't know how many times we must have heard them but I can still remember all the words to their songs when they are on the radio. We would go back home for dinner about three o'clock, by which time it was all ready. No sitting watching the telly whilst you were eating either. And if you didn't eat all your dinner there was no pud.
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Me and brother, Martin, playing on our bikes on the large piece of wasteland at the end of Midland Cresent. Bosworth School playing fields are behind the fence. In later years a small childrens park and a youth club were built on the site. |
During school term, Sunday night was usually bath night, in the kitchen in front of the fire. The water was boiled in several saucepans and emptied into the tin bath. Cold water was added to taste and more water was put on the boil ready to top up for the next kid in the queue. Our baths were usually timed to coincide with "Pick of the Pops" with Alan "fluff" Freeman and "Sing Something Simple." When everyone had bathed the bath was dragged to the back door and the water was tipped out on to the back yard. This water was then used to swill the yard with. The sweeping brush would come out and the whole lot would gradually be swept towards the grate in the middle of the yard. It's function over, the tin bath was returned to it's resting place hanging on the back of the coal house door or on the wall outside the back door.