MY CHILDHOOD DAYS
CHESTNUT STREET
I was born in 35 Chestnut Street 15 November 1919, Leicester. It was a small Terraced
House built about 1860, and I was baptised in the same church, All Souls, as my parents
were married 
The terrace was built in blocks of four each block having a common
yard and a pocket handkerchief size garden for each house, in which my father managed to
keep about 6 chickens.
In the yard was one water tap and two toilets between the four houses,
There were two main rooms (The "Front Room" and the "Living Room") The front
room was hardly ever used being reserved for Very Special occasions. The living
room was just that - a living room- where all activities took place. The size of these
two rooms were roughly 10 feet square with the stairs to the bedrooms going up
between them. In the living room was a door under the stairs beyond which more
stairs lead down to a cellar where the coal was stored being delivered by means of a
chute from the pavement outside. A wall divided the cellar making a work area . This
was illuminated by a window above which was a grid to obtain "borrowed light"
Heating was obtained by burning coal and wood in a cast iron grate which contained a
boiler on one side of the fire, for hot water, This had to be filled by a ladle and hot water taken out by the
same method. On the other side of the fire was an oven used for cooking. This was lovely
to cook the the Sunday roast, and was an addition to the gas cooker in the kitchen
Off the living room was a small kitchen about 8ft by 6ft. In this was a shallow
sandstone sink (No running water) under a window to the yard outside and in the far
corner was a brick fire heated copper which on friday nights we used to light and feed
the fire with our old newspapers to heat the water for my brother and I to have a bath.
This was done in a tin bath which hung on the wall outside the kitchen door. This was
brought in and put in front of the fire in the living room. Hot water was ladled into a
bucket and then carried to the bath to fill it.The lighting was by Gas.
The bedrooms were the same size as the rooms down stairs.including the kitchen.
This small room was accessed by going through the Bedroom over the Living Room.
My earliest memories was when I must have been 2 or three, I can just remember my
Grandad "Ham" (Hamlet,my mother’s father sitting in his chair, We called our grand
parents by their christian names because both our parents' family name was SMITH)
and he died December 1922 and also remember being taken for a donkey ride in
what I think must have been Brazil Street (This was probably Raw Dykes Road on reflection but can't be sure). I remember there were iron railings and no
houses on that side of the street which must have bordered on what I think was the
Leicestershire Agricultural Show Ground. Anyway I must have fallen off the donkey
as I remember being underneath the donkey. My mother said it had its hoof on my
stomach and would not move! I obviously wasn’t harmed as I have no recollection of
Doctors etc.
alt="infant1" border=0>
At the age of three I started school. The compulsory age for school was 5 but school
was optional from 3 years. As my mother was working, knitting socks in a factory
owned by Toller & Lancaster for which she was paid 4d a dozen, I was sent to Hazel
Street Infants School . I remember we sat on forms fixed round the side of the wall
and a "table" could be brought down from the wall above our head on "arms".
After lunch rush mats were put on the floor and we had to have a short "Nap". I
remember how uncomfortable these mats were. We didn’t really have any formal
teaching, I expect it was rather like the present day nursery School. I can remember us
all learning a song, tho’ I don’t remember what but we went to another school
(Narborough Road) to perform it at a concert there one evening.
When I was five formal tuition started and we moved to "Standard One" classroom
which was formal, with desks laid out in rows, two to a desk and a black board in
front of the class.
1925
It was during this year that
Queen Alexandria died and I remember there was a picture
of her in the hall and black crepe paper was put around it.
Also during this year I was returning home with my brother when I ran across the
road, tripped on the tram lines, and was run over by a motor car. The driver was
unaware of the accident but stopped because he saw my brother "going hysterical". I
had got my head stuck between the back axle and the exhaust pipe and was dragged
twenty yards by the time he stopped. I suffered a severe burn to the side of my face,
a broken collarbone and severe grazing of the shin. The burn went septic and it was months
before it healed. The Doctor kept advising Hot Fomentations (Lint soak in hot water) but
they didn’t cure it and it is said contributed to the bad scarring. My Mother, in desperation
started using Germolene, much to the disgust of the doctor, but it healed within a week!
I remember as a young lad my Uncles and cousin leaning out of the back bedroom window of 245 Grasmere Street watching Leicester City play Football every Saturday Afternoon. I occasionally would put a sign outside the "Entry" "Cycles Stored Here", I would charge 2D and put them in Grandma's yard. There were a couple of occasions when I sold cups of tea at half time, the punters would lean over the wall and I would hand them up for 3D.
Another cousin who like me was not interested in football would go round to the "Cop" for the "last 10 minutes" and the gates would be opened and we would go in without paying. It was for the sheer fun of it.
Grandma always provided tea of Mussels and Winkles after the match for the relatives .
In September 1927 at the age of 7 I started to attend Hazel Street Junior School - Standard 1 - and it was
here that although I was naturally left-handed the Teacher made me use my right hand to
write with.
This messed my writing up for ever! I was always in trouble ever after in school
for bad writing.
The school was trying to raise money to buy an organ and we used to take a halfpenny
every Monday morning towards this organ fund. In this we succeeded in getting the pipe
organ which I though at the time was a magnificent instrument - on the outside!
I also took one penny each Monday to put in the bank. We had a card and the teacher
entered the penny on the card and when it totalled £1 we got a proper bank book from the
Leicester Savings bank Bank.
I remember on "Empire Day" we had a sort of pageant and there would be a child
dressed in the national costume of each country of the Empire together with Britannia.
I used to visit my grandmas every Weekend and Grandma Sarah would give me a penny,
Grandma Alice gave me a halfpenny (She always gave my brother a penny, she always favoured
him!) and I would visit my Great Aunt Maud and she would give me a penny. I also got a
Saturday Penny from my Dad.
I saved all my Pennies so that I could go to my Aunt Amy who lived in Cleethorpes
with my
cousin Joan who was nearly six years younger than me. Mother would put me on the
train at
Leicester Central Station, and my Aunt would meet me at Grimsby Docks Station.
Here I would
spend the Summer Holidays. Later when I was a little older I had to save my own fare
and I
would go by coach - 5/6 (five shillings and six pence or 28p in modern money) return.
At this period My Brother and I would go to the cinema to the children’s Matinee on
Saturday
afternoons, The Olympia "Over the Bridge" on Narborough Road, (I believe there is a
garage on the site now)
It was "Tuppence" (Two Pence") entrance. There was usually a Serial where the
Heroine always got
into some seemingly impossible situation like falling down a mine shaft or something
and the episode
would end with " see what happens next week!". There would always be a comedy and
a Cowboy
Film. The favourites were Tom Mix and Hoot Gibson. Of course these were silent
films in those days,
Talkies hadn’t been invented then.
Later when the talkies arrived I saw "Ben Hur"
and "The Goldiggers of Broadway" there. The song "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" was popular at that time
1928
In 1928 my parents decided to buy a new house which was one of a row being
built in Belmont Street (though I always remember it as Belmont Road but it is
listed on maps and in Poll books as Street)
Which runs off Duncan Road, Aylestone. My brother and I used go to see the
progress the construction
had reached each weekend. Finally it was finished and we were able to move in.
What a delight it was to have electric light and hot water "laid on" and to have a bath
in a
proper bath room with a big bath in it. We went round switching the lights on and off!
Of course we had to leave Hazel Street School and go to Granby Road School.
Duncan Road was
inclined towards Aylestone Road and I remember on frosty mornings going to school
the kids created
slides on the frosty pavement until there was virtually a continuous slide all the way
down the hill.
Sometimes the adults got annoyed with this and came out and put salt on them.
The only Teacher's name I remember Was Mr. Pickard, Though there was lady teacher who was
always pleased to treat our wounds.For this she used some powder she kept in a flat tin.
The first thing in the morning she would dress the wounds and then we would have to recite
our times tables.
At he end of the 1927-28 year, the school hall was refurbished. I remember there being a big
mural freeze round the hall and I remember the men starting to remove them, they were
painted on canvas frames, before we broke up for the summer holidays. I remember one day the Headmaster rang the "Fire Bells" which meant we all had to file into the playground. He had become aware of the airship R101passing over the school. A few days later it crashed and burned out at Beauvais, France and the government decided to abort all airship programmes the R100 was dismatalled.
I used to play with the kids in Lorrainne Road. A girl about my age lived in the
first
house by the name of Grace Wagstaffe. There were only houses on one side and
opposite were gardens
and we used to push our hand under the fence and "pinch" artichokes that were
growing
there and eat them raw! Opposite Belmont Road (There again there were only houses
on one side,
all built in 1828),there was like a big drop on the other side with a bungalow which
was accessed by a gate in the fence and a path down the slope. We went there to buy
ginger
beer and herb beer she made herself, It was halfpenny and a penny deposit on the
stone
bottles she used. In the Autumn we would go there to buy a ha'path of "fallings".
(Apples
which had dropped off the tree.)We got a large bag for our "ha’pny"
In 1931 my father who was a small time bookmaker, used to run "Fixed Odds"
foot-ball coupons and Football tickets, these tickets where sealed by at first, by my
mother, sewing the folded tickets on the sewing machine, she did not cut them off but
let them run in a string over the back of the machine where I would sit and cut the
thread. Later they were crimped on a hand machine my father bought. These ticket
sold a 6d
and contained the name of two football teams and there
were several prizes for different things, for instance the two teams with the highest
scores won £5. There were some tickets with "IOU 2/6" stamped inside. Strictly
speaking
these tickets were illegal and to overcome this he included the name of two race
horses
which he tipped to win and the tickets were sold as "IKE's 6p Nap and free football
Competition"
He then had the bright idea of copying a French idea called "Para Mutuel"
(don’t remember the actual spelling), which were to become the football pools. He
had acquired what we would now call a mailing list, and he circulated all the pools
coupons and called them "Key Pools". He started to get quite a responce though.
Many
where returned "not known" so it must have been an old mailing list. My brother
and I would take them to the post box in my mother's shopping basket.
He was not popular amongst the local Bookmakers for doing this they said it would
ruin the
business!. However one Sunday an advert appeared in "The News of The World", a
popular Sunday newspaper, for Littlewoods, advertising their football pools together
with a printout of their coupon. My father decided he couldn’t compete and gave it
up!.
In 1931 he lost all his money on the horse racing side of the
business and the house had to be sold.
Just prior to this he asked the committee of the Saffron Lane Working Men's Club,
alt="Saffron Lane WMC">and got, permission
to Sell Cheese Cobs (rolls) and other snacks in the club on Friday, Saturday and
Sunday
nights from a basket on his arm. This proved so successful that space was allocated in
the covered veranda at the
back of the club, which overlooked the lawn for us to set up a stall. A cooker was
installed and we sold Cobs, Hot
Peas, Cockles, Mussels, Whelks, Hot Jacket Potatoes, Sweets etc. Needless to say I
got the job
of serving the sweets!
(The picture shows the Club as it is was in 1998 and has been
considerably extended. In 1928-30 it consisted of only the main white building.
1931
My mother who seemed to have a better business head, found an empty house and
shop at the end of a cul-de-sac round the corner in Curzon Road (No.26) which she
rented for 26/- (shillings) a week. We moved in on Saturday and by Monday the
equipment was delivered and being fitted, and we started "frying" Tuesday night
fresh fish having been delivered via the old "fish train" system from Grimsby Docks.
I used to peel all the potatoes when I came home from school in a hand operated
Potato
peeler. This was a large drum which revolved in water contained in a half drum shape
and
I had to turn the handle to make it revolve. Inside the drum were protrusions like a
vegetable grater which the potatoes tumbled against as the drum was rotated. It took
a bucket full of potatoes at a time. After sufficient revolutions the drum could be
lifted
out by levers and emptied into a trough. We then had to take off any peel that had
been
missed by hand and take out the eyes. On Saturday we would need a
Cwt.(Hundredweight) of
potatoes processing. All this took place in the back yard which wasn't very pleasant
in the cold winters.
One Dinner (Lunch as it is now called) Time I came home from school for my dinner and my mother anouced
she was going to a matinee at the Opera House to see "White Horse Inn". I asked her
to take me with her and as expected she said no. She would never let me miss school.
So I threw a tantrum and "kicked the Table" and pleaded and begged and eventually, much to my
surprise she agreed and I went! I think she knew it would be a sort of education for
me because it was then I fell in love with the theatre
1931
(Picture By Kind Permission of The Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland Record Office)
In 1931 I left Granby Road Junior School to go to Lansdown Road Senior Boys' School.
Here I remember two teachers, A Mr.Duckworth and a Mr.Frank Toone
About 1932 my mother
notice a piece of spare ground on Duncan Road the main road which Curzon Road ran
off, Where an
old bus garage stood. This was owned by "Craddock Buses” which originally had run
a bus service
from town to Aylestone and had gone out of business when the Corporation got the
monopoly to
run the transport services.
She approached a local builder and suggested he build her a new shop on the site
figuring it
would do better business on the main road.
He said "I will go and look at it as I have
nothing
for my men to do when they finish their present Job. later he came back and said It's
to big for one shop.
I'll build a pair and you can have one. My mother said "Fine but I have no money"
and
he said "Never mind, we'll sort that out when the time comes"
We the moved in to the shop and was very good and happy, We had a large garden.
When I got to be 14 a job was advertised by the "Service Watch Company" and I applied and was told I could have the job if I could leave school immediately but the school said I had to finish the term.
TEEN YEARS
Leaving school at 14 In December 1933 I started work at Wm.Cross Ltd, Bookbinders in Mansfield Street, off Church Gate, Leicester. I was the "boy" doing any odd job that came along including feeding the ruling machines, which ruled lines on sheets of paper to make ledgers and accounts books, Sweeping up and cleaning the toilets on Saturday mornings. I made friends with a man who was just finishing his time as an apprentice (7 years). I used to call for him on my way to work, I think his name was Len and he lived in Warf Street.
We started work at 8:00 am till 12:30 then 2:00 till 5:30 and 8:00 till 12:15 on Saturdays. I was paid 9/- (9 Shillings)(45p) a week for that with no tea breaks or paid holidays, I was allowed to keep 1/6 (7½p) of it spending money.
At "Dinner" time (midday) I used to go down the road to the pub called "The New Plough Inn" on the corner of Church Gate and Sanvey Gate, opposite St.Margarets Church which my Uncle Perce was tenant, and my Aunt Alice gave me my dinner. The "New Plough Inn" was an old coaching Inn with big gates for the carriages to drive in and a stable and hay loft. There was also a "Brew House" where in years gone by they used to brew their own beer. That stopped many years previously as the pub was now owned by "Everards" Brewery
After a few weeks, Len finished his apprenticeship and I was asked if I would like to be apprenticed. So an appointment was made for my father to come to the office and sign the "Indentures" that bound me for 7 years. Wages were increased from 9/- to 11/- and mother allowed me to keep 2/- of it. I was also obliged to go to Leicester Technical college 4 nights a week to learn the art of book binding.
I REMEMBER
The Milk Float coming round the street every day. It was a small horse driven cart with a big milk churn on it from which the milkman filled a gallon oval container, he would then call at the houses and the lady would come out with a jug, the milkman then dispensed a pint or half pint of milk into the jug using one of two measuring ladles into the jug. No pasturised milk then!
The knife sharpener came round periodically with a cart he could sit on and pedal to turn a grindstone. He would sharpen the knives and scissors on it.
The Lamplightercoming round to light the gas street lights. He carried a long pole with a hook and a flame on the top. The hook was to turn the gas on and flame to light the lamp. The flame was provided by carbide gas generated in a small container on the top of the pole which contained carbide and water. The water was allowed to drip on the gas and this caused the gas to be generated. At the end of his round he he would empty the carbide in a street drain and as kid would look to see if there were any pieces of unactivated carbide left. I remember once when I was in town with my mother I saw the crowd lamplighters leave the yard in the gas offices with their poles alight at dusk. A public house now stands on the site and is approriately named "The Lamplighter"
