Birmingham Girls

Carol Arnall has a book out called “Birmingham Girls” which recalls her life growing up in the area. Carol kindly shares some thoughts for us here:

My sister Pauline and I lived in Coneybere Street, Balsall Heath, with our mom during the mid to late 1940s - up the terrace as it was called - Newport Terrace to give it its proper name.

It was a back-to-back house at the top end of a row of terraced houses. It was a two-up and two-down house with a patch of ground outside the front door, called the garden, but I can’t even remember weeds growing in it let alone flowers. The washhouses were at the top of the terrace where the women took it in turns through the week to do their washing. I see the old mangles and a boiler fetching a small fortune now at the antique fairs. We never thought where we lived was a slum. Why should we? We knew of no other life except that small house at the end of the row.

We would jump over the side fence to go to the toilets housed in the yard. From what I can remember, there were only about eight toilets for the whole terrace. We shared with neighbours from along the row, early unisex communal toilets. he only memories of the very early years I have are when Mom sat me on the side by the sink and gave me some cod liver oil followed by malt. I was very young then, no more than two or three I should say. The malt was delicious but the cod liver oil diabolical.

This book is simply a miscellany of my own memories; it tells the story of our early lives in Balsall Heath, Birmingham, where we lived in a back-to-back house with our mom. In no way is it meant to be a historical document. Our father deserted Mom before I was born. She had a desperate struggle bringing us up during and after the war until she remarried. We then moved to Northfield, and we both passed the eleven plus examination to grammar schools.

Pauline went to Kings Norton Grammar School, and I, to my dismay, was sent to Bartley Green Grammar School. I was happy at my junior school and certainly didn’t want to go to Bartley Green. I was more than happy when I left the school, and after a few jobs I settled down happily to work at ‘Ten Acres & Stirchley Cooperative Society, Birmingham,’ as a secretary. Pauline also worked at TASCOS as a secretary to the assistant director, and we were both to meet our future husbands there.

You can contact Carol by email at carol.arnall@ntlworld.com. She also has a website which is at http://tinyurl.com/6ymyja7