A Newspaper Article

 I didn't know this existed, but came up in a search of my fathers friend , Frank Tisdale.

A little History - A lady Holding a Rose

My Mum remembered when my maternal grandfather came home with his find from a second hand shop. He appreciated the painting but never knew of its significance or value. Today it is on loan to the Birmingham Museums Trust  https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/a-lady-holding-a-rose-33768

Memories and Observations

I look at today's problems and wonder if humanity is prepared or strong enough to handle what their parents, grandparents and great grandparents did in the past. Today we are used to a lot of creature comforts and haven't experienced real hardship. We are used to having what we want and not making do. Wars happen in far flung places and don't make regular headlines......

My parents clearly remembered WWII, Then they lived in the West Midlands in the UK, away from the German bombing of London and other key cities. Even so there were many incidents when lost German planes would drop their bombs in the countryside so they would have enough fuel to get home. 

My dad spoke of the bombs, shattered glass and the one occasion of a crashed German plane near home in Walsall Wood.

My Mother, in her later years, wrote about her childhood experiences in nearby Brownhills. here is an extract.

"Growing up during the war years I guess I didn’t realize the seriousness of it all for some families, living in a small coal mining village I didn’t have to go and live somewhere else as a lot of children of my age and be taken in as an evacuee and we used to joke and play around with our gasmasks not realizing what it would be like if we ever need to use it.

The nearest we got to being bombed was one night when we were under the stairs in the pantry with a chamber pot in case of emergencies when we heard an aircraft flying very low and then there was a big bang and all the glass in the windows in our row of houses in the street were shattered. A bomb had been dropped in the field at the back of the houses the only fatality was a horse that used to pull the ice-cream cart. All the children were very upset. After that the owner invested in a motorised van but it didn’t seem the same as the children all patted the horse and gave him a name.

We used to go into a cellar in some unused cottages near us until my mother fell and hurt her ankle carrying my baby sister. I remember one night I was knitting away when two American soldiers came down into the cellar and gave me some chewing gum it was the first chewing gum I had ever had and I thought that it was strange that you had to not swallow it after it started to taste awful. 

The nearest City to us to be bombed was Birmingham (edit: and also Coventry) you could hear the planes fly and making a path and see the sky light up from the fires. My dad was in the Home Guard as he was exempt from being called up so our family didn’t realize what it was like to have a father or husband that had gone to war. " 

Ann Anslow (Nee Preston).

Ann Preston's Identity Card

During the war and until 1954 there was rationing of food in the UK

An example of the ration books

This is a typical weekly food ration for an adult in 1942:

Bacon & Ham 4 oz (113.4 Grams)

Other meat  value of 1 shilling and 2 pence (equivalent to 2 chops)

Butter 2 oz (56.7 Grams)

Cheese 2 oz (56.7 Grams)

Margarine 4 oz (113.4 Grams)

Cooking fat 4 oz (113.4 Grams)

Milk 3 pints (1.42 Liters)

Sugar 8 oz (226.8 Grams)

Preserves 1 lb every 2 months (453.6 Grams)

Tea 2 oz (56.7 Grams)

Eggs 1 fresh egg (plus allowance of dried egg)

Sweets 12 oz every 4 weeks (340.2 Grams)

Families also would grow their own vegetables.

My mother was expected to look after her two siblings Jane and John as her mother was often unwell. (possibly clinically depressed) She cooked and cleaned along with attending school. With Mums dad, Norman being a butcher, meant a reasonable standard of living, but life still wasn't easy.

My Dad's father passed away when he was 6 years old and as a result life was even tougher for him and his older brother Dennis, living in Walsall Wood near the pit. His mother Annie, supplemented a meagre miners pension by taking in washing, ironing and was the midwife, common in a time where it was standard for childbirth to occur at home. Dennis worked to support the family.

My parents knew hardship was and I do wonder what they would think of today's world where people struggle to comply with some lockdown rules. 

We were supermarket shopping when I saw a man in his 20s having a meltdown because his favourite shampoo was unavailable! 

A coincidence and a little family history

The Brownhills Colossus A.K.A Jigger

During Our UK Trip in 2009 I took the photo above when visiting Brownhills where my mother had lived as a child and where my parents met.

On the A452 roundabout in the little town of Brownhills in the Black Country of the UK is a imposing 12 meter tall sculpture, created by sculptor John McKenna, of a coal miner, made from welded stainless steel sheet.

A contest was held a couple of years after the artist 's sculpture was erected in 2008 and the winner was Jak Groves a local schoolboy, who suggested "Jigger" the nickname of his Great-Great Grandfather, in tribute to all who had worked in dreadful and dangerous conditions and sometimes paying the ultimate sacrifice.

I later found out from Mum that Jack "Jigger" Taylor is my Great Uncle on my mum's side of the family. My Maternal grandmother was Sarah Jane Taylor and Jack was her brother.

On the evening of 22nd of January 1951 Jack was critically injured when part of the roof of the Walsall Wood pit collapsed. He died two days later after an emergency operation, leaving his wife, Ivy, and children John, Jill and Valerie. Jack and his family had lived lived in Bridge Street, Clayhanger and "Jigger" rests at St James Church in Brownhills. 

Sadly the inquest into his death was brief and the outcome was “Accidental Death”. By today's standards this disregard for human life would not have been acceptable.

Jack went down the pit in 1929 aged 14 and died at 36

Was Yer Ferther A Miner?

Was yer ferther a miner like mine

Did he work in the dirt and the grime

Went to work on a byke, used a bow saw and pike

To dig out black diamonds that shine?

Was yer ferther a wrecked body like mine

Through working in dust, no sunshine

His shuky was his light, damaging God’s given sight

Deep in the dark bowel face of the mine?

Did he take a piece of best Sunday cake

Ter give to the pit pony, whose poor limbs ached

As he dragged a pit tub through rubbish-sludge

So mine owners their profit could make?

Did he bath by the fire in a tub

Un yer mother his marked back did scrub

Scratch caused by low roof, scars plain making proof

Of the days of pit-props and horse hoof?

Did he often sit and tell the old tale

Of disaster and pain that prevailed

When the roof tumbled in – rock ripped at the skin

And sight of widows – children their faces pale?

But if you asked this old ferther of mine

Ter tell yer about it, his old eyes would shine

No sad tale to tell, of the Muck – the Hell

But would proudly boast

‘Ar them days of hard work were mine’.

Off to England

Click on the Bus for our Travel Blog

View our UK Trip Photos Here. 

In late September 2009, my wife Heather and I were fortunate to be able to take advantage of a conference that Heather attended for her work. I met up with her afterwards in London and we had a 12 day whirlwind trip around part of the UK, touching on the Cotswold's, The Midlands, London etc, visiting more towns than I can remember, and shooting 1200+ photos.



This was Heather's first visit and my first return visit since emigrating to Australia in 1965, when I was 6 years old.



We had a wonderful time, I re-experiencing places of my early childhood and Heather visiting the home town of her grandfather. The weather was not too cold and the people we met warm and friendly.



Next time we would like to take at least a month, so we can do more at a less frantic pace. A GPS logger would have been helpful to identify where some photos were taken and nice wide angle lens would be good too. ;-)



We both had a great time and hopefully will visit again.