Staffordshire - Within Living Memory

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td bgcolor="#800000"> <p> </p> </td></tr></table><table dir="ltr" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td valign="top"> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" height=82 BGCOLOR="#CCCC99" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="images/34c8dfe1esnpes.jpg"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="Times New Roman" ><B> </B></FONT><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE=" "><U><B>HOME </B></U></A><B> |</B><B>  </B><A HREF="id17_contact_me.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Research Service"><U><B>Contact Me</B></U></A><B></B></FONT>  I <A HREF="id95_m.htm#staffordshire___within_living_memory__" TARGET="TRLX_Middle" TITLE="Staffordshire Within Living Memory"><U>Staffordshire - Within Living Memory. </U></A> <A NAME="staffordshire___within_living_memory___1"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="images/1x1.gif" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" width="1" height="1" ></A>| <A HREF="id97.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Crime Punishment"><U>Crime & Punishment</U></A>   |   Staffordshire - Within Living Memory   |   <A HREF="id21.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE=" Aldridge"><U> Aldridge</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id22.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Brownhills/Ogley Hay"><U>Brownhills/Ogley Hay</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id89.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Clayhanger"><U>Clayhanger</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id28.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Pelsall"><U>Pelsall</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id27.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Rushall"><U>Rushall</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id26.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Shelfield"><U>Shelfield</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id23.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Stonnall/Shenstone"><U>Stonnall/Shenstone</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id24.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Walsall Wood"><U>Walsall Wood</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id114.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Walsall Walsall Foreign Settlement Reco"><U>Walsall & Walsall Foreign Settlement Records</U></A></div> <bR> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" height=398 BGCOLOR="#FFFF99" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="images/34c8dfc3.jpg"> <div> <I> <A NAME="staffordshire___within_living_memory__"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="images/1x1.gif" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" width="1" height="1" ></A></I><I>Staffordshire - Within Living Memory</I><I>.</I></div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <TABLE BORDER="5" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="5" WIDTH="748" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" ALIGN="LEFT" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" BGCOLOR=#FFFFCC > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP BGCOLOR=#FFFFCC HEIGHT= 313 WIDTH="236"><div> <I><B>STAFFORDSHIRE</B></I><FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#FF0033" FACE="Arial" ><I><B>.</B></I></FONT><FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><I>  </I></FONT><FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Baskerville Old Face" ><I><B>Within Living Memory</B></I></FONT></div> <bR> <div> <I><IMG SRC="images/2cebacc0.jpg" border=0 ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" width="186" height="204"></I></div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP ROWSPAN=2 BGCOLOR=#FFFFCC WIDTH="247"><div> <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#FF0033" FACE="Arial" ><B>W</B></FONT>ith a smallholding of about 20<I> </I>acres, the man of the house usually had a regular job as well and he had to enlist the whole family before and after he went to work. This meant hand milking cows, often by lantern light. Feeding and preparing food for the pigs. Seeing to fowl and collecting eggs seven days a week!</div> <bR> <div> <B>F</B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >or economic reasons, tradesmen were rarely employed. Chimney sweeping was a family operation one of the boys climbed a ladder up to the chimney with large bunch of holly attached to a weight with a rope. The rope was then dropped down the chimney were father was waiting with a hessian sack to pull the holly down together with the soot  - you don't have to guess what mother's job was!</FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>A</B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > small rented terraced house would have gas lighting, as did the street outside, and the sound of hissing gas was an accepted part of the daily sounds, like the crackling of a coal fire, bicycle bells, rumbling carts, and the clip clop of horses hooves. </FONT></div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <IMG SRC="images/2d4c8c00.jpg" border=0 ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" width="200" height="192"></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>T</B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >he house usually had a door fronting the street leading into a passage with a small front room, followed by the stairs, then a door leading directly ahead into the kitchen in which a black range for cooking made the room warm a cheerful. The range had to he blackleaded weekly to keep it bright and clean.</FONT></div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <I><B><IMG SRC="images/2d2c89c0.jpg" border=0 ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" width="200" height="156"></B></I></div> <bR> <bR> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP ROWSPAN=2 BGCOLOR=#FFFFCC WIDTH="217"><div> <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#FF0033" FACE="Arial" ><B>M</B></FONT>any houses had a grey sandstone step at the front  door, which must also be cleaned regularly by rubbing vigorously with a damp block of stepstone to keep it white, if one did not wish to be thought slovenly by<B> </B>the neighbours.</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <IMG SRC="images/2d6c89c0.jpg" border=0 ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" width="200" height="156"></div> <bR> <div> <B>B</B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >eyond the kitchen was a scullery with a simple, shallow sandstone sink and one cold water tap. In a corner was the wash boiler. Heated underneath by coals and with a chimney at the back. A meat safe with perforated zinc sides usually stood in the scullery, this being the coldest room in the house.</FONT></div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <IMG SRC="images/2d9afe40.jpg" border=0 ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" width="175" height="228"></div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#FF0033" FACE="Arial" ><B>M</B></FONT>iners walked to the mine in groups, in their rough working clothes, the steel tips of their clogs making<B> </B>sparks as they hit the stones. Some miners cycled to work and would leave their bikes in other people's front rooms for safety, paying a few pence to the householder.</div> <bR> <div> <I>"I remember my father wearing moleskin trousers and the smell of them as they dried overnight on the fireguard around the open fire so they could be worn again the next day. They would stand up on their own with mud and filth from the pit."</I></div> <bR> <div> <I>"After their day's work, it was strange to see the miners with black faces, just their eyes and lips clean. They all looked the same and could only be told apart by their voices and build."</I></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP BGCOLOR=#FFFFCC HEIGHT= 979 WIDTH="236"><div> <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#FF0033" FACE="Arial" ><B>E</B></FONT>very season brought fresh tasks for the farmer's wife. In spring the house had to he cleaned from attic to cellar and every cupboard turned and the shelves washed. The pantry was whitewashed and the stone stillages scrubbed with hot water and soda. All the floors were stone flags and it was quite a task, down on knees with a hard scrubbing brush every week and marking round each step with whitening.</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <I><IMG SRC="images/2d0c8a50.jpg" border=0 ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" width="200" height="165"></I></div> <div> Mill Street, Cannock c.1910</div> <bR> <div> <B>W</B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >ith no electricity, no main water supply. no transport. telephone, refuse or sewage collection, each in member of a usually large family knew all about Do It Yourself long before it became a national slogan. Paraffin lamps and candles were the only source light and young children were sent to bed with a naked candle. Each one (in winter) clutching their own brick or stone which had been previously warmed in the black oven range and wrapped in an old woolly.</FONT></div> <bR> <bR> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></td></tr></table></body>