MEMORIES OF BELBROUGHTON AS A BOY

Personal recollections of past times are always of interest, and we are indebted to Mr Vernon Darby, of Stourport-on-Severn, for sending us this account of his boyhood in Belbroughton.

 I was born in Belbroughton in 1932.  I first saw light of day at 15 Church Road, and lived here until 1939.  We then moved next door to No. 17 when I was 7 years old.  There I stayed until I was 22 years old and left to marry.  I still have, to this day, family members at both No. 15 and 17.

 My earliest memories were being pushed in my pram by my Mother to various Farms and Holdings in the area where she worked on the land.  She would hoe crops, harvest potatoes, mangolds (a type of turnip), sugar beet, peas and many other crops over the course of the year.  The work was mostly on Francis Nichols, Lanes and Moorfield Farm.  She would work very long days.  When I was too big for the pram my Father built a seat for the back of my Mother’s bike for me to travel on.

My happiest memories as a boy are cubs, scouts, youth club and the choir.  Most of these took place at the Church Hall which happened to be right next door!  We did not get bored as teenagers we always found something to do.  A favourite place was the Recreation ground where we would play football or cricket.  On winter evenings we would congregate on Sylvester’s corner to put the world to rights.

 I attended Belbroughton Infant and Junior School and finished my education at the age of 14 years at Catshill.

My first job was for an ex-army man doing landscape gardening.  My wage was £1.00 per week.  That was 10 shillings for my Mother and 10 shillings for me.  After two years I went to work at Church house for Mr Sykes in his garden.  After a further two years I did the inevitable and moved to Nashes.  Most of the villagers worked here at some point in their lives.  There were about 120 workers at this time 12 of which were Darby’s.  My Father worked there from the age of 13 until he retired in 1966 aged 66 a total of 53 years.  My great Grandfather came to Belbroughton to work at Nash’s.  It appears that he was the first Darby in the village.  He came from Dudley where he also worked in the scythe making industry.  He had six sons all of who appeared to work at Nash’s at some time or other.  Abraham Darby, credited with being a pioneer of the Industrial Revolution, originated from Dudley also but at this moment in time no family connections have been made between the two families.

As previously mentioned my Mother worked on the land.  During the war years many women helped on the ground.  Some of these ladies were evacuees into the Village.  They all had a go.  My Mother was a type of Gangmaster.  She would visit houses asking if anyone was interested in part-time work helping with the harvesting and picking fruit and vegetables.

I remember one evening a charabanc arriving in the village with children from Birmingham which at this time was being heavily bombed.  Ladies from the WRVS were trying to house these children in the village.  I remember standing in the front garden with my Mother when a lady appeared with two boys aged about 7 or 8 years.  The lady asked my Mother if she could take one of the boys.  Although we did not have much space she agreed to take one of the boys.  He slept in my bed with me.  He slept at the top of the bed and I at the bottom.  After 2 or 3 weeks had passed the Mother of the boy came to visit.  We went visiting ourselves and when we returned the boy and his Mother had gone without so much as a thank-you.  In the meantime an Aunt of mine who lived a few doors away could not cope with hers so he came to live with us.  He stayed quite a long time.

 The extra influx of children put a strain on the School so for a time some children attended in the mornings and some in the afternoons.  My cousins lived on a farm on the outskirts of Birmingham.  They lived about two miles away from the Austin Motor Company so when it was a target in the war their Mother used to bring them to our house and they would sleep in the cellar.

 During the war years the home Guard would descend on Belbroughton from Birmingham to practice manoeuvres.  This was mostly at weekends and they would camp in the fields at Bell Hall.

 Around this time there were dances in the Church Hall on Saturday evenings with live bands.  Most of the Home Guard would come down. My Mother was the Caretaker of the Hall.  I was sat on a chair by the doorway watching proceedings.  I would stay until the end.  I should have been in bed but there was little point as my room was next to the Hall and I could hear the bump, bump of the big base drum which would keep me awake anyway.

 During the war years there would be fund raising events to pay for planes and ships etc.  There would also be items auctioned at Hagley cattle market from time to time.  I remember a particular sale had a donkey entered.  I pestered my Mother to buy this donkey and she duly obliged to keep the peace.  It cost £4 and 10shillings.  Buying the donkey was the easy bit getting it back home was quite another story.

The only way back was by foot.  I set off on the long walk back with just the donkey for company.  Everything was going smoothly until we got past the Woodman Pub (French Hen) when the donkey’s stubbornness came into play.  He refused to get off the pavement to cross the road.  I pulled and pushed on my own for about 30 minutes.  I was about 10 years old at the time.  The bus from Stourbridge came along and frantically looked for someone I knew to help me.  I saw John Harvey and waved like mad for him to get off the bus which he duly did.  Still the donkey remained rooted to the spot.  John then came up with a good idea.  It was nearly bonfire night and John had been to Stourbridge to buy fireworks.  He had a bright idea which was to light a “crack a jack” behind the donkey.  Sure enough this did the trick.  With one leap the donkey shot off the pavement crossed the road and jumped onto the pavement on the opposite side.

I had a lot of fun with my donkey I would stake him out to graze on the piece of land by the Rec(reation Ground) in the daytime and keep him in our yard at the back of the house of 17 Church Road at night.  Each morning at about 4.30am he would start braying and waking the village.  Another episode springs to mind regarding the donkey.  We used to travel by bus to Catshill School.  There were four teachers that travelled with us.  The children had to always let the teachers get off the bus first.  On a particular evening the bus was arriving in Belbroughton when I saw my donkey galloping up the High Street.  Not thinking about the teachers or manners I was first off the bus which did not go down too well.  My only concern was to catch the donkey and get it home.

The piece of ground between our house and the Village Hall interested me at the age of 10 or 11 years.  I went to the Rectory to see the Rector to ask him if I could use it to keep animals on.  Although very daunting as a young boy to knock on the large door and I remember hearing the Rector striding towards the door.  After opening all of the locks and bolts I enquired about the land.  To my amazement he said that I could use it.  I kept rabbits.  They used to live as wild rabbits having their young in burrows.  They could not escape as the land was surrounded by a wall.  However it was quite a lot of fun when it came time to catch the rabbits to sell.  Users of the Hall were surprised to see rabbits dashing everywhere.

 I used to do jobs at Woodhouse’s farm at the top end of the village.  I would go after school and at weekends to milk the cow.  Her name was Milly, the milk was used in the house each evening.  Little did I know at this stage in my life that I would own various farms and keep hundreds of cattle and horses in the years that followed. 

Before the days of dustcarts a man called Joe Knock used to pickup the ashes and rubbish on a horse drawn cart.  He lived in squalor in a barn by the Nash works.  I used to go with him sometimes to the tip situated in Dark Lane riding on the shafts on his cart.  He got his milk from an old nanny goat.  As he milked her he would pull hairs off her udders and they would fall into the milk.  Then he would drink it, hairs and all!  The mice used to run along the arm of his chair and he would brush them away onto the floor.

In the summer holidays and some week-ends we would go to Primrose Hill taking bottles of water and doorstep jam sandwiches.  Here we would stay all day.  Children had been going to Primrose Hill for many years according to older people that I have spoken to over the years.

 Another favourite pastime was at the brook by The Queens.  The water passes under the road and the houses via a culvert.  We used to walk, stooping to save banging our heads the length of the pipe, this ran underground for about 100 yards.  It was very scary as you got halfway up, you could not see one end or the other, you were in complete darkness.

We used to spend a lot of time in Ram Alley catching fish and paddling.  On the subject of fish Belbroughton had its own fish and chip shop.  This was at the top of the village by Pinchers Close.  When the shop closed there was a travelling fish and chip van.  This came to the village once a week.

During the war and the years after most families kept a pig in the back garden.  These were killed just before Christmas by a butcher who would come to the houses mostly on a Sunday.  He would kill 5 or 6 pigs each time.  He would then return on the following Tuesday or Wednesday to cut them up.  As there were no fridges or freezers we lived like Lords for a couple of weeks.  We ate everything except the hams and bacon.  These would be hung in the kitchen on hooks fastened to the beams.  When ham or bacon was required a slice was cut.  This would last until the autumn!  I remember going in Nash’s lorry one dark evening with 3 or 4 other men to a Farm.  I won’t name the farm because I think it was illegal for the Farmer to sell pigs without the correct ministry paperwork.  All the men chose a weaned pig to take home for that year.

 During this time my father had an allotment by the cricket ground.  I had a trolley made from pram wheels.  I would use this to ferry manure to the allotment and bring produce back.

My trolley was also used to fetch firewood from the wood yard in Hartle Lane for different people.  I would get about eight bags on and I would have 3d a bag and sometimes 6d for the haulage.