On this page I show some of the stuff I have done over the years. Its a bit like Marmite you will

either like it or hate it. Some of these pictures are new and have not been seen any where else.  Some have appeared in my Book.

This is my memory of the days when they brought pigs up to be slaughtered on the back yard.

It was not a common sight but it happened enough to put you off pork for a while.

The poor old pig was dragged from its sty down the Garden and accross the back yard. All the time it was squealing. To me it seemed like it knew what was about to happen

Families that kept pigs always said that you could use every part of the pig for something.

Pigs could be fed on almost anything so were not much of a strain on the household budget.

Some people also kept goats which would chew anything you gave it. I had a school cap I hated wearing. I fed it to the goat who seemed to enjoy it. There was no discernible ill effect on the goat which is more than can be said about my backside after the punishment I got.

Speaking of punishments mothers could dole it out by the bucket load on wash days if you dirtied their weekly wash.

When some people saw the pictures in my book they quite rightly pointed out that the Toilet blocks did not have pitched roofs as they remembered it. So above is an ammended  version of the drawing that appears in the book.

Well the pitched roofs went in the early 1950s to give way to double blocks with flat roofs. Built with NCB common bricks with a corrugated asbestos sheeting Roofs.

These blocks were built by the NCB to bring the toilets up to standard. Why? I don't know as we already had flush toilets.

As I think about it now it may have been a cheaper option than repairs to the tiled roofs.

Below is a slightly more detailed drawing of the toilet and coal house block. Very spartan and really freezing in the winter. Little squares of newspaper for toilet paper.

My drawings of Bradbury Lane may look as though I have been lazy and not drawn them straight. Well those of you Who know Bradbury Lane realize that Bradbury Lane is a very steep hill.

Judy

This is the dog we had when I was a child.

Although she was a Thoroughbred Staffordshire Bull Terrier she was a bit ugly. She carried more weight than was good for the breed and her ears were not quite the required shape.

My grandad got her for half a crown otherwise she would have probably had a brick tied round her neck and then thrown in the local Lido. It was harsh but that was life back then. I'm glad to say that anyone caught doing that to animals was usually sent to prison.

Judy Would sit in front of our fire place with her nose only inches from the bars. How she never burnt herself I will never know.

On bonfire night other dogs would be quivering wrecks but Judy would sit as close to the bonfire as possible and even when some bright spark put a "banger" next to her she just turned her head to look and then carried on warming herself.

During the summer holidays she followed me everywhere. If I went to Hednesford park she was there and as I roamed the whole of Cannock Chases woodlands and Meadows she was there. She even tried to get into The Tivoli cinema one Saturday morning. She was made to wait out side for me. I think the staff kept her happy with sweets and other tit bits.

She used to crack open hazel nuts and then sort out the nuts inside to eat. She still appears in my dreams now and then.

Doodys Shop Bradbury Lane

This is my attempt to draw Doodys shop. The shop was situated over the road from our house and down to the left.

It was on the left hand side of the road as you went up the Lane.

The drawing is not 100% accurate because time has eroded the memory a little bit. However the essentials are there the steps going down and the metal adverts nailed to the fence. The Robin Starch and Players cigarettes adverts particularly vivid in my memory. Some peoples ideas of this will be slightly different as they would remember what were then the new houses of Moore street in the background.

I have just seen an excellent video of people talking about Brindly Village that was demolished in the 1950s. I enjoyed it immensely and it brought back many memories because one of my great aunts lived there at one time. However in the video/DVD there is a Lady who speaks of Mrs Doodys shop as being on Brindley Heath Rd. Which of course is totally wrong.

This is a drawing that appears in my book but I decided to put a bit of colur into it. I was quite pleased with the effect so I thought I would include this and the one below which I also coloured in. The first one is my impression of the houses at Bradbury Lane. (Long since disapeared) The drawing is not a hundred percent true to life but to those who lived there it would be instantly recognisable. Of course The drawings at the begining of this page would be better known by later generations.

Every year there would be trips to Blackpool, Rhyl or some where on the North Wales Coast.

Depending on the club membership there could be anything up to 10 coaches. The kids got a packet with two half crowns in ( five shillings or twenty  five pence in todays money.)

This Drawing appears in my book but I think it looks OK after I put a bit of colour to it. The subject is the men playing cards down the garden for a few pennies. Gambling was illegal then so I have earned many a tanner keeping a watch on the corner.( a tanner was a six penny piece or two and a half new pence) PC Hartland  came past one day and called me over. I was nearly peeing my pants. He said " Go and tell them I will be back this way in half an hour and don't want to see any card playing for money"

This was the girls play their different game out on the pavement at the front of the houses

This was my attempt to show the slides we used to make in the school play ground at West Hill primary. Now a days there would be a hundred H&S reasons you could not play any of those games