| Description | An interview with Brenda DA COSTA, a single woman with one son, who is a retiredcashier/market trader/pub owner, born in Birmingham and now living in Birmingham. Brenda DA COSTA’s father was a Bookmaker, born in England and her mother a Tailoress born in Poland. In the interview, she talks about …
'Brenda Da Costa MS2255/2/132 Logged by Helen Butcher
01
I was born in 1943 at Sherlock Street, which is a borough of St Martin's close to the Bull Ring. Attended a Jewish school in St Luke's Road in what used to be Edgbaston.
O:48 Her mother is Polish who moved here at a young age and her father is Spanish Portuguese and came from London.
02
Her mother came to England with her two sisters and her mother. Family were living in Birmingham. Her grandfather was a horse dealer in Poland. Grandfather had to fight in the Polish war. He was later put in a concentration camp where he died. Her mother became a tailoress like her grandmother.
1:32 Oldest daughter married a Christian man. Describes how they managed to accept him.
03
Explains where her father came from. His father married a young Christian woman.
0:34 Father and brothers put in Jewish home. Talks of her father’s brothers.
2:04 Moved to London Wandsworth. Not happy there. (telephone rings)
04
Moved back to Birmingham. Welsh House Farm Road Quinton. 3 bedroom flat. 1957.
05
Explains her brother’s work in the Jewellery Quarter.
06
Description of Jewish school, St Luke's Road Edgbaston. Learning Hebrew at the local synagogue (Bristol Street)
2:20 Local school did not accept Jewish school, teasing, name-calling.
4:01 Description of Synagogue (Bristol Street)
07
Description of surrounding area of Synagogue.
0:15 Describes how religious festivals were sometimes boring for the children.
08
1950’s, no bathroom or bath. Describes going to Kent Street baths.
0:37 Jewish breakfast food. Looked forward to Sundays.
09
Describes what Sundays were like. Special breakfast.
10
Description of house (Belgrave Road) Quite big. Rented.
1:23 Grandmother would use attic to house Christian Polish people.
11
How mother decorated the house. Red and grey. Describes garden.
12
Father couldn’t go into the army. Describes how her mother and father earned money during the 50s. Father fire-fighter. Mother was dressmaker.
1:32 Father big gambler. Describes how hard it was for her mother because of her father.
13
Mother made toffee apples. Children would give them away to the others in the street.
14
Talks about neighbours.
2:00 Catholic neighbours didn’t want children playing with Jewish children.
15
Mother used to sneak out with neighbour, father did not approve of her drinking or having a good time.
16
Describes Belgrave Road.
0:33 Prostitutes, describing what they wore.
17
Talks more about prostitutes where they used to work. One prostitute would come to her mother for clothes.
2:45 Talks about mother being ahead of her time.
18
15 years old. Description of Indian people moving into Belgrave Road.
0:42 not allowed to talk to them.
2:00 Talks about how well she did at school in Birmingham and London. What her best subjects were.
19
Describes her love of art at school.
20
Describes what happened when she left school. Wanted to be a window dresser, first interview was at Rackhams.
1:15 Became office junior in cheese factory on the Stratford Road. Stayed there for 5 years.
2:08 Learns to use switchboard.
4:18 Moved to Allied Carpets as a cashier.
21
Social life. The first gramophone.
22
Continues with social life. Fashion.
23
Night club on Constitutional Hill. Talks about the Fewtrell brothers.
24
Talks about how popular her father was in Birmingham.
0:33 More about his gambling. He was the first person in Birmingham to get a gambler's licence.
3:03 father was a friend of Dick Turpin
25
Late 40’s Talks about how her father liked boxing.
1:45 Popular bookmaker.
26
Father confronted Cassius Clay at the train station. Headline in paper “Local bookmaker sizes up to Cassius Clay ”
27
Talks about when father died (1990’s)
28
Talks about her fathers funeral. Ashes being scattered at Epsom stadium.
29
Father popular in the racing industry.
30
Mother died in 1978 of cancer. Talks about her father’s girlfriends after her mother’s death.
4:42 Tells how her brother tried to take his own life.
31
Father took brother to the races. Talked generally about going to the races.
32
Talking about 2nd Job at Allied Carpets.
33
Described her boss and how nice he was
1:27 and the people she worked with.
35
Fell in love with a married man who worked at Allied Carpets. This meant she had to leave.
36
Late 1960’s. After leaving Allied Carpets. Worked with her boyfriend on a fruit stall in the Bullring for 12 years.
37
Talks about after life after leaving the fruit stall. She used to go to a place called Free and Easy.
0:40 Meets her future partner Tony. He ran pubs around Birmingham. (Phone rings)
38
They both did relief work in pubs together.
1:28 Started running a pub together. Kept the pub for 3 years
2:48 future in the pub business became bleak
39 Wrote a letter to the brewery wanting to buy the pub.
40
Pub they were running was up for sale.
41
They brought the pub. The Talbot Hotel in Colleygate in the Black Country.
42
First pub to be sold by M&B. Ran it for 2 years. Tony unfortunately died. Sold it to a Welsh brewery who changed the name to The Chainmakers.
43
Life now in Quinton. On the Woodgate Valley. Lived there for 30 years.
1:10 Bought council house. Can’t afford to move anywhere else.
1:31 Talks about setting up a residents association.
44
Talks about the Quinton area slowly getting worse. (phone rings)
45
Continues talking about the Quinton area.
2:48 Political views.
46
Continues talking about what the residents association is doing for the area.
0:40 One of the highest crime areas
1:30 Talks about what is being done to prevent crime.
2:20 Talks about her religion as she was growing up. “You don’t have to be religious to go to the synagogue”. Sheepcote Street synagogue.
3:01 doesn’t agree with the man-made rules. “It’s only a religion it’s not a way of life”
47
Talks about having a son with the married man she was seeing. 1971. Had to go to a home to have him.
0:32 had to give up the child for adoption.
1:48 always wanted her son to find her.
2:39 2 years ago phone call from son.
3:54 Talks about her relationship with son now. “I can’t be his mom but I can be his friend”
ENDS. |