| Description | An interview with Melvyn HAIGH, a married man with one son, one daughter, who is a Courier, born in England and now living in . Melvyn HAIGH’s father was a publican, born in England and his mother a Housewife born in England. In the interview, he talks about …
'MELVYN HAIGH MS2255/2/139 Logged by Lorraine Blakemore
01
I was born Melvyn Douglas Haigh on the 2nd May, 1944….in Birmingham. Lived in Small Heath. Father was in the army, mother worked in the BSA factory. Father worked for a firm called Wilmott Breedon when he left the army.
54” Attended Oakley Road Junior and Infant’s School in Small Heath.
1.25 Remembers the death of the King.
2.12 Visits to the Coronet Cinema and Grange Cinema in Small Heath.
2.45 Father loved music and passed on the interest to Melvyn. Sang at St. Martin’s Church in the choir. Melvyn briefly attended Sunday School as a small child.
4.04 Grandparents lived close to the family. Details of family background.
02
Describes the back-to-back house his grandparents lived in.
1.30 More details of family background and livelihood.
2.45 Lived in a terraced house in Small Heath. Describes the property.
3.44 Describes the neighbourhood and shops in the area.
03
34” Moved from Small Heath when he was 7 in 1951. Father went into the pub trade and worked for M&Bs at the Wellington Inn in Balsall Heath. Remained there for 2 years. Contrasts Small Heath with Balsall Heath.
3.00 Unhappy memories of St. Patrick’s C of E School in Balsall Heath.
4.12 Parents didn’t go out much once they moved to Balsall Heath and worked in the pub trade. Going away on holiday became less of a possibility.
04
Story about family holiday to Paignton.
4.13 Father had a Norton motorbike and made his own side-car.
05
Family moved from Balsall Heath to a pub called The New Inns in Union Street,Smethwick. Remained there for about 3 years until Melvyn was 12.
06
Attended Crockett’s Lane Junior School in Smethwick. Fond memories of a particular Welsh teacher.
1.08 Became involved in a lot of sports and leisure activities.
1.44 Taken by uncle to the ‘Blues’ Football ground. Still strong supporter to this day.
3.12 Describes Smethwick. Predominantly a working-class area.
07
Family moved again to the Maypole Hotel in Kings Heath in 1957. Describes the area.
1.50 Story about going into the city centre alone.
2.30 Story about first foreign school trip to Holland.
4.12 Attended Queensbridge School in Moseley for a couple of years. Describes the environment.
08
School trip to Austria. Remembers paying a small amount of money weekly to fund the trip.
2.08 Comments on the disruption to his education due to moving around.
3.42 Not clear about his career aims when he left school. University was never mentioned in secondary modern schools….GCEs were becoming a thing that you could possibly do…
09
Describes the appearance of the deputy head teacher.
34” I left school at 15….Explains why he left school. Felt pressurised by his friends who were earning good money to leave.
1.58 First job was for an electrical contracting company as an electrician’s mate. Stayed for 3 years.
3.14 Not an apprenticeship, but on the job training.
3.52 At that time in 1963 there was a mini recession….and I was out of work for 4 weeks which was unusual in those days….and I did what most people did to get a job, there was no such thing as writing out a CV, you just traipsed the streets basically knocking on doors….
4.45 Worked for a company called Fordagraph in Sparkbrook.
10
Story about forming a band in 1963 and performing in pubs.
3.06 We also used to go out and watch other bands and it was a really good time for bands in Birmingham….Lists some of the musicians who later became famous.
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We moved from the Maypole when I was 15. My mum and dad decided that it had been hard work, very hard work….mother expecting another child.
36” They bought a shop, a general stores in….Balsall Heath, but regrettably, this being the early 60s, there was a lot of slum clearance going on in Birmingham at the time and they found there was a lot of factories and houses being demolished around them. Unfortunately they went bankrupt…As a teenager you don’t take on board the enormity of a thing like that….
1.45 Moved in with grandmother for a short time until they found a house in Sparkbrook.
2.39 Lodged at first and then rented until parents bought it from the council..
4.02 Easy to get work near to where you lived.
4.40 Enjoyed going to clubs in the city centre.
12
Lists some of the clubs frequented in the mid-60s.
13
In the mid-60s….when we used to go to the clubs in Birmingham there wasn’t the mix that you have today with the different races. It was a very white city basically…it started to change in the early to mid-70s. I used to live with my parents up till 1968 and then I moved out to Great Barr, but my parents were still living in Sparkbrook…they started to see the area of the Stratford Road, where it had been all white-owned shops, …a lot of Asian shops appeared in the area, particularly corner shops…
1.47 They decided at that time, like possibly thousands of other working-class Brummies, that they wanted to move to another area….they felt that they didn’t want another culture to be parachuted into their area. Rightly or wrongly, I think quite a lot of people in Birmingham moved out…just on the outskirts of Birmingham….
3.35 I can’t remember any Black or Asian people in Great Barr…My parents moved back to the Maypole….
4.01 Left Fordagraph at the age of 21 and went to work in Ward End. It was actually called Transmission Division when British Leyland took it over….The work was very hard, contrary to popular opinion. It wasn’t just pressing buttons….
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We found that…when I was working on the machinery, I was on what you call a multi-driller….On the side was stamped ‘Made in 1914’. Bearing in mind we used to get daily onslaughts from papers like The Sun telling us how lazy we were and we couldn’t keep up with the Japanese….We hadn’t got a prayer of doing it.
1.27 Story about meeting his wife.
4.13 Moral code of behaviour in the late-60s.
15
In my opinion there’s a great myth about the 60s and the drug culture. As regards working-class kids of the time, there wasn’t particularly a drug culture…In Birmingham I didn’t know of anybody who took the things….
1.12 Met his wife-to-be in June 1967 and went on holiday to Italy in September. Married in October 1968.
1.53 Lived with parents until saved a deposit for a house in Great Barr.
3.16 I worked at British Leyland from 1965-74….Some people would sing while they worked….or crack jokes…which is a bit different from what seems a po-faced attitude in factories and offices today.
4.13 The only stress was from boredom from the absolute repetitive nature of the business….
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Wanted to concentrate on his family rather than take on the responsibility attached to a promotion.
44” In the late 60s, early 70s the philosophy of the time was….it was quite materialistic in that people thought that the good times would never end….Bought a colour television set in 1972 and took foreign holidays.
1.55 After the Oil Crisis of 1973 the ordinary working man who worked in factories…his standard of living never seemed to be the same after that, things progressively got worse….the whole work ethic changed completely…
2.54 After 10 years at Leyland decided to leave. Became a postman at Erdington District Office. Moved to live in Kings Norton in 1975 and worked at Northfield District Office. Describes his role.
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Continued.
1.28 Worked from 1974-9 as a postman.
1.52 In the time I worked at British Leyland….it wasn’t Longbridge, but we rarely got involved in many strikes. There weren’t all that many at our particular plant….Gives examples of occasions when strikes occurred.
4.29 We went out on strike, particularly on Friday nights because we used to work…5 nights including the Friday that took you into Saturday….and we wanted to work 4 nights….at 10 hours per night….and at first the management didn’t want to know at all….
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And we decided basically every Friday not to turn up….things were re-negotiated….
40” Contrasts post office strikes today with the 1970s. Increase in junk mail a problem.
2.37 Decided to return to the car factory because of postman’s low wage. To make a reasonable living at all what you had to do was…work in the mornings….and then in the evenings go to the Royal Mail Sorting Office in town and do 5-9pm, and then back home as quickly as you could….get up for 4am next day…
3.30 Story about different schedules between Melvyn and his wife.
4.14 I went to Land Rover in 1979….I decided at that time to become a shop steward…I wanted things to go right, I wanted to help my colleagues…
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Unfortunately there’s a lot more to it than meets the eye. For example you can get a group of men together and you can state a case over something, and they’ll probably all agree at the time….
51” In 1984 I would be coming up to 40 years of age….it was a kind of a watershed….I witnessed a foreman who did something detrimental to a colleague….Elaborates.
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Continued.
2.28 Had no definite ideas about what kind of job to pursue after leaving Land Rover. Briefly became a double glazing saleman. Found it difficult because he was over 40. After 18 months went to work at Burmans in Kings Norton. Returned to Land Rover when made redundant from Burmans.
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Worked on chassis build which was one of the most taxing jobs. Made a life-changing decision to move to the South coast and set up in business.
1.52 Moved to Northfield. Unfortunately Northfield seemed, in the mid-70s to have lots graffiti, lots of litter about….a bit of a decline….
2.31 Daughter’s education.
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30” Background and reasons for deciding to move out of Birmingham.
3.12 The suburbs became dirty, graffiti ridden, litter and vandalism….
4.00 Initially moved to Stourbridge for 3 years.
4.15 Bought a general stores in Bournemouth.
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Suffered crime and vandalism in Bournemouth. Had a devastating effect and forced to move back to the Midlands.
1.44 Story about moving back. Details some of the temporary work undertaken.
3.02 Rented a house in Stourbridge. Neighbour offered him a job.
4.00 I went to social security because I hadn’t got a job at the time. My wife…had a job….not magnificent pay….we were expected to live on that, pay full rent, at the time poll tax…gas and electric and food…
24
Because my wife was working more than 16 hours I wasn’t entitled to a brass farthing….
54” I remember one Friday evening that things got so bad that we had 2 Weetabix each for our evening meal…
1.48 Story about the priest in Bournemouth who helped them financially.
25
Felt resentment from colleagues because he was from Birmingham and not the Black Country.
1.48 Not so much prejudice in Bournemouth.
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Lots of fellow Brummies in Bournemouth. Details some of his friends there.
Defended Birmingham as a city.
2.30 Still feels that Birmingham isn’t as clean as it could be.
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One of the great loves and passions of my life is Birmingham City Football Club….for 50 years….Describes a typical afternoon at the match.
ENDS. |