| Description | An interview with Kim HANCOCK, a married woman with three sons, who is a Child-minder, born in Birmingham and now living in Birmingham. Kim HANCOCK’s father was a Bricklayer, born in England and her mother a Secretary born in England. In the interview, she talks about …
'HANCOCK, Kim MS2255/2/14/141 Logged by Simon Cotterill
01
Born in Handsworth, 17/1/75. Mother and Father both Handsworth people.
02
Mother during the war. Devastation after Coventry bombings.
Father working as bricklayer for council. Early retirement at 60 through illness. Died 3 years later.
03
Often short of money. Father off work a lot.
Went to auntie's in Ironbridge annually. Family all travelled in a motorbike with sidecar.
04
Playing and shopping locally.
15" 'Soho Road was a wonderful shopping centre'.
50" 'It would be a very special occasion that you'd be taken into Birmingham on the bus'.
Playing in road.
1.05 'You were able to play outside and not have to worry'.
Semi-detached houses. Boulton Road Primary school. Found it very nice.
05
1960's - A West Indian girl joins school class. She would always finish people’s dinner for them so they could go out to play. Not many West Indian people in school. A lot of talk about the influx of black people.
1.38 'My father got really worried and wanted to move'.
He put house up for sale. Mother didn't want upheaval.
2.20 'When people did start coming to live in the road he began to realise that they were ordinary people. They weren't like anything he had imagined'.
Fear that had arisen being unnecessary. Asians arriving. Asians preferring bigger houses.
06
Playing with friend who lived in Reynolds Road. Acky 123. Skipping games. Cindy dolls. Summer holidays.
39" 'We'd spend the whole six weeks in this shed playing with these dolls'.
Trips to Handsworth Park with mum as special treat. Boating on the lake. Fairs in Handsworth Park.
2.18 'Disappointing to go back and see how that park's changed'.
Cheap mornings at the cinema. Regal Cinema, past St. James' church. Having to queue and wait for ages. Experiences of city centre.
07
Secondary school. Sitting 11 plus.
37 " 'Thinking I got to work hard through this 11 plus so I can go to a grammar school'.
Went to Lordswood Grammar Technical School for Girls. Not first choice. Eldest brother's girlfriend wanted to go to Marsh Hill Grammar.
1.46 'I didn't want to go to George Dixon School because they wore green'.
Seeing first squirrel at induction day at Lordswood School. Left school at age of sixteen.
08
At Lordswood from 1968 to 1973. Lordswood Boy's School on same plot of land.
33" 'You'd be in trouble with the headmistress if you were caught over that boundary line'.
Having joint ventures with boy's school. Having Christian Union with the boy's school.
1.10 'We had a lot of people coming along that weren't really interested. They just wanted to be in the boys’ school.'
Starting Sunday school at age 5. Having choir at Bishop Lattimer, Church of England. Meeting future husband at the Gospel Hall.
09
Settling into secondary school. Problems with maths. Not wanting to do 'A' levels.
Went to the College of Food and Domestic Arts, because they accepted people at 16. Did hairdressing.
2.30 Workload at Lordswood - 'not as pressured as children find today'.
10
Hairdressing course.
36" 'Again not as pressured a workload as my boys have today'.
Working at local hairdressers in Grove Lane. Practising hairdressing on old age pensioners.
1974 - started to go out with Ian. Got engaged in 1975. Same year as finishing hairdressing course. Other students were shocked. Story of first meeting Ian aged 8 when he was 12.
11
Ian had been engaged to another girl. Ian's sister setting them up on a day trip to Wales.
43" 'Ian wouldn't sit in the back… but by the end of that day we had actually held hands'.
Ian's background. Ian went to Tudor Grange School in Solihull, but mainly lived in Handsworth.
12
Church verses permissive sixties.
52" 'You had to be really sure that this person was the person you wanted to marry and spend the rest of your life with'.
Explains why she might have got married so early. Social pressures on girls she knew.
13
January 1976 - Married Ian on 19th Birthday. Mum had been shocked and worried.
23" 'At the time I thought I can't see what she's worried about … but now I can see'.
14
Got married at the Gospel Hall, Waverley Hall Road. Wedding photos in Handsworth Park. Had reception at The Endwood Pub. 60 guests. Got a house in Handsworth Wood. Bought it for about £14,000. Lived there for about 5 years. Ian was working at Tucker Fasteners. A year after the marriage he moved to work at a bigger firm - Hardy Spicers. Shift work.
1978 - decided to do less days hairdressing. Looking elsewhere. Learnt to drive, taught by Ian. Started mobile hairdressing.
15
9" 'Became pregnant while I was still on the pill'.
Miscarried eight weeks into the pregnancy. Gave up mobile hairdressing.
Became pregnant again. Had son Sam.
1980 - Sam was 9 months old. Decided to move to the south side of Birmingham.
House prices were too high in Harborne and Edgbaston, so moved to Moseley. September 1980 moved to Cambridge Road, Moseley.
2.52 'It was so strong the feeling. People seemed to be really, really friendly'.
3.00 'I couldn't get over the fact that people spoke to you in the roads in Moseley'.
Has lived in Moseley since.
16
Differences between churches that they attended. Ian’s parents were upset when they moved from Gospel Hall Church to having private meetings with two other couples. Joined a big group called South Birmingham Fellowship, with thirty to forty people. The group grew to over one hundred. Students from Birmingham University came along.
17
Early years in Moseley. Sam was taken to playgroup on Oxford Road, Moseley.
1983 - had second son Matthew. Soon after Ian stopped shift work. Ian was given a grant to go to University.
1985 - had third son Andrew. Grant was bumped up.
1.17 'You had a better allowance the more children you had'.
Got involved with local playgroups. Started to take children to playgroup in Cambridge Road, Moseley. Began to make good friends with local people. Joined Parents’ Association when Sam started at Kings Heath Infant and Junior school.
18
Got very involved in fundraising at Kings Heath Infant and Junior School. Pressure to go back to work after having three children. Starting childminding.
2.00 'Felt as if I was working though I was still at home'.
3.24 'There's a lot to get out of looking after other people's children… You see different things'.
19
1987 - 1988 - People had stopped volunteering at Cambridge Road Playgroup because they were going back to work.
Changes between when sons Sam and Matthew were at playgroup and when son Andrew was at playgroup. Changes in playground. Lots more grandparents collecting children.
3.26 'Children are missing out on a lot … not being able to play without rushing here and there'.
New pressures on families.
20
After Ian finished his degree he was unemployed for a year.
28" 'We really had to watch what we were spending, and with three young children it was very difficult'.
Ian decided to go into business with a friend cleaning chemicals. He had to find a large sum of money to join the partnership. Sold house on Cambridge Road. Didn't want to move out of area. Bought a house on Blenheim Road, Moseley. Had to do it up. The chemical cleaning company grew.
Took a local free computer course.
2.48 'Found it quite a big change to actually go out to work'.
21
A friend getting pregnant by mistake.
22
Holidays. Have two or three a year. Modern day consumer society.
2.06 'Don't know whether its all for good'.
ENDS |