| Description | An interview with Paul SOUTHWICK, a married man with one son, two daughters, who is a retired Teacher, born in Birmingham and now living in Birmingham. Paul SOUTHWICK’s father was a Postman, born in England and his mother a Clerk/housewife born in England. In the interview, he talks about …
SOUTHWICK, Paul Logged by Louise Harvey
01
Born in 1932 in Northfield. Father was a postman, mother worked at Cadburys, left at 22 when she got married – presented with a family bible.
Moved from Northfield to Monyhull Road, opposite Monyhull asylum.
02
4” Talks about asylum and the people who were in there – mentally ill people, but also women who had had illegitimate children and orphans.
57” People would come from the asylum as gardeners/servants etc. “Most of the people in the road had either a servant…”
1.17” Had a gardener from the asylum. “Our family had a gardener. He was a nice young man of about 20. He was quite well spoken and he didn’t really know why he was in there…”
1.33” “We’re talking about up to 1943…”
1.45” “I have definite memories of 1937 and 1938…”
03
Descriptions of home and garden.
1.07” Briefly describes first day at school. “I went to school, to Colmore Road School in 1937 and I remember distinctly the first day…”
2.39” I don’t think any woman in Monyhull worked…”
3.11” Detailed account of what it was like going to school during the war, school shutting air raid shelters, cricket matches, cakes etc. “I was there in the primary school from 1937 to 1943. Of course the big event was the outbreak of war in 1939…”
04
Continues
11” Talks about how the lower-middle class children at school were always in the lower stream and never took the 11+, not because they were less intelligent, but because their parents didn’t want them to. “There were two streams in each year and I can distinctly remember the top stream which…”
05
Continues
46” Describes his own education, passing to go to a grammar school (King Edwards, Five Ways). “I was lucky enough to pass for a grammar school…” Story about having to use different methods of transport to go on the long journey to school. Relays bus and tram numbers and cost of fares.
1.38” Description of school dinners.
1.47” “I remember having the first school dinner…” Story about awful school dinners and the drunk porter who cooked them.
2.20” “The first school dinners would be about 1944”.
2.25” Pupils at King Edwards were given the choice themselves as to whether or not they wanted to be evacuated. Parents were not consulted. “We had a choice…” He did not want to be evacuated and so was not.
06
Children were embarrassed if parents went to the school.
20” Description of headmaster (Mr Dobinson).
38” Story about being disgraced if you wore long trousers. “One definite thing you had to do at Five Ways, you weren’t allowed to wear long trousers…”
56” Recollection of lessons and difficulties at school.
1.23” Story of important First Aid lessons. “I remember of course, one particular lesson we had each week was on First Aid…” Description of lesson.
1.41” “This was because it was war time. It was 1943 and we were taking a very definite interest in the war, in fact, children were taking a definite interest in the war right from 1939…”
1.55” Detailed story describing how people followed the war and the interest which surrounded it. “In my bedroom, and this was typical, I had a big map and we used to put flags into towns that had been taken by the Germans…”
07
Nothing
08
“Going back a little to 1940…” Describes Finland being invaded by Russia and collecting stamps of Finland. War was good for geographical knowledge.
47” French lady used to give him eggs from her chickens if he was good. She gave him a “Cross of Lorraine” to wear.
1.33” Strictness of grammar school, note-taking, children with difficulties not given extra attention.
2.12” “Punishments were quite strong, pupils were caned for small incidents and kept in Saturday morning detention…”
2.57” Teaching became difficult because lots of teachers left. Often, anybody was then taken on to teach.
09
Teachers wore gowns.
20” Pupils wore uniform.
1.05” Description of how poor families were often excluded from the privilege of a better education. “Poor families didn’t go to grammar school because of uniform costs, travelling costs and possibly a fee that was charged…”
10
Importance of sport, descriptions of playing rugby and cricket.
1.48” Social activities outside school. Playing cricket.
2.53” Lots of farms in Birmingham.
11
Continues
42” Attending Sunday school. “In 1939”, aged seven.
1.45” Describes going to “The Crusaders”, a religious movement exclusively for boys who went to grammar school – class/sex implications.
3.49” Leaving Five Ways.
4.05” Learning from home, sitting School Certificate at Birmingham University. Back to Five Ways sixth form.
12
Continues
13
4” What people did when they left school. Career advice scarce, jobs easy to get.
58” 1951 – National Service in RAF as electrical mechanic.
14
After National Service – became a Progress Clerk.
15
Got engaged, moved job twice. Got one job simply due to the fact that he’d been to King Edwards.
1.00” 1957 Attended Saltley Training College to train to be a teacher. Describes college.
2.11” Married in 1956. Had two children in the first two years of marriage.
16
Describes being a member of the Kings Norton Youth Fellowship formed in 1950. Met his wife here. Age group, 15-24.
58” Describes Kings Heath Park and leisure activities undertaken.
2.50” Describes dance class at Bournville. “I remember going out on a Friday night with a penny, but we had a good time because… at the dancing class we had a good time, and we had a good time just talking…”
3.27” Subjects talked about – fears of suffering an atomic war.
17
More about the Kings Norton youth group.
18
Describes obtaining a Teaching Diploma. Taught at Oakley Secondary Modern School.
23” “There was a general shortage of teachers in those days, in 1959 because the pay was very very poor...” Descriptions of wages, school equipment, grammar school candidates.
2.56” Describes typical jobs of people from Oakley Road – biscuit factory for girls, slaughter house/milkman for boys.
19
Heavily involved in politics as a result of the 1956 Suez crisis. Joined the Labour party. Began studying economics, got a degree. Began teaching at St. Philips grammar school.
1.14” “The time being 1964”
1.20” Describes popularity of Economics in schools.
4.19” Describes how St Philips grammar school became first Sixth Form College in Birmingham.
20
Continues
21
Describes working at St Philips and teaching economics.
22
“1964 to 1970” Describes strict regime and punishments at school.
1.32” Describes reaction to schools becoming comprehensive as a Labour party member.
23
At St Philips as a Sixth Form College from “1972 to 1992”.
12” “One of the big changes was the range of subjects that could be taken…” Describes changes in Curriculum.
1.18” He introduced Sociology to the college in 1975.
2.29” Social life at St. Philips.
24
Housing.
8” “It was extremely difficult to buy a house in Birmingham…in 1954-1956. New houses were snapped up immediately but you couldn’t actually buy a new house…” Describes buying a house, cost, furnishing etc.
1.41” Their children were all born in the house.
2.38” Changes in his residential area.
25
“My experiences of living in a multiracial society were very limited to start with, when I was at St. Philips grammar school, there wasn’t one single coloured person there…” Describes the increased intake of people of different races into the school.
1.23” Describes how he found that a multiracial school was successful in bringing lots of variety to the school. “It was very successful because it added a great amount of variety. People came in some beautiful dresses and very nice clothes and they had some wonderful experiences to talk about…”
26
3” “I feel very much a Birmingham person…” Describes his grandparents and the lives that they had in Birmingham, lack of cars, games played, noticeable changes.
1.30” Owning a car.
2.35” Sixth formers ways of living.
2.57” 1950 Experiences of going to the city – restaurants very rare.
3.59” Memories of Edgbaston Cricket Ground in 1946.
27
Continues cricket stories.
50” Describes importance of sport in his life, playing cricket.
2.22” Playing tennis, aged 35, along with wife. Chairman at Kings Heath cricket and sports club.
28
Wife worked as a secretary then left to have children.
13” “It was quite normal for women to stay at home and bring up children, especially if you’d got a family of three…”
30” “I think occasionally some women went out to work and my wife in fact did two afternoons part time…”
49” Describes how wife decided to train to be a teacher 14 years after she left to raise her children.
1.18” “Eventually applied to Bordesley Training College…”
1.28” “She was one of the first of the B Ed. Students…”
1.32” “This was in 1965 and I think there were 25 students who enrolled for the B Ed. Course and there were four of them who finished…”
2.12” Wife got a job at the local primary school in Hollywood and stayed there for 22 years.
2.27” Comments on husbands not understanding ambition of wives. “I think it was quite difficult at Bordesley Training College for a lot of women whose husbands did not really understand that they wanted to train for a professional position at that period of time. There were probably limited openings then for women who were 30 plus to go into new careers…”
29
“I retired in…” Mistake.
30
“1992”
Describes his activities during first two years of retirement.
35” Talks about deciding to take a degree at Birmingham University in the Continuing Studies Department.
31
Describes girls leaving school in 1964. Very rarely went on to university and were only really thought suitable for nursing and teacher training or as secretaries.
ENDS |