| Description | An interview with Emily MATHEWS, a married woman with two daughters, one son, who is a Retired Housewife/factory worker, born in Wales and now living in Birmingham. Emily MATHEWS’s father was a Gardener, born in Wales and her mother a Housewife born in Wales. In the interview, she talks about …
' Logged by Sonia Southern
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Born in 1915, 29 Charlotte Place in Barry.
18” Her mother was 30 and her father was 22 when they met. They were very strict parents, and they had three sons before Emily was born and another son afterward leaving her being the only girl.
40” “Chapel three times on a Sunday and also in the week”…Talks about what she missed out on as a child.
1.46” Left school at 14 and a teacher called Makepiece gave her a job, However she worked for her Gym Mistress for a month before she took up this position which she enjoyed.
2.13” “When I went to the Makepiece house it wasn’t so good”.Goes on to describe her time there.
3.45” She left there and went to a place called the Nap, but she didn’t enjoy working at that house. She had to live in, and there was no gas.
4.40” Went to work at Llandaff in Cardiff to work in a children’s hospital.
02
Describes her hours at Landaff.
29”Her father was head gardener at a training College in Barry, where he got her a job in the kitchen and as a ‘Tween’ maid.
45”Describes what a ‘Tween’ maid was. She stayed at that job for three years.
1.17” Describes how she was treated as a ‘Tween’ maid.
1.35” “I was up at six in the morning to make the tea”. Tells about the morning she took the cook a cup of tea and knew that she had died.
3.00” “And I had a boyfriend eventually”. Tells of how she met her first boyfriend at the pictures and how they courted each other.
03
“In the meantime I had left the College”. Describes how she met her second partner whilst still dating her boyfriend.
04
She was to marry her new boyfriend within 12 months of their meeting one another.
1.43”
“I came up in February and it was very, very cold”. Gives a description of her first recollection of Birmingham.
2.50” She has always lived in rented accommodation, people never bought houses in those day’s.
3.38” 1939 in May she moved to 15 West Park Avenue. Her road hasn’t changed that much over the years, it is quite a respectable area.
4.25” “Of course the war broke out”. Tells of her daughter’s evacuation and the job that her husband and herself took on, while she was away.
05
In 1941, Emily worked for Austin and her husband was called up as a Home Guard. They had to work or take in lodgers to help the war effort.
58” Gives a description of her position at work.
1.24” Recalls contracting scabies and having to be cleansed over at Winson Green Health Centre.
3.07” Describes how often she saw her children and their reaction to evacuation.
4.09” She missed the money when she stopped working after the war. Her husband was moved from the Stamp and went into transport, delivering goods between factories.
06
Her husband was always earning a low income, due to not having a trade or enough ambition. “He was just happy to be a worker”.
56” “It was very strict you couldn’t just do as you liked”. Discusses the rules of employment at the Austin and remember hearing the Bull.
07
“The bosses there seemed to be picked for being very disciplined and stern”. Gives description of her boss and the entertainment that was put on to cheer the workers up in their lunch break.
2.05” Recalls the Austin being nick-named the Kremlin.
08
“At the end of the war”. Her children returned and had to go to school. Emily had to get a job and recalls things being very scarce.
09
“Even furniture you couldn’t get new furniture”. Furniture and Christmas toys were brought second hand as there was no income…clothes and coupons were rationed. Fuel was a probleml when her children came home from school.
1.35” Tells of her relationship with her neighbours.
2.30” People did begin to buy their own homes, the owners gave people the chance to buy them. Emily didn’t have the money at the time so the Building Society took it over.
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“We rented, we’ve been in this house over 60 years renting”. Recalls paying her rent and how it changed when the Building Society took over.
11
Religion she sent her children to the Methodist Church.
1.55” “My children grew up like other children”. Talks of how she let them go out which was very different in comparison to her upbringing.
3.20” Her happiest time was when she used to go on holiday every year to her Grandmother in Wales.
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Re-start
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“No we never possessed a car we always had to go on the Tram in the beginning before the buses”. Tells of going on holiday with her family, to her first boyfriend’s sisters in Holland.
2.00” “In the old days we used to take the Tram up to Town”. Recollection of visiting Birmingham City Centre.
14
1956, She had her first meal at the King George Hotel when her daughter was married. Her second daughter married and both own their own homes, her son never married until 1971.
2.00” She goes occasionally to the Hippodrome.
2.23” Gives her opinion on Birmingham City Centre, she doesn’t think that there is anything for the older generation.
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“We moved to Birmingham in 1936”. She lived in Rubery and talks of her shopping days and how things were a lot cheaper because she didn’t have to get the Tram. However eggs were quite expensive and nothing was pre-packaged. There were no supermarkets.
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Concludes description of shopping.
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“In Barry Docks 1930’s” Tells of how the young girls used to marry the foreign seamen or jump ship and reside in Barry”…
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28” Continues…After the war the gates were open from Pakistan and people didn’t accept this at the time. It was a great concern as to where everyone was going to live.
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Continues …Of course when we saw a black person we would stare and think how strange, but when’s it going to stop we can’t keep taking them in.
55” Talks about community and how they used to have neighbourhood watch schemes and outings, to Church Stretton and Worcester.
20
“After the war we had a street party”. Tells how they all pulled together in her road.
38” “The Longbridge works, the Rover”. Talks of the influence it had on the community and people’s lives.
1.30” Talks of how everyone got on from different areas and her children worked at the Kalamazoo, which was like Cadbury’s.
21
“Looking at the changes in marriage and divorce”. Tells of how society has changed their views on certain behaviour.
55” Tells of being married for forty years and the accident that her husband had.
3.43” Describes her experience of the National Health Service, they didn’t give her much support and she had to fight for an allowance.
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Re-start
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“During the war on the Fuselage”. Tells of her job and the relationship with the male workers.
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1944 when the war was coming to a close she left the Triplex of her own accord and was nearly arrested for it.
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“We had a friend in the Merchant Navy during the war”. Talks about him bringing over a coconut which no one had ever seen before. |