| Description | An interview with Gertrude MUMFORD, a widow woman with one son, who is a retired nursing attendant, born in Birmingham and now living in Birmingham. Gertrude MUMFORD’s father was a Locomotive driver, born in England and her mother a Housewife/needlewoman born in England. In the interview, she talks about …
' Logged by Sonia Southern
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Born in 1910, in Ashmore Road Cotteridge.
20” Everybody knows her as Trudy.
34” Her parents were William and Annie Wincote and they all lived together in Ashmore Road. There were originally 2 boys and 6 girls, however two of the eight children are deceased which left the parents to raise only 6 children, which consisted of 1 boy and 5 girls. They were a happy family and saw lots of fun being a large family.
1.31” Problems came in 1914, when the epidemic of diphtheria hit, which is what killed her sister. Her father also contracted the disease but it wasn’t as serious, she recalls him being taken away to Little Bromwich which is where people went with infectious diseases.
2.40” Her earliest memory…She remembers her father being taken away in a carriage…and recalls crying because they took him without his hat, She never saw him without it on.
4.00” Her mother had leave the home so that it could be fumigated. Her mother recalls walking the streets for twelve hours whilst they fumigated her home, which was almost flooded with disinfectant running down the walls.
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30” Her father then contracted paralysis and they removed his teeth…and despite contracting every illness that his children got he lived up until the age of 86.
2.20” Her father…feeding them and reading to them.
4.19” Her mother…praises her for her patience.
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Her disabled brother John, his birth that reflected on the whole family and they all helped nurse him.
4.08” She recalls going to a farm to get fresh milk twice a day, it was on what is now called Rowheath Rec., the road it was originally on was called Selly Oak Road.
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1916 The doctors suggested putting John into a hospital for a week to give her a rest, there was no help from health services at this time it was the doctor who helped. In all the years John lived with them he had never cried and when he returned home he was full of bed sores and his nose was sore because it was running from being upset, the whole family were upset and he never went there again.
3.25” “I was 4 or 5 when the First World War started and it never bothered me a lot”, she recalls running up the road to Neil’s, a grocer's shop which was on the main Pershore Road, just before Midland Road. There was also the Co-Op and West’s.
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Cotteridge...gives a description of the trams.
2.40” Anecdote of travelling on the trams, which made all the family feel sick.
3.40” Talks of a recent journey on a tram with her sister, her sister had to get off because it still made her feel sick.
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Cannon Hill Park hasn’t altered much, but it appears to be bigger…she used to visit with her family to hear the bands play.
57” She never used the trams much, her father got a discount on the trains and they used to travel from Kings Norton Station to Birmingham City Centre.
2.34” Shopping in Town…The Central down Smallbrook Street was very popular, they sold material and curtains. Another shop was the Beehive in Albert Street, which sold shoes. Gertrude recalls her father taking her to the old market in Jamaica Row… the china being thrown around fascinated her. Her mother preferred to use the ordinary market in the City by Saint Martin's.
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Health…other families suffered from illness, neighbours lost young children to diphtheria..
1.15” Describes the house she lived in…mentions lighting the copper fire, wash days and dinner time.
3.43” 1915 went to Kings Norton School at the age of 5. The war had just began but she has no recollection of it.
4.35” Describes a memory of being in the park wearing a needlework dress, which was an embroidered white dress which her mother had made her.
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1.40” School…recalls choir-master Mr Moore and her friend Edna Jones who used to have a deep singing voice. Edna lived in Wharf Road and she would love to know where she is now.
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School reunion…and poverty.
1.50” She recalls children having no shoes, and there was a teacher who used to make the children blow their nose on a piece of rag. There were shoes given out to those who were poverty stricken.
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Sport at school…Warwickshire County sports events were held and her brother ran for Birchfield Harriers.
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In 1924 I left school and started work at Guest, Keen and Nettlefolds where I worked for several years. She began in the warehouse and then moved to the office answering the telephones.
1.00” “ I went to night school for different things and learnt the telephone, I was on the telephone exchange”. Guest, Keen and Nettlefolds was on the Pershore Road, right opposite where you came out from Kings Heath, they looked after their employees quite well, there was a gym and a netball team. They played
netball every Saturday afternoon against other companies. Describes how the whole family was sporty, her sister played hockey when she went into further education.
3.16” Dances that used to be put on by Guest, Keen and Nettlefolds.
3.56” Religion… her involvement with the Congregational church in Ashworth Road, which is now a United Reformed Church. However her mother used to attend Saint Agnes, which was Church of England. It was on the Pershore Road where Kwik Save is now.
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Gertrude became a Sunday school teacher at the ‘URC’ church; she was trained at Westhill Training College.
2.22” 1938 she married son of the caretaker at the church which they were married from.
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In the mid 1930’s, she left GKN to take care of her mother, the decision was made between herself and her sisters, because they had a better education it was decided that Gertrude would look after her. Her sisters funded her, as there was no form of support in those days.
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State of accommodation…public baths.
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The house they bought.
3.11” Her son Trevor was born four years after moving in to their home and her mother passed away in 1949.
4.11” Her son went to Moseley Grammar school, so she became part of the Mothers Union and the Townswomens Guild, because she had so much time on her hands.
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How she became nursing attendant…
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…This took place during the 50s and 60s. Describes cycling to her destination.
1.50” Her most vivid memories of visiting her patients.
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Her husband was a carpenter at the University.
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1970 Gertrude and her husband retired and he later passed away leaving Gertrude on her own for 4 years.
1.22” Her son built her a flat on the side of his house, and unfortunately her son died of liver failure, so she moved back to where she used to live.
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Her grandson helped her invest her money into a flat, which she moved into by the church.
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Her religion… “I don’t know how people can live without a faith”.
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