| Description | An interview with Tim CUTHBERTSON, a single man with no children, who is a Solicitor, born in Black Country and now living in Birmingham. Tim CUTHBERTSON’s father was a Legal executive, born in England and his mother a Teacher born in England. In the interview, he talks about …
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TIM CUTHBERTSON MS2255/2/093 Logged by Lorraine Blakemore
01
I was born in 1953 in the Black Country…. Father was a solicitor, mother kept a shop. Lived in semi-detached house in Tipton until age 6. Moved to Kings Heath.
2.06 Attended Raddlebarn Road Infants' School. Then transferred to Colmore Road School. Passed 11+ and went to King’s Norton Grammar School.
3.27 Impressed at the size of the secondary school in comparison with the primary school. School had 600 pupils.
4.20 Describes the school. Boys attended from a wide variety of backgrounds and areas.
02
Used public transport to get to school.
54” Aimed to send as many pupils to university as possible.
1.22 The one thing I remember from doing school productions there was an amazingly Heath Robinson affair for stage lighting…had been put together in the wartime by members of staff…Whenever we had a school production on, people used to run along the balcony changing fuses as they blew….
2.05 Involved in Gilbert & Sullivan productions.
2.49 Story about a change in school policy regarding the wearing of school caps.
3.30 Corporal punishment at school.
4.02 Thought that he might enter the family firm of solicitors, but interested in the arts at school.
03
I was not keen…on going to university. I was always quiet and shy…there was no huge parental pressure…
40” Limited social life at school.
1.42 Not part of a church youth group. Brother much more involved.
2.54 Every one talks about the permissive 60s and so forth….we had on one occasion the captain of the Church Army come to address us at assembly….he spoke of teenage pregnancies and I seem to remember… the earliest father that he’d come across was aged 12 which left practically all of us open mouthed…
3.32 Family life. Very close-knit.
04
Father brought up as a Baptist. Not a regular church-goer.
1.27 Changes in the Church of England. Attendance has fallen off and people’s habits have altered. Gives details.
05
Continues to give details of changes in church services.
3.59 Family holiday at Barmouth.
06
Continues to describe holidays.
2.18 I went to University College, London in 1971….Describes settling in as a fresher.
07
Structure of law courses in early 70s. Now there is more emphasis on placements and practical experience.
2.12 Social life at university. Member of university music society and Anglican Society. Lots of opportunities for visiting arts establishments.
4.26 The arts in Birmingham in the 70s.
08
Continued.
30” Moved back to family home after graduation.
1.27 Joined the family law firm in 1975. Background to Tim joining the firm.
3.35 At that time it was a very small office. We’d only got 4 rooms….essentially it was my father plus 3 typists…
09
History of Bradley & Cuthbertson.
1.14 Origins of some of the clients. Story about a conversation at a client’s funeral.
2.39 Memories of particular clients.
3.47 Until the 60s when people started setting up in the suburbs, the city centre was where all the professional firms were based….
10
There are far fewer small firms in the city than there were…Lists some of the solicitors' firms.
1.05 The big firms have got vast…doing mostly commercial work….I suspect about 40-50 partners and other staff taking you up to about 300 people in an office…It was only since 1967 that there ceased to be a prohibition on a partnership of any level….
2.05 Story about a university friend who entered a London law firm.
2.34 One noticeable change is the extent to which I used to meet other lawyers in the course of business….When you were doing property transactions in the late 70s and possibly into the 80s money was handed over on completion of service in the form of a bank draft….and you actually went along….the personal contact has largely gone….
4.23 Increase in traffic in the city centre.
4.54 Professional life….all round is a great deal busier and more pressured than it was…
11
Every time something comes up to make it easier to do the work, everyone wants more work doing as a result….
Describes a lunch club in the Jewellery Quarter that he has been a member of since 1985.
1.19 Immediately around the office there are, I can’t imagine how many wine bars and restaurants that have opened in the last few years…And they seem to do a roaring trade….I was staggered some years ago coming back into the office at 9 o’clock at night and finding that one of those nearby was still full of people more or less just left work…People have got less time for themselves…
2.46 Story about the Anatomical Boot Co. in Colmore Row.
3.47 No messenger boy at the law firm. Post was main method of communication.
4.38 Installed a fax machine in the firm after a postal strike in the 80s.
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One thing we haven’t done is to embrace the technology of email and the Web…Elaborates.
1.05 There are some advantages to email….A move to bring the web more closely involved in conveyance work.
2.16 Computerised the accounts about 20 years ago. Gives details of developments in the office.
13
Generally speaking computer use for word processing is extremely useful….
50” Member of St. Philip’s Singers for about 12 years. Background to joining the choir.
2.40 On governing body of King’s Norton Boys' School.
4.00 Alumnus of UCL.
4.30 In 1980 moved into a flat in Edgbaston.
14
After 7 years moved into a detached house in Moseley. Describes the environment.
1.56 Having grown up and been at university in the 70s…the revolutionary activities had rather eased off and law tends to be a small ‘c’ conservative place…and seeing the problems that there were…the miner’s strike, controls on prices…I must admit that when the Conservatives and Mrs Thatcher got in…1979, it didn’t seem a bad idea to tidy things up a bit…but she ran out of good things to do… Gives examples.
4.41 I don’t think that I’ve ever actually voted Labour, I think I’ve voted Liberal Democrat more than anything else….
15
One of the causes…that I think a certain amount of is this whole business of gay discrimination….We’ve had the infamous Section 28 brought in the mid-80s….Elaborates.
ENDS. |