This is a story of my boyhood and I was brought up in one of the poorest and toughest Streets of Norwich, Heigham Street. I lived at No 4 Blakes Yard for the next 16 years, but I was not born there, I was born in Dunns Yard Pottergate Street but I don't remember that.

 

My memories are of the Street and the areas around it, which are Oak Street, Westwick Street and Born Road and so will start at the infants at Heigham Street. This was a school where you started, and finished at the age of 14 years. The entrance to the infants was in Heigham Street and when you moved up the other entrance was on Born Road. My teacher was a nice lady but then I was only a child.

One incident which I remember was a little boy getting killed outside the infants. This happened when a steam wagon carrying a load of coal knocked him down and the back wheel went over his head. I remember seeing what looked like a lump of red jelly lying there, we were told to go away and so life went on. One of the things I remember at the infants was the Maypole, where we all held a ribbon each and went round and round.

 

The Great War was on then of course, this was the 1914-1918 war and I recall one morning we went to school and the gates were shut and people were all looking in the playground, which was covered with white balls which looked like moth balls. We were all sent home until they were cleared up. What they were I never did know, rumour had it that they were poisoned sweets which were dropped for a German Zeppelin, which was a big airship of that time. Both the Germans and the English had these as there were no bombers and that sort of thing is those days.

 

My days at the infants are now over and I am about to go up to the big school, but before I do, I will write about the Street and Yard we lived in and, The House.

 

We lived up a yard, about 10 little cottages all joined together. There was a water tap in the middle which serviced all the cottages. We collected the water in pails and would bring them indoors. The house was a flea infested drum really. There was a little bit of garden at the front, very small, and you went through the front door to the living room.

 

The back room was used as a wash house with a copper and the staircase. Upstairs was 2 bedrooms, Mother and Father had one and the other was parted off with curtains, the girls used to sleep one side and the boys the other. There was also plenty of fleas which mother tried to keep down with a well known powder called "Keatings" which you used to see in all the houses. The rent for these places was 3 shillings and sixpence a week. The toilets for these houses were at the top of the yard in a row and this was a bucket which they used to come and empty once a week and it wasn't a very pleasant smell when this was done.

 

Conditions were terrible really, but we learned to put up with it.

Now I'll tell you about the Street. This was a very narrow street and packed with houses, shops, pubs and there were plenty of those, a pub every few yards! At the top of the street was a shoeing forge, because remember, in my boyhood it was all horses and carts. Just passed our yard was a timber yard and a little way on was the old City Station Goods Depot. Also here were the coal yards where the coal used to come into the siding by truck and then put into the great big heaps for the different coal merchants. This was sacked up here and then delivered by horse and cart. Also in this part of the railway were the bullock pens, where the bullocks which when bought in by cattle trucks, were put in until they were to be driven to the old Cattle Market on a Saturday morning. We lived in the middle of it all.

 

So you see there was always plenty going on and plenty to see. Railway horses and cars delivering goods. Coal carts with their great big loads of coal, steam wagons which used to rumble through the street carting the coal to the gas works. Then there were the great traction engines carting the trees to the wood yard because you must remember the street surfaces were granite sets and there was plenty of noise when these great big iron wheels went through.

 

 

I will carry on before I go up to the big school about the cattle droves on a Saturday. These cattle used to be got out of the pens by Drovers with the great big sticks and they used to drive the cattle out of the station yard into the street. Three or 4 men to a drove and they would drive them through the street up Westwick Street, St Andrews Hill to the old cattle market and then put them in pens for the auction. Hundreds of bullocks, pigs and sheep used to be driven this way. It wasn't all plain sailing at times, because a bullock would dive up a yard or in a shop and it used to be a bit of a job to get them out. There was plenty of hitting with the sticks and shouting going on.

 

Norwich was a huge market full of cattle, sheep, pigs and a special part for rabbits and chickens. Hundreds of people used to attend this market. Fathers used to take their children there.

 

There was also another big market and this was the horse market which was opposite the Bell Hotel where the coaches now leave. This market was called Spelmans. Some of the horses used to be outside and they also had an indoor sale. All these horses used to be tied up outside to a long rail. Two big horse dealers I knew by name were a Mr Wright and a Mr Drake and they used to walk up and down waiting for a buyer and soon as one showed up they would start talking. Then the horse or pony they wanted used to be got out and they would look in the mouth, feel the legs and then one of the sellers men would run this horse up and down a few times. to see what wind it had. Then the haggling would used to start until a deal was made and the buyer and seller used to touch hands and the deal was binding. I will leave this now because as I have said before, I have left the infants school and am about to start in the big school.

 

I am now about 6, so I start in school class 1, but this is a different kettle of fish and I'm there to learn and this man teacher makes sure you do. He is also cruel. He had a habit of hitting the boys across the knuckles with a wooden ruler so you done your best and tried to keep out of trouble. If you stepped out of line you were sent to the Headmaster. This man was called Cory Alder and you would hold your hands out and get 1-2 strokes of the cane and didn't they used to sting. The bloody cane was 1/2 an inch round and there was no messing about.

 

Things were not right at home though for us children, we were sruffy, we had no decent clothes to wear. We had to wear the best we could get. There wasn't too much food about either. This was the  second year of the war and things were getting worse. Food was all rationed and we were living in stark poverty. Although father is at work making wire netting, the wages are a pittance and he also had a violent temper. It got so he was knocking mother about, I have seen mother plenty of times with one or two black eyes.

 

Most of my breakfasts consisted of a basin of sop. This was a round of bread. a little hot water and a pinch of sugar. If by any chance you tore the ass out of your trousers, mother would sew a big patch in and this would be a different colour.

 

There were fights in the streets at this time too. Soldiers coming home on leave found out that their wives had been carrying on and there was a good bit of this going on! Several times when I've been going home I have fell over men and women lying in the passages. The shortage of food in the house made me fend for myself because there was no such thing as pocket money. So to get a few pence, we came out of school at twelve and went back at 2, so I used to get a pail and dustpan from home and gather the horse muck up and take it round the houses and they would give you 2 or 3 pennies for it and they would put it round their rose bushes, this was a start. Usually dinner during the day was a round of bread and dripping, but with the money I'd pick up I used to give my mother a little. A little way up the street there was a cafe run by a man named Goreham and he used to give us kids a bowl of soup and a round of bread for a penny. Lots of children used to use this cafe and he got to know them all, and on Christmas morning he would get a couple of boxes of oranges and line us all up and give us 2 oranges each; but it was no good trying to work a double, because he knew everyone who he had given too. Another thing I used to do was to get a sack and go up the street and over the Dolphin Bridge, Mile Cross Bridge wasn't built then. Once over the bridge where Mile Cross and Dolphin states now are were all fields. I'd get a sack of chickweed and take it  home, fill a bucket and go round to the people who kept chickens and they would give me a few coppers and the chickens would scratch among it and eat it. My father was an only child and his mother and father lived in a little house in St Marys Alley. He used to go and see these old people when we were kids and they must have both been in their 80's. Then Grandma passed away, and 4 of us children went to her funeral. There was a horse drawn hearse, all glass and one cab and we walked behind the cab to the cemetory. Mother and father in the cab and we were given a ride in the cab home. I don't think either of them had any relations. My Grandfather came and lived with us. He had a bed in the living room, but he got too much for my people. The old chap used to wander about at night. So he was put in what was known then as the Grubler or workhouse. This was where the West Norwich hospital now is, but he didn't last long there and he was buried with my Grandmother. My other Grandmother lived at Coltishall and some Sundays my mother used to send 4 of us to see her and we walked from Heigham Street to Coltishall. Granny would give us our dinner and put us on a bus home.

 

One of the outings when I was a boy was a trip as far as Mousehold. Mother would pack the food up, then we would play around the bandstand. There were also stalls. These were where you could buy ice cream, fruit and all that stuff. A lot of poor children went there in those days.

 

Well the 1914 war is still on and at times we go to the old City Station and see the German Prisoners come in with the big spikes on top of their helmets. These chaps are marched away by our soldiers and now there is a few of our soldiers about, some with a leg or arm off. The Zeppelins still go over but I can't remember any damage to Norwich. A bit about the trains. These were open top, slatted seats inside and a bit of a rough ride really. They could be driven from either end and the driver had to face all weathers. If it rained they would have great big capes on. This was a terrible job in the winter.

 

The nearest pictures for us was the Empire in Oak Street and we could get there on a Saturday afternoon for 1d, one penny. Most of us would take a carrot, swede or turnip to eat. Most times we would nick these off a farmers cart as they came down the street to sell their stuff to the shop. Felthorpe and Hevingham consisted of lots of Small Holdings. Gibsons and the Medlers. All the carrots and turnips would hang on the back of the cart so it was easy to get one off. Sometimes when I came out of school and they were still  about I would ride with them as far as the Boundary. This was a big pond in them days. What is now Wensum Park was a refuge dump when I was a boy, then it was filled in and made a park.

 

On of my errands in the mornings was to go and get the meat for mother. I used to get it at Mark Chaplins in St Benedicts. Mostly it was sixpence for pieces of all sorts of meat. If we had a pea soup I would always get a marrow bone. I remember one time me and my brother Tom had no boots to go to school in, so mother had to go to Rudds in Ber Street, he was a clog maker and she would get us a pair of clogs each. These were awful to wear but we had to put up with them. A bit about school. There were 7 classes in Heigham Street and I got as far the 6th because you were at the same school all the way through.

 

I am about 8 now and the war is over and the soldiers are all coming home and what are they coming home to. Nothing because there is no work about. So Lloyd George started the dole where they could get a few shilling a week. But, it wasn't long before some of these war heroes were selling matches and boot laces on the street corners. Poverty was every where about this time.

 

I went as a paperboy for a women in Ber Street. Her name was Nellie Taylor. I had to get a badge from the police, you got these from the tin hut which was the police station then on the back of the fruit market. We used to go to the press office in St Andrews from school. Remember they didn't deliver papers in those days. We would get our Evening News 3-4 dozen, put them under your arm and walk the streets shouting "papers". Sometimes I would take a pitch on The Walk, London Street or the top of Heigham Street. When you'd sold out I'd take my money back to Nellie and she would pay me so much a dozen. My mother never worried where I was because what ever I got, I  always gave her some. After a time I left Nellie and went for a rag and bone man at the bottom of the yard.

 

I used to help in the shop after school and all day on Saturdays. I used to pick up about five shillings a week. During the school  holidays, I used to drive the pony and cart and he used to go up all the yards with a sack buying up. We would load the cart up and take it all back to the shop. I'd take the pony to the stable, feed it and put the bedding down. When I was a boy I've driven and rode all sorts of horses but he was a good man really, although at times I helped myself. I would take a couple of his rabbit skins and sell them to another rag and bone man in Oak Street.

 

One thing I remember was going on, which I think was the first poor children’s outing to be held in this city. These were all in private cars. We all lined up on the back of the fruit market and as the cars came up they would take so These cars were decorated up and they all waited until there was ore big procession. We all followed one another out into the country. We had tea on a big field and when we came back to the City, people all lined up and cheered as we went passed. My school days are coming to a close now and I am about to leave at the age of 14 years old. We are still in the Street.

 

My brother Tom is already at work in a blacksmiths shop where my father works. My 2 sisters are working at the Bullards Brewery. About the time of leaving school I used to do another little job. This was what was called "touting". This was at the old City Station. I would stand outside the station for the trains to come in. Anyone who had a couple of suitcases we would offer to carry for them, and rely on the tip. Several boys used to do this. But now I'm about to start work and my first job was in a boot factory, Howlett and Whites in Colgate Street. 8 til 6, 8 til 12 Saturdays, wages 7  shillings and sixpence a week. Five shillings for mother 2 and 6 for me. But I left after a month and went where my father and brother Tom worked at Barnards in Coslany Street. I went in the office doing all sorts of jobs. Wages 10 shillings a week. After about 6 months in the office the guv'nor asked me to go in the workshop but I couldn't go. So I left and took a job as a van boy for International Stores at the Haymarket.

 

I was there when the general strike was on in 1926. Wages 17 shillings a week. I got my brother Tom here. He rode a truck delivery. After a time I left and started in the pits on Plumstead Road. But now we are living on Drayton Estate so I used to walk from the Estate to Plumstead Road morning and night. Got my brother Tom here with me so we both walked together. Wages here twenty five shillings a week.

 

Things are good at home. We have a new house and mother is getting a good home together, 3 piece suite, wireless. There is six of us at work, we buy our own clothes, so much a week. But things are good, all young people - my brother and sisters and we are all happy. The old poverty days are going away. Some buses are coming on the road but the trams are still running. We are away from the street and there is no running to the pawn shop on a Monday morning to put the old mans suit in and get it out on a Friday night which used to happen in nearly every house in the street. That was the good old days or so they say!

 

Yes, I remember the general strike. People at work were working for sod low wages, they lived in poverty. Miners and the dockers were the first to strike and so every one came out. The miners marched from Wales to London and were beat up by the police when they got there. People were raiding the shops to get food and there were riots all over the place. It ended with a lot of promises, it was about the time when a new class of people known as Tramps. Thousands of people were walking the roads from workhouse to workhouse, living on scrap. Pitiful sights some of them were, no shoes on their feet, hardly any clothes and all dirty and the government of the day let this happen. They even opened up more workhouses for them to go in. Good Old England. There was mass unemployment and the slump was on. No work, thousands of young men joined the Army.

 

This was a cheap army just what the government wanted because the biggest part of these boys were sent to India which we ruled at the time. These boys used to serve 6 or 7 years out there. Another thing to watch out for at that time was being sent to Canada or Australia. They nearly got my brother Tom on this but he just got a job in time.

 

My next job was Brick Making, making blocks, breeze blocks. Bricks were made with cement and sand. They used to use a lot of these in those days. I got my brother Tom here with me. Money is going up a bit, nearly 22 a week. Now we are wearing nice suits, double-breasted waistcoats and all the gear of the day. A 3 piece suit made to measure £2.50, Melton Overcoat the same, boots £1 a pair, shirts half a crown. This is old money. Beer 4d a pint, woodbines 2d for 10, eggs 12 a shilling, sugar about 2d a pound, but remember, wages were from £1.50 a week to £2. Now I've left the brick making and gone into the building trade. My first job was in the Mile Cross Estate. Ways here £2 & 4 shillings a week. That’s if you done a full week as this was all hourly work. You got paid for what hours you done. Remember in my days there was no Social Security to run to.

 

The building trade was the hardest and toughest job you could be in at that time. Everything was done by hand. All you got out of it was big muscles. But I am in it now and so is Tom. Brother George he kept in a boot factory for years and then he came into the building trade. Now there’s eight of us all going out to work and all at home, - some courting. We all have new bikes, Hercules bikes about £3 and life is pretty good. About this time as young people, there used to be a walk. Older people called it the "chicken run". This was Prince of Wales Road. On a Sunday night hundreds of young people used to walk up and down meeting each other, making a date and so on. All good fun. Now me and Tom are working for the same firm and I'm sent to Mousehold Lane to do a bungalow for a gipsy kind of man, a big car dealer. While working there I met my present wife. That’s 56 years ago, we courted and got married in the registry office on St Andrews Street. No white wedding, fish and chips for dinner and then we all went to our rooms which we had already got on Sprowston Road. Rent 11 shillings a week and our furniture was on the book from Bretts in St Benidicts. Things were good, but we moved from these rooms after a bit and took some rooms at Dereham Road. After a while we took a house at St Phillips Road off Dereham road. After a spell here we moved to Old Catton in a little cottage. This village was good and good people in it. I spent some happy times in it. Then we moved further up the village into a better house because now we have several children and things are a bit tough.

 

There is no family allowance or social and everything is by the hour, so you lost wet time and any other weather. But we had to manage. I grew my own vegetables as I had an allotment to look after now. They are doing away with all the trans and buses were taking over. The old lines are taken up and sold to Germany. We realised later why they bought them. But there is a fair amount of work about now, so I start bricklaying. After a tough time I got through and  then had a good run of work all round the Reepham Road area, building bungalows. Prices £425, deposit £25, weekly about seventeen shillings. Things look pretty good corse, there’s no holidays, only the day ones.

 

But things are moving on, there is something amiss - there is a lot going on about Germany and what she’s up too. People are getting a bit scared. After a lot of talk which led to nowhere, it was war against Germany. Now we knew why they bought all the iron up. Because before long, we got it back in the bombs. Anyway things took a different way in the building trade. Private building was stopped and we all went on building aerodromes, munition factories and air raid shelters anywhere in the country. I was at Stoke-on-Trent for about a month. This job worked day and night. I was on the night shift but the Germans spotted us lit up and dropped a few bombs and that finished the night shift. I came home from there and went building air raid shelters all over the city.

 

About this time volunteers were needed for the Home Guard and I  joined up with them. We were all issued with a full kit of Khaki, rifle and bayonet just like the regular army. We used to train Sunday mornings, 9 til 12 and a couple of nights in the week, cause this is now called Dad's Army. The biggest part of the training was done on Mousehold cause they had 2 firing ranges on there what the

Norfolks used to use. Everyone was trying to do their bit because in a war it is surprising how close people get and you are all as one. Cause rations came into force, beer and fags, the whole lot. There is a lull in the war as regards us, men are called up but they all are around this country. France is finished anyway. Bricklayers are exempt for the time being. Then all of a sudden things change and the bombers are over Norwich smashing it to pieces. Now it is a job when the sirens goes to get the children to safety. This meant waking them up, getting them downstairs into the shelter until the "all clear" went, then you either went back to bed or stayed where you were until the morning. But we were on the outskirts of the city so escaped a good bit of it but it was pretty bad for everyone. You never knew if we were going to be next. A lot of the city people would come pass our house when the siren went and sleep in the fields to get out of the way. There were plenty of raids on Norwich, most at night. An after I'd done a days work, I'd then be up the biggest part of the night looking after the kids who would be all awake and frightened. It wasn't all honey, but we had to put up with it. As soon as the raid was over I used to go and see if my people were alright.

 

In our first house at Old Catton we had a brick shelter in the garden. But when we moved further up we were given a Morrison shelter. This had to be put in the front room. This was 4 corner iron posts with a rail round the bottom, wire netting round and a steel plate on top which weighed 4 cwts and me and the wife had to lift this on ourselves and bolt everything together. When the raids were on you crowded in and shut the little door.

 

I was building Skipton Aerodrome at this time. This meant catching a bus at 7 in the morning and getting home about 7 at night, but we escaped injury, plenty of scares and upsets. So when the chance came to get away from it and to Lincolnshire, we took it.

 

It was a big break really because we had a lovely house with lawns and garden. This was a Porlow House with 2 front rooms, nice place and I didn't want to leave my people. They were getting old and retired. But I went for the children’s sake. Things were a flop there really. I never liked it from the first day I was there, but we got fixed up with a place as there was no turning back. It was quiet enough. No bombs and they didn't know there was a war on. All they thought about was how much money they could make off the land and they made plenty of that. I worked for a local builder at Sutton bridge. This was a brand new WAAFS Camp for the RAF. We finished and the Waffs came in.

 

I'd already had my medical for the service and passed Grade Two. I passed my medical at Grantham. I remember the last doctor I went in front of, there were 7 of these, he said "have you any hobbies"? and I said "yes 7 children"! Anyway a week before I finished the job at Sutton Bridge my calling up papers were in the door. I reported to the Budbrooke Barracks in Warwick. I was to go in my home guard uniform with rifle and other stuff. This they took away after I was rigged out in all new gear. We slept in huts with bunk beds and straw mattress’s and so I settled down to army life. This was better than civy life really, as there was plenty of food, 4 meals a day. I got 17 shillings a week to spend, so many free fags. Anyway I done all my training. This was a bit hard at times. They trained you to be a soldier in 8 weeks. I had my passing out parade and was waiting for a posting when the medical board sent for me and I was discharged and no reason was given. I had to stop there 4 weeks till my discharge came from the War Office. I was then given a warrant home. So I was in the Army 12 weeks. I didn't mind it at all. It was a holiday for me away from the graft and the kids.

 

Anyway I had to start work again with another local builder. After a time there was a big job going in Rutlandshire, a place called Colley Weston, so I went there for a time and used to come home every weekend. Then I came home for good and worked for a local  builder again. I also done a lot of repair work on my own as there was very few bricklayers about, so I could always earn money. Twice I was offered a start, to start on my own by 2 big farmers but looking around the children I couldn't take the chance. But I was doing all right. We were living, round here was all kinds of farm repair work. Sometimes, I used to bike or go by lorry and sometimes I used to take my stuff on a horse and trolley because I only had a boy labourer with me. As there weren't no men about, I used to travel around different farms. There I would meet German and Italian prisoners of war, working on the land. The amazing thing was some of the women in the area were having affairs with the very people who had probably killed their husbands! Still that’s war I suppose.

 

Anyway, the war is hotting up now and we are sending 1000 bombers to bomb Germany. These planes used to pass over us and there used to be one long drone as they all passed over. It must have been living hell in Germany because the most planes what, bombed Norwich was 25 and this was bad enough. But now all the troop are massed non for the big push, which they did, us, the Yanks and the Russians all went in about the same time and that was the end of the war with Germany. Everyone in the country was celebrating the war was over, but Japan was still at 10 so the Yanks dropped the "BIG BOMB" on them and they were out.

 

 

My brother Tom came home. He'd done all the war years. Two of my  sisters went back to Norwich. They had been living in married quarters with their husbands. These were in the RAF and were in England all the war. But there is no place for them as they got married during the war, so the camps what had been occupied during the war and were now empty they took over and moved in. This  happened all over the country. My brother Tom wrote to me and told me to come back, and I wanted to get back, I came down and me and him went to Rackheath Park. Picked a Nisson hut, locked it and moved back.

 

Yes, the living was rough. It was one big hut with a toitoise stove in the middle. We now had eight children. I went back with my old boss who I worked for before the war. We were skint so had to have a sub to get a bit of grub. I didn't have to much furniture, so I made some of my own with the wood I nicked out of the huts which were empty. I made chairs, 2 arm chairs. These I used to stuff and cover with blankets. After a time they parted the huts of into rooms, put a cooker range in and they weren't too bad. Wages weren't too good, so I was doing odd jobs to get a few bob extra. The wife used to gather acorns for a £1 a bag. These were fed to the pigs on the farm near us.

 

At this time we started The West Earlham Estate. I was in charge here and had 8 trainees. Some out of the army, navy and the RAF, but they were all good boys and willing to work and learn. Four of them became builders on their own at the finish. After a time we moved to Lakenham. They all moved off the camp. My sisters went to West  Earlham, but it was a great struggle all the time and there was many a time when I thought I would just catch a train on a Friday night and get out of it, but I couldn't do it. What my father had had, when I was a boy, I was now having - poverty. So it was work and no play for a long while. But we got through.

 

The children are growing up. One or two girls are out at work and we start build a home. New suite and furniture, although its on the book. But, we try best. The boys leave school and they follow me into the building trade. apprenticed 5 boys to the trade and they all made the grade and done well themselves. The building has been good to them but they had to work for it. a hard life in the building trade. There is an old saying in the trade, "In winter you freeze your balls off and in the summer you sweat them off" still went through all aspects of the trade. Chargehand, Forman, General Forman. think if we hadn't had the children, which is our fault, I would've finished as a builder. But I didn't. I finished my time up with my oldest son who became a builder.

 

At 65 I retired and I was bloody tired believe me. But after a bit of a rest, I started making cement Gnomes and selling them. I suppose I made hundreds of these and then this faded. I made miniature armchairs out of pegs and sold these at 70 years. My oldest son the builder, was taken 111 and I went and done 3 houses for him, and at 75 years! I took an allotment at the same place where I had one 40 years ago, So we pass the time there on the nice days me and the wife. We talk to the old people there who are about the same age as me, about those so called good old days which never were.

 

But we travelled about a bit in my time, working on different jobs, seen some funny things at times. I remember when in the Army at the dinner table seeing all the troops with their dinner in front of them with their backs all bent eating. And in the hut at night, If I woke up at any time you would see a little red glow, somewhere someone was having a smoke. Well that’s about the lot.

 

Now there is just me and the wife. We finished up with a hole in the wall what they call a flat. The children aren't too bad, we get looked after a bit. Would I have my time over again? I'm afraid not as in regards of my parents. They were the salt of the earth. And a funny thing, I still miss them and I am now 78 year old and sometimes I wish they were still here.

 

They had it rough and so did I, but to come to an end, I've seen 2 wars and when I look round at this world today, I wonder if it was all worth it?

 

Jonathan Wright

6th September 1910 - 18th March 1989