MY AUNT AND UNCLE: GHRETA HEDGES & DOUG HESLOP...

 My Aunt & Uncle:

Ghreta Lilian Hedges (1918-2008) & Douglas Frank Heslop (1919-1981)…

MANY THANKS TO Steve Heslop FOR PROVIDING INFORMATION & A NUMBER OF PHOTOGRAPHS FOR THIS POST...

Where they were brought up:

Doug was the son of an Engineering Pattern Maker from Birmingham called Frank Thomas Heslop, who was married to Ethel May Spruzen. Doug was born on 11th October 1919 and his mum hailed from West Ham in Essex. Doug attended Church Road School in Yardley before going on to an art school. 

CHURCH ROAD SCHOOL (YARDLEY PRIMARY...)

His maternal grandparents were Henry Spruzen, a grocer/gardener and Edith from Theydon Bois, Essex. His paternal grandparents were Henry Heslop, possibly a tailor and Annie Elizabeth Masefield, who were living at 2 Court 4 Great Russell Street in Birmingham. 

ANNIE ELIZABETH HESLOP...

HENRY HESLOP...

THEYDON BOIS...

Ghreta of course was my mum’s sister, a Ward End girl, who attended the same schools as older sister Ivy and her younger sister Marj who became my mother. August 26th 1918 was her birth date, almost at the end of WW1… So, it was Nansen Primary School first and then she became a Cherrywood Road pupil. All three sisters were bright and rather good athletes, all of them became the fastest sprinters at the school in their turn…

GHRETA LEADS THE LINE ON THE RIGHT...

CHERRYWOOD NETBALL CHAMPIONS, 1931-32 (GHRETA SEATED, 2ND FROM RIGHT)...

Ghreta’s living quarters from 1918 had all been around the Ward End area, details of which can be found within the Nan Hedges post on this blog.

How Ghreta & Doug met:

This happened at a dance at the Swan pub in Yardley. Ghreta was working at Typhoo in Bordesley Street, Digbeth, possibly as a packer and she played netball for the works team. Doug was working for Thomas Fattorini, after attending Art School, as a designer and engineering toolmaker but he had also set up a Science Club at school before leaving. 

TYPHOO!

MORE NETBALL SILVERWARE, THIS TIME FOR NUFFIELD'S.
GHRETA IS SEATED, RIGHT...

THE LEAPING GHRETA...
CHECK OUT THE SPECTATORS!

Doug was a good cricketer and played for Yardley Cricket Club but he loved his fishing, regularly entering angling competitions. He liked bird watching too (collecting eggs, when it was legal to do so…) and in fact one day he was chased by a swan… Odd that, for he met Ghreta at the Swan pub… I wonder who chased who?

DOUG WINS A DARTS PRIZE.
LOOKS LIKE A LOBSTER IN THAT BAG...

He was a strong swimmer and indeed saved a girl from drowning in the River Avon at Bidford one day, details for which I am searching. He painted in watercolour and drew really well, so much so that some of his work was exhibited at the Art School.

DOUG'S SIGNED WATERCOLOUR OF FILLONGLEY WOOD (1943)...

He also played darts and won several medals for his team at the Wagon and Horses pub and a local hostelry too, The Chelmsley in Common Lane, later renamed The George.

OLD IMAGE OF THE WAGON & HORSES...

Ghreta was clearly an outdoor person with a great sense of humour but she was good at knitting and had skills in embroidery too, producing many tablecloths, napkins and coasters.

The Fattorini company operate still and manufacture state insignia, currently possessing a Royal Warrant to supply the Central Chancery of the Orders of Knighthood.

During WW2 Ghreta worked for Nuffield’s, which had switched to making Spitfires and she made some of the relevant parts in Castle Bromwich, adjacent to its aerodrome, now Castle Vale Estate of course…

THE SPITFIRE FACTORY...

Doug was designated a ‘key worker’ during WW2 but volunteered for Home Guard duties, then after the hostilities he left Fattorini’s and set up a jewellery business, Henry Showell Ltd, later trading under the name of ‘Excalibur Jewellery’, where he became Technical Director.

FATTORINI'S...

EXCALIBUR BRACELET...

I am sad that I hadn't known that Doug had been in the Home Guard, for I would have found out about his exploits from Steve and used them in my WW2 role play teaching sessions in Birmingham Museum...

Their marriage:

Ghreta & Doug married on 9th June 1945 at Yardley Old Church and lived with Nan Hedges until Ghreta became pregnant, when they were asked to find somewhere else to live. They bought a property in Barrows Lane, Sheldon, which I remember so well…

Yardley Old Church...

WEDDING DAY...

LOOKS LIKE BROTHER CLAL GAVE GHRETA AWAY...

MY MUM IS THE BRIDESMAID...

I find it mean that they were asked to leave Nan’s house because their son Steve was born only 4 months before me and my parents were living with Nan too, at 63 Bamville Road, Ward End. I am guessing however, that my dad’s window cleaning job didn’t pay as well as Doug’s skilled work and so we were allowed to stay until a council property became available in 1957. The fact that my dad had become an insurance agent just after I was born didn’t help either for he had to build up a clientele before any real profit could be made to support a wife and family. 

STEVE HAS ALWAYS BEEN A LITTLE TALLER THAN ME...

IN BOURNEMOUTH WITH TWINS DAVE & DEREK...

OLDER BUT STEVE IS THE TALLER...

Steve feels that his parents were always caring and supportive, real 1950s types, whereby the mother stayed at home and the father went out to do paid work. Ghreta washed, cleaned, ironed, shopped and looked after her son but also managed a little ‘outwork’, which I recall seeing her doing. She was adept at making watch bracelets…

Steve Heslop’s anecdotes:

I was pleased to receive these memories about his parents from Steve…

DOUG, STEVE & GHRETA, RATHER OVERDRESSED ON HOLIDAY!

His dad once bought ‘a pint of maggots’ for a fishing contest but having forgotten his bait box, he popped them into a paper bag and slipped them into the glove box of his car.

Returning home, he thought he’d been short changed at the shop, forgetting where he had deposited the maggots. A few warm weather days later, his car kept filling up with large bluebottles every time he turned on the cold air fan… The problem lasted for weeks apparently and Steve reckoned there was a moral to the story: ‘Don’t put maggots in paper bags…’

His mum, he recalls was a total giggler and would chase her grandchildren about and demonstrate to them how she could touch her toes, well into her seventies…  

BARROWS LANE 1966: DOUG TOOK THIS PIC OF GHRETA, MY PARENTS, STEVE & ME...

At Christmas quizzes she couldn’t resist shouting out answers in her excitement, or as I recall, whispering answers to my mum as they sat nudging each other. Those moments were priceless, although my dad, Uncle Jack and other serious quiz participants became a little annoyed by the antics!

My mum and Ghreta usually met in Birmingham’s city centre on Wednesdays, after their mum had died in 1967, catching their relevant buses and finding each other in the Marks & Spencer store in Bull Street. They would shop, have a cup of tea in Lewis’s or Grey’s and usually buy chicken portions to take home and cook, which became one of my favourite dinners of the week at a time when beef and lamb roasts were the traditional Sunday meals and chicken was less popular.

GHRETA & MY MUM AGAIN...

Once, at the Greswolde in Knowle where Ivy and Jack were celebrating their Golden Wedding, Steve was asked to take some photos with his new SLR camera. He merrily mingled and took many pictures but when the film was developed, the results were totally black… He had loaded the film but it hadn’t wound on! Oops… Apologies were offered and Steve never made the same mistake again… Well, that’s what he says…

GHRETA & DOUG WITH MY MUM & ME, BUT MEN DRESSED RATHER WELL FOR DAYS OUT IN THOSE DAYS!

DOUG IS FLANKED BY UNCLES JACK & 'BUN'...

Dave Eastwood reportedly took Steve for a ride in his infamous dirty Jaguar car (taxed or insured at the time, possibly) one evening and it was accelerated to above 100mph… Not on any open highway however but along Streetsbrook Road in Solihull!

Ghreta disturbed a burglar at her home one night. He had got into the house by forcing a lounge window and she bravely yelled at him to get out, which he did, immediately… When reporting the incident to the police, Ghreta described the guy as looking like Aston Villa’s manager John Gregory! Using a tracker dog, the police traced the burglar to a house in Beechmore Road but nothing was proved…

One Christmas, Ghreta was apparently asked by an old lady to carry her heavy bag containing a chicken out of the Co-op supermarket in Sheldon. Ghreta obliged then realised that none of the shopping had been paid for… Oops…

My memories of Ghreta & Doug…

MY DAD TRIES TO GET STEVE & ME TO LOOK UP FOR THE PHOTOGRAPHER BY FIRING A TOY GUN...

My mum reckoned that Ghreta was a bit of a tomboy when she was a kid and of course was quite the sports person. It’s her fault that I’m called Peter however, for I was due to be named Steve until Ghreta called her son Steve four months before I appeared in September 1950.

Mum’s choice had been scuppered, so she decided my name would be Paul.

And so she called me Peter…

GHRETA & MY MUM, MAYBE AROUND 1930...

I was saddled with my dad’s middle name too, which was Steve’s dad’s forename, oddly: Douglas… Strange happenings…

I GET A TWIN, STEVE LOSES OUT & GETS MY DAD...

GHRETA, NAN HEDGES & MY MUM...

Ghreta would always hand my mum greetings cards for my family some four weeks early, making sure she didn’t miss the correct days. She was really sweet, friendly, honest and open. She mithered if ever I offered her a lift home from my mum’s house but she had been good enough to make her own way there and deserved the easy way home. Sometimes she would catch a Midland Red bus, the 175 from the Wheatsheaf to Castle Bromwich, then walk down to mum’s house, or on other occasions she made her way to the 14 bus route and walked past the old Central Grammar School to Shard End. 

ONLY SIBLING EDDIE IS MISSING AS BUN, CLAL & CLAUDE STAND BEHIND GHRETA, IVY & MY MUM...

DOUG, GHRETA, IVY, MY MUM, MY DAD, IRIS & HER HUSBAND BUN (FRED)...
PRESUMABLY JACK TOOK THE PICTURE!

Those were long journeys and I could only be impressed by her efforts… 

HATS, CATS & MACS...
(GHRETA & MY MUM...)

One could play both mum and Ghreta up and make them believe anything daft but they loved their gossip too, as well as being somewhat in awe of older sister Ivy…

HOW TIGHT WERE IVY'S GRIPS?

LOVE THIS IMAGE...
GHRETA & MUM SEEM BORED WITH IVY'S KNITTING...

Ghreta would help my mum out with hand-me-down clothes of Steve’s and when I finally climbed out of short grey trousers at King Edward’s Aston, the first long trousers I wore had been Steve’s… I was the last-but-one kid to go into ‘longs’ and I was in Year 8…

Steve went to Exeter University and spent time with cousin Derek’s first wife’s parents down there but he was a fine hockey player and his Pickwick club made it to a national final in 1986, being beaten by Southgate, which included more than half of the GB Olympic squad which won gold at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul. I believe Steve was even drug-tested after the match… 

He played for Pickwick’s first team for 18 years, before moving on to Olton. Steve’s kids, Claire and sons Matthew and Andrew were all good hockey players too and Steve coached the game for many years.

He coached junior hockey at Olton for 15 years and his teams managed to become Warwickshire champions at every age group. His U19 girls teams were National Champions for 5 consecutive yers from 1995. Over half of the U18 England squad appeared in Steve's teams...

As his sons progressed from County to Midlands teams, Steve helped to coach the U15 and U17 Midlands squads. He continued to play however! He took part in Vets Hockey for the Midlands from the Over 45s to the Over 70s and he played England Vets Hockey at Over 55 to Over 60, playing in two home internationals and in two World Cup competitions, winning the first, in Birmingham and finishing 3rd in the other tournament, played at Oxford in 2012.

He has played for the Warwickshire/Worcestershire Over 60s team more recently, winning the 2019 National Final at Lee Valley Olympic Stadium in London... 

His parents would have been so proud of his sporting achievements...

Steve married a girl from his secondary school and she was a regular visitor at family parties during their, er, courtship! They picked me up in his dad’s car one evening after Steve had passed his driving test at 17 and took me out for a faggots and peas meal at the Golden Cross pub in Wixford, despite the fact that I’d already eaten my dinner!

STEVE, KAREN & ME, 1967...
OMG, THEY'RE BOTH TALLER THAN ME...

GET YOUR FAGGOTS & PEAS HERE...

Steve also rang to ask me if I would make up the Co-op’s cricket XI one Sunday afternoon near Yardley Church. I took a couple of catches at cover point but then had to try to stay batting as the team hung on for a tense draw. We did just that and I was left 2 not out… 

Ghreta spent a lot of time at home alone after Doug died from a stroke in 1981 but she kept a radio and the TV on all day for company as she went about her chores. Ivy and Jack would collect her and take her to their weekend caravan but Ghreta would take more than her fair share of food each time, making sure that she couldn’t be accused of taking advantage…

TYPICAL SUNDAY AFTERNOON IN IVY'S CARAVAN.
LOOKS LIKE, ER, FUN...

Ghreta outlived all of her siblings and lived in a home in a home in Tile Cross when her health and memory deteriorated, where she sadly passed away in 2008…

One of my regrets was that I was unable to make her funeral but my thoughts were very much with her on the day…

Doug was a bit of a radio ham, cousin Derek reminded me and he, like me, remembers Doug’s amazing car: the Jowett Javelin, parked at the top of the back garden, accessed along a right of way… His sister Dorothy lived close by in Beechmore Road, apparently and Derek recalls drinks of Vimto and bags of crisps after a day out during summer weekends, perhaps at the Fleur de Lys in Lowsonford, or the Drum and Monkey near Knowle.

DOUG'S BRILLIANT JOWETT JAVELIN.
ONLY 23,000 OF THESE EXECUTIVE CARS WERE BUILT BY THE JOWETT COMPANY IN IDLE, BRADFORD, BETWEEN 1947 & 1953.
IT WAS DESIGNED DURING WORLD WAR 2 BY GERALD PALMER.

My poem about Ghreta:

Oystercatcher At Marazion…

Shuffling along the packed, wet Marazion sand,

The Oystercatcher reminded me of my Auntie Ghreta,

Bustling through Marks and Spencer’s,

Woolly hat bobbing between the aisles

As she roved, with my shadowing passive mother in tow,

Both clutching identical canvas bags, slung low,

Both wearing similar M & S styles

And over similar garments they would lean and teeter…

The Oystercatcher hovered too, over a tasty lugworm to spear,

As the incoming tide encircled its bright red feet

But then the spell was broken by a marauding, mindless dog

And the shorebird flew a hasty, unwarranted retreat…

Pete Ray

Auntie Ghreta, like my mum, long dead, was a bustler and my mother followed her about when they met in Birmingham’s city centre on Wednesday mornings. 

Watching an Oystercatcher on Marazion beach made me smile and think of the two sisters doing what they did best… 

A chap chucked a tennis ball, his ignorance unbounded and his even more ignorant dog chased after the bird, not the ball…

That’s OK then, presumably… 

 

MY AUNT & UNCLE: IVY HEDGES & JACK EASTWOOD...

MY AUNT & UNCLE: 

IVY HEDGES (1911-2001) & JACK EASTWOOD (1912-2004)

WEDDING DAY 1937...

THIS HAS BEEN A TOUGH PAIR OF LIVES TO TRY TO CELEBRATE, SO PLEASE EXCUSE ANY SLIGHT INACCURACIES.

HUGE THANKS TO COUSINS DAVE AND DEREK FOR THEIR GREAT SUPPORT IN PUTTING THIS MEMORIAL TO THEIR PARENTS TOGETHER.

PLEASE SEND ME ANY ADDITIONAL INFORMATION, WHICH WOULD BE CONSIDERED USEFUL!

 IVY HEDGES:

A PATTERNED IVY...

1931 & IVY CLUTCHES THE TENNIS RACKET WHICH BROTHER EDDIE WOULD LATER STEAL...
BUT WHO'S THE POSH BLOKE WITH NO HEAD?

Ivy Cecily Maud Hedges was born on 4th October 1911 and worked in the Wolseley offices in Drews Lane, straight from school it seems. I am guessing that she attended the same schools as my mum and her other sister Ghreta, namely Nansen Road and then Cherrywood Road. All three sisters were fine runners and each was the fastest girl in the school when they reached their final year. 

I'M GUESSING THAT EITHER IVY IS PIGGED OFF BEING SO CLOSE TO EDDIE, OR ONE OF HER BROTHERS HAS FARTED...

SISTERS...

CHERRYWOOD ROAD SCHOOL & IS THAT GHRETA, FRONT OF RIGHT SIDE ROW?

Ivy married Jack just prior to World War II, then it appears that she maybe lived with with her mum and sister Marjorie (my mum), probably in Alderson Road for a time. When Nan Hedges remarried in 1938, Ivy might have stayed with Jack’s sister Alice and her husband Harold for a time. Nan then moved to Bamville Road and it’s possible that Ivy produced  her babies whilst staying there in 1944, for Jack had been posted to Cornwall, where someone yelled at him on a cliff-top one day that he was the father of twin sons…

WEDDING DAY: MY MUM & GHRETA AS BRIDESMAIDS, TED JACKSON AS BEST MAN & IVY'S BROTHER 'CLARENCE' GAVE HER AWAY...

THE WEDDING GROUP, BUT WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE???

A TINGE OF COLOUR...

Remarkably, I found out whilst writing this article that two years after Ivy had been born, Nan Hedges gave birth to and then lost twins: Stanley Eric and Albert Edward, in 1913... So twins were in the family, yet no-one had ever mentioned the fact to me...

TWIN PRAM...

DO WE LIKE EACH OTHER?
"YEAH, MAYBE..."

TELEGRAM ENVELOPES WHICH CONTAINED CONGRATULATIONS FOR THE BIRTH OF TWINS...

JACK'S MESSAGE...

MESSAGE FROM IVY'S WORK FRIENDS...

Ivy later worked at 10-15 Livery Street, near Birmingham’s Snow Hill Station in a drapery warehouse called Larkin’s. I thought she was very important, for I was told she was a comptometer operator which sounded utterly cool, like being some kind of spy, so I was really impressed. A comptometer, of course was a mechanical calculator but I didn’t know that then… 

1930s & GUESS WHO'S STEERING?

COMPTOMETER...

She actually secured a summer job for me at Larkin’s for a couple of weeks, when I was around 15 or 16 years old and I recall learning how to wrap parcels in brown paper and string to be posted out from the warehouse. I also took telephone messages, which was a fine way for me to learn how to wrap Christmas presents & actually use a telephone, for my parents didn’t have one installed until 1985. 

I have just discovered that my mate John Higgins' mum was working at Larkin's at the same time that I spent my fortnight there... Small world... 

IVY HYPNOTISES HER DOG...

THE TYPE OF POSE EXPECTED...

COLLAR & BUTTONS TO THE FORE...

When the warehouse closed down, Ivy apparently moved to a glassware firm in Erdington before her retirement. She used to tell me about Aston Villa players John Gidman and Brian Little popping into the place on some Monday mornings, though I never found out why they were actually there. She would ask Brian Little about the weekend game and he would usually simply roll up a trouser leg and display the blackest of bruises… 

CHRIS NICHOLL, CENTRE & BRIAN LITTLE, RIGHT, SCORED THE GOALS TO WIN THE LEAGUE CUP IN 1977 AT THE THIRD ATTEMPT...

A shame Villa’s fans weren’t shown that truth, for Little was often criticised for not pulling his weight… He basically won the 1977 League Cup Final second replay for Villa against Everton up at Old Trafford, following draws at both Wembley and Hillsbrough, Sheffield.  I know, cuz I was there for all three matches…

JACK EASTWOOD: WORLD WAR II, HIS ANCESTRY & HIS LIFE IN BIRMINGHAM…

JACK'S BIRTH CERTIFICATE...

Physically, Jack always put me in mind of Fred Astaire, the famous impish dancer. Jack, the cigarette smoker had driven a car for as long as I could remember and his ‘Austin Ruby’ is a fond memory. He worked in administration for Harrison’s for many years and prior to redundancy, he became a director I believe. As he neared retirement, he did some part-time work at a local DHSS branch. His family came from Blackburn, Lancashire and I believe an ancestor was a committee member at Blackburn Rovers in the early days. 

THE FAMOUS DON 30...

FRED ASTAIRE...

He was born John Grimshaw Eastwood on 28th July 1912 in Birmingham but in 1901 his family had lived at 30 Cedar Street, Blackburn. Jack’s dad William was 25 then and a saddler, a shopkeeper and an employer at that time. His wife Elizabeth was 24 and Jack’s brother Robert was 1.

WHERE'S JACKIE?

ON YOUR KNEES, BOY...

Back in 1891 the Grimshaw family was living at 6 Fleming Square, Blackburn, which was ‘The Bush Hotel’. Giblum Grimshaw was the publican, born in Accrington (he should have been called Stanley, surely?) Mary Elizabeth was his wife, born in Mottram, Derbyshire and daughter Elizabeth Ann, 14 was an apprentice milliner. She would become Jack’s mother and his middle name of ‘Grimshaw’ of course recognised his mum’s maiden surname…

Jack’s mum ran the Angel Hotel in Sparkbrook on the Stratford Road Birmingham with her husband and this was where Jack was born. Then the couple ran a pub called the Olive Branch, I have been told, as well as Ward End’s Barley Mow. As an elderly lady, ‘Mrs Smith’ as I knew Jack’s mum, lived round the corner from me during the 1950s at 52 Woodwells Road in Ward End, before passing away.

THE ANGEL & AN ORIGINAL TOLLHOUSE...

THE ANGEL & ITS TREES...

Jack’s older sister Alice Perkins was living at 63 Hartley Road, Kingstanding in 1939 and was the wife of Harold, a rate fixer, although Jack’s son Derek thinks he was a tool setter/maker. The Harding family lived just round the corner at 3 Hartley Grove and the two couples upped sticks and travelled south-west to run the Benton Hotel in Torquay. Jack’s sister had adopted a child, Glynnis and it was probably considered easier in those days to move away to escape from any unpleasant gossip. Unfortunately the venture didn’t succeed but Alice and Harold took on a corner shop in St Budeaux, Plymouth instead where I spent many happy days as a kid.

THE TWINS HAUL ME UP IN THE YARD OF THE SHOP IN ST BUDEAUX.
NOTE THE CRATES OF EMPTY POP BOTTLES...

IVY & THE TWINS JOIN MY PARENTS, ME, PLUS ALICE & HAROLD'S DAUGHTER GLYNNIS ON THIS SNAP...

JACK'S SISTER ALICE, PLUS HUSBAND HAROLD ARE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE IMAGE...

LES MAYELL’S BOOKS…

Jack Eastwood’s childhood friend Les Mayell wrote several books about growing up in Birmingham and Jack’s brother Bob would even marry Les’s adopted cousin Olive (Marsh). The wedding was at St Agatha’s Church, for the pair had renewed their childhood friendship after the Eastwoods had moved from managing the Angel pub, via the Barley Mow (Ward End) to the White Swan in Nechells.

BARLEY MOW, WARD END...

Les recalled trees growing on the Stratford Road frontage of the Angel pub, for the two lads would spend alternate weekends at each other’s home. Les really liked being at the White Swan pub though, staying up late on Saturday evenings and chasing round the place on Sunday afternoons. He recalled fresh sawdust being spread in the bar and all the brass being polished to a shine, including the spittoons…

WHITE SWAN, NECHELLS...

William Eastwood was actually a mean father to Jack, who had been born some time after his siblings and essentially, with his mum managing the pub, it was older sister Alice who looked after the young lad.

Les and Jack were lucky enough to use Birmingham’s new trolley bus, a penny each from Cuckoo Bridge to Nechells Green and the pair also played cricket with a friend who lived at the Beehive pub in Nechells Green, out in the yard.

THE BEEHIVE...

Walking together along Nechells Park Road, they once crossed to a boating pool at Salford Bridge but it seemed that they were unimpressed by Salford Park’s bleakness. ‘Spaghetti Junction’ has since taken over much of that area, of course…

When Jack’s father died, his mum was given an off-license to run which wasn’t as glamorous or lively, although week-ends remained as they had been for the lads. Once, they walked along Nechells Park Road and on to Aston Station, where they became lost in what they called a ‘squalid’ area…

Aston Park and Villa Park were seen and remembered by them and on one occasion, a White Swan barman took them to an Aston Villa home game. (Clearly Birmingham City supporter Jack remained unimpressed, although Les was, despite being a ‘Bluenose’ himself…)

THE OLD ST ANDREWS, CURSED BY GYPSIES, APPARENTLY...

Tommy Hitchman’s cab and horse (its legs were seen to ‘droop at the knees’) were often seen outside the Angel and could also be regularly spotted along a whitewashed wall in Ladypool Road.

Les and Jack called the road the ‘horse road’, as did Jack’s sister Alice and once, in her shop at 44 Edith Street in St Budeaux she asked me to go and sweep the horse-road. I walked outside and stood for several moments with an expectant broom, wondering what I was supposed to do, before returning inside the shop for clarification… I never forgot that. Neither did Alice…

THE SHOP AT 44 EDITH STREET, PLYMOUTH, PLUS HAROLD'S VAN...

Jack and Les were also taken to the old Birchfield Harriers’ athletics track on the Aldridge Road, Perry Barr, where Les remembered seeing the famous English athlete Joe Blewitt win several races…

JOE BLEWITT...

The ‘Delicia’  cinema in Gosta Green, close to the Sacks Of Potatoes pub had a fountain at each side of the screen, according to Les and Jack and these were operated during the interval, cooling and refreshing the audience in what was usually a packed, rather unhealthy smelling auditorium.

THE DELICIA & THE SACKS OF POTATOES...

Many evenings were often brightened up by Olive’s piano playing, whilst Bob and his friends led the family singing.

Jack and Les once spent a month at the Plough and Harrow in Shenstone with the Warners (known to the Eastwoods through managing pubs, possibly), where they climbed trees and found freedom in the countryside. They watched the local blacksmith too, who apparently swore at any horses which shifted during the shoeing process.

THE PLOUGH & HARROW, SHENSTONE...

The lads were interested in wireless sets and joined '5IT', which entailed going to studios in New Street, wearing badges and listening to talks about wireless.

Education-wise, Jack had originally attended Saltley College School, which was bombed during WW2 (1940) and never reopened.

Les had actually first met Jack when the Eastwood family were managing the Barley Mow and little Jack used to ride his small bicycle round the beer garden, entertaining the drinkers…

Jack’s father ‘drank himself to death’, whilst the family ran the White Swan, according to Les, whilst the ageing and ‘senile’ Mrs Grimshaw, Jack’s grandmother died too, leaving Mrs Eastwood to be shifted out to run the aforementioned off-licence (or ‘outdoor’). She would marry again and her name changed to Smith…

The lads spent a week in Derby occasionally with Bob and Olive, perhaps at Arleston Street (near Normanton Barracks), maybe at Harvey Road in Allentown, or Welwyn Avenue, Shelton Lock. 

In 1923 or 1924, the lads even travelled to Blackburn to stay with grandmother Eastwood and to see Jack’s aunts.

One of Jack’s twin sons, Derek tells me that his dad joined Joseph Fitter’s firm straight from school at around 14 years of age. The company made brass fittings (appropriate considering the name of the owner…) in Sherlock Street, Birmingham. They had patents on furniture fittings apparently, including a spiral mechanism for er, extending dining tables… Well, someone had to…

ONE SUCH TABLE!

Jack travelled all over the country by train, by tram and on foot, carrying a case of samples and incredibly, he wore short trousers at first as a young teenager… The firm kept his job open until WW2 was over and he made advancements to become Sales Director. After the firm was taken over by Harrison’s, a competitor, Jack stayed awhile before being made redundant.

However, back in August 1929 the lads had cycled to North Wales and Jack was photographed near a lake in Snowdonia, which hasn't been located. 1930 arrived and Les, 18 months older than Jack, bought a motor bike and they travelled to Derby to see Olive’s new baby daughter, Beryl.

A train journey to Blackpool in the September of that year saw them climb the famous Tower and enjoy the views, before listening to Reginald Dixon’s organ music.

Jack bought Les’s motor bike in 1932 and both of them were known to wear watch chains with compasses attached at this time, either hanging from button holes or from waistcoats. The chains had been bought in Woolworth’s… 

When Jack was changing trains at Crewe at the beginning of WW2, he met his old friend Les, whilst on his way to Blackpool for an RAF training camp, which proved rather a surprise meeting, although to be fair, most trains north-bound stopped in Crewe… 

CREWE, WW2...

Jack became a Sergeant Instructor, I believe, training recruits in the use of rifles and possibly other weapons. He was sent to RAF St Mawgan near Newquay in Cornwall (likely spending time at St Eval airfield), also to Whitley Bay, Lossiemouth and possibly to a coastal area in Northern Ireland.

ADDRESSED ENVELOPE FROM WHITLEY BAY, JACK TO IVY...

JACK LEAVES THE RAF...

ST EVAL...

St Eval village had been cleared by the government for the duration of the war and the overgrown airfield still hasn’t been built upon, for I see it regularly when I stay in Mawgan Porth to bodyboard and am driving into Padstow…

RATHER SMART...

In 1974 Jack, Ivy, Alice, Harold and probably my parents met Les and his wife at Talland Bay in Cornwall…

IVY & JACK AS I KNEW THEM…

MARRIAGE CERTIFICATE...
BUT IVY IS LIVING AT 16 ASQUITH ROAD & JACK AT 13 ST AGATHA'S ROAD???

DO I DETECT TANS ON THESE COURTING FOLKS?

Ivy and Jack moved willingly into the unenviable positions of heads of the  Hedges family and I’m sure they felt deserving of the rank. Originally, around the time of their marriage in 1937 they had bought a new semi-detached house just off the Coventry Road in Sheldon, almost opposite what was then Elmdon Airport. The address was 41 Goodway Road and I recall playing in the back garden there and ducking, darting and disappearing for cover as a bi-plane almost parted my short-back-and-sides haircut as it descended to land on a runway opposite. 

MY PARENTS AT HATCH MILL WITH ALICE & HAROLD, WHO LOOKS LIKE A SQUARE-LEG UMPIRE IN A CRICKET MATCH...

ONE OF MANY FAMILY HOLIDAYS.
THIS ONE IS CORTON, 1952 & THE FAMILY IS LEFT SIDE, TOWARDS THE BACK. 
THE BACK OF MY HEAD IS JUST VISIBLE, A BETTER SIGHT...

IVY WITH SISTER-IN-LAW ALICE HEDGES BUT SOMETIMES THEY WEREN'T THE VERY BEST OF FRIENDS, I BELIEVE...

Derek remembers Dakota aircraft flying so low over the house that he and brother Dave could recognise the different pilots from the back bedroom window of the house…

Derek reckons that the garage at Goodway Road was so narrow that the Austin Ruby fitted in fine but when Jack changed his car to a Ford Anglia Estate, he exited the vehicle through the rear, when it was garaged. Next came a Ford Anglia which needed simply pushing into the garage and pulling out... The joys!

JACK'S ADDRESS ON THE MARRIAGE CERTIFICATE...

I was always somewhat wary of outdoor play in Goodway Road after the aerial attack on my head but there was generally a delightful scent of apples in their garage area, I recall. Jack read the Birmingham Post newspaper and I was always fascinated by the action photos from Warwickshire’s cricket matches on the sports pages, when I leafed through his saved bundle outside the kitchen door. I loved the images of wicketkeepers taking diving catches… 

IVY, Nan Hedges & MY MUM...

IVY & MY MUM, ON HOLIDAY, 1950s...

Next door to Ivy & Jack were Margaret and Bernard Brown, who became lifelong friends of the family and indeed were like ‘aunt’ and ‘uncle’ to the twins  and me, as well as our other cousins. They had no children but their dog licked bare knees, so much so that on the rare occasions visits were made to their next house on the Coventry Road (number 1904?), round the corner from Ghreta's home in Barrows Lane, I was invariably handed a tea-towel to cover my legs…

THE TWINS ARE THERE BUT MARGARET BROWN IS STANDING, FAR RIGHT & BERNARD STANDS, 4TH FROM LEFT... 

Ivy and Jack moved off to 23 Stoneleigh Road, Solihull in 1963, a step up from the Sheldon postal address I guess which offered a new social-standing. Ivy made me smile because she would never answer her telephone with the customary ‘705 6057’ but instead she relayed the information, “SOLIHULL 6057…”, which caused my dad some mental anguish when he called her from a box, or from his neighbour Frank Griffiths’ home-phone. 

Sons and twins Dave and Derek had attended Hatchford Brook Primary School, then King Edward’s Grammar School, Camp Hill. They were both excellent cross-country runners, I believe. When I was a kid, seven years younger than my cousins, Dave seemed to me the louder of the two but Derek always seemed to be more placid and he apparently spent a fair amount of time as a youngster with my parents before I was born. My dad always reckoned that he had helped to shape Derek into a very reasonable character but that was just my father being a boastful pain… Dave attended Loughborough University, or College as it then was and Derek went to Exeter University.

Derek and his new wife Ann emigrated to the States around 1967, then Dave moved there too, eventually marrying an American called Jan and she bore him two sons, Max and Jess, both decent guys. Dave now lives in La Paz, Mexico but back then I was sad that his girlfriend Sandra didn’t go to the States with him, for she was a really fun person to be around. Dave once refused to clean his car in Stoneleigh Road I remember, just to upset the snobbish neighbours but his mum apparently hurried outside to give the filthy Jaguar a wash and keep up appearances…

ALICE PERKINS, MUM, SANDRA, ME & HAROLD AT TORQUAY...

MUM & SANDRA GOT ON SO WELL...

Derek is now married to Nadine, they live in Florida and his son was named for his father, Jack… 

NADINE, DEREK, IVY, ME & JACK...

A PAIR OF JACKS...

One visit abroad to Europe for Ivy and Jack was enough: a holiday in Austria where the food was described as disagreeable and I believe that Ivy hated the flights. They did however visit their sons in America in 1987!

IN THE STATES...

JACK'S SECOND VISIT...

San Francisco 1987...

Ivy and Jack moved on to a smaller but new house in Needhill Close, Knowle, a while after Jack had suffered a heart attack. It was such a surprise to us all that Jack had left his excellent Stoneleigh Road garden behind but decisions needed to be made. Ivy’s new phone-answering statement became: “KNOWLE double 7, double 4, 18…” instead of the usual ‘01564 774418.’ 

Whenever my son Jamie and I have driven to Cafe Saffron in Knowle for a meal, since Ivy passed away, we have honoured her memory by chanting her two phone-answering classics. Never forgotten… 

Jack lived sensibly after his heart attack but after Ivy died, he battled on regardless, keeping busy. He even flew to the States again to see Derek, Nadine and Jack in 2003… 

He had an incredible memory and was interviewed for his knowledge about old Birmingham and the back-to-back houses on local radio more than once. He ended his life in a home on the fringes of Solihull in 2004. 

Ivy had broken her thigh in a fall and she simply deteriorated with little fight, it appeared. They had celebrated more than sixty years of marriage…

WHEN I WAS A KID:

Christmas night was always spent at Ivy’s. Everyone felt compelled to compliment her on her decorations, for in truth they were so much more stylish than the ones in my parents’ council house in Shard End. We played housey-housey (the poor man’s Bingo), plus various games involving written answers which were always keenly contested, plus Consequences, always my favourite game and then finally, Newmarket, a card game, with rich halfpenny and penny pickings… 

Magic evenings, those… I always put my money on the Queen of Spades card but usually won Newmarket’s final hand on the King of Clubs. Was that fixed by the adults? Hmm, I will never know. Unlikely though, considering my dad’s ‘win at all costs’ attitude. Jack and dad were mildly rude during Consequences and there was always a catchphrase which remained rampant throughout the evening.

There was ‘Tar-Soles’ from a shop’s sign, referring to some kind of hard-wearing shoe-material, ‘a bit of sand in my Brownie’, which had been said on a beach whilst using a camera, plus other mild comments which crept out of crackers each Yuletide. Dad and Jack fell about in fits of laughter, my mum’s sisters Ghreta and Ivy would remark, “You are awful…” whilst my mum just smiled and wondered what the hell everyone was talking about anyway. 

Ivy once laughed when as a child I had really wanted a seaman’s type kitbag, which I innocently dubbed a ‘ship-bag’.  Yes, that became another ripe quotation for Consequences…

I just didn’t ever want to go home from Ivy's. I was dutifully quiet, as instructed by my father, didn’t touch anything and answered the occasional questions  politely but I loved it all…

When I was an adult Ivy made many comments about how infrequently I rang or visited but I had a good deal of affection for her, although to keep the peace in my marital home, visits were indeed scarce. 

Despite the brilliant Boxing Day parties at my house, Ivy never really got over her dislike of travelling to Shard End and after being unwell she seemed to deteriorate rather quickly, passing away in January 2001, aged 89… 

Ivy had loved vinegar and told me once that she could have drunk it when she was younger, something we had in common but in one of the final visits I made to her house in Knowle, she told me: “Don’t get old…”

Ivy was a brilliant and precise knitter too, often creating articles without patterns. She made women’s clothing but also woollen items for babies, as well as tea-cosies, which were all the rage in the Hedges family… Derek tells me that she made cardigans and sweaters when he lived in California in the 1980s which were sold in a small outlet there under the label ‘Ivy Hedges’… 

JACK & ALL THAT JAZZ…

With a couple of buddies, Jack ran the Number 5 jazz club in Birmingham but the most revealing story concerning the club was when he interviewed Louis Armstrong for the club’s magazine after a show in Birmingham, probably in 1932. Jack waited on a couch in a dressing room and when Satchmo entered, sweating profusely, his mistress (his wife didn’t travel with him) towelled the musician down, after he had stripped off his clothes… Jack conducted the interview in this rather obscure scenario with a naked famous musician and later said that he had wished that he could have hidden under the couch… Armstrong’s mistress was Alpha apparently, a woman he eventually married…

SATCHMO...

Jack discussed incidents such as these on Pebble Mill’s ‘Barmaid’s Arms’ lunchtime radio show, where he was interviewed on several occasions.

Jack told me when I last saw him that he had “…had enough…” and passed away on 30th October 2004, following a stroke suffered in a park, I believe…

IN CONCLUSION:

Ivy and Jack used a static weekend caravan at two different locations, although they never stayed overnight. Harvington and Hoo Mill were the countryside sites and I visited both several times. The walks were excellent at each site and as Derek agrees, the Hoo Mill setting along the River Alne was beautiful, with fine bird watching to enjoy.

MY SON JAMIE VISITS IVY'S CARAVAN, FOLLOWING A SUCCESSFUL SOCCER MATCH!

DID I REALLY GO IN?

HOO MILL...

I believe the family once had a budgie called Dinky but actually Jack really didn’t like cats, which is probably why my cat Ricky used to make a beeline for Jack’s lap. It was uncanny and although Jack screwed up his face and growled his discontent, as he could do seriously on occasions, I reckon that he was quite proud really that Ricky had fallen asleep on his lap…

One of Jack’s later cars was a Metro, although Ivy would insist on calling it a Rover, rather than an Austin… Well, the Rover factory was in Solihull and the Austin factory was in Longbridge, Birmingham… Enough said.

Many orchestral records by Mantovani could be found in their collection at Stoneleight Road but I was glad I could listen to Johnny & The Hurricanes or Jesse Fuller on Ivy’s radiogram there instead. In fact, when Ivy and Jack bought a newer radiogram, my parents were offered the old one, so at last I could listen to my own music at home with some bass…

My dad did decorating for Ivy and Jack sometimes but on one occasion in Solihull, they paid a decorator to work on a small room but didn’t mention it my father, who inexplicably felt a little put out, I believe.  They didn’t ask him to decorate again.

Ivy would always send my mum a home-made Christmas pudding but the very last time this happened, it was inside a tea-cup, then wrapped. Before it was even opened, Ivy asked for the teacup to be returned. That made me smile because I had received one too!

I know Jack was a member of the Freemasons for a very short time but I believe he very quickly realised that such a membership wasn’t for him… He played leisurely games of indoor bowls later in life too.

PRIZE FOR JACK...

Ivy made me smile in later years when she told me that she and Jack didn’t buy Christmas cards for each other any longer. Instead they had put away cards sent to each other several years before with their other seasonal trimmings and simply re-displayed them… 

NO TWINS, BUT THE REST OF THE 'HEDGES FAMILY' AT MY WEDDING IN 1976...

JACK LOOKS LIKE A NAZI CAMP COMMANDANT...

THAT'S THE LOOK JACK SHOWED WHEN MY CAT SAT UPON HIS LAP...
SCARY...

My kids were allowed to play with a backgammon set when we visited the Knowle house, something I recall vividly but there was always the worry that something might be knocked over in the house and blot my copybook. It never happened, fortunately… 

I loved Ivy and Jack, for they supported me all through my downs and provided many ups… My holidays were made special for me by Ivy in particular, for when we were in Bournemouth or Devon, I was freed somewhat from my dad’s control and Ivy made my life more of a pleasure, just for the 7-10 days we shared during those summer breaks…

A LOCAL SOLIHULL NEWSPAPER CONGRATULATES IVY & JACK ON 60 YEARS OF MARRIAGE...

THE KNITTER & THE SNOOZERS...

Thank you, both of you…

THE NEVER FORGOTTEN IVY & JACK...