Growing Up In Dudley - Barbara

My parents used to laugh you know: “Your moment of fame! You were Mary when you were five.”

I don’t really remember anything about it accept I was Mary. I’ve no idea who else is on it and I’d guess it was 1953 I would of thought.

Barbara pictured centered as Mary in the school Nativity.

It was Stafford Street infants school, so when I was, I presume 7, I moved to St Thomas’s School which was in King Street. I was only there for one term then I moved to Brierley Hill.

I can remember starting there in the middle of a school year. I started there at Christmas and it was very different, it was quite a walk from Brierley Hill to Brockmoor. Home at lunchtime and back again.

I can remember singing and we used to use the National Song Book it was quite interesting they used to just pick things out and you used to just sit there and sing for about an hour at a time.

It was a huge mixture, there were hymns and there were things like ‘What Shall We Do With The Drunken Sailor’, …ooh what else? The ‘Campbell’s Are Coming’ all sorts of things that you never hear now.

I suppose I enjoyed History and Music. I can certainly remember learning about the Romans and where they Roman Roads went and how Roman roads were built. Goodness knows why that stuck in my mind but it did.

Although I can remember at St Thomas’s learning the basics of writing music, funnily enough.

I can remember going in to the hall and sitting on the floor and being given manuscript paper and being taught how to begin to write music notation.

One thing I do remember about the playground, when I was at Stafford Street, was one of the mothers giving me and her daughter a piece of chocolate. 

I guess it was probably still rationed then and I can remember that to this day being given this piece of the chocolate through the fence. That was a real treat.

And of course the school was right by the brewery. So there was the smell of the beer the whole time. Certainly the smell was very, very strong.

We often went to the zoo. My aunt and uncle were members of what they called the ‘Zoo Club’ and that meant you had a free pass and could go in whenever you wanted.

My friend and I used to collect this pass and go to the Zoo for free. 

I am not too sure we were that interested in the animals, it was more we’d go on the chair lift and the miniature train.

We were allowed to go out for the day and we’d go on the bus and came back on the bus.

Strangely enough I went on to teaching and many of these things come back to me.

Thank you to Barbara for taking the time to speak to us and tell us here story.