Family Life in Old Hillfields 

by Dollie Turner 

My name is Dolllie Turner, the youngest of the "Blythe" family who lived for many years in Yardley Street. However, just before I was born the family moved to 5 Berry Street - at the bottom of the hill, and whenever we had a very heavy storm the flood water rose. It would come in the back of the house and we either had to bail it our by carrying it through the house and emptying it out the front door, or sweeping it straight through both rooms - there were no fitted carpets in those days before the 1914 - 1918 War. No one found out the cause of the floods, but we were next to the Brook Street Jetty. 

There were a number of old slaughter houses for local butchers in Hillfields and five o'clock Monday tea time was always an exciting time as cattle were brought to Reddings at the corner of Yardley Street to be slaughtered. It is not that we were morbid, but there always seemed to be one or two cattle which refused to go through the door. Somehow they got loose and would start chasing around the streets invariably coming along Brook Street and straight in the narrow Brook Jetty. Then it was every man for himself!

Of course we all had to do errands. One place where we especially liked going was Shistons, the drug store in King William Street. A loveable old couple kept this shop, and often gave us a bit of liquorice to suck, particularly if we had a cough. They also gave us a 'Beechams Oracle' which was a piece of paper which was lit at a certain spot with a piece of smouldering string. We took it home and our mother would light the string and we would watch as the smouldering travelled round and spelt our the name of a Beechams product. 

One of my sisters and I joined the 'Band of Hope' which met every Thursday at Vine Street Chapel. This group was against the evils of alcoholic drink, but to us it was great fun, especially the street processions, which were an annual affair. 

My father had some stable at the bottom of King William Street, just across the brook. He was a haulier and owned three, sometimes four horses. He had a contract to transport stone from one district to another around the city. It was used mainly in road making and he died in 1918. During the 1914 - 1918 War the horse which he loved the most was commandeered for service in the Army and we never saw him again. 

I was a simple shop assistant and in 1923 I got a job at Jacksons, 40 Cross Cheaping, which sold hats for 3/9d and shoes for 10/6d. The hours of work were 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thursday, 9 am. to 8 p.m. Friday and 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Saturday It was usually 9.30 p.m. before we had tidied up the shop, it was only then, and not a minute earlier that we were paid our week's wage, the grand sum of 10/-.   

I was there for four years and then went to Hilton the shoe shop in Broadgate. After being there for four years I was off sick with tonsillitis, so I got the sack, there was no such thing as an industrial tribunal in those days. 

Later I worked at Woolworths and I remember Christmas Eve being a very busy time, we never used to finish until Midnight, we didn't get any extra pay of course. When I got married I had to leave work, this was the rule in those days.

Dorothy Turner, (nee Blythe)

Reproduced with kind permission of the Hillfields History Group. This story was first published in a publication by the group called Hillfields in their Own Words.

This page was last updated 29/03/03

Other stories about Hillfields in their own words