Memories of Allan Freeman at Frederick Bird School

At the tender age of five, Allan Freeman started at Frederick (Freddy) Bird Infant School in Hillfields. He recalls that on the first morning he was taken by his dad. "The year was 1931 and he was out of work, and my mother took on cleaning jobs at the big houses on both sides of Gosford Green" he says. "I think my earliest memory is of us all running out of the playground to see the R101 airship go over. It seemed to block out the sky it was so big!".

The headmistress was Mrs. Thomas, and Allan particularly remembers "Miss Davidson who smacked you with a ruler". After the register the pupils would hand their lunch to the teacher, who placed them all in a large box for safe keeping. With nearly 40 children in the class, Allan was amazed she know whose was whose, but says "I expect on some days others got my bread and lard and I had their bread and jam!"

Allan remembers one sad event "I sat next to a boy named Peter Ling, which was very uncomfortable because he wore leg irons and I used to be clouted with them. "I think when I was about six we were told Peter had died and were all asked if we could bring a penny for some flowers for him. I remember wondering why he would want flowers if he was dead, or as they used to tell us in those days "gone to be with the angels". 

Times could be hard for the family and Allan recalls that if your dad was out of work you could stand on the end of a queue and get free boots at school. "I wore my new ones and carried the old ones, but found it difficult to understand my mother's attitude.  I thought she would be pleased as punch, instead she wept. No such thing from my dad, he covered the bottom of my boots in "Blackeys" and they made smashing sparks".

Allan says he walked to and from school with his best mates Ray and Len was always a big adventure: "One day we actually watched a big kid set light to a firework display with a magnifying glass. It was in a shop window on the corner of Burlington Road. I have to say we ran like the wind when the shop window went up!".

He says at the junction where five roads met, known as Jeffrey Woods Cross, opposite the newsagents was a small warehouse that appeared to unpack crates of food, which he thinks were Fyffe's bananas mostly. One day he and five other kids were allowed inside to watch and be told of the terrors of the banana trade. 

"A man in overalls was prising the lid off a coffin shaped box and he gave us a running commentary, saying "sometimes giant spiders as big as saucers get in the boxes and come all the way with the bananas. If they bite you it is sudden death!"

As he pulled the last piece of wood off he shouted 'Ooh, here's one'. Needless to say we all ran in terror. Ray had somehow acquired a green banana off the loose pile, but he threw it away as far as possible for fear of the spiders. We never did go there again".

From David McGrory writing in the Coventry Evening Telegraph on 21st September 2002. Allan Freeman was 75 at the time the article was written. He lived in Mowbray Street and grew up within the shadow of the football ground. He now lives in Sutton-on-Sea in Lincolnshire.

This page was last updated 24/05/06

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