Call The Midwife!

[harry]

Hi Bill,were the buildings Peabody Buildings?
Harry I.

[Bill Sharpe]

I don't know the name of the buildings Harry - The view from the train was the rear of the buildings.

[Kathy Taylor]

I read ‘Call The Midwife” a couple of years ago and I didn’t think much of it at the time. I thought the author, Jennifer Worth, appeared to be a stuck-up, patronising type of girl who let her imagination run riot. The Poplar of the 1950s that she was describing sounded in part, like the Old Jago of the 1850s. I suppose that coming from her pleasant middle class background to the East End which still very much showed the scars of the Blitz was bit of a culture shock for her.

The TV series based on her book has also been made with a vivid imagination and I can just picture a 1950s midwife riding her bicycle through a dockyard, as was shown in the opening shots. Although some of the shots were very evocative and that child strapped in the pram could have could have been me, as seen in ther attached photo. As I was growing up, I often heard the phrase ‘put the baby out for some air’ and you would see many a pram outside the front door, quite often with mum sitting on her chair, shelling peas or doing some knitting.

I seem to recall reading in the book that the women of Poplar didn’t put nappies on their babies as they either couldn’t afford them or they couldn’t be bothered to keep washing them, consequently the baby would soil the floor, chair or whatever it was sitting on at the time!!!

The East London that I grew up in was poor, but the ladies always seemed to take pride in their houses – they didn’t have a lot but they knew how to look after it. I dare say that Ms Worth may have encountered a few families who were not house-proud and who lived in very shabby conditions but the picture she paints shows all East Londoner’s in the same light.

I shall continue watching the series, with a large pinch of salt, as it’s worth a laugh, if nothing else.

Kathy

[nan]

re:call the midwife,i cannot recall all that fighting going on in the streets,nor the washing across the roads,but i suppose it all makes for entertainment .
at the moment i am reading 4 meals for 4pence,and it reminds me of my mum during the war (i sound like uncle albert)she woulg get 6pennyworth of bacon bones ,some potherbs and a packet of pearse duffs peaflour and make a big pot of stew and when we went down the shelter at night she would give us a bowl full to keep us warm.
my brother and i loved it,her and dad would have some as well,so all in all i suppose it cost about 10-12 pence.
another book i have just read is, the light in the window,about young girls in ireland in the 1950s who were pregnant.
then it was a disgrace but these days it is accepted,how times change,eh.
best wishes to all,   nan.

[Robert Rogers]

Well said Kathy, the Photo reminds me of what the East End did look Like. Comming from Poplar and as the show is set there in early 1957, would have made me 3.5 years old and just starting to notice things, especailly the Docks which was a walled world to it self, and outsider would not have just walked around in it (a Dirty Great PLA Copper would have made certain of that!).

Having also read the book, She has made the odd event like a very large family seem the norm, (but 25 kids is pushing the mark, can remember a few going for a football team), and like you will wait and see what develops.

Do not want to start a baby photo war, but have attached a photo of me take in 1953, a bouncy Baby from the East End, Ahhhh.

[EX CUSTOM HOUSE]

  To:-  Kathy and Robert I do have the book and might read it sometime.

           Just loved those Prams my first baby had a Silver Cross and was I proud of that never having had
           many luxuries.

           It was on HP from the Co-op but never a payment missed.  Next cottage I moved to with the 2nd New Born pram
           would not go through front door so had to sell it.  Broke my heart!!

[nelliesgirl]

Kath!

You are right in much of what you say!

But I can remember my mother taking me to visit a relative of hers, who lived in a shared house, Star Lane Canning Town, about 1951.

And they were so poor! outside toilet, bare floors, stone and floor boards painted. and little furniture, cold and dingy, with very little food, It seem that Flo, her relative, had no husband, two children, but very little idea, in how to cope, in her situation.   Mum used to try and help out where she could, but having 11 children of her own, this was difficult.  No we were not all like the book paints, but there where those who were.

This is me as a baby, 1947, one of eleven children, My mother was so proud of us all.

I did enjoyed the book.

[nelliesgirl]

Me with a few of my siblings. Stephens Road 1954

I can also remember, a women from Steel Road, Stratford, knocking at my mother's door, asking her if she had any spare clothes, as her children had none. I was about 8 years old at the time. My mother sent me to my room to fetch the new skirts and tops she had made for my sister and I, and gave them to the women, for her little girls. A few weeks later the children were taken into care.

[EX CUSTOM HOUSE]

Harry and Bill Hi.

I always thought there was a Peabody Buildings going down to Peggy Leggy Steps? Down Star Lane (It was rough)

I lived in Durham Road then and played round that area a lot.

Hope this is not a "Senior Blip"


Louise

[Robert Rogers]

These were known as Manor Road Building and were infact built by West Ham Council.

A mate of mine called Jimmy Ford used to live in there in the 60`s, wonder want ever happend to him as we lost contact where they were demolised.

[MBrennan]

I was looking at things I had recorded on Sky and noticed I had recorded it without realising. It says I just have episode one - is it a repeat?

Talking of baby stuff, I remember my mum also had a silver cross and as far as I know, it was used for all 4 of us. It did a lot of Mileage - especially as, at one point, she pushed the pram from Beckton with us in tow to High St North to do the shopping. I remember we had our jabs at the community centre at the end of Eisenhower Drive but I also remember going to a hospital/clinic off Barking road, past the town hall. I remember it had kind-of covered walkways around the outside and we walked what seemed like miles. We were often there as my younger brother was born brain-damaged and we used to go there for speech therapy etc.

[MBrennan]

Nelliesgirl, your post reminded me of how much things have changed even in the last 40 years. When I was in the 4th year juniors in Dagenham, around 1971, there were quite a few kids there who came to school in dirty, worn out clothes. One girl looked like orphan annie. I know this wouldn't be allowed now, but someone; probably one of the teachers, sent a collection around the school to buy her a dress. The worst part was, she was made to go around the school in front of full classes of kids to 'do a twirl' and say thank you to everyone - It must have been so humiliating for her. There was another boy in my class who was also very scruffy and always smelled funny - as if he was sent to school in the same unwashed clothes. Despite this, he always buckled down in class and had beautiful handwriting. I was recently looking on friends reunited and he is now the managing director of a company  

One incident I remember from Beckton prefabs is one of our neighbours (not naming names) had a large family and were quite 'rough and ready' - we were in their house one day and the latest baby had food around its mouth. The mum said to me "look at the state of her - go and get my drawers off the line" - which I did and she wiped the baby's face with them - you couldn't make these things up  

We didn't have much but somehow, my mum kept things together - plimsolls from Pollards for playing out, Clarks sandals for the summer and Tuf shoes for the winter 

[Will.B]

                WE ARE SURVIVORS  -  for those born before 1940





We were born before, penicillin, polio shots, frozen foods, Computers, Plastic, 
Contact lenses, videos, Mobile Phones and The Pill.   We were born before Radar,
Credit cards, split atoms, Laser beams and ball point pens.  Before dishwashers, tumble driers, electric blankets, Central Heating, air conditioners, drip dry clothes and before man walked on
The moon.

We got married first and lived together afterwards.  We thought “fast food” was what you
Ate in Lent.  A “Big Mac” was an oversized Raincoat and “Crumpet” we had for our tea.  We existed before house husbands, computer dating and dual control cars.  When a
“meaningful relationship” meant getting along with cousins, and “sheltered accommodation” was where you waited for the bus.

We  were born before day care centres, group homes and disposable nappies.  We never heard of Stereo radio, C.Ds, electric typewriters, artificial hearts, word processors,
Yogurt or young men wearing earrings.  For us “time sharing” meant being together,
“hardware” was nuts and bolts, and “software” wasn’t a word.

Before 1940 “Made in Japan” meant junk.  The term “making out” referred to how
You did in your exams, “stud” was something that fastened a collar to a shirt and
“going all the way”  meant staying on a double decker bus until it got to the Depot.

Pizzas, McDonalds and instant coffee were unheard of.  In our day cigarette smoking
Was” fashionable” , “grass” was cut with a mower, “coke” was kept in the coal
House.  A “joint” was a piece of meat you ate on Sundays  and “pot” was something you cooked in.  “Rock music” was a loving mothers lullaby, “Eldorado” was an ice cream, a “gay” person was the life and soul of a party and nothing more, while “aids” just meant beauty treatment or help for someone in trouble.

We who were born before 1940 must be a hard lot, when you think of the way in which the world has changed, and the adjustments we have had to make.  100 pence to the pound instead of £.s.d.  Millimetres instead of inches. – No wonder there is a generation gap.
                   But HALLELUJAH – we have survived

                                            ANON

[nelliesgirl]

Hi!

Yes, we are the lucky one's. My Mother was a Dr Barnardo's child born 1909. She always said she was the lucky one. I suppose she was in two ways! One she was not transported, Two she had a warm bed at night and food in her tummy, and was taught how to make ends meet.

This is Mum, just before being sent to Barnardo's.  Not so happy, of what was in-store for her. As soon as she entered Barnardo's in 1918 after her parents deaths. She was given a number! then sent to the receiving room to await her fate. Her beautiful hair was shaved off, her little watch and bangle were taken away, and she never saw them again. Mum had 11 children of her own, and six step-children, and many foster children in her 97 years of life. She was a Strong Lady, very compassionate, and would have given the shirt off her back ( so to speak) if she thought someones need was greater than hers. I am proud to be her daughter, as many of us are of our parents, who fought tooth and nail, through the hard years of the first world war,the great depression ,then straight into the second world war.  Is it any wonder there were times off great hardship.

They say things will be hard this coming year or two. But I don't think it will ever be like our ancestors had.

Nell

[Bill Sharpe]

Ther were many of those cold water, outside toilet shared houses still in existence in the Star Lane, Clarence Road, Percy Road area as late as 1971. I lived in one of those houses for a year after getting married in 1970. We lived downstairs and a couple of about our own age lived upstairs, they had to walk through our tiny kitchen to go to the outside toilet. Luckily we got on very well with our upstair residents and there was a smashing community spirit in Clarence Road and I only have happy memories of that period of my life. I recently read the life story of the late 19th century world champion boxer, 'Pedlar Palmer' and was very surprised to read that at one time he lived in the very same house in Clarence Road.