Events
Roger Cave came to live in Highfields in 1940, the year he was born.
Extract
Can you tell me about bonfire night? Yes, well bonfire night used to be quite a thing because they hadn't got the restrictions that they have now. Every street in the area would have at least two bonfires at either end of the street even though they were perhaps dangerously close to buildings. A street like Twycross Street which crosses Melbourne Road could probably have as many as four bonfires in the one street, so to anybody standing at a distance it would look like the whole area was ablaze! So a lot of people used to come out from the street and just join in? Yes, they did then, I think there was probably more community atmosphere than there would be now in most areas
Read the full interview
Listen to the full interview
Helen Edwards interviewing Sandy Coleman for Highfields Remembered.
Extract
for the coronation we had our own little street party, we didn't join in Biddulph Street, we had our own in the avenue.
Read the full interview
Listen to the full interview
Dr Stuart Fraser lived in Highfields from 1946 the year he was born.
Extract
bonfire night. I mentioned that all the side streets of Melbourne Road were made of granite sets. What used to happen on bonfire night was that each street would have at least one bonfire if not two, and of course you could quite happily have a bonfire because it wouldn't damage the road because it was granite sets. And a bonfire was marvellous because you drive down Melbourne Road and every side street would have a bonfire in the middle of it and there would be rockets and fireworks in the street and it was a marvellous time. I can remember a rocket going a bit wrong and taking off up Hartington Road once because the bonfires going to five ways was quite a good spot, that's opposite the Melbourne Cinema because you had five roads up there and you could see lots of bonfires and that's a time that I vividly remember, was the bonfire night.
Read the full interview
Listen to the full interview
Mrs Hazel Jacques came to Highfields in 1942.
Extract
After the war, when the King and Queen drove through the park, I was in the Guards then, not the Guides- it was the Salvation Army Guards who leader looked after us.
When the King and Queen came, they wanted two girls to stand with the standards at the gate, so me and Betty Matthews stood one side of the gate with the flag, and I stood the other side with the Salvation Army flag and the Union Jack! The King and Queen came through and the King saluted the flag! The minute that the car had gone, everybody was running across the park to go and get another view of them.
Extract
The victory parade was about 3 miles long and it lasted ages. The streets were packed with people coming back, you had to be careful your shoes didn't get stuck in the tramlines. The trams used to run up East Park Road.
Extract
Every Christmas morning we had our photograph taken with the Lord Mayor outside the receiving home on Mill Hill Lane. Then Councillor Court, he used to give us all sixpence, and where the sixpences went, who knows. I don't know where they went. We never spent them!
Read the full interview
Listen to the full interview
Mr Amarjit Singh Johl came to Highfields in 1964.
Extract
Were there any fairs in those days in Spinney Hill Park? No. There was no such a thing in those days. All these things have come with Asian immigrants. Religion and culture are now here. There were no religious processions at all. The celebrations were limited.
Read the full interview
Mr Aidan Maguire came to Highfields in 1962.
Extract
I remember I had a friend who lived on the corner of Duffield Street, there was a big Irish family there called the McKanans. Brian was very big for his age, he grew up to be about six foot six eventually, but we dressed him up like a 'guy'. Our 'guy' looked the best around but things got a bit dangerous when we spotted the 'policeman spirit' coming up Melbourne Road. We said to Brian, "Don't move Brian, stay there because here comes policeman spirit." Of course, basically he would class it as begging, all we wanted to get was sweets, but Brian got up and ran up Duffield Street dressed as a 'guy'. The policeman said later on when he caught us, that it was the first time he had seen a walking guy!
Extract
We used to have a large bonfire every 5th of November. I always used to go down there and let fireworks off and things like that. There was a lot of Irish families there. I can't remember ever being any hassle between people whoever they were. It isn't until people get older that they start rivalries, it is just a pity that it happens, but I think it happens in every community you know.
Extract
I think it was Bate's Fair that came. I remember the ones in the seventies better because I was older. I mean, I always loved the Fair. I loved sitting in the Dodgems and things like that and you got all the music. The Asians always used to come from all over once the fair was there, all the Asian community seemed to descend on the Fair because they loved it.
Extract
Most people went to the Fair and you know, people could wander round, my sisters would wander round. I would be with my and we would see everyone from posing with older girls friends!
Read the full interview
Marjorie Marston was born in Highfields in 1942.
Extract
Do you remember anything of the Carnival? Oh yes, we have been to see it, we try to see it every year. Actually we think it is very good. We like all the music, steel bands, I particularly like those. This year I think it really excelled itself with all the costumes, bird costumes all brightly coloured, they were really nice.
Extract
Bonfire Night, we used to have bonfires in the middle of the roads. Do you know where St Peter's Junior School is in Twycross Street? Well, in Gopsall Street, there used to be one right outside the school, a great big one and as we lived just over the road, it used to be really handy. We used to be out there probably until twelve at night with this bonfire going and there used to one at the other end of the street as well, because there weren't a lot of cars, it wasn't a problem. So who used to organise these? We used to organise them ourselves. We all used to collect some wood and plonk it on the bonfire and everyone used to get their fireworks and start them up and people used to come out, stand on their doorsteps and watch.
Extract
Did you used to make the Guy Fawkes dummy? Yes, we did. We had the Guy Fawkes to put on the top and roast potatoes and treacle toffee and things all sorts of things. You don't see a lot of that these days. Dancing round bonfires sort of thing you know even that seemed to be safer then
Extract
We always used to have a new dress for Whitsuntide you know, usually a cream one. I don't know why that was, with nice cream shoes and white socks etc., that always happened.
Extract
And the Fairs. I notice you have got something down here about Fairs. We used to have a big Fair on Lee Street Circle, where we have built all the shops now. I remember going down to that one year with my father and my two younger brothers and getting lost, I remember that very well. I think my brother was about two so I must have been about seven or something like that. I remember seeing someone, and this is how safe it was then, I remember seeing someone who reminded me of my next door neighbour and I followed him all the way home. I managed to get home, yes, I just walked behind him because I knew it was somebody I knew. My father was frantically going round the fair looking for me and I was safely at home.
Extract
we used to have street parties every so often on big occasions, like the Coronation. We had a street party, or on anybody's big national birthdays. They used to be great fun because you used to get the big tables and everybody used to gather and bring food, and there used to be fancy dress parties and competitions.
Extract
I do remember the Coronation, I didn't see it on television, just read about it in the papers and listened to it on the radio. Most of that day, I spent out marching in the rain in the street but I remember her getting married as well. Actually thinking about it, my mum took me to see her wedding dress in the Newarke Museum, they had it on exhibition there and we queued for ages to get in. That was the original wedding dress, it was doing a tour of the country, but it was lovely, it was worth seeing.
Read the full interview
Listen to the full interview
Mrs Margaret Porter came to Highfields in 1923.
Extract
I also have very happy memories of going to Medway Street school where I learnt to do the Military Two-Step at the Christmas parties. We all wore our best frocks and had to take some party food which was eaten in the class-rooms.
Read the full interview
Councillor Farook Subedar came to live in Highfields in 1972.
Extract
How would you celebrate Eid at that time? We used to go early in the morning. We used to hire a hall on London Road. A church hall, and we would perform our Eid there. Then we would come home and celebrate with our family, mother, sisters, brothers, cousins and then we would go and visit families and friends' houses and that was Eid. Then we realised that we must do more than that. So I myself took an initiative in 1982/1983 to get an Eid Festival on a proper footing. I went to the council, I got a planning application to set up a proper Eid Festival in Spinney Hill Park, with different stalls, food stalls, book stalls, and a sports function. Then I also went and saw the local fun fair chap, Billy Bates. He was quite willing to accept our offer. The first Eid Mela we celebrated with the Lord Mayor and the local MPs, councillors, local dignitaries, scholars from London, they came down and we had our first Eid Mela in the whole year. Leicester was the first city to establish Eid Mela.
Read the full interview
Mary Thornley came to live in Highfields in 1912.
Extract
I don't know what year it was I should think it might be during the first world war and we had King George V and Queen Mary to visit Taylor Hobsons factory and they came right past our back entrance, so we had a platform made underneath some trees and we had had a beautiful view of them going by. Queen Mary with her parasol and I don't remember the colour but I should think it was pale pink or something like that, that was quite an adventure and quite a lot of people came and joined us so that they could see.
Read the full interview
Listen to the full interview
Mrs Joan Hands came to live in Highfields in 1940.
Extract
When we could bear it no longer, we set off to the paper shop across Melbourne Road to spend our pennies and three-penny bits on our personal collections of fireworks. The very names had such an air of magic – Witch’s Cauldron, Silver Fountain, Golden Rain. The boys’ favourites, the ‘bangers’, had equally explosive names, and these, as well as the Catherine Wheels and Rockets that completed the armoury, were all arranged and re-arranged methodically in the Oxo tin, until it was doubtful that any gunpowder was left inside them.
Read the full interview
|
