Transport

Mr Bakhsish Singh Attwal came to Highfields in 1957.
Extract
I wanted to buy a car but nobody would sell me a car. I bought a van eventually for my market trade. Normally Asians were doing door to door selling ties, socks, etc.

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Roger Cave came to live in Highfields in 1940, the year he was born.
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I can even remember them delivering bread and milk, and there was a horse and cart delivery in those days.

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often we would walk, I think there was a lot more walking done then, than there is nowadays. We used the trams, and there was the buses as well.

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The trams used to run on London Road which wasn't too far away from where we lived. They would take you into the centre of town to the clock tower where you could catch a tram back up London Road. I think we used to get off at the corner of Highfields Street and London Road so we only had to walk down Highfields Street and then the trams carried on to Stoneygate then out to where the Race Course is.

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I can remember attending a few road accidents down Melbourne Road, you know cars speeding. I can remember going to one or two nasty accidents down there.

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Did many people own their own transport, or did they use the local buses?

Oh, they used the local buses. Nobody started buying cars I suppose until the middle 1950s, one or two cars came out but before that it was all public transport or bicycles. During the early to middle 1950s you saw the odd car start to take to the roads.

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Helen Edwards interviewing Sandy Coleman for Highfields Remembered.
Extract
When we were young we weren't allowed to go out of the avenue which was safe because as I say, there was nowhere for traffic to go. It was a dead end. There was just an entry at the bottom and there wasn't very much traffic. I mean my dad had the motorbike combination in the latter of my teenage years, but in the early days there just wasn't the transport about. I mean people used to ride their bikes, my dad used to go to work on a bike.

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We used to go on the train but then my dad had a combination, so my mum and dad used to travel on the bike, and me and my sister used to be in the sidecar.

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Mr Boleslaw Dobski came to Highfields in 1947/48.
Extract
we saved one hundred pounds and bought the house in St Peters Road. We bought it in 1951 or 1952. So for about three years, we had been wandering around Leicester living in single rooms. We were quite happy to buy the house in St Peters Road. Mind you, it was a respectable area at that time. There was a dentist, a doctor, there was the vicar. You see, there was very little traffic at that time as well, so we were quite happy to have a big house on the main road. Later on, it became too noisy, we got all the traffic. But in the beginning, well, I intended to live in the house forever because we had just rebuilt it to our own design. We were quite happy there. We didn't realise that the traffic was coming with everything else.

Can you describe the house?

It was end of the row facing St Peters Road. It was a two storey house, (ground and first floor) and we had all the facilities there. I rebuilt whatever was not up to our standard and it was quite nice. Big rooms mind you, we intended to stay there. But later on things happened, so we had to move out.

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I was earning four to five pounds a week. Ten shillings went to the collection every Sunday to buy the church. But the younger generations if it came down from Heaven it would be alright. But to put a little money in it, well, that's something different. You see they have got a different spirit. Perhaps they are more practical!

Does the younger generation actually use the Polish Church?

Oh yes, yes occasionally.

So there is still a sense of community?

Oh yes, still. The children still go to church, perhaps not as frequently as we used to because I had to go to church every Sunday. Without it I would be unhappy. But the younger generation, they go there when there is an occasion. Like everywhere else. It is the same with any young people. When I was young perhaps I was just the same. So they are still using it for their weddings, for their baptisms and so on, and for various functions, but perhaps when they grow a bit older and wiser they will use it a bit more.
The problem is with parking. You see, we used to walk and the younger people will not walk so far. They must have a car and there is no parking space. So there is some difficulties for the younger generation, but then again, you have survived it so far and we hope that the church will serve us for many years to come. For now there is already a question mark hanging around it because when we built the church we counted oh, eight hundred people to accommodate. We had three services on Sundays and today we have two and the church is empty because, well the younger generation don't visit the church as we do and the older generation is dying out.

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So everything changed and Highfields changed as well. Not much for the better, that's the problem you see, because it is still overcrowded. Too many people live in that area. No parking space, cars parking on the pavement and so on. It's too noisy now and different people live there. Different habits, different culture and so on.

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Dr Stuart Fraser lived in Highfields from 1946 the year he was born.
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The striking thing then that I remember about Highfields was that I used to have to walk, I was delivered to school, I was dropped off-he had a Ford Popular car, but I always had to walk home, so he obviously used to drop me off before morning surgery but I used to have to walk home then and this is from Albert Road, which is from the Clarendon Park way and I would walk from the age of 5, I would walk back from Melbourne Street. There was only one major road crossing and that was the Evington Road, St James Road into Evington Road into St Stephens Road and I was told that later on that my mother had another friend who was the wife of a dentist or another doctor and she had instructions to look out of her upstairs window to watch for me crossing the road. That was the nearest I was looked out for in this journey. When I think about it now, it is quite a trek for a 5 year old or a 6 year old child to make unaccompanied and I did it for several years.

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there were a lot delivery vans when I was much younger were all horse drawn, milk and bread vans were horse drawn but there were a lot electrical vans as well.

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The surgery was virtually opposite Matlock Street which is quite a steep slope near the Spinney Hill area, and em, it must have been one morning when there was an almighty crash and my mother came out of the front door onto Melbourne Street, and I came out to see what the noise was and I came running back and said to my mother, " Mummy, Mummy all the tarts are lying on the road on their backs!", she wondered quite exactly what was going on until I took her round and sure enough there a bread delivery van that had the breaks had failed and it had come down Matlock Street and gone straight into the house and smashed the wall down so we had a bread van stuffed into the house.

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When you say you used to walk to school at the age of five, and walk back from school, can I assume it was a very safe area to walk at that time?

Well yes, I think the main thing was that the traffic was so much less that I could be trusted – I mean it was safe certainly from the point of view that I wasn't going to get mugged, I think the only danger I had was from a local school boy who was going to give me his warts or fire his catapult at me which would be taken as normal school boy rough and tumble, you would just have to stand up for yourself or talk your way out of it or join them, or leg it and get home! But certainly, there would be no reasons for anyone to worry, and I think that quite honestly if I had gone adrift and got lost I'd feel very much I would have spoken to somebody and of course if I had said who I was I think most people would have said, "Oh you're Doctor so and so's son" and would have known where I lived and taken me home. There would have been no worry.

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Mr Abdul Haq came to live in Highfields in 1963.
Extract
It was cold. Worst winter I can remember was in 1947 – very bad, knee high snow, buses were stopped.

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Mrs Hazel Jacques came to Highfields in 1942.
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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.

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Mr Amarjit Singh Johl came to Highfields in 1964.
Extract
The streets are for one-way traffic. Highfields has a bad name and you try to avoid walking in the streets. There was no such hassle in those days. I remember walking proudly in the streets of Highfields.

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Miss Alma Knight was born in Highfields in 1923.
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Did the buses keep going through the war?

Oh yes, and we had some very bad winters. The snow congested on the roads, the snowploughs wouldn't touch them, but they had one or two buses that did have the snowplough on, you see. So it was very bad, you know, my father often had to get up early to walk to Abbey Park depot, get the bus out and clear the roads. There was round the clock working for factories in those days, 24 hour working. Sometimes he had quite a long working day and didn't come home at the proper time.

After the war, were you still a teenager or in your early twenties?

I was in my twenties then, yes.

What did you do then?

Well now where was I then? Yes, I was still in the same job, that was Gent and Company. But yes, it was very interesting work, quite exacting, you know. Then there was a changeover to civilian work, and a lot of people did had to go. At the time I had a long spell of very poor health. It may have been due to growing up in the war years, working long hours along with the poor diet. It was mostly due to an illness I had when I was a teenager, I was in and out of hospital quite a bit with various illnesses. But then I worked at another very nice firm, Davenset, Partridge Wilson. They were very kind if you were genuinely ill. I did loads of different jobs there. My sister worked at various jobs since she'd left school. She worked at one or two firms. She went to Gent and Company. They needed somebody in the purchasing office, so she said, "Oh, you know, I'll ask for you", so I applied and got the job. I was there until I was made redundant. I didn't actually retire you know, it was sort that I was redundant before retirement. Like a lot of people. I think the last few years was, possibly not quite so good, it was taken over with different staff coming in and very fragmented, you know.

In the old days it was just like a big happy family. You had your Christmas dances and parties, it was a really lovely experience. But funnily enough, the last year I was there was the happiest. I worked at another branch, and then I went back to the main branch for the last year and it was very nice there. But unfortunately they closed the department down and even the manager went.

What year was that?

Yes, that was during all the redundancies in the 80s, yes. But I still find lots to do, committees and helping people and adult education, I'm back again tomorrow! Oh I love it there, it's absolutely lovely. It's at Wellington Street. I see they're expanding out into these sort of lunchtime things, where there are talks on different subjects. You don't have to book it. If you've got a free lunchtime you can go in you see, which is a lovely idea.

So really you've taken up education again.

Yes, I'm very interested in it, so if you know of anybody in education who'd like a bit more information about the old days, but just on a local level, you know.

So you've stayed in the last house you moved into?

Yes, my sister comes to stay. She was here recently, she'd have loved coming in, you know. Yes, she's married and lives in Cheshire.

Oh, so she's gone quite a distance away.

Yes. But you can get here quite quickly, they'd like me to go and stay for a week, you know.

But you've never wanted to move from here?

No, no I love it, yes. But, I'm afraid I do get a little bit upset about the smears that this area gets.

Yes.

You know, it's from people who don't even know you. I'll perhaps just go and have a cup of tea somewhere, and I'll say, "It's a bit breezy, I've walked into town." They say, "Oh, and where do you live then?" "Highfields," "Oh, you mean Highfields! Nobody respectable lives there, why on earth do you live there?"

Well if anyone should know about it, it should be you!

Of course! Yes! I mean we've always had lovely people there.

Yes.

But going back a few years, there was a bit of trouble with people drinking too much, it used to cause bits of arguments, but of course it was in the house then you see. I mean, they were the loveliest people when they'd not had a drink! That was the thing in those days.

So how would you say Highfields has changed over the time that you've lived there?

There's a lot of Asian people taken over the shops, and the newsagents is lovely. I think that is gorgeous, that newsagents. I mean, even from when white people had it, it's never changed a bit. It's really welcome to go in there, friends go in and have a little chat, and look what's on the front of the Mercury you know, and they say that if you're going to be a bit late they'll save things for you. They are lovely people in there, so that has never changed a bit, you know. But as I'm in town a lot I do quite a lot of grocery shopping in town. But the little corner shops are very nice in Gopsall Street, that's always been a grocery shop.

But you've lost things like Charnwood Street.

Oh, yes! When we had the survey for the improvements, a lot of us put, "Wish Charnwood Street would come back."

I see!

And strangely enough, that year I mentioned, the last year I was at the firm, which was a very happy year, there were about 6 or 7 gentlemen and a girl, well she'd be in her late twenties, she was West Indian, she was awfully nice to work with, she might perhaps have been 30, she remembered Charnwood, her mother taking her! So you see, she was a real Caribbean girl, and she loved what we loved.

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Mr Aidan Maguire came to Highfields in 1962.
Extract
there would be maybe four, five. The roads were quite narrow, where as now you would have trouble driving up the road as cars are parked on both sides. So no, there weren't many cars around, no.

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So if you wanted to go anywhere you used public transport?

Yes, a lot of people used the local area because it was the local shopping area and because there was so many shops on Berners Street, most people who ever lived in Highfields walked to Berners Street at one time or another.

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I think that everyone walked. I remember my mother saying when we first came to Leicester that every place looked the same because of the big red buildings. I think it must have been the same for people who came from the West Indies because we used to come in from small places maybe or small towns.

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Marjorie Marston was born in Highfields in 1942.
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I used to go out and just window shop in the town and then walk back home. Also we used to walk back from the dancing, we had to if we missed the last bus or whatever. But now I would be quite worried if my daughter was on her own and she had to walk back from anything like that

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Were there a lot of burglaries?

I don't remember any at all. We used to leave our doors open if we popped to the corner shop or whatever, the front door could be left open and we wouldn't come back and find everything gone whereas you might do today!

Did you have a local bobby on the beat?

There was always a local bobby walking around. I didn't really know them that well but you used to see policemen on the beat, as you might say. Not riding around in cars because really there weren't that many cars around anyway.

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If there were parties or whatever they were local so we used to walk but to go into town we used to use buses. There used to be a bus stop on St Peters Road that I used to use that would take you down Swain Street bridge, straight into town. That's about all really, buses or your feet, you know, we didn't very often have taxis or anything until my father had a car and of course then he used to give us lifts.

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We used to do quite a lot really. We didn't go on holidays very often because obviously we couldn't afford it and if I did go away I used to go to Yorkshire with my mum to visit my grandad, that's about all really. We used to have day trips out to Skegness mainly because that's where everybody from Leicester went to Skegness. But that wasn't until later but just the countryside round about really Bradgate Park and places like that. I mean, people in those days just didn't travel the way they do today, they couldn't afford it anyway, but obviously there were not the planes to take them to places and everywhere you wanted to go took a little bit longer than it does today.

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Mrs Margaret Porter came to Highfields in 1923.
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Both Mr Whittaker and my father went very early in the morning to the wholesale fruit and fish markets which were at the bottom of Halford Street. Mr Whittaker carried his goods back on a hand-cart (which stood in the yard) and my father often had to help him push it up Swain Street bridge (which we often used to play on). I can remember Mrs Whittaker boiling beetroot for the shop, and my mother boiling mussels and whelks which had to be removed from their shells later and displayed on large oval meat dishes in the shop window. My father spent every morning at the sink filleting the fish which was a very cold job in the winter.

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Brett Pruce was born in Highfields in 1955.
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Did he travel from Highfields to Coalville, then?

Oh yeah, he had a little motorbike or whatever it was. I can't remember what it was
now. I know when I was younger he travelled as the family grew, he wanted to get around a bit, so he bought a motorbike and sidecar. He invested in that so that he could get more of us on.

All four of you?

Yes, well no. He couldn't get the whole family on.

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Can you remember anything much before school?

Not really no, apart from the fact that we were just running round, being able to run around the streets.

You played out in the streets?

Yeah, a lot of the time.

What about the traffic?

Well, at times, when we were aged eight, nine or ten, there'd be three or four games of football in our street, and the odd cry would come up, you know, "car!" We'd grab the ball and stand on the kerb, you'd perhaps be able to play for another half an hour before another car came along.

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I actually went to the nursery school opposite Highfields Infants' School.

How old would you have been then?

Two or three I would have thought, because I started at Highfields Infants' School when I was five, then I moved from there to St Peter's Junior School in Gopsall Street. From there I was really supposed to go to Moat Boys' School, but my mum thought it was beginning to get a bit of a reputation. My brother had been there, so my mum insisted that I go to Crown Hills which was a hell of a trek you know. I mean the buses came once a week, but there wasn't a bus that went all the way to Crown Hills at the time, so I used to have to get a bus to the Evington Cinema and then walk from there. In the end my mam saved up enough money and bought me a bike. I went there and back on the bike every day.

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Did you stay at school for the dinners?

No. I went home for dinner. I did for a spell when I went to Crownhills, but I never got on with it, so I ended up push-biking to and from home, four times a day.

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It wasn't such a fun place by that time, especially when we got to the late Sixties. As I said before, I want tell you the bad points as well as the good points, but by that time things were deteriorating quite badly.

How did that affect you?

Well, it was an all encompassing thing because it affected everything you did. You couldn't play out so much.

Is that because there were cars or were you threatened?

Well, yeah, there were cars, there were also drinking clubs springing up. One opened up on the corner of Stoughton Street which was the John F. Kennedy Club. We experienced a lot of problems there, and there were houses of ill repute. Two sprang up more or less dead opposite to us, which obviously posed their own sort of problems. You know we witnessed quite a bit of violence there. My brother and I had the front bedroom, my mum and dad had the other front bedroom, but then we had to move and share and segregate the middle bedroom at the back of the house because of car doors slamming all night.

Keeping you awake?

Yeah, a car would scream up, two doors would slam, the front door would open, the front door would slam! Ten, fifteen minutes would elapse, the front door would open, the front door would slam, the car would start up and then roar off down the street. And this was going on all night!

And how old were you then?

Well, this is in the mid-Sixties from 1966 to 1967 onwards. Probably that's when I started to notice it. I think it was at the same time as the John F. Kennedy Club opened, and most mornings there would be somebody asleep in our entry. Or at best they would have relieved themselves in the entry! But physically having to step over people when you're going to school doesn't set you off in the right frame of mind. My dad worked and he had always gone so my mum would perhaps deal with it.

So how would you get rid of somebody .

Just wait for them to wake up and make their way home.

Was that people who lived in Highfields, or people coming into Highfields?

Yeah, if they were walking I would assume they lived in Highfields, drinking clubs like that were a bit of a rarity at the time, so I would have thought people would have travelled in to the area to go to their places.

Extract
when we were younger, my mum and dad didn't have a lot of money, so we did camping holidays for several years. Mainly caravan holidays. They hated the east coast so we always tended to go down to either Wales or Devon or Cornwall. They really loved the Torquay area, and we tended to go to Paignton or Brixham for a week or two weeks whatever.

Did you go on the train?

Yeah most of the time. A couple of times we went by car. My dad never had a car, or not until- Oh, I think they were both over fifty when they passed their tests. So my dad had a motorbike and sidecar. I remember going all the way to Torquay in my dad's sidecar once. We had a lot of fun. Took a couple of weeks to get over it. They were firm believers in holidays and tried to get us a holiday a year. I know they scrimped and saved to make it a bit of a special event for us. We did go to the east coast a couple of times. A friend of my dad had a caravan in Hunstanton, and he let us use that two years running. It's not the same atmosphere or, it's just not as nice as going down to Devon or wherever.

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What about day trips?

Day trips. I remember going to Bradgate Park when I was as young as eight or nine, with my pals. I mean you could never do that now.

Well my son goes on his bike.

Yeah, I don't think I'd let my eleven year old go on his own. But it was just an idyllic place, you know.

Did you go on your bike?

Yeah, or on a bus. We used to get a bus down to the bus station. Then there was a bus that went out in a morning, then one that came back in the afternoon and we used to pile on that. But there'd be a gang of us, of about eight or nine. You know, the Stoughton Street Lads, if you like! When I see the Bash Street Kids I always think it was too close for comfort because we were rough and ready, and we got into scrapes. There were the odd broken window, but nothing malicious. It was just a different atmosphere .

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Cars started in the mid-Sixties really, up at the Highfields. I can't remember if there was a metal working factory on the same side as us. I think that it later turned into an alarm company called Able Alarms. Then there was CES Electrics on the other side so cars parking there tended to creep down towards our house. We were only number 7. We were like the third or fourth house in from when the houses started. The factory units were great because they had big doors that we could play football against. One of them was goal size. Perfect. Absolutely perfect. As things got busier the cars, the parking, encroached all the way down.

Spoilt your games?

Well they did, because when you kicked the ball against their car they got mad. That's when we tended to go up to the Spinney Hill Park.

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What about the Fairs on the park? Did you go to those?

I don't remember. I don't remember any on the Spinney Hill Park as such. There was one on Victoria Park once a year I think. Then there was always the big one down at Abbey Park. Yeah, it's just an overall sort of memory of it being such a nice place, such a friendly place which went wrong. I mean I have to admit that was scared you know. I could look after myself , we can all do bits and bobs. But at the end it was out of control.

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I think transport now is, and people having cars. I mean this estate was designed with narrow roads because nobody had a car thirty odd years ago, or the odd family. Now every family has got two. So consequently you can't move on this estate for cars, because they weren't built for it. But, you, it just makes you more mobile. You haven't got to stay in your own community. You know, if you've got a pal who lives in Glen Parva you're fifteen minutes away from it. I think people are scared, you know, for one reason or another. You know, are you safe to walk. I mean you pick the Leicester Mercury up every night and there's people been on Melbourne Road or Saxby Street or Sparkenhoe Street who have been attacked and had money took off them or worse. You know and it always seems to be that area if you like. OK, I think somebody's created that for some reason, for it to have gone from the area it was to the area it is. You know, somebody's got to look at their heart and say, well, we've done something wrong somewhere. I'm not knocking Highfields. All the people there are working and trying to get things back to how it was. I'm not sure whether that can be achieved or not, because I don't think people have got the willingness to do that. I mean, who's going to leave their front door open nowadays. You know, there's a joke, isn't there? You know, if you don't want to watch the telly, leave your front door open for five minutes.

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Mr Charan Singh came to Highfields in the 1950s.
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The bus fare was very cheap, it used to drop me off right at Russell Street at my job. It was so simple. At the Russell Foundry there was a bath. When the weather was nice we used to bike. As soon as we arrived from India, there would be a job at the foundary. Majority of the people worked 10-12 hours a day.

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Councillor Farook Subedar came to live in Highfields in 1972.
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At early stage, there were very few cars. What you see now is a nightmare. You know, if someone had asked me back in 1972 to forecast how many cars I would see in the streets of Highfields in 1994, then I would be a very brave man to say 2 or 3 cars per household. I remember there were hardly 5 to 10 cars in the whole street. Now, the residents in our own streets have to go and park their car in different places because there is no space. So what we see nowadays is incredible, not just in Highfields, I think all over the country!

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in 1972 the transport system was very good and it was cheap. It was the most efficient transport system in the country. The fare to the city centre was 2 pence, when we came to Leicester, now it's 50 pence.

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Nowadays people do not commute so much on local transport. The more cars we have the more damage we are causing to our environment. Lots of children are suffering with all kinds of disease. This is all because of the pollution and it is a hard job to convince everyone that it is good for them to use local public transport. But you can't blame the community. The local transport is so expensive, but when people work out their budget, they realise that the local transport is much, much more expensive than running their own car. That is the reason, but unfortunately it's not a healthy one.

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Mary Thornley came to live in Highfields in 1912.
Extract
Of course there were tram cars when we used to go to Stoneygate terminus from somewhere on the London Road. Sometimes we would go for a tram ride on Sunday evenings which was quite nice. They had opened-topped tramcars and you pushed the seat the other way when you returned.

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Mr Eric Tolton was born in Highfields in 1916.
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Do you remember about transport buses or trams or getting about?

Well there was the tramcar but you more or less walked everywhere. As I say, I went to City Boys School and lived on Mere Road, but you never dreamt of going on a tramcar to school. You walked to school. I came home for dinner and then it was back to school again. I couldnt do it now. Well, it amazes me coming up from the town on the bus, on the Aylestone Road and school children get on the bus and a couple of stops further on they get off again, I dont know, I never dreamt of that sort of thing when we were young.

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Can I go back to something you said earlier. You joined the Labour Party League of Youth, were you very involved in local politics?

Well I was at an age where the young people thought they could mould the world. Ive got some photographs, there is one somewhere of a group out hiking, well I dont know where we went I was more interested in the girls, usually out in Charnwood Forest area we used to go. Im not really a good walker but the others didnt bike so we used to go hiking. I cant remember what we got up to were all pretty good, you were in those days not like nowadays you had to behave yourselves.

Did you feel that it was reasonably safe to go anywhere day or night in those days?

Yes, when I started courting, my wife lived in Newfoundpool off the Pool Road, I lived on Mere Road and it was perhaps two in the morning on Saturday night when I left her. I used to think nothing of it and get on my bike and bike home. No you never had any trouble, the only trouble that I had was my bike lamp didnt work!

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you made your own pleasure, there was no television and videos and all these mechanical things that they play with nowadays, nothing like that whatsoever. We used to play whip and top all along Mere Road from one end to another, there was no traffic. Wed stand in the middle of the road and whack the thing and go running after it and bowling hoops, you know the hoops, we used to run all along Mere Road. Whether there was an odd bicycle came a long I dont know.

Was Mere Road then the cobbles that part of it still is?

Some of the bits by the park entrances there are cobbles that are under the tarmac.
You said there was no traffic on the road. No.

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Deliveries like your coal, did they come by horse and cart then?

Horse and cart, yes. We had the milk from the dairy in Berners Street, Cleavers.

Have you heard of Newbys Dairy?

No. There was one in Highfields called, it was Mrs Newby but we dont know where she operated from we have actually got a picture.

There was Mr Flowers along Mere Road. Flowers, a dairy along Mere Road. Oh Flowers he was a Freeman he sat on the Milk Marketing Board during the war. On the far side of St Peters Road that section of Mere Road. But we had our milk from Cleavers in Berners Street and the young fella, he had got a float and he used to pick me up on Saturday mornings and take me round with him. It was quite high up on the back of these things and when he had finished his round and the horse was trotting back down Melbourne Road, yeah it was lovely.

And was this milk in bottles?

No, no it was poured into a jug and you had a lace netting sort of thing to put on the top to keep the flies out.

So people came out with a jug to buy their milk?

Yes, oh yes.

And it was ladled?

Yes, oh yes definitely.

Out of churns?

Yes.

Extract
I reckon there must have been a stable off of Berners Street. It was part of Berners Street alongside St Hildas Church. I reckon there was a bit of a gateway they used to, cause there would be nowhere around there for stabbling anything, no I dont think so.

So when you bought coal, your coal was delivered by horse and cart?

Oh, that was horse and cart yes. Even after I was married and lived in Hartington Road. If it was a bad winter and the roads were icy the coalman couldnt stop on the hill there.

How did he deliver then?

You didnt get any. No, so you had to buy a ton at a time you see.

Where did you store it?

In the coal house. Yes, you had to spend half a day chopping it up cause it was in big lumps.

Extract
Can you remember, did you have groceries delivered as well?

Yes. Now Bodicoats, now where were they, they were somewhere off the East Park Road. You see, when my mother and father had the Tailors Shop like still today, nowadays, the small traders, they all work in one with the other which is far enough you know, trading with one another, thats how Bodicoats came to deliver. Yes, they used to come round one day and take the order and a couple of days later they would bring the stuff.

Did he have a horse and cart or did he come on a bicycle?

I think he came on a bicycle, dont remember a horse and cart.

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Mrs Dorothy Woodford was born in Highfields in 1921.
Extract
It was quite safe for children to play unsupervised in the local parks – we were merely warned to be careful of the trams when crossing London Road, and told quite firmly what time we had to return home. I remember a very pleasant elderly gentleman who frequented Victoria Park, who always had a pocketful of sweets for the children. I seem to remember my mother telling me it was Percy Gee. Certainly in those days the most caring of parents seemed to have little fear for their children when talking to strangers.

Extract
Sunday afternoons after Sunday school, with parents rested and in an amiable frame of mind were quite social occasions. My parents were friendly with a couple – Alfred and Edith Wilson, their daughter Doris was about my age. They would arrive at our house complete with music case and music, and after a wonderful tea of John West salmon, salad, peaches and cream we would be regaled by piano duets by my father and his friend Alfred, followed by my mother singing such songs as 'Come back to Erin', 'Land of my Fathers', 'There's an Old Fashioned House in an Old Fashioned Street', 'Annie Laurie', 'Robin Adair', and one which even today brings tears to my eyes, 'Under the Spreading Chestnut Tree the Village Smithy Stands'. How safe and loved we felt on these family evenings! The following Sunday, complete with our music we would reverse the process and join the Wilsons at their house in Copdale Road. There wasn't any transport, so we walked both ways.

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Mrs Joan Hands came to live in Highfields in 1940.
Extract
There were two options in my young life. You could either take the ‘uptown’ or the ‘downtown’ bus. They both traversed Melbourne Road, but in opposite directions. From where I lived in Derwent Street, the downtown route went down the hill, past the Melbourne Road Schools, (attended by my mother and my younger brother, besides myself), St. Hilda’s Church, the Melbourne Cinema, along Nedham Street, (where my mother lived in her teenage years), past the shoe factory, (where Grandad worked part-time after ‘retirement’), and so onto the main Humberstone Road. This led past shops, offices, factories and houses to Humberstone Gate, one of the main arteries of the city centre, culminating in the Clock Tower.

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