Description:Our large Irish family moved from Stratford Road Sparkbrook to Mary Street Balsall Heath in 1949.
Early memories are of trams running down Mary Street, the milkman delivering by horse and cart, and us kids playing ‘Statues’ in the street. This game involved one person facing a wall with their back to the rest of us. We would start at a set distance from the wall (usually the middle of the roadway), and begin moving towards it as the person ‘on’ and still facing the wall, would call out L-O-N-D-O-N – LONDON! loudly, and then turn around to face us quickly, trying to catch us still moving. If we were caught moving, we were ‘out’. We had to be still as statues when the caller turned around, only moving when he or she turned back to the wall and called L-O-N-D-O-N – LONDON! once again. The first to reach the wall would take over the caller roll.
This picture shows Philip Fowler aged thirteen delivering milk May Day 1930.