大象传媒

We moved from Northfield early in 1930 when I was only a few months old to Park Stores a new shop built by R.E. Griffin, a well known local builder. My Father Harold Poole, worked at the Austin Motor Company and travelled by Brown and Perrygrove Coaches daily with other local people who were employed at the Austin. He used to take a suitcase full of tinned milk, sweets and cigarettes to sell during his lunch break. Sadly he passed away in 1941 and is buried in Redditch old cemetery close to where he farmed during the First World War. Two local characters during the war were Copper Jones who came along on his cycle daily and popped into the shop for a cup of tea and a home made cake (mother Emily Poole was in service at Packwood House, Knowle and later at Buckingham Palace in her earlier years) G. Brookes was the other character- the local sweep who combined his duties with selling rabbits when work was short. Local people registered with the shop and had their rations weekly and tinned meat etc was available with A,B,C,D ration coupons each letter having a different value. Bacon and ham was hung from the ceiling covered with a white pillowcase to stop flies touching the goods. Butter, margarine and cheese were on a pine table in the middle of the shop covered with a damp muslin cloth containing vinegar to keep them fresh. All the ration coupons were taken to Bromsgrove Rural Good Office in Princess Building鈥檚, Birmingham Rd, Bromsgrove when the shop was allocated credit notes to purchase more goods. On a Saturday made home made ice cream and obtained the ice from Longfields, Fishmonger Worcester Rd Bromsgrove. Any ice cream left over I had for my tea on Monday when it started to melt. It was my job to go to the gasworks at Worcester Rd, Bromsgrove to get _ sack coke each. The shop was bought for 拢1000 and 拢25 for a large verandah at the rear (used for growing tomatoes) and had a large garden being close to the Lickey incline. Several of us older children would wave to the troop trains as they passed by and the GI鈥檚 would throw us ration boxes with coffee, biscuits and gum in when we shouted to them 鈥� Have you got any gum chum.鈥� Coal fell off the tankers at the back of the trains and especially 鈥淏ig Bertha鈥� and we always had a sack ready to gather it up in. At the bottom of the garden we had a large chicken pen and pig sty. The chicken food was in ration and was obtained on a monthly basis from Weaver and Guest, Bromsgrove. This was supplemented with potato peelings etc. boiled on a trivet in front of the fire. Also, I went cleaning at Crossbrook Farm, Finstall collecting all the wheat ears that the binder left behind. At threshing time I would collect bags of scratchings (wheat husks) from side of the threshing box to put in the chicken shed in the winter. There was always a few cockrels fed for xmas time and it was always said that we had to give them a tea spoon of vinegar the night before they were killed to make them tender. We were allowed to kill 2 pigs a year for our own use so we usually gave the neighbours some and they gave us some back when they had their pig killed. The pig was cut up into joints and some middles cut to make into bacon. The head was made into braun and was very fat but tasty.
I can remember the searchlights in Finstall Park and also the searchlights at Hewell. They lit the sky up when the German planes came over and we hid under the stairs.
When the war ended there was a big party in Mr Saffield鈥檚 field the local farmer, organised by Mrs Topsy who was in charge of Finstall Youth Club at the time. I can remember that one airman named Loxton lost his life during the war from Finstall.

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