Individual results

Interviewee: Ralph Tweed

TRACK 2
Born in Monks Park Cottages in Foleshill, 1927. It was an old ammunition dump from 1918. Father worked on the railway as a dreyman. Mum was a barmaid in Banbury. Remembers Uncle Ern he fought in the Boer war and was one of the first men in Leamington to own a motor car a big open topped affair. Used to make ships to put in bottles. He was an upholsterer. His other uncle was Reg Leach who became a clerk of the works during the war.

TRACK 3
Reg had property in Australia. Used to travel back and forwards to and from Australia. Auntie came to see Ralph's mum who had just had a baby boy. She couldn't have children so she asked if she could adopt the child which they did. The child was called Malcolm and when his parents died they left him with property in Australia , Kingston and Wales. The family all go away together to Turkey

TRACK 4
Malcolm was the ninth child and was renamed Ralph. He was 2 years oldwhen he was adopted. Mum and dad got married in Banbury. Family consisted of nine brothers and sisters, one of whom was adopted. Eight kids (children) went into the forces during the Second World War but not Malcolm , they didn't know why he was not eligible for service.

TRACK 5
Malcolm used to get a broom and show each lad when they were called up how to attack the enemy and it sent his mother mad. He was a farm labourer during the war.

TRACK 6
Mother was self educated. Father bought his mother a piano. She used to listen on the radio to Albert Saddler and his orchestra. She joined the Co-op Women's Guild, for many years she used to write all their correspondence for them, she was very good at crosswords. She bought Reg a violin, Bob hit him on the head with it and smashed it. Used to get free coal because their dad worked at the railway yard. Coal was delivered in 20 ton trucks and the coal man used to fill his bags up and away they would go delivering. A bit was always left in the corner for his dad

TRACK 7
His dad built them a truck out of boxes and pram wheels and they used to go and collect the leftover coal.
The vicar used to give them the lions share of the food left over at the harvest festival. Mr Dod was the vicar of St Lukes Church and he did good works for the family.

TRACK 8
Choir practice was two nights a week. Ralph started at Holbrooks Lane Junior School. He remembers running home every day for lunch 2 miles. If mum had no money for gas then there would be no lunch. Miss Robinson was a teacher at school and one day he was in tears because he had had no lunch and Miss Robinson gave him sixpence out of her purse. Classes had 48 in them.

TRACK 9
One of the teachers was a good shot with the slipper. Another teacher used to play classical music to the boys and one day the school bully broke all of his records one by one dropping them on the floor when the teacher was out of the room. heartbreaking stuff. Mr Warn was the science teacher. No calculators in those days. They went swimming at Livingstone Baths. Thinks it was a first class school and the teachers were the same

TRACK 10
Teachers dressed in a collar and tie. Teachers today aren't as smart . He was good at maths. School wasn't mixed boys and girls hen lane was for the girls.

TRACK 11
Took exams every year he says he wasn't a brilliant student but he did alright. Hated history. When he was there the Second World War broke out. House was a breezeblock, one storey house, with three bedrooms. Very short of space.

TRACK 12
Oldest brother was in the war throughout and it 'knocked the stuffing out of him his sparkle had gone'.
Reg got called up and he was working at a butcher's at the time. The butcher said he would fix it for him not to go in but he got called up anyway. Ralph took his job at the butcher's.

TRACK 13
Butcher used to inspect the shop every Saturday. Stayed open till 9 o'clock on Saturday, and when he closed he would give the leftover meat to the boys. Bought puff pastry home with him . Posh firm at the bottom of Corporation Street .

TRACK 14
Great big mountain of bacon ham off-cuts in a ball. That's how we survived. Used to go down to the Lockhurst bakery and they used to sell his dad 12 loaves of bread for a penny each. The baker would put in a fresh loaf every time. The family used to get through five loaves a day. Used to keep livestock - chickens and rabbits.

TRACK 15
Two chemists shops , one at the corner of Parkgate Road and one in Sunningdale Avenue, Haywoods the Chemists, he used to go with a huge suitcase from one shop to the other. They all had more than one job mainly part time work. Harry Green used to own the land where Walsgrave Hospital is now. Used to do a milk round for Mr Green. Got around on bikes. Dad was always mending punctures.

TRACK 16
On a Sunday he used to go and change the straw for the horses on the railways. Filled the truck with coal and hauled the truck back to the house, four miles. Dad was very hard working and a placid man. Mother was thick in with the Co-op Women's Guild and they used to go to the Rhyll Co-op holiday camp on holidays.

TRACK 17
Used to go to Blackpool with an orchestra. Rained when they went on the train. The railway subsidised the trips. Lived in poverty all clothes were handed down. Got a shilling dividend for shopping at the Co-op. In the thirties it was the depression and everyone lived on a shoestring.

TRACK 18
Huge queues at the cinema. Wrote to Barry Norman about the film called the 'Way of All Flesh'. Main man was a bank manager who met a woman and had an affair. Wife left him and he ran out of money then his girlfriend left him and he turned into a hobo. Christmas Eve he returns to his own house, son didn't recognise him and invites him in, but he declines and the film ends.

TRACK 19
Never got a reply to his letter to Barry Norman. Joe, Reg and Bob all went into the forces during the war. Elsie went to work for a doctor. Julia went into Manor Road as a maid. Jessie died at the age of 14 years.

TRACK 20
Ralph was in the army in Austria, in the stores, the camp was full of confiscated vehicles from the Germans.
On the two big Blitz nights they went out into the garden and climbed up onto the shed roof, and their dad did a running commentary on what was getting bombed.

TRACK 22
House four doors down was blown to bits and they heard a 'whooshing' sound and dad said 'this is it', but the bomb fell four doors down. Had an Anderson shelter. Has a steel shelter under the table and the kids used to shelter under it. A plane came down and machine gunned the Dunlop. There was looting in the city centre but he didn't see any of it. Some brothers and sisters were evacuated to a place outside Atherstone. Lots of kids went to Wales.

TRACK 23
After the war he relaxed for the summer as he had six weeks army pay. He then got a job clerking for a bookmaker for a short while. Saw an advert in the telegraph for a night telephonist at the Coventry Exchange. Then he went to work at the Post Office and stayed there for 36 years. Retired when he was 60 years of age.

TRACK 24
Went on a course with the Post Office, supervising, and his future wife was sitting opposite him. She came from Hutton, in Essex. He went down to stay with her three or four times, then they got married and had a baby girl called Barbara. She left home at 17 years, she went to Henley College until she was 18 years old, on a travel and tourism course. Got a job with American Express. She bought a flat outside Croydon.

TRACK 25
She moved into her flat and house prices went up so she sold her flat and bought a house in london for £99,000. Father had qualms about the price.

TRACK 26
She has bought a laminate floor and he has promised to lay it for her. Built her a mahogany wardrobe in her flat. The first marital home was in Queen Isabel's Avenue.

Coventry Lives Oral History Project, date of birth: 1927