"Burglar Bill" and other old tales of Radford

What a fantastic story Colin.... just that by itself makes this whole topic worthwhile!

Knowing you I hope your wedding day went off without a hitch RKid. Even for your brides sake.

It's funny you should say that Dreamtime , the wedding day did go ok cannot say the same thing about the return trip from our honeymoon. Not a lot of money then,we had borrowed a Caravan in North Wales for a week and as we had traveled there on my Motor Bike we had the luggage dropped at the caravan by a friend a few days before, we intended to send the case by rail, thinking we could pay and retrieve the said case at Coventry Stn. We had to pay up front which left us just enough money for half a tank of fuel . It took us all day from 10am until 8pm travelling at about 25miles per hour, cyclist were passing us. We ran out of fuel on the A45 near the Post House Hotel. Not too bad for me I guess.Colin

Mmmmmm, what can one say

In for some fun now, my cousin is about to join us, his name "Oskar" another Radford kid and also remembers some of the happenings from the past around Radford. I hope you greet him with the same greeting you gave me. I am sure he will be an asset I know he is well into Coventry's History. Colin.

Don't think I can handle any more What the heck ! bring it all on......

I wonder how many people reading this remember the Mau Mau uprising, well I remember it very well as it scared the living daylights out of me. As child growing up in the fifties I was mad on Cowboys and Indians my mate next door and I had a cowboy set for Christmas, we were two kids toting a pair of sixgun revolvers "just don't get in our way or ya dead" I was the fastest gun around and the best shot with a cap gun, yes I was feared. lol. As well as carrying a pair of shinny guns we also carried a sheath knife in them days it seem ok to carry a sheath knife as Scouts wore them. As soon as we got home from school we would don our Cowboy outfits strap on our sheath knifes and go hunting for make believe Indians or Bank robbers. We used to love the Cowboy films and I taught myself to throw a knife just like Jim Bowie (Jim Bowie invented a throwing knife) after many hours of practice I could throw a knife with some degree of accuracy. Well you have to remember that during this period as kids we had never seen a person of ethnic persuasion, (this has to be born in mind when understanding what comes next). On the radio at this time the main news was all about the Mau Mau uprising in Africa (now to a young kid Africa could have been just down the road or anywhere and could have been in India, Pakistan China, all we knew at the time was they had a darker skin than us ) We were told that they had beheaded people from another Tribe, I cannot begin to spell the name of the Tribe, something like (de cu you) Tribe. They crept into their bedrooms while they were asleep and chopped off their heads. I was so scared, every night I slept with my guns fully loaded with caps and cocked ready (no one was gona take me.) This situation lasted for a long time. One day I was at home and the door knocked. I went to the door and opened it to find an Indian man wearing a Turban, I took one look and shut the door in his face I ran upstairs to get my guns from under the pillow passing my Dad and Mum on the way shouting, screaming "the Mau Mau man is at the door, don't let him in". "What" shouted my Dad "what the b----- hell is his talking about" ? By this time I was under the blankets (with sleeves in) and with my fingers in my ears I was scared stiff. After a while my Dad came into my room to fetch me he took me down stairs and introduced me to the Man wearing the Turban. It turned out he was selling Towels or something like that. From what my Dad gleaned from the man, the reaction from me was not uncommon. I remember he had a great laugh and he was funny but he was very big with a beard which seeing him through a child's eyes he was very frightening. I could not wait to tell my friends as to my encounter with the Man with a Turban, by the time he had reached the end of the row of houses he was swamped with kids trying to see him, in fact I seem to remember he was not alone, he had a friend doing the same thing. I hope you relate to this factual and honest memory. Colin

I enjoyed that little story RKid. Hope you were not contemplating a bow and arrow in one of your escapades as I am sure you would have used it. I remember in Chesterton road, where my Gran lived, the gypsies used to try selling their wares and my Gran said if you refused to buy anything they would put a curse on you. I always believed that, and when I got married and lived in Lincroft crescent in Chaplefields we had a visit from them knocking on doors selling jewelry but I played at 'being out' ! (thank you for the latest episode) Incidentally RKid I think the correct name is Mau Mau, I remember reading about it. It was a terrible time

Thanks for the correction Dreamtime I knew it did not look right but trying to find the correct spelling was taking too much time, so thanks again. I always like your comments in fact I said to my wife "I wonder what Dreamtime has to say today "? As you may have gathered buy now me spealing is nut that good lol. I remember the Gypsies very well selling pegs and thistle, as for the curse I think they made that up. (I am still here) well almost . Did you see my posting "your first job in Coventry"? Colin

Hi Dreamtime I too recal lthe gypsy curse, mum said they were Tinkers, they would mark the pavement with chalk out side your gate with a cross, I watched mum, she use to get a bucket of water and wash it off , then replace it with a circle with an A in the centre which represented a word back to them, years later I asked mum what it meant as I was only about 5 at the time, translated politely, is the circle was a hole and the A is what you sit on. Hi R/Kid I dont recall the Mau Mau but I do recall in the infants of Hillfarm being given a book to learn about Africans very brightly colourful pages as I recall, always refering to the little N boy which is now banned, I use to look forward to that lesson just for the brightly colourful book and the little boys adventure, made Dick and Dora, Fluff and Nip look drab. so we were educated that way, so not our fault, yet having friends of ethnic origins , they still say it amongst themselves. I do recall the cow boy and Indians and play suites ,guns and bow and arrows, playing. I use to play splits with the knife throwing too :+o) where was health and safety then lol and taught my kids and grand kids how to play. Just shows us playing as kids with guns bow and arrow and knives, we did nt grow up using them for violence .like nowadays.

Yes I did, and noticed you gave your foreman a hard time. I have just about got my head around you shooting that chicken in the neck. How you got away with all the misdeeds I will never know. Your wife must have calmed you down. Anyway, all of Radford has it's own character to remember now - a certain Colin from Radford. Despite all that I find your memoirs most entertaining and cannot imagine what will come next ! By the way, was your cousin as mischievous as you ? Beers & Cheers RKid.

New to the site...but has anyone got any memories of the piano teacher in 'The bungalow' in Dugdale Road...

Hi Adrian welcome to Historic Coventry, I m sure some one will recall the piano teacher, I ll ask my family if they do as our doctors were in Wyley Road where my mums friend lived too.

Hi to you Adrian & I will echo the welcome from Morgana.

Forgot this little tale, you may enjoy. I was about ten years old at the time and like most kids of my age I was into football, never very good at the sport though, every Wednesday or Thursday we would have football on the sports ground at the rear of our School (Hill Farm) . I seem to remember Christmas was looming and I was down for some new Football Boots, the boots I was wearing were on their last legs (pardon the pun) anyway back to the story. I had just returned home from an afternoon of football and happy as lorry I was swinging my boots around my head which I had been doing all the way home, I reached my next door neighbour's house and began to think "what if the lace broke?" " the chance of that happening was pretty remote and if it did what's the chance of them flying off and causing any damage?" so I carried on swinging. The lace broke, "no" I thought this could not happen, but it did, I was left holding a small piece of lace in my hand , almost instantaneously I heard the smashing of glass, GULP. I had propelled the boots through next doors lounge window. This looked real bad I did not know how to play this one , I knew I could not run away as my boots were in next doors house anyway I may have been seen, so I did the honourable thing and knocked on the door to ask for my boots back (only kidding ) I knocked on the door to own up to what I had done, but no reply the lady of the house was out shopping with her new born baby. Not many shops within walking distance so I ran round to the nearest shops hoping to find her before anyone else did , luckily she was in Worthington's, I ran in and told her what had happened and saying sorry . As I thought I was going to get into big trouble for what I had done I asked her if she would not tell my Dad, well she agreed , sort of, I made up a story that I had seen some lads climbing over her fence, they must have broken the window, seemed ok to me and she agreed to go along with my version of events. We both returned to her house , and we both entered , I mainly to recover my boots as without them I would have had another problem , explaining to Dad that I had lost them and also to add feasibility to my story (not thinking that someone had to pay for the repair but as kids money did not come into it) anyway as we turned to face the big broken window we looked down onto the couch where only minutes before the new born baby had been laying. The couch was covered in shards of glass and my boots . She screamed and shouted OMG , as I did not know about the fact the baby had been on the couch prior I could not understand what all the commotion was about? She then explained, and although i was only 10 years old it dawned on me what could have happened. She began to become a bit distressed and I began to leave ,confirming that our plan was still ok, she said it would be alright and I then went home Not long after my Dad returned home and commented on the broken window next door, " what happened to the window" he asked. I began to recite the version that I had invented, Dad was all ears and asked if I had anything to do with it? I with an indignant voice i replied "no of course not" Dad was happy with that and began to start the evening meal, it was not long after that the door was knocked , Dad answered and he was called outside, I could hear them talking, then Dad came back in , slammed the door and began to give me a good hiding, as he shouted the words " this is for lying not for breaking the window" It turned out that when the husband from next door had returned home and he had been told what had happened he thought that my Dad should know and of course pay for the repair. Have to say that was a close one , if the baby had been on the couch it may have turned out very different , I dread to think.