"Burglar Bill" and other old tales of Radford

Boiler for Savoy Another story about Burglar Bill. Not a lot of money in them days, once your pocket money had gone, it had gone, the only way to get a little extra money was to do jobs for it or take bottles back this would involve rummaging around for used bottles and it has to be said we were not to fussy where they came from, any bottles that were open to view were fair game, the naughtiest way to obtain bottles were from the Pub, yes the Pub the Radford and the Whitemore pubs always stashed their used bottles in grates outside at the rear of the main building, one of us, would keep cavy while the other shimmies over the fence, then pass bottles over the fence, after a short while we would go round to the outdoor deposit the bottles on the counter and then we would be rewarded for our hard work. Yes it was stealing not much different to scrumping and most of us kids did it, I don't think it ever occurred to us that it was considered to be stealing, but the very need for someone to keep watch really told us it was not legal. Another little dodge involved our old friend Burglar Bill, as stated before Bill used to run a type of scrap yard, no fence around it so it was easy to just help yourself. I never thought of this one, my day has to take the credit for this little scam, it all started when I plagued my Mum and Dad for some money to see the latest film at the Savoy, all my mates were going but I had no money, my Dad must have had enough with me wining so he said " why don't you find some scrap to take to Bill, I know where you can get a copper boiler" I was over the moon, " that's great Dad tell me where it is and me and my mate will go and get it" Dad said "it's on the top of his scrap pile, I saw it yesterday" well we did not hang about, we were off to retrieve it, once we had took the boiler off the scrap heap we then carried along the path to Bill's bus home, we were friends with his son so when he saw us dragging this boiler he shouted his Dad, Bill, "you have customers" he said. Bill came out of his Bus and without question he began to offer us some money for the boiler, needless to say we were chuffed. We could not believe our luck! It was so easy, and more money than we had expected, this meant we not only had enough money to get in to the flicks we could buy sweets on the way, we could go to Turley's Sweet shop. This was a great dodge and we found out later my Dad had been using this method to obtain pocket money for some time, he was a bit reluctant to elaborate but I bet he had well exploited the situation. I know my Dad used to fatten up his chickens then flog them back to him for Christmas dinner. We sure gave Bill an hard time and although my dad and Bill did not see eye to eye Bill was a real nice bloke and it's no wonder he lost his rag with us kids, we must have been a real pain in his side. It's a funny thing looking back how wrong some of the things we did, but to us at the time it all seemed the norm, most of the petty crimes we did were dealt with by the local copper or your parents , not a patch on some of the crimes committed in today's society. The above is a truthful recollection and I do not condone what we did, but that is how is was, cannot change that. Colin.

Hello Steve I remember the house / houses you live in, I remember thinking how nice they looked, a real house, we lived at 404 Radford Road, if you remember it was the row of cottages next to Worthington shop on the corner of Heathcote Street, Burglar Bill lived in an old double decker bus situated at the end of a row of garages to the rear of our house, I also went to Hill Farm, my teacher was Mr Woods and Miss Hall, as was. I wonder if you remember Billy Goode or Bob Robinson, they lived in the houses on the common? Also the Vernons in Three Spires Ave? You may even remember me? Colin.

Only just joined this forum. Does anyone recall an incident on Radford Common, early 1950s, when a young lad had his head split open by a cricket ball? He was taken across the road to one of the cottages where a very kind man looked after him and somehow got him to hospital. The next day his mum gave him ten Woodbines and told him to go back and thank him for his kindness. How do I know all this? Well, that young man was me and I've still got the scar to prove it.

I have just joined the Forum and have found much of interest in this topic as I was born and grew up in Radford. As I have access to The 1939 Register, which has just gone online, I tried searching for Frederick Wilkinson and found him and his wife residing at 20 Poultney Road, which is adjacent to Radford Common: Fredk. E. A. Wilkinson 28 May 1901 Male Storeman R A F Maintenance in Coventry Married Cynthia Wilkinson 30 Jul 1904 Female Unpaid Domestic Duties Married Viewing Poultney Road on Google Street View, Nos. 20 & 18 look different to the others and could have been bomb-damaged in the Blitz and rebuilt after the war. Could this be the reason why Frederick was reduced to living in a bus?

Hello GeorgeB Welcome to our forum. We hope that you will continue to enjoy.

I seem to remember that happening, not sure how I remember but I do? Wonder what is your name? My name is Colin Walton and I lived in the Cottages you refer to. I only ever knew Bill as living in a double decker bus, I was friends with his son at the time and so I got invited in, he had it real cosy. It's a shame we gave him so much grief, it has to be said I was a little b****r back then. Got me wondering now if I know you? Colin

Having said in a few posts that I lived in Radford I thought I would add some of my memories about the area. Sorry Colin, you have seen a lot of this. I never knew Burglar Bill but he sounds like a great character I lived at 41 Heathcote Street for 20 years, my father was the first tenant having moved in not long after the end of WW1, where he fought on the Somme. He stayed there until he needed to go into a nursing home in the mid 80's. I went to Hill Farm and if my memory serves me well had Miss Garnet as a teacher in the infants and Mrs Jones in the juniors. I remember Mr Tucker who was very tall. In my last year before passing my 11+ to go to Coundon Court I was the tea monitor and quite disgusted by the fact that he poured any spillage I had had along the way in his saucer back into his cup and drank it! I also remember Mrs Moxon or Moxton who collapsed and died, she was teaching in the class next to us. Her husband was a teacher at Coventry Boys Boarding School in Cleobury Mortimer. We went there for a "holiday" at the end of our last year at Hill Farm. All I remember of it is the large dormitory with bunk beds, spraining my ankle and having to sit for hours with it dangling in the freezing swimming pool and being late for a meal. For punishment I was told to come back with my toothbrush and duly obliged, being then told that I, along with another student would have to use it to sweep the playground. I was a very quiet, compliant only child but really took offence at this suggestion and told the teacher that he couldn't make me and that both my parents - not just my mum, who always did the school thing - would be coming to see him. I wasn't used to this sort of discipline. I do remember Schofields, they had 2 children Linda and Michael, I think. Mr Schofield's mum worked in the shop for many years. I was never allowed to have a paper round, as "it was not a thing for girls to do" - even though some of the workers were girls. I think Linda was in the year above me at Coundon and Michael played cornet in the School of Music Brass Band. The best thing about the shop was the Beechnut chewing gum machine outside, which gave an extra pack every 4th sale. Many hours were spent waiting for 3 people to buy gum. I remember all the shops mentioned but also think there was a cobblers just up from Schofields as well as a grocers and that the first shop in the row was a hairdresser. I learned to ride a 2 wheeled bike outside those shops, much to the consternation of my dad, who had promised me a 2 wheeler when I could ride one. As I didn't have access to one he thought his promise was safe, but I did have a few friends who let me have a go, and was soon demanding my own bike, which was second hand from my step sister's daughter as she was a little older than me. I had forgotten the name of Worthingtons, but before I was born my mum worked there. The manager / owner was a man called Chandler. My mum and Mrs Chandler were great friends, aunty Ira had her first child 8 months before I was born. After they left the shop - I don't know why - we used to visit them in the caravan in which they lived. It was a great adventure to travel on the No 16 bus towards Keresley village and walk along a footpath to reach their home. I remember promising to marry their son when I was 4 sitting on the edge of their coke bunker - I NEVER DID! A little while later we stopped going to visit and I was told that aunty Ira and her husband had died. It was years later I discovered that Mr Chandler had killed her and then himself, leaving the children in the van. They went to relatives to be brought up. Eventually the shop became a butchers run by Ben Swain. The Swains were great friends of my cousin and her husband, and when Christine Chattaway sold the greengrocers which was open fronted, my cousin bought it, and ran it for a few years. I remember Mr Chattaway standing in a brown overall, wearing a flat cap and serving. I had forgotten the wool shop next door but on reflection it was there but changed hands a few times selling different things. I also remember the newer houses opposite the shops being built, one to house a large family, they were built on the angle and my mother thought it terrible that such a large family should exist. If she had been interested in her family's history she would have discovered hat her father was from an even larger one. My husband and I used to walk miles around the area, with my dog when we were courting. He even drove down Heathcote Street into Bulwer Road on his driving test in 1967 - my husband not the dog - he was in his father's car and my dad was a bit annoyed that my husband didn't wave back, as my dad was working in the front garden when he went past. Mind you he passed first time, 30 days after his 17th birthday, but then we knew all the back jetties, and the places you needed to slow down. He put my dad right when he called round that evening minus L plates. The examiner said if you had waved back at that man you would have failed. One of my most vivid memories of Hill Farm was the frozen bottles of milk in the winter. They were brought to the classroom and left by the radiator to defrost. I tried to get out of drinking one as often as I could saying they made me sick, but it wasn't until I was sick that I ever got away with it. Even today I can't drink fresh milk. I have so many more memories of Brownies and Sunday School at St Nicks, my neighbours and friends, making soap boxes to race, hopscotch, roller skates, scooters etc but this is already too long. Thank you Colin for the inspiration to bring to mind all these memories.

Hi Little Nut. I love reading these stories of other people who lived round Radford. I wondered what year you went to Coundon Court? I lived in Poole Road so I went to Radford Junior School, I went to Coundon Court in 1958 to 1963. I also went to St Nicks Sunday School, that was when it was in the old timber building that was later burned down. I went to Brownies and Guides in the Scout Hut on the corner of Beake Avenue not far from where you lived. I can remember sitting on the corner of the common watching the rockers outside the Beaker Cafe but we used to keep well away as they looked very frightening. We still used to have to travel the Radford Road every week until a few years ago to visit mum in Poole Road, later in a sheltered flat opposite Morrisons and then in a care home in St Nicholas Street, it is all so different now. It is sad to see St Nicholas in the state it is in!

Hi there, does anyone remember the Barnett family from no 34 Fynford Road back in 1940s 1950s. Effie and Sidney were the parents, children were Agnes, Beatrice and Walter? Also was there an anti aircraft gun near Fynford Road?

No gun, barrage balloon site behind the odd numbered houses where the present day Radford School now stands

Hi Annewiggy, I was at Coundon Court from 1963 to 1968, so we just missed each other. My form teacher was Miss Smallbone and we were in room 2 right next door to Flo's office. I was in Elizabeth Swillington house, and really hated PE with the divided skirts for outside and the grey gym knickers for indoors. I have always been well endowed and they were not at all flattering. The lower school uniform was also a mission, with the empire line blouse which buttoned down the back. Also the indoor and outdoor shoes, wearing your beret all the way home - I could go on. One thing though, my mother decided that, as I was at the time quite tall for my age she bought all my uniform at least 2 sizes too big and my grey gaberdine mac was turned up about a foot to make it a reasonable length. The only problem was that from that day to this, I think I have only grown another inch in height, and now as I get older I am becoming conscious that I can no longer reach as high as I did a few years ago. If you remember, we had to stand in height order in assembly and as the years passed I moved towards the front, and was second in line for at least my last 2 years; I think the girl in front of me was called Beryl. I was sent to St Nicks Sunday School from the age of 4, meeting in the old wooden hut, we called the church hall. I didn't realise it had burned down, I stayed there until I was confirmed and allowed to go to the youth club. My brownie pack met in the same place, and I eventually became sixer of the fairies and later the elves. I didn't go to guides as I didn't like the captain, who in my opinion at the time, preferred to play games rather than do the badges, which were the things that interested me. Mind you I still know how to set a table, darn and sew on all types of buttons - and get a fair amount of practise mending my granddaughter's clothes. I quite liked church parade, but really wanted to carry a big flag like everyone else and not the silly triangle brownie one - hey ho. I didn't realise St Nicks was in a bit of a state - my dad's first wife was buried in a double plot there, although after his death he was cremated and laid to rest in Canley crem with my mum. I remember being allowed to go into town on the bus on my own or with a friend when I was 8 years old - something that just wouldn't be in your thoughts these days. I came back one day with a goldfish in a plastic bag, bought from the pet shop near Fishy Moore's I think. I gave it to my friend to hold, when we got home, who asked my mum if she liked it. "Very nice dear" she said. "Good", said my friend, "it's Hazel's". My dad would not entertain the idea of pets, but my mum thought the fish was lonely, so we went out the next day to buy Sam some friends, one had a lot of black spots, so was called Spotty, and the other had a silver belly, so was called Silver - very original, mind you they lived for years. Many years later my mum acquired a dog from her brother in Ireland (very long story), my dad thought it to be the one my aunt - mum's sister - had arranged to bring back from the family visit. In the same way as the fish was allowed to stay - my dad saying it was nice - the dog also found a home with us. Again after my mum died and when my dad was very elderly and not coping too well on his own, the dog saved his life twice. Since then we have always had a dog, Mind you Seamus is the only border collie I have ever known who had to have a cup of tea every morning and had to be hoovered every time the vacum cleaner came out!

Hi all Thank you for sharing your insight into a young lady growing up.

Never a young lady Phil, hated dolls tea parties, much preferred climbing trees, making and racing soap boxes etc. All my friends were lads, too much of a tomboy, always in jeans, in fact I think, even now, I only have 1 skirt and not a dress in the wardrobe!!

Yes Little Nut, looks as if I was just off to work as you started at CC. I certainly do remember the height thing that Miss Foster insisted on, I was also pretty near the front as well. I remember we had to file in, in the same order every day. I think it was a Mr Bird (Dickie) that played the piano as we went in. If she was in a bad mood and didn't like the way we did it we were sent out and had to do it again. Some years it would be smallest at the front, another year she would have us left to right or right to left. When we were in the hall she would stand until every one was dead silent, she would go mad if any one dared cough. I was in Marjorie Russel and for the last couple of years we were in the room on the left just as you went into the old house from the hall. I know what you mean about the bloses as well, couldn't wait to get older so I could wear the one with the tie. Hated it when I first went into summer uniform. Mum had bought me some second hand dresses, I think from the stall they had at the garden party. Unfortunately that was the year they changed the style and material of the dress so some horrid girl started to call me second hand Rose ! I had a lovely book a year last Christmas called "Singer's Legacy, His family and his home" By Richard Hoare. It is about George Singer but there is a lot about the school and pictures of the building, and Miss Foster ! It was written by a teacher called Richard Hoare who I think was probably there a bit after you. I sent him an email as I wanted to ask him a couple of questions about the book. It turned out he lived in Kenilworth. He also said he had some albums that Miss Foster had kept that had been passed on to him by her sisters after she died. He said I was welcome to go and look at them. As my sister in law lives in Kenilworth and also went to CC (She is a bit younger than me so she would have started in 1965) we arranged to go and look at them and had a very nice couple of hours at his house. I can't remember where I saw the article about the church hall burning down, I think it was late 1970's, I seem to remember it was when we were out of the country living in Luxembourg. I agree about being allowed more freedom. My grandparents lived in Green Lane and I probably was not much more than 8 when I used to get on the number 14 to town and then to Green Lane. I just had to wait by the Burnt Post for Uncle Eric to come and cross me over the road. My parents would come and fetch me later. My brother and I got into real trouble once. We went to the Savoy to see The Wizard of Oz. We went for the afternoon performance but there wasn't one so my brother insisted on waiting for the next one. I wanted to go home but he would not let me go as again I had to cross the road. It was getting dark when we went home and we got into real trouble. I don't know what state the church is in now, it was pretty bad last time we went past.We used to go past every week when we visited mum, but have not had to go for the last few years