Page 210 - Redditch People

Redditch People

BESSIE CROW

Bessie remembers Headless Cross and in the 1970’s when she was
interviewed, she was already in her eighties, so sometimes her
memories of Headless Cross go back to the late 1800s

Just before the war she bought a shop at Headless Cross. When
the bomb fell in Redditch her family was unhurt and so in gratitude
to God she vowed to adopt any unwanted baby that came her way.

She continued…

“The opportunity came when the insurance man told me about a
girl who had got into trouble when her husband was in the army
so I arranged to have the baby.”

“I went down to the hospital and saw the Matron who said, ‘Yes,
I know the story’. She added. ’I can’t release the baby until the mother’s out of hospital’. She
explained that, until then, the responsibility would be theirs. I couldn’t wait for the end of the
fortnight to come. I crocheted a shawl. I knitted a little jacket and I bought some baby
clothes. I went down on the train again and brought him home and he was twelve days old. And
that is my adopted son and he’s the only one I’ve got left. I lost my only son ten years ago, two
years later I lost my husband and four years later Lost my only daughter”

MRS KEYTE

Mrs Keyte was a hundred years old in 1979 when this interview
took place.

Its importance was the preservation of local dialect. She lived
next door to the old Royal Enfield factory and was third in a family
of six boys and six girls. She went to the board school in Astwood
bank when Miss Ireson was there. Miss Ireson’s records for
Crabbs Cross school have been preserved in the public library.

Page: 210 © RLHS 2015