NextBackOn the 3rd February 1947 I reported for work on the first pair of brick houses to be built on the Mayfields Estate, they are the last on the right hand side of Parsons Road, it was the beginning of the worst winter that I can remember, it snowed, and froze and thawed repeatedly in that order for six weeks and the working conditions were intolerable. Health and Safety Regulations were unheard of and we had no safety wear, no toilets and no washing facilities. The weather was so bad that the Council commandeered all the builder’s lorry’s and labourers and sent them to Hewell to clear the road of snow on the main road to Bromsgrove as it was hedge high across the road it was during this period that a corpse had to be pulled on a sledge across two fields from a farm to a hearse on the main road. The older men did everything they could to dissuade me from entering the trade informing me that due to weather conditions income was very uncertain in the winter and very often in the Christmas period when men were sent home due to the weather no money was earned leading to severe financial hardship.
This, in the Mayfields, was the first building to take place after the war and the area was all green fields with both Parsons Road and the Mayfields terminating just a short distance down from Mount Pleasant.