Page 28 - Colin Wheeler's Memories

Redditch Heritage My Palace Theatre and other Memories

On 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.

Page: 28 © Redditch Heritage 2018