Angela Lam

Transcript

0:06: Born in grandmother’s house, 1950 on Shire Green Estate. Parents allocated flat on Greenhill estate now called Low Edges, 1955.

0:40 April 1955 starts school, school not finished on new estate so goes to old Green Hill primary for first term

1:06 New school very crowded because of intake from new estate. Out into year one class, missed out reception. Hadn’t been to nursery before. Enjoyed Low Edges school.

1:49 Leaves Low Edges in 1960 (when 10) because family move to Renishaw (N Derbyshire). Goes to very small village school there (1 form per year). ‘Big culture shock’.

2:16 Did the 11 plus.

2:25 Secondary schools, Westfield Comprehensive (Derbyshire). Probably influenced by Sheffield because so close. 1963 moves to Doncaster.

2:47 Childbirth practices, thinks it was usual to be born at home. Many people her age were born in nursing homes but not hospitals

3:00 Class divisions in childbirth practices, ‘we were very very working class, it was a council house’. Everybody in her family born at home, even youngest sister 1965. Local midwife would come, wouldn’t cost anything because under the NHS.

3:38 Extended family. Grandmother, uncle – council houses tenancy passing on death of family member. Grandmother had sisters, mostly all on same estate. Family originate from Pitsmoor (near Shalesmoor) which was a slum area, all been pulled down now.

4:40 New council houses ‘fabulous’ because they had gardens, toilets attached to house. ‘Nice estate to be small on’

5:05 Grandmother had a lot of friends who would come and visit her and keep their hats on in sitting room. ‘Respectable ladies’. Grandmother had a piano, which her mother played. This was necessary because she was a teacher.

5:50 mother and father married, 20, 21 or so. Got jobs managing a hotel on Sheringham but it didn’t last long. Then father took various jobs, some back in Sheffield. Had nowhere to live in Sheffield so stayed with maternal grandmother. Paternal grandmother’s house only has 2 bedrooms.

6:40 Grandmother very tolerant, liked having children around. Not sure how well grandmother got on with father; parents on housing list and took smaller flat rather than waiting for a house, pressure/ eager to get own place?

7:15 freezing January when they moved to 2-bedroom flat, on corner. Her and sister’s bedroom over passage, absolutely freezing. Doesn’t remember that but told it. Little yard but no garden, which mum would have liked. Had garden when moved to Renishaw.

8:00 siblings. Angela is the oldest. Sister 4 years younger, brother 10 years younger, sister 15 years younger.

8:18 brother and youngest sister had different life to her and immediately younger sister. Parents had more money and were more laid back because older. She and immediately younger sister had very much a 50s upbringing.

9:00 School 7 years old. Open days for ‘mummies to come in. Only the mums obviously, because they were at home’. Her desk at back of room by window with a very low window sill. Remembers mum and friend sitting on windowsill and making joke about feathers being hard. Why does she remember this specifically she wonders?

10:00 For the open day they made little books shaped like houses. Angela remembers being somewhat embarrassed and apologetic about living in a flat not a house.

10:25 Because she was the oldest she was a ‘good girl’. Family story that Angle didn’t cry on first day of school. Hard to live up to expectations of being the first child bit she thinks she did. Younger ones in the family ‘got away with murder’

11:40 writing classes, arithmetic. Sewing and needlework of some sort. Doesn’t remember this but does remember that the boys went elsewhere and did something different. PE lessons, remembers getting changed, and each girl helping the other with their buttons on the ‘frock’. Read a story last thing in the day (at 9/10 yrs.). Did drama on Friday which she hated because the boys were silly, though she enjoyed the stories. No memory of history or geography lessons.

13:45 came back to Sheffield from West London (‘not a great place to be’) when 59 yrs. Sister had a son in Sheffield so she was planning to come back also. Husband had died and Angela wanted to live somewhere new. Bought house with younger sister, Sheffield was ‘home’. Friendliness of people odd after living in London.

14:57 Been a great move because she has made lots of friends and done so much since coming back.

15:08 Yorkshire identity (though not Sheffield) when living in London. Moved to London 1968 or 1969. Back then tried to lose her accent because people claimed they couldn’t understand her. Ironic when she came home and then people said they couldn’t understand her changed accent. Had to conform in London, Angela feels like she never quite made it. Relief at coming back to north.

16:15 Angela had been teaching so tried to get a standard accent. Didn’t realise how much effort that was taking. Had stopped teaching when returned to Sheffield.

17:00 Describes Sheffield as it was when she was 9/10. She didn’t realise at the time how close to the war ending it was. All the buildings were black (or rubble), she was surprised when she saw one that had been cleaned. She didn’t realise why at the time and no one explained to her, it was just the way that life was. Bad air, laundry getting dirty when you hang it to dry, this accepted as fact of life. Bad air due to coal burning factories and domestic fires (parents remember this more than she does). Friends shocked when she told then she was moving back to Sheffield, perception of city as dirty and industrial, it has changed very much.

19:00 Could find way round city when moved back, Mother didn’t recognise Sheffield. A lot of rebuilding, a lot university. Substantial amount of bob damage. 50s/60s concrete buildings, no sense of preserving old Sheffield.

20:14 Stele industry. Father’s father apparently worked in industry, probably cutlery, house full of reject/ wonky forks and knives. Other grandfather worked at Harley and Davidson, before war made skate blades, apparently for famous skater. Grandfather wood turner though, not blade making. War effort when war came. Allied to steel industry rather than in it.

22:30 memories of public transport. Bus from south of city to north via centre. Sometimes got tram, which her and her sister loved, fascinating to a child. Short carriages, each end could be the front. Memoires of conductors switching seats round when tram terminated ‘just so fascinating, I loved to watch that’. Sister remembers trams going through middle of roundabouts. Trams rattled a lot and not very comfortable. Used to be cheaper than the buses.

24:30 Bad winters. Grandmother covered Angela’s shoes in plastic bags because she didn’t bring her wellies when she went to stay with her. Bad winters fun when a child.

26:00 Dronfield (where Angela lives now) only short distance from Green Hill, but they had no notion that it was there at the time. Dronfield over boarder in Derbyshire. Short distance seemed much larger. When she moved from Sheffield to Renishaw as a child she was teased about her accent being different.

26:45 Dronfield definitely not part of Sheffield, sees itself as very distinct. Dormitory town, commuters mainly.

27:50 Talks about housing and re-housing schemes, building of new estates. Overcrowding post ww2.

28:25 How is Sheffield viewed from the outside? ‘Dirty, northern industrial city, why on earth would you want to be there at all’. Famous for cutlery, element of prestige, exclusive. Looked down on because the whole of the North is looked down on.

30:00 High graduate population.

30:17 Sheffield very spread out.

31:00 Parents lives and jobs. Mother went to grammar school because she was ‘the clever one’. Comparison to Aunty Violet, who died. Mother did teacher training but didn’t like it. Father in the navy, called up at the end of the war. Father ‘rescued’ her mother, married very young. Father had a variety of clerking jobs.

32:30 Applied and got a hotel manager job in Sheringham, able to get this job because war caused shortage of working aged people. After that they managed sands café at Bridlington. Managed a theatre.

33:00 Involved in the Labour party and possibly Trade Unions. Labour party funded him to go to Ruskin college in Oxford, got a diploma in History and Political Science. Then ‘blagged his way’ into teaching course, became an assistant lecturer then a lecturer. Ended up working for teacher’s union. ‘Pulled himself up by his boot straps’. Left school at 12 (because of war) and never went back. Father had one book in his house called ‘Enquire Within’, like an encyclopaedia. Richard Hoggart, uses of literacy.

35:50 Both mother and father born in Pitsmoor slums in back-to-backs, rehoused when about 5 or 6. Back to backs ‘abysmal’, yet grandmother fond of her house because she had lived there for so long. Back to backs were terraced housing with a ‘ginnel’ (alley) to a courtyard, in courtyard there were more houses, a privy, and a ‘midden’ (where rubbish went). Grandmother bettered herself, moved from a courtyard house to one on the street. Issues of needing to go through the dark ginnel to get to the privy. Mother and grandmother at one point both lived in same estate, one on the street facing house on in the courtyard.

38:00 Angela’s great uncle drew plans and pictures of his mother’s house. One room with a fire place and range and sink. Staircase to next floor (one room) and then staircase up to attic. Out curtain across 1^st floor room to make 2 rooms. Window onto ginnel, very small scullery, stairs down to cellar (kept bath and coal). Because so crammed the children sent a lot of time outside. Had meals standing round table, because only 2 chairs.

39:50 Amazing how far her family has come. Not just her family, many have bettered their lot.

42:00 Angela talks about her education in the 1960s. From a village school to a grammar school (of sorts). In Doncaster the Grammar School was for boys and the girls’ school was called a secondary modern, even though it was streamed through the 11 plus.

44:00 Angela says she didn’t enjoy school in Doncaster, teaching style very different, example of French. Found it a difficult time to change schools (mid-way through 3^rd year). Had to choose between Latin and domestic science.

46:10 Sixth form library, a book called ‘The Group’, American author. Set in 1920/30s, about a group of women growing up. One chapter on losing virginity and sex, one chapter on contraception. Chapter about contraception ripped out. ‘How ridiculous’.

47:00 Doesn’t remember any sex education. Girls constantly leaving because they were pregnant. Only 2 of the teachers were graduates, other must have only had teaching qualification or A levels.

49:40 Technical college next door did psychology and sociology type courses. Angela could have gone there but none of her friends wanted to go with her, didn’t want to go alone because it was ‘full of blokes’.

50:15 Leaving school. Didn’t have to grades for university. Got onto a social sciences and economics course in Enfield (it was new so they were taking ‘anybody’). Dad pulled a lot of strings to get her on it so she had to go, but she hated it and only lasted 2 terms.

51:35 Left school got a boyfriend and her first job, at a bank (that looks after the royal accounts). Did clerical work until she had children. 1984 went to West London Institute get a teaching degree, closest one to home.

53:00 Angela had her children at home (1970s). Lived in a working-class area. Under a lot of pressure to have babies in hospital.

54:00 Breastfeeding. Only breastfed oldest daughter for 6 weeks because she had to go back on the pill, a lot of concern about getting pregnant again, didn’t have the mini-pill and couldn’t breast feed on the pill. By the time she had her son the mini-pill did exist, so you could breast feed for longer.

54:35 ‘No scans no nothing’.

54:50 Contraceptive pill. 1969 went to her GP to ask for the pill. He reluctantly (because she was unmarried) gave it to her for 3 months. Angela then went to the Marie Stopes clinic (on the advice of her girls at work) and pretended she was engaged so she could continue to have the pill. Marie Stopes clinic was private so she had to pay for her contraception. Really weren’t supposed to be having sex before marriage, when engaged it was a grey area.

56:30 Harder to get contraception in Sheffield area according to Angela’s friends. As a consequence, some got married when they were pregnant.

57:25 When Angela’s mother found out she was pregnant again in 1965 she went to the doctors to see if she could get an abortion. He said no because she was married and with a family but she was immediately out on the pill afterwards. Not giving pill to unmarried women as a deterrent to pre-marital sex.

58:30 In post war society morality was very important, but the 1960s ‘blew that out the water’. Early 60s more like the 50s. Late 60s and 70s more similar. Retrospectively a good time to live through, didn’t know it at the time. Concept of 60s for Angela happens when she moves to London, 68/69 and into the early 70s. ‘Aspiring, weekend hippies’ because they had to work.