About Sheila

Born in Coventry, I had just left Barr's Hill Grammar School for Girls in 1950. I went on to the Coventry Art School for two years and then into display work in Coventry city centre. I give you memories of just a few of my activities in that decade.

Sheila's Story

In 1952 England was just coming alive after the austerity of the war. Rationing had finished and nice clothes were becoming increasingly available. Although, having said that, one pair of the shoes, which I wore to work, had been acquired by queuing up at a local shoe shop when the word had flashed round our neighbourhood that Wagstaffs were expecting a delivery of Brevitt shoes. They were my first really grown up shoes; high-heeled, navy gabardine with a leather trim and peep-toes. I think I got those in 1950 and they had to last many years.

Through the first part of the Fifties, because of clothes rationng, I was wearing some remade clothes, which had been sent from relatives in America. There were two tailoring shops in Coventry which specialised in remaking clothes, one called Renova, which was in Bishop Street. So from my portly rich great-aunt in USA I had a dark green slim fitting two-piece suit and a fawn gabardine dress with a green tie. Most of the women’s’ clothes were still fastened with hook and eyes, press studs or buttons and the men’s’ trousers would have flies done up with buttons.

I had plenty of things to do in my evenings if I wished to after a long day’s work. There were amateur dramatics, evening classes, youth groups, cinema, theatre, dancing, tennis and Church on Sundays. When I was at home in the evening I was making most of my clothes, either knitting or sewing. Whatever I did it had to be cheap as I was only earning £3. 10s. (£3.50) a week.

On the particular evening I am thinking about I had a job in the city centre and I left work at 6.00 p.m. having been there since 8.45 a.m. I was wearing a charcoal grey woollen tailored two-piece suit and white blouse which was the regular wear for work in the winter, with a swing-back, woollen coat over the top. I would have been wearing seamed nylon stockings of a fairly heavy denier. Fine ones were kept for very special dates. I would also have had court shoes with about a two-inch Cuban heel and a small felt hat. I always wore a brooch on my lapel but did not often wear earrings, as it was a painful procedure to have ears pierced in those days; the less painful method became available in the mid-1970s. My hair was quite curly as we had home perms available which took several hours of winding tightly plastic curlers and applying various chemicals. I had with me my sports clothes. These consisted of a pair of white shorts, an Aertex blouse and some white tennis shoes. I had arranged to meet a girl friend at the top of Hertford Street as she worked at the Council House and she had introduced me to the Municipal Sports Association.

We went to our usual place of refreshment. There was not much choice. There were plenty of coffee bars around but they only sold giant slices of gateau with Espresso coffee. We wanted something more substantial so we went to Lyons teashop in Broadgate. It was only a prefabricated building but it was cosy in there. There was a self-service counter with a very limited choice of food and I think we usually chose spaghetti on toast or egg and chips followed by a currant bun with a cup of tea. From there it was only a short walk to the Municipal Canteen. This was an enormous prefabricated building situated between Broadgate and County Hall. It had been built as dining facilities for the Council workers as a temporary building after the wartime bombing but was also used for other purposes and on this evening it had been cleared and there were two table tennis tables at one end and a badminton court at the other.

We went into the cloakroom and changed our clothes. There was a group of young folk there and we had some exciting games of table tennis but my attention was drawn to the other end of the room where about a dozen people were taking turns to play badminton. I had never seen that game before and was very attracted to it.

After a couple of hours we finished playing, got changed, and I walked down Trinity Street to catch the Number 5 bus in Hales Street to take me home leaving my friend to go to Radford. It was easy to travel by bus, no danger, cheap and they came along every few minutes. The next time I went to the Municipal Canteen I was playing badminton at the other end of the room and a few months later, in the summer, played tennis with the same group.

Move on about six years and now I was working at Courtaulds, the giant textile firm. It was probably one of the biggest employers in Coventry and a very good firm to work for. I had taken secretarial qualifications (display work did not have many prospects) and was probably earning about £10 a week. A lot of my activities were the same or similar as earlier in the decade. I had been introduced to the Umbrella Club, which was a city centre club for people to go along and listen to music and have discussions. I played badminton at Courtaulds’ sports centre, and sometimes turned out for their team in the league as most of the big factories had their own teams. There were two theatres to chose from. The new Belgrade Theatre had excellent new plays and I went to most performances. They had a big supporters group with excellent speakers each month on a Sunday evening, either broadcasters or well-known actors. The Coventry Hippodrome (the late lamented Coventry Theatre) had the biggest stage in the Midlands and had visits from Sadler’s Wells Ballet Company, Covent Garden Opera and all the famous actors and artistes of that time. This was where I was going on this particular evening with my boyfriend.

I had to dash home from work to get ready. Leaving the office at 5.30 p.m. I ran down the Foleshill Road over the canal bridge to the bottom of Cashes Lane. There I waited in a long queue for the No.14 Inner Circle bus to come along. The question was would I be able to get on? Very often the conductor would stand on the platform and only allow one or two people on. Then we would have to wait for another ten minutes for the next bus. However, all was well and I was conveyed through the various districts to Moseley Avenue. It was a ten-minute run up Barker’s Butts Lane to get home at about 6 p.m. My mother had a meal ready for me and I then ran upstairs to get into some better clothes.

After a quick wash I put on my homemade, fine wool lavender dress, with an Empire style bodice and flared skirt. The fitted waist zipped at the side I wore a pearl necklace and the gold watch which I had for my twenty-first birthday. For daywear I often wore the latest in plastic costume jewellery. Poppits were plastic beads, which could be bought in different colours. Each bead had a hole on one side and a lug on the other so they could be pressed into each other and made either a long rope or one or two chokers. Of course, I wore fine nylon stockings with fashioned heel and my cream winkle picker shoes. My best coat was slim, whitish tweed flecked with green and lavender. The sleeves were three-quarters with turned back cuffs. It had a big collar and wide reveres and a half belt at the back. I always tried to match my gloves and handbag to my shoes which would tone in with whatever clothes I was wearing. By this time I was able to afford to go to a hairdresser weekly and had it taken up in a French pleat so I did not wear a hat on that evening although I had several in my wardrobe. I wore little make-up; a dash of powder and lipstick was all I needed.

Once more, there was a quick run to the bus. Thank goodness they came every five minutes and for a few coppers I was transported to the bus stop outside the Hippodrome. (There the buses quickly went round a small roundabout at the bottom of Trinity Street and were ready to make their return journey to Coundon.) My boy friend was waiting and we entered up the main steps into the stalls. This was a treat as if I went with a girl friend we would go to the back door and climb the ninety or so steps to the "Gods" paying about 4s. 6d. (23p.). In the interval we had an ice cream. After the performance of the Mikado by the D’Oyley Carte Company we had to rush out to get the last bus home. Having been escorted to my front door he gave me a quick kiss and then had to run to try and catch the bus returning to the bus garage. If he missed it he had about four miles to walk to Stoke and we both had to be up early next morning for work.