Early memories fond, but hazy

Anthony Perry, fighting to get recognition for 19th century Wolverhampton author Ellen Thorneycroft Fowler, recalls early memories of the town.

"From the age of three or four, until I was 11 years old, I lived in Red Lion Street, in the centre of Wolverhampton. My memories of these years, in the 1950s, are hazy in some respects, but, from what I can recall, they are fond memories. Family, friends and the town centre, before it was to undergo such drastic alterations, combined to give a happy early childhood.

"Red Lion Street in the 1950s was longer than it is now. Where the 1960s Telephone Exchange extension stands was a block of four houses. At right angles to the road was another block of four, with a cemetery for St Peter and St Paul Catholic Church on the other side.

"The 14 houses in the street were built in 1926, as shown by date plaques with the Wolverhampton Corporation Coat of Arms on the front wall. They were the typical between-the- wars council-built two-storey houses of brick, with some rendering to the front walls on the first floor, bay windows to the ground floor front room, open porches and metal casement windows throughout.

"Our house was No. 2, in the first block of four. A high privet hedge above a low wall along a pavement hid a small front garden where we grew tulips, daffodils and nasturtiums.

"My best friend in those years was Geoff. Although he lived at Wednesfield, his grandparents resided at No. 3. We would spend many happy hours playing in each other's houses or in the street."