As part of our 10th anniversary celebrations, we’re featuring ten ‘People of Moor Pool’.
Norma Mason has lived on the Moor Pool Estate her whole life and has some wonderful memories, which we’ve asked her to share:
In 1916 my grandparents moved into 68 Carless Avenue when my Dad was just 2 years old. I remember my Grandmother telling me how she used to send invitation cards to ladies in the Avenue asking them to join her for afternoon tea. Knocking on doors was very much frowned upon back then. Granddad had a small business in King Alfred’s Place off Broad Street called Metal Developments making hardware for the lock industry. He actually invented the Engaged and Vacant slide lock which has been used for decades. He also came up with the idea of pivoting windows so my Grandmother could clean the outside as well as the inside as she was very house proud. The first prototype was installed in the front bedroom window at 68 Carless Avenue but was removed years later when the windows were replaced.
Dad attended Station Road Infant and Junior School before going on to King Edward’s Five Ways and I followed years later only to discover we both had the same teacher, Miss Kamaff. Following on with tradition, our two sons also went there, making it three generations. When Dad left King Edward’s he was pressured into joining the firm as Granddad’s health was deteriorating so, reluctantly, he did. A young lady passed by every day on her way to work and one day Dad plucked up the courage to ask her out. They married in 1939 at St John’s Church which then stood in St John’s Road at the lower end of Harborne High Street. Their friend, Tommy Furber, offered them a flat to rent on the High Street opposite, what is now, the ASDA petrol station and they settled into married life. During the Blitz their flat took a direct hit and they lost absolutely everything they had but, thankfully, came out unscathed. St John’s Church was also destroyed that night.
Dad joined the REME and was sent out to Burma where he was assigned to the Commando’s Special Boat Section but on his return from the war he discovered the business had suffered due to his Father’s ill health so everything was taken over by Parker, Winder and Achurch which also included all the patents. Any thought of future wealth was gone. Whilst he was away Mom had been lodging with friends until she was offered 62 Moor Pool Ave at a rent of 10s 6d a week (50p). Dad came home after he was demobbed in January 1946 and, hey presto, I appeared in September, therefore becoming ‘a victory baby’.
I had a wonderful childhood growing up in Moor Pool and my first memory was going to bed listening to the bowlers on the green and hearing the ducks flying off as it became dusk. The winters were harsh and I remember watching our neighbour Bill Cope skating on the pool as the ice was so thick. We played tennis in the road and only stopped when a car was heard approaching, which was about every hour. My early birthday parties were held in the Lower Hall and I remember friends sitting at a big table laden with sandwiches, trifles and cakes.
1953 saw Queen Elizabeth’s Coronation which was very exciting and a wonderful celebration. All the children from the Estate paraded along Moor Pool in fancy dress costumes (I was Bo Peep) and I remember the excitement when we all had a free ice cream from the Circle shop. We often played ‘Sardines’ which was a hide and seek game where one child would hide, usually in one of the passages, and everyone else had to find them. Each time they were found they would be joined until we were all crammed in together. With a dozen or more playing, the game could go on all day.
We spent hours crouched down on the steps at the front of the hall watching the dancers circling the floor; the ladies in their ballroom dresses and the gentlemen in their tails. The large hall seemed like an inner sanctum back then and I could never have imagined how it would eventually come to play such a big part in my life in the years to come. We often played round The Circle and if someone turned up with a bike we took turns riding round. The boys said eight times round was a mile. I joined ‘The Young Britains’ which was a club run by Mrs Upwright and Mrs Davies in the lower hall where we learned all about the Commonwealth. We split into teams of different Countries (I was leader of Ghana) and competed in all sorts of games. We had great fun.
My Grandmother died when I was 13 so we moved from Moor Pool Ave to her house in Carless Ave, which was the normal progresssion then, and I continued enjoying my teenage years with friends around the Estate and in the Coffin Club under the Post Office, now The Circle shop, which Mike Frost and I discovered only recently had remained exactly the same.
I met my husband to be in 1965 and we were married in 1967. We applied for a house, waited six months before one became available, and finally moved into 13 High Brow.
The Queen’s Silver Jubilee was due to take place in June 1977 and a few of us who remembered the Coronation event decided we should have another celebration. We formed a committee whose aim was to raise £300 to give the children and seniors a party and hold a dance for all residents. Plans were put in place and fundraising began nine months ahead of the celebration and we actually raised £1,781.00. As the funds grew so did I as I had discovered I was expecting our second child who decided to make an entrance the day before the Jubilee so I missed all the celebrations. My Mom made five large square cakes for the various parties and Dolly Lane, who lived in Moor Pool and had been trained by Mr Kunzle himself, decorated them all and they were magnificent. There was a huge fancy dress parade, judged by the Lord Mayor, followed by a children’s party in the large hall, another party for the seniors and a very well attended dance the following evening. The whole event had completely rekindled the community spirit so the committee regrouped and, thanks to their efforts, the majority of the clubs and groups that exist today were born.
One of the suggestions was a play reading group which sounded interesting, so I thought I’d join. Joyce Massey held the first play reading in her house in Moor Pool Ave and the following year the Moor Pool Players staged its first play, Blithe Spirit. The stage hadn’t been used for productions since The Wentworth Players had performed back in the 30’s so the long curtains were removed from the kitchen area and hung from the proscenium arch and the back walls were painted black. The Stage Manager had to run on and hold the curtains together at the beginning and end of each act as they didn’t quite meet. The profit from the first two plays was enough to purchase a pair of proper theatre curtains and buy material to build flats. I was given the part of Elvira, the spirit wife who returns and causes trouble between her husband and his new wife. I was so nervous standing in the wings every night waiting for my entrance that I swore I would never do it again. Never say never as during the years to follow I appeared in dozens of plays and ended up directing, something I would never have imagined all those years ago. The group went from strength to strength staging three productions a year until the final curtain came down in 2016, 39 years after the first production.
After ten years living in High Brow we moved to Carless Avenue where I watched our boys growing up playing round the estate, riding their bikes and probably getting up to all sorts of mischief as I had done. They’ve moved on now but still recall their own memories of their happy childhood growing up on the estate.
What is your favourite place on the Estate?
The people who have been involved over the years have played a huge part in my life making the Moor Pool Hall a very special place for me.
I often walk around the estate and picture us hiding in the passages, running along the lane by the pool, scrumping apples, sitting on the hall steps until dusk, playing round the garages and passing front doors picturing where all those wonderful characters once lived.
Is there anything you’d like to see happen on the Estate over the next 10 years?
Times change and life moves on but I would like to think the families and children who are now fortunate to experience life on the Moor Pool Estate will go on to have their own special memories, just as I have.
Moor Pool Hall
37 The Circle, Harborne,
Birmingham, B17 9DY
Registered Charity Number: 1148252
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