74 Dronfield St.

 Kathleen, Brian (a friend Brenda Cree ) and Judith Flynn on the step of 74 Dronfield St. 1952.

Judith Hubbard’s father, Timothy Flynn from Roscommon, first came over to Birmingham where he worked on the railway.

Mary Cunningham, from Port Laois, had come to Birmingham too: Mary’s dad had died and there were possibly too many mouths to feed with no money coming in to the house-so she came to England.

Timothy and Mary married in 1939 and moved over to Kettering where their daughter, Judith, was born in 1941. They moved to Leicester in 1942 and found a terraced house, 74 Dronfield St , through someone Timothy worked with. 

During the war Timothy signed up with the British Army and was based at Catterick but Mary and Judith stayed in Leicester. Three more children, Timothy, Kathleen and Brian were born in Dronfield St. after the war and Mr and Mrs Flynn lived there all their lives.

The children went to Sacred Heart and Judith remembers the Headmistress, Sister LLoyola, Miss Veal and Miss Burkett. She also remembers Father Murdoch, Father Henry and Sister Gemma.

Judith later went to Moat, Brian to City of Leicester and Kathleen, Corpus Christi.

Mary worked at John Bull, Evington Valley Rd.

Judith remembers many, many shops around where she lived:

Norton’s  a haberdashery shop on the corner of Eggington and Dronfield St. and an off licence on the opposite corner called Ward’s.

Mrs. Deacon’s was a general grocer’s store at the 3^rd corner of the crossroad where they would cut the butter to size and weigh out the sugar.

The Finnegan’s had The Dew Drop Inn, Laxton St.

Winterbottom’s Grocery Shop was at the top of Dronfield St. on a corner with Mere Rd.

Houghan’s Greengrocer’s, an electrical shop called Buttons and a newsagent were also part of the strip of shops at the top of Dronfield St.

There was a sweet shop in middle of the street, Frank’s. When sweets were rationed she remembered him slicing up a Mars bar to share between the family. This shop keeper donated ice lollies for the Coronation Day celebrations on the street.

Judith remembers:

Kathleen and Maureen Larkin,

Pauline Everett,

Brother and sister, Marie and Tommy Kebill,

Nora Lee, who lived opposite Sacred Heart and Nora O’Gorman, who lived next door to her.

Who and where do you remember?

If you'd like to be involved contact us on 0116 276 9186 or pop in to:
The Emerald Centre, Gipsy Lane, Leicester. LE5 OTB

Click here to view a map of The Irish in Leicester.

Porter St

Tommy Holt came from Thomas Court, Dublin and joined the British Army. Looking for work he originally came to Stoke, England where he delivered coal.

Tommy already had an aunty living Leicester, Annie King, married to John Moran, and was probably coming over as early as 1948/49. Tommy met his wife-to-be, Greta Callaghan, back home in 1951 and they were married in 1951.  Greta came from Rainsford Avenue, Dublin and  came back over to Leicester with Tommy.

They originally lived on a first floor of a terraced house at 2 Porter St. in Highfields. Annie and John were then living near by at 88 Upper Conduit St. 

An old man lived downstairs and Greta took care of him as well as her own family. Their first child, Roseanna, was born in Bond St. hospital in 1952. She was named after Greta’s sister, Rosanna May who had died 6 months before baby Roseanna was born. Roseanna’s family has always called her May. When Greta was pregnant with their second child, Ray, the family moved down the street to  6 Porter St. where they had the two bedroom terraced house to themselves. As the only girl, Rosanna had the box room. It had been completely normal for them to have shared with others at No. 2 and they carried on sharing yard space and outside toilets with neighbours when at No. 6. The landlord called around to the house for the rent. The Sansomes lived at No. 8.

Tommy worked at Brigg’s Tannery almost facing their house and later at Gimson foundry, Vulcan Rd. His last job there was as a Castings Inspector and like many Irishmen and women Tommy sent money home regularly to his mother.

By the late 50s they were joined in Leicester by Tommy’s brother, Kinner who married an English girl. Greta’s brother, Paddy Callaghan, came too, with his wife Sarah (Hill).

Paddy and Sarah lived nearby at 104 Upper Conduit St with their children, Lynda and Sandra.  Rosanna would spend time with Aunty Sarah and her two daughters as her house with 3 brothers could get pretty hectic but all 5 cousins have fond memories of playing together and time spent in each other’s houses.

Roseanna has a memory of her Aunty Sarah expressing breast milk with a pump into glass bottles. These were then put into a tin box and put on the doorstep to be collected for the hospital. No refrigeration or cooler boxes then!

Greta had wanted Roseanna to go to Holy Cross School on New Walk but she actually went to Sacred Heart, Mere Rd. where her 3 brothers would follow her. In fact she originally went to Medway School, St. Peter’s Rd. May remembers walking to school, home for dinner and back again in the afternoon. May, Chris and Les later went to Corpus Christi and Ray went to Gateway.

Corner and local shops provided most of what everyone needed but Greta loved to get down to Leicester market and would walk down Sparkenhoe and Swain St. to get into town. Ray remembers being a delivery boy for the Co-op on the corner of St. Saviour’s Rd and Kitchener Rd.

 

If you'd like to be involved contact us on 0116 276 9186 or pop in to: 

The Emerald Centre, Gipsy Lane, Leicester. LE5 OTB

We're now also on Twitter: follow me on  @irishleicester or join The Irish in Leicester group on Facebook.

Click here to view a map of The Irish in Leicester.

Dore Rd

Joe Cusack, from Westport, was actually heading towards Birmingham on the train but didn’t have enough money so got off at Leicester.

He first lived in a flat in B+B in Saxby St because he had seen the vacancy sign in the window. He then moved to Mere Rd.

He met his wife, Lily, one night at The Corn Exchange dance and she was living on Mere Rd with Elisabeth Grimes from Castlebar.

He saw an advert for a job labouring in the engineering on Abbey Lane. He later went to City of Leicester to take his exams to be a Capstan’s Inspector. At home he had worked in the catering trade.

They married and in 1958 bought a house at 8 Dore Rd. for £1,600. They later moved up to Wigston Magna and Jo moved to work for Northbridge Engineering, Vicking Rd.

In the 1949/50 Jo was called up but had gone down to Cornwall to avoid going to Korea. The police found him in Penzance but he didn’t pass the medical. He was given an X-ray in a mobile van and it showed a shadow on his lung but a check later in Leicester proved this to be an error.

His brother, Jim, had a second hand/bargain shop on Charnwood St. and a music shop, Power Music, on Green lane Rd.

Another brother, Padraig, had been in the RAF, Palestine police, and he came to Leicester afterwards.

Jo only went home for funerals or back to stay with Lily’s family

Jo and Lily have 3 sons, Tony, Jimmy and Paul. They went to Sacred Heart, St. John Fisher and Corpus Christi. 

 

If you'd like to be involved contact us on 0116 276 9186 or pop in to:
The Emerald Centre, Gipsy Lane, Leicester. LE5 OTB

Click here to view a map of The Irish in Leicester.