Zillah Ford, née Deasington, at 4 Tyne Court, Sutton Coldfield, February 17th 1992.
[Note: Zillah’s father, Joseph Walter Deasington (1882-1949), is often referred to as ‘Pop’.
Her mother, Florence Ethel Deasington, née Goodfellow (1884 – 1964) is referred to as ‘Nana’.]
The tape begins with Zillah saying: “I said you were here and what you had come to do…” She is referring to a conversation with Beulah, her brother Tony’s wife. Their daughter, Jodie, a nurse, had recently talked to Rene Highfield, who was a patient at the hospital where she worked. Rene (at that point nearly 90) had lived with the Deasingtons for a number of years so that she could attend George Dixon Grammar School in Birmingham.
Z: “She said what a marvellous woman mother was… tell Martyn it was like a conveyor belt there…”
Rene was a cousin of theirs; her mother was Aunt Ada, Florence Deasington’s sister. She and her husband, Joseph Henry Highfield, lived in the village of Bayton in Shropshire. He was headmaster of the village school, and she was one of the teachers.
I talk about the idea of doing a timeline of major public events alongside Deasington family events and raise the issue of the broken family line. Z says there was a birth certificate for her Grandfather on which was written “father not known”. So, if I have understood correctly, Pop was the child of Joseph Deasington senior, but his father was not a Deasington. She says: “Grahame (Crow) would be able to tell you all about that.” She confirms that Frank’s son, Richard Deasington, was also doing some work on this part of the family tree and that Betty had got some papers on it at one time.
12 minutes in there is a long pause while Zillah goes out to look for some paper.
During the conversation I am trying to draw and label a family tree on Mother’s dining table.
We establish that her grandfather was William Goodfellow and that he married Zilla Eardley. They had three girls: Ada, Gertrud and Florence.
Joseph Walter D and Florence Ethel had ten children in all. The first, Joseph (always referred to as Joey), died at 1 year old. The others were, in order:
Constance Mary, known as Connie
Elizabeth, known as Betty
Kathleen Gertrud, known as Kath
Zillah
Bernard Eric
Florence May, known as May
John Raymond, known as Jack
Anthony, known as Tony
Frank
All nine were alive at the time of this recording.
The dialogue here is slow because I am writing and asking questions and there are long pauses while Zillah is thinking and speculating.
She mentions that Pop had two sisters called Jenny (or possibly Ginny) and May. Research online since then reveals that their birth names were Sarah Jane and May. Pop was the youngest of the three.
Auntie May never married but lived with a woman called Alice Walker.
Early on in their marriage Pop and Nana lived in Laxey Road, Birmingham. Later they lived at two different houses in Rotten Park Road. The first four children were born in Laxey Road; all the boys were born in Rotten Park Road. Sarah Jane (‘Jenny’) also lived on Laxey Road for a time, but her sister May stayed in the Potteries in Staffordshire.
All Nana’s family were from there too.
Zillah talks about the houses she lived in after she and Henry married. Before Green Lanes they lived in Clarence Road, then they had a smaller house on Green Lanes before they moved to number 127 next to Kenny and Rene Brooks. Connie also lived on Green Lanes for a time, in the house that Betty Carter later moved to. Connie then moved Eastern Road. Zillah and Henry moved for a time to Whitehouse Common Road which she described as “a horrible period of my life. I wasn’t well at the time.” She doesn’t explain this and I don’t pursue it but she reveals that she had a miscarriage after Pam. “We never settled there. Father never took to the local – to the White House Common – a bad sign!” (laughter) David H Ford was born in Green Lanes.
This last part of the recording is good, but unfortunately the tape must have run out and I don’t know what was missed out.