CHARLES H. WELCH
46
In 1842 and again in 1864, acts of Parliament made the employment of `climbing boys' as they were called,
illegal. Charles Kingsley in the `Water Babies' speaks of these climbboys. To these, the tablet referred to on page
20 alludes, when it forbad the apprenticing of boys to `chimney sweeps'.
On May Day in the morning, folk would walk in the green meadows and woods. There would be Maypole
dancing and:
`Divers warlike shows, with good archers, Morris dancers, and other devices for pastime all day long, and
toward the evening they had stage plays, and bonfires in the streets'.
A familiar cry was `A lot for ha'penny watercress' or as it was usually pronounced `watercreases'. A mission that
was held under the railway arches of Spa Road Station stipulated that no one could be a member of the mission band
who did not refrain from buying `watercreases' on Sundays!
Another old chap would cry as he walked in from the surrounding country:
`Any chickweed and groundsel for your singing bird-ies'.
Yet another would peddle from door to door greeny grey lumps of hearthstone used for whitening door steps and
hearths. Being the eldest I was roped in at times to use this hearthstone and clean the front door step. As I did not
want any of the boys to see me doing `women's work' I knelt in the passage and hung nearly upside down to do this
chore. When cleaning the knives in those days with brickdust I sometimes asked `who invented work', but at the
time was ignorant of the reason for its irksomeness. There was no stainless steel at that time.
However we strike a pleasanter note as we remember the song:
`Sixteen branches a penny
Sweet lavender.
I will sell you sixteen branches for a penny
All in bloom'.