The good old days? It's hard to pin down when they took place

Gloucestershirelive.co.uk

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YOU often hear people talking about the good old days. But rarely do they say when these fine times were.

Do you suppose Mr and Mrs Ball looked at one another and said in unison "things couldn't get any better" when they were thrice blessed on St Patrick's day in 1908 with triplets, two boys and a girl?

As you can see here, Mrs Ball was photographed at their home in Hayden Green, which, as the Cheltenham Chronicle and Gloucestershire Graphic minced no words in describing, was "just at the entrance to the corporation sewerage farm".

The trio of newlyborns brought the Balls' tally of offspring to seven. Life couldn't have been easy. "The husband's wages as a farm labourer amount to only 14 shillings (70p) per week and he has to work from four o'clock in the morning to six o'clock at night. Out of this has to be provided food and clothes for the family of nine, besides rent for the cottage" reported the Chronicle and Graphic.

The same newspaper summed up what life was like during the 1930s in the Westgate area of Gloucester.

The back-to-backs were without individual water, sewerage, or main facilities of any kind. Instead, residents had to share a stand pipe and outside lavatory. To make matters worse, the area was prone to regular flooding.

When in January 1930 violent storms ripped through Westgate, the Gloucestershire Graphic seized the opportunity to focus local minds on the plight of people who lived in that quarter.