Well, you used to have to walk most of the way. I remember we used to go down to Newbridge Street to visit Grandad and Grannie. We used to have to walk back and I suppose we must have lived at Cleveland Wharf. We used to come along the canal tow path. Most of the time you had to walk. When we started school, we went to a private school, to Miss Wilson’s on the North Road. We had to walk. It was a good mile and a half. We had to do it four times a day. Now it seems ludicrous, doesn’t it, but we did it four times a day, because it was a private school and they didn’t supply meals.

Then, of course, there was the tram system with the boxes in the road, which was called, I believe, the Lorain System. (The Wolverhampton Corporation Tramways electric system opened on 6th February 1902, using the Lorain surface contact method of current collection. This meant no overhead wires in the town.) In Clifford Street there was Mr Gulliford, the man who kept the fish and chip shop. He was also a tram driver.

A tram in Victoria Street.

They came along this loop to let the other tram coming in, then they came on to the main track again. They used to have these controllers. They were copper. They were beautifully polished and the handles - there were two. They used to carry from one end of the tram to the other.

Then of course they scrapped the trams and introduced the trolleybuses. And I think I’m right in saying that was in 1924. And the Whitmore Reans no.2, Tettenhall no.1 - I think I’m right in saying that the Whitmore Reans route was the first to be finished, because the Tettenhall route was a very long one from town, because they went right up to Tettenhall Wood. That was the terminus there.

(The first trolleybus route to Wednesfield opened on 29th October 1923 - the Tettenhall and Whitmore Reans routes opened in 1927 and 1930 respectively.)

A trolley bus in Stafford Street.

Not really, because money was very tight, even then, as cheap as travel was, you couldn’t do a great deal. Mother used to have some cousins at Stourbridge. One lot of cousins were butchers and the other people, I think he was something at sea - in the Merchant Navy. Mother used to take us to Stourbridge quite a lot. But there again we used to travel on the bus. No, it must have been a tram. We used to change at Dudley. It could have been Midland Red - that was probably how we got there - by bus. But, as I say, mostly Mother used to take us to Stourbridge.

We used to go to Sedgley as well. Relatives of my father - their name was Fox and they were butchers. They had a shop in Sedgley. It was next door to a cinema. I think it was Sedgley Bull Ring. We used to go there to visit Dad’s cousin. We used to go on the tram to Sedgley; one tram used to end in this Bull Ring at Sedgley.

I think I’ve told you down Horseley Fields, where the trams used to run, they’d got the poles like the trolleybuses had. At Horseley Fields they were only the single decker trams because the railway runs across Horseley Fields - the London, Euston line. (The Lorain stud contact system used on the local tramways was converted to overhead operation in 1921).

I remember at night we used to as kids watch the tram poles. If it was a frosty night, you’d get sparks. I know it used to keep us awake. In those days they used to run till about twelve o’clock. Then when the trolleybuses came into operation, they lowered the roadway to accommodate them. Under the bridge they put handrails to protect the pedestrians.