Phyllis “Clare” Harris was born on the 26th of July 1915 to parents Edith and Frederick; she also had a sister Edna and a brother Fred. The house they lived in was towards the top of Goodrick Street near to the Stork Pub.
Clare went to Bloomsbury Street School until she was 11 when she was sent to a Senior School in Aston to which she had to walk, there and back.
She hated it there, for dinner she had to go to an Aunt nearby and when dinner was finished she was made to scrub the kitchen floor before going back to school.
She had to leave school at 14 to look after her Mother who had ill health. When she had time she would help her sister do a bit of hairdressing. Her Mother and father moved to a bigger house in Cato Street opposite the Midlands Counties Dairy.
Clare & Bryn’s wedding in 1937
Clare met her husband-to-be “Bryn Poyner” while on holiday, he was a Welshman born in Cwm, a mining community and as he did not want to work down the mines he moved to Birmingham to find work and lodgings, he found lodgings in Cato Street North. Clare’s mother Edith, died when Clare was 20, she married Bryn in 1937 and they bought a house in Havelock Road
At Christmas in 1937, Clare gave birth to twin boys, they were premature and both died within a week.
Clare went on to have a daughter in 1940, they moved to Cato Street but by the time the child was five months old she died.
In 1942 a son “Barry” was born followed by a daughter “Diane” in 1945 and another daughter “Maxine” in 1946.
Barry sadly died at the age of 61.
At the age of 96, Clare has Dementia and her two daughters look after her. She lives in Castle Vale now since the house in Cato Street was demolished in the 1960’s. Clare hasn’t got a very good memory now but she does remember Goodrick Street and Cato Street and shopping in Gt Lister Street and up the Rock every week.
She didn’t go out to work, Clare was a full-time Mom, washing by hand with only a wringer, no spinners then and washing had to be dried around the fire, especially in winter.
Monday’s chore was to scrub the front doorstep (you don’t see that now) with a scrubbing brush, she wouldn’t use a mop.
Clare would still love to do her own housework but unfortunately at 96 she is too old.
Clare went to Bloomsbury Street School until she was 11 when she was sent to a Senior School in Aston to which she had to walk, there and back. 
She had to leave school at 14 to look after her Mother who had ill health. When she had time she would help her sister do a bit of hairdressing. Her Mother and father moved to a bigger house in Cato Street opposite the Midlands Counties Dairy.