Fanny Loone was born in 1902; she was the blond haired, blue-eyed daughter of Charles Henry Loone a Horse Trader and Elizabeth Mary Loone (nee Jobson) a Home worker.
Fanny, a Sunday school teacher at the Elizabeth Green Mission in Alcester Street married Horace Albert Hambleton a Poultry Dealers Assistant & Busker in 1922.
They moved into her mother Elizabeth’s house at 79 Cheapside, which was a back-to-back house, a three storey that fronted the street.
The house had a cellar, a walk in front room, an upstairs bedroom and an attic.
Fanny and Horace were given the attic to lodge in. To get water they had to go out of their house, up an entry and get the water from a stand-pipe in the communal yard, the toilet was nearby and they had to share this with other families in the yard as they did with the brewus (brew house) where all of the families took turns to do their washing.
During November 1923 they had their first child, Joyce Evelyn, she was born by candlelight in the attic, the only lighting in the house was by oil lamps in the main living room. Apart from not having any water in the house there was no gas either. Cooking downstairs was done on a coal-fired range in an inglenook fireplace where Elizabeth always had something on the go, and it was amazing what she could do with a neck of lamb and a handful of vegetables.
It was at Christmas that Elizabeth really shone, it was the little things that cost nothing to make that were the most cherished: The hoops off a Beer barrel were joined to make a ball, this was suspended from a hook in the ceiling, it was first covered with a twist of crepe paper and then bits of silver cigarette paper. Items were made by hand and attached to the ball for distribution on Christmas morning such as Peg Dollies, Golliwogs that were made from old stockings or socks. Bundles of cigarette cards were saved all year round by Grandad and wrapped in crepe paper; these were used for many games such as snap, skimmers, swaps etc. Jackstones were cheap and would keep the babbies amused for hours as would heads and tails played with the shiny penny that you were given together with an apple, an orange and a couple of nuts in your stocking. Fannies Husband Horace worked for the Jews as a Poultry Assistant, at Christmas, his job was to kill and pluck Chickens in the Kosher fashion (cut not wrung) sometimes he made a mistake and wrung a neck, this Chicken had to be disposed of but at least it found a good home at Elizabeth’s and the babbies had a Christmas meal to remember.
In 1925 Horace junior was born and in 1926 Florence Elizabeth came along. Fanny and Horace now had to share their room with the three children.
One day in August 1926 Fanny asked her husband Horace not to go out busking as she didn’t feel very well, he went, as he always did, because they needed the money, by the time he got back home Fanny was dead. She had been suffering with backaches for ages and unknown to her she had a tumour on her kidney.
Horace couldn’t afford a funeral and Fanny was buried in a pauper’s grave* at Witton Cemetery.
There aren’t any photographs of Fanny; the only one ever seen was lost during a move and there were lots of moves (flits).
*For those who do not know, paupers were often buried at the four corners of the grave where someone better off had been interred. They did not have a stone to mark their passing, Joyce never knew where her Mom was buried until 80 years later when her son Eric was given the information by another member of the Loone/Edwards family. Joyce and Eric then purchased a memorial pot, had Fanny’s name inscribed, placed some red Roses in it and Joyce was at last able to say goodbye to her mom who she had only known for such a brief time.
They moved into her mother Elizabeth’s house at 79 Cheapside, which was a back-to-back house, a three storey that fronted the street.
