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THE EARLY YEARS

 

James (the First)

To begin this story, we have to go back to the middle of the nineteenth century to when James Kerbell was born, in Sutton-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire in 1847.
James received an education, which was not typical of working class families of that time. By the mid-nineteenth century, approximately two thirds of working class children received a Sunday school education. A lot of children at this time were actually put to work during the week, so Sunday was the perfect day for them to receive schooling. There were no state schools; private individuals, churches, charitable organisations or businesses funded them. Compulsory, free education for all children didn’t come about until 1870. However, James’s parents managed to set aside money each week to pay for his education, in the hope that it would give him a better chance later on in life.
For reasons unknown, James moved from Sutton-on-Trent to Birmingham in Warwickshire. Possibly, the availability of more work tempted the move. Whatever the reason, to Birmingham he went, where he found work as a farm labourer. This wasn’t the sort of work you would expect an educated person to have, but it brought in a wage. He shortly met a young woman called Selina. They fell in love and were married in 1865.

The first child arrived on 26th April 1877, at the home in Coleman Street in Nechells, a boy that they named William. As was often the case, children were named after parents or grandparents and so the same names appeared regularly in family trees. In the Kerbell family the names James and William were passed down and one or both appear in each generation that followed. Other children followed including Herbert and Sarah, but William, who turned out to be quite a character, is central to the early part of the story so we will concentrate on him.
James, being schooled himself, knew the value of a good education. He was determined that his sons would be given a good start in life so he sent them to the Blue Coat School in Edgbaston, Birmingham.
Reverend William Higgs founded the school in 1722 to provide poorer children with an education based on Christian values as taught by the Church of England.
On completing their education the two brothers took different paths. William entered the building trade, and Herbert (perhaps not so enamoured by physical labour) entered the jewellery trade. Around the age of fifteen, William became a plasterer’s apprentice and spent the next few years learning the trade. He was a quick learner and became very adept at the art of plastering. Within three years he was earning a very good wage. Plastering wasn’t the only thing he became very adept at. He’d also discovered drink, and developed a taste for it. He would often come home drunk, much to the disgust of the rest of his family. Pressure from his family over his drinking forced him to move out of the house in Coleman Street, so in the autumn of 1896 he moved out of the family home and into a property in Hospital Street, Newtown. He was now nineteen years old and very much his own man. He realised, however, that he must curb his drinking if he wanted to better himself and climb the social ladder, and so he learnt to keep the amount he drank under control.

During 1897, news began to come through of the discovery of large goldfields in the Yukon Territory of northwest Canada, near Dawson City. Gold was first discovered in Rabbit Creek, later renamed Bonanza Creek. Thus began the infamous “gold rush”. Reports appeared in all the newspapers telling people of the fortunes that could be had. Thousands of people joined the “stampede” for gold. James, on reading these reports, deliberated for a while and then decided he’d take the chance and join the stampede in the hope that he’d become rich. So off he went, leaving his family behind. Selina resented his going, of course, but with the children now grown, James felt his family obligations were not reason enough to stay. He left, giving no indication of when (or indeed, if) he would return.

 

Sarah and the Will

Meanwhile, a distant family member passed away, leaving a sizeable inheritance. He had been fond of the children belonging to James and Selina, and, having no children of his own, left everything he had to them. The will omitted William, citing his drinking as the reason, stating that he would have probably spent all the money on beer, which would ultimately lead to his downfall. So William received nothing, Harold and Sarah receiving the lot, and of course he was none to happy about it. The relationship between William’s sister Sarah and their mother Selina became strained, possibly over the money, and an argument ensued which resulted in Sarah leaving the family home, to appear on William’s doorstep in Hospital Street with nowhere to live. William took her in. Sarah lived with William for a while; leaving the money she had inherited with him for safekeeping.
This continued for a while until Sarah just disappeared. Of course, people started to wonder where she was, and before long the police were notified of her disappearance and arrived at William’s door asking questions. William insisted he didn’t know where she was and told the police that Sarah had become friends with a group of gypsies that had passed through the area. One in particular used to come to the door playing a banjo and singing to her. He’d assumed that she’d gone with them. Not convinced, the police questioned why Sarah would leave all her money behind and William suggested that maybe she didn’t trust the gypsies enough to take it with her. Still not convinced, the police conducted a search of the property and discovered a well at the bottom of the garden. Under the belief that William had murdered his sister and hid her body, they drained the well expecting to find her down there; but the well was empty. Both the police and William’s family believed that he had killed his sister but without any evidence to prove it, no charges could be made. Sarah was neither seen nor heard of again.
Believing he’d be better off away from the area with people still treating him with suspicion over his sister’s disappearance, William left. He had the money Sarah left behind, and so was not in need of his job as a plasterer. On his travels he met two sisters, Carrie and Liza, who had recently inherited a large sum of money from the sale of the farm that had belonged to their father who had passed away. William couldn’t believe his luck, and not one to miss an opportunity, set about courting one of the sisters, Carrie. He eventually won her affections and they moved to Birmingham where they were wed in 1898.

 

The Start of the Business and The Family Grows

Children soon followed, the first being a boy, which in keeping with tradition was named William. In 1903 another son arrived, this one being called James, born in the home in Devon Street, Nechells. During this time, William, with the money Carrie had inherited, started his own plastering business calling it William Kerbell Plastering Contractors. Nothing was mentioned about his sister’s disappearance on his return to Birmingham, and William kept quiet and set about building his business.

William’s business flourished. He approached established building companies in Birmingham and soon gained the reputation of providing quality workmanship. The business became so successful that he was soon in need of extra workmen. He kept a small black book in which he had recorded the names of men who had worked for him in the past, along with a few brief character details and where they could be found. Knowing that most of them were fond of drink, he used to visit pubs in the local areas to do his recruiting. Putting a gold sovereign on the bar ensured that he was noticed, it being a large sum of money in those days. Shouting at the barman to buy everyone a drink caught everybody’s attention and all he had to do was sit at a table in the corner and wait for the tradesmen to approach him. He would then sign them up.
All the tradesmen who worked for William knew him to be a man who treated them fairly, expecting no more than a fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay. He did, however, expect a good standard of work and was not tolerant of poor workmanship, having his reputation to maintain. He was hard on those that failed to meet his exacting standards and gained the reputation of being a man not to be crossed.

As the years passed by, William’s family grew. Carrie gave him several more sons - Bernard, Tom and Fred and also daughters, Carrie and Violet. All the children were sent to school and all the boys would eventually join William in the family business.

In the mean time, war broke out. Tensions within Europe were strained, the major powers at the time being suspicious of, or in competition with, one another and a chain of events led to war being declared.
Many thousands of British men either voluntarily joined, or were conscripted to, the armed forces. This left a dire shortage of labour on the land and within factories, leading to women being employed in large numbers.
The war finally ended in 1918 and those still at the front returned home.
William’s children left school one by one to join him in the business. All, that was, except for Jim, who decided he wanted to join his Uncle Herbert in the jewellery trade as a diamond setter. However, it was not to be. Jim’s father and uncle fell out with each other over the ownership of a title that had come into the family at some point in the past. William, being the eldest son, was the rightful inheritor of the title, but being a practical, working class man he never had much time for such fripperies and never laid claim to it. So Herbert took the title for himself. When William found out he confronted his brother. What annoyed him more than anything was the surreptitious way that Herbert had taken the title; he would probably have allowed him to have it if he had asked beforehand. A big argument ensued and the two brothers fell out. As a result, William refused to let his son got to work with his uncle and so Jim joined the rest of the family in the plastering business.
Jim was disappointed that he couldn’t go into the jewellery business, but knowing his father would brook no argument on the subject, he set about learning the plastering trade, becoming, as did his father, an accomplished craftsman. William taught his sons that the art of plastering came with the skilful use of the trowel. Although it was a manual job, learning the correct methods made the job a lot easier and reduced the amount of aches and pains that you inevitably felt after a hard day’s work. Jim did feel aches and pains at the end of the day, however, and like many of the construction workers at the time, relieved these by enjoying a few drinks at the local pub on the night.
Socialising was not restricted to the working day. Jim and his brothers would go out over the weekend, often going to the Albert Hall in Aston, where they held dance evenings. The venue was popular and was packed most weekends. Jim didn’t dance himself. He had contracted polio as a child and as a result had one leg shorter than the other, which he was quite self-conscious about, so he preferred to sit and drink and watch the others dancing. It was whilst he was sitting watching that he noticed a pretty, young woman who was at the dance with her friends. He took an instant liking to her and introduced himself, finding out her name was Lily and that she lived in Boldmere, Sutton Coldfield. They started courting, seeing each other on a regular basis.

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