INTRODUCTION
Hilda Mary Porteous, born in 1913, was the only child of John and Florence Barley of Codsall Wood. John Barley was born at Catshill, Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, one of a family of seven. He first worked at the factory of White and Pike at Longbridge, later moving into Birmingham to work at the electrical firm of Bellis and Morcom. In 1910 he was offered work at Codsall Wood for Mr F Gaskell to look after the electrical generator for the Pendrell Hall Estate, and to drive and maintain the Daimler saloon. A house was provided and John married Florence Barker who worked as a bookbinder for a firm making large ledgers. Both parents lived to be 90 years old.
Hilda went to Codsall C.E. School in March 1918, and remained there until 1924. In September of that year she be-came a pupil at Wolverhampton Girl's High School, with a Staffordshire County Minor D. Scholarship. She left the school in 1931, having gained Matriculation and the Higher School Certificate. In September 1931 Hilda entered Furzedown LCC Training College in south-west London for Teacher Training. In 1933 she was appointed to Walsall Street Junior School in Wolverhampton, leaving there in 1939 to marry the late Douglas Porteous, third son of Mr and Mrs George Porteous of Lincluden, Bilbrook.
Douglas was born in Glasgow in 1908, the family moved to Hawick and in 1919 they came to Wolverhampton, where Mr. Porteous senior was a dairy manager for Staffordshire Farmers. In 1923 they moved to New House Farm, Codsall, and later to Lincluden, Bilbrook, where they had a pig and poultry farm. Hilda and Douglas lived in Elliotts Lane, Codsall, where they had a field and an orchard, keeping pigs and poultry during the early days of the war.
Douglas worked at Costing for Haywards, who made wrought iron gates and railings. The factory closed on the outbreak of war and he joined the Auxiliary Fire Service full time, leaving in 1941 after being declared unfit for the navy. He worked for ICI at Marston Excelsior (later IMI) retiring in 1970. They had three children - Neil (1940), Ian (1942), and Alison (1943). Hilda returned to teaching at Codsall Secondary Modern School, Elliotts Lane in 1948, leaving in 1961, when, because of housing development, the Elliotts Lane property was sold and the family moved to Leafields Farm, Brewood. In 1964 she returned to the Codsall Secondary Modern School to teach part-time, leaving in 1974. |
