Carrier-bag lady

[a.blong]

Thank you for reply. I so pleased that I've been accepted on your forum ... I  know she was in the newspaper in the 50s  cause she was the last person to do this job. I trying to  get a pic put name to the face. Because. I have nothing

[a.blong]

My great grandmother was not blind  I've asked my auntie she said her sight was going but wasn't blind at the time u see her ... She was short. Always in black   That's probalery where I get it from     I'm trying to find pic I can't  I looked every where  they didn't take much photos much ..but as I know she was in a news paper that she was last person to do that job selling brown paper bags    Good old nan 

[Phil]

I recently came across this photo on one of the sites that I visit, I think this may be the "Andy Carrier" lady under discussion. I think I also read somewhere that it was Carl Chinn that said she was blind, but he is often known to get things wrong. This photo obviously dates from before the war and there was no further information with it.

[a.blong]

Thank you for posting that for me  I am over whelmed  I know she was the only lady who used to sell the brown bags in Birmingham  does anyone else regonise her. From the market hall ..

[roy one]

hi ablong

I can tell you this on Saturdays I had a bit of a job in the market I used to fetch tea and food for the market lads up and down the bullring has it was then that would be  about 1951 to 1953 or there about and I used to get a mug of tea for this lady   she had an x army mug and she liked a lot of sugar in her tea it was 2p in old money she always called me nipper  that's is about has much that I can remember about her

[a.blong]

Thank you that's really nice to know that more info from people that used to see her , my aunt said she used to stand on the  steps as well did you have certain spots to stand and sell goods or did they choose where to stand

[Phil]

I don't know what the law was, but most licenced street pedlar's permanently operated from the same spot, and I assume that from the years she worked the spot she must have been licenced.

[a.blong]

Thank you Phil
It's Fansatic that still people that knew her ...and what she done for a living ,I've been trying to find the newspaper she was in. Not having any luck with that.. But I will keep looking   Where is the best place to contact about that sort of thing. My aunt said the paper bk then was the Birmingham mail or the gazette.

[roy one]

this lady could be found by the steps up to the top markets (fish) right by the side of the ww2 bomb she would stay in the one place shouting andy andy carrier  you could hear her all over the bullring my self I would be up and down the bullring going from trader to trader I some time would go round to the sorting yard and sort the veg out and clean it  with the traders  for this I would get a few coppers but always a bag of fruit and veg to take home on the late afternoon and that was always welcome in our house xmas was all ways the best time nuts tangerines chestnuts went well at home put in a tin then put on the open fire

at that time of my life we did not have much but we was all in the same boat  and my mom would do swops with the folk in our yard
but that another story  for a different day on this forum

[Phil]

a.blong

I think you will find that the paper that reported most of the local news and that was read by most Birmingham people was the Evening Despatch, later to become to Birmingham Evening Mail and now the Birmingham Mail. The best place for the to find information on stories in the newspaper is Birmingham Central Library.

[Spud]

Further to Phil's post there was also a local Birmingham Newspaper, The Birmingham Gazette it was a morning paper and sister to the The Despatch. I suppose its rival was the Birmingham Post which I believe absorbed it in 1956.