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Population Migration African Caribbean In June 1948 the SS Empire Windrush docked at Tilbury. The ship brought four hundred and fifty Caribbean passengers who had travelled for twenty-two days to reach England The main influx of West Indian migrants took place in the 1950s and 1960s, though some servicemen from the West Indies remained in the United Kingdom following the end of the Second World War. The 1931 census for Wolverhampton, Bilston and Wednesfield gives a total of 2,461 who were born in Commonwealth countries and Colonial Territories (0.17% of the total population). Figures for those born in foreign countries were 2062 (0.14%). The 1951 census figures for the County Borough of Wolverhampton show 512 persons (0.3%) born in Commonwealth countries, 153 (0.09%) born in the Colonies and Protectorates, and a further 3,460 (2.1%) born in foreign countries. One of the reasons why migrants left the West Indies was to look for work. Over 25% of the inhabitants of Jamaica were unemployed in the early 1950s, whilst in Britain there was a labour shortage. As a government minister in the 1960s Enoch Powell was responsible for Government programmes encouraging people to come to Britain to seek work. The offer of a better life in Britain appealed to many. When Hurricane Charlie struck Jamaica in August 1951 it left a large part of the island in ruins and this provided a further incentive to leave. The passing of the McCarran-Walker Act in 1952 created another reason why migrants from the Caribbean came to Britain. The Act placed strict controls on the number of migrants that could enter the USA from the Caribbean. Britain was left as the only main industrial nation to which British Caribbeans had access. Migrants were mainly single young men. Men who were married usually left their wives and children back in the West Indies with the intention of sending for them at a later date. But they came to a Wolverhampton
that had two major shortages: labour and housing.
Bethesda
Methodist Church, Waterloo Road
Staveley Road, Wolverhampton, 1969 (C2/STAV/0/2) The resident population responded to the migration in various manners. Some accepted the migrants whilst others were more hostile. There are examples of women running away from West Indian migrants as they walked the streets, as recorded in Forward March by Rev. Oliver A Lyseight. These press cuttings from the 1950s and 1960s show us some of the issues which both communities had to deal with:
Extract from Express and Star, 10th July 1956
Extract from Express and Star, 8 July 1963 In 1963 twelve West Indian men led a silent protest after being refused a drink in the Bermuda Tavern in Queen Square.
Extract from Express and Star, 8th July 1963 Available at Wolverhampton Archives is a series of interviews with men and women who migrated to Wolverhampton in the 1950s and 1960s. The audio and video interviews record their reasons for moving to Britain and their early experiences upon arrival. Compiled by the Black and Ethnic Minority Experience Project (www.wlv.ac.uk/rri/beme/) they form a fascinating glimpse into a particularly interesting part of the City's history. This particular extract relates to a women from Barbados who came to live in Wolverhampton in 1969. Here she relates story about her working life: Click on the buttons below to access video footage of the interview.
Interviewer: OK, so moving on to when you were settled and living in Wolverhampton. Did you start work more or less straight away ? M: No, I didn't, I think I stayed at home for about … a good 9 months or so you know. We lived in rooms, you know, big room and I think there were about 3 or 4 families but the houses were quite large at the time and the family lives together. So my first job was doing this hand press work. It was some sort of machine that you put things in then you spin it around. I spun it around and it knocked me out - you have to spin it around and then catch it, then spin it back again but you have to get the knack of it and I didn't get the knack of it, that was at Dye Castings in Wolverhampton. But then I progressed from there and I got married. I had my children then went into nursing I started as an auxiliary nurse at Bilston Royal Hospital then in 1969 I decided to go into nursing and I was controlled and I wouldn't say stupid but we were afraid to challenge the status quo at the time. You know I said to Matron, I said 'Matron, I would like to do my SRN,' she said 'Nurse B, no, no, no, you've got your young family growing up, your three young children it'd be too hard for you to do that, I suggest you go on the SEN course you know it takes only 2 years and you know you're a very good nurse.' And you know I went home and thought about it you know, she was right, then I came to the realisation but as a matter of fact I passed the course in eighteen months instead of two years and I thought what the bloody hell has this women done to me, you know telling me that I couldn't do it. Anyway I stayed into
nursing until 1977 and I remember my daughter Pauline had Chicken
Pox and I said to the Matron at the time, I said 'Matron, my daughter
isn't well and I need a couple of weeks off to look after her.'
She said to me 'how dare you Nurse B' she said 'you will not tell
me when you have your time off, I will tell you when you can have
your time off' and she flounced out of the room. And I get back
down the ward and I though well after all that I thought she shouldn't
speak to me like that, within my heart and I though who the bloody
hell do you think you are, you know, so I went right back up in
the ward and I called her by name, I said 'Matron, may I have a
word with you,' she says 'yes nurse B, but if its regarding having
time off my word stands' so she came into the office so I backed
off the door so she couldn't get out and to be honest I told her.
I said 'listen', I says 'my daughter is sick at home' and I says
'I'm having the time off,' she says 'I've told you already Nurse
B'. I said 'let them tell me something' I said 'look at this ward,
you seen any of these patients look like me', she says 'what do
you mean ?' and I said 'exactly what I've asked you' I said 'this
is the last time I will be working in this establishment' and I
took the apron off, I took the cap off and that was the September.
And that September it was a Friday evening I remember I enrolled
for Bilston College from the September in the morning and I went
to Bilston College for a year and with that year I did 4 'O' levels
and 2 'A' Levels and from that time I went onto the Polytechnic
and I did two years a Diploma in Higher Education and thought good
M and the third year I did my degree. Many West Indian migrants found work at factories in Wolverhampton and the surrounding areas. The Goodyear Tyre Company, Villiers Engineering, and local steel works and foundries all employed migrant labour. Others found work with the Wolverhampton Transport Department, mainly as drivers.
Removing
slabs of rubber at Goodyear Tyre and Rubber Company, Some of the West Indian migrants arrived in Wolverhampton with a plan to remain for five years and then return to the West Indies. However many found that they had settled into Wolverhampton life and they never returned. In the city today there
are the third and fourth generations of the original migrants, born
and brought up in Wolverhampton and who consider Wolverhampton to
be their home.
© Copyright. Wolverhampton City Council, 2002
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