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Shard End Australian Flats

T

Thegoodolddays

Guest
Hi Everyone

i`m hoping someone out there can help.Does anyone have any information or images of the Shard End Australian flats?There was six in total,3 one side of kitsland road and 3 the otherside.I can only remember 5 of the names which were Melbourne House,Maitland,Sidney,Perth and brisbane.I used to live in Melbourne House between 1973 and 1977.Shard end was a great place to live then with so much to do for a 6 year old.I am now 40 and me and my brother went back there on Tuesday the 13th of November for a trip down memory lane and to my shock and horror found that all six flats had been demolished and new houses have been built.
When did this happen? Like i say if anyone has any info regarding when the flats were demolished or any images(old photos) of the flats at any time then i wait to hear from you.

Kind Regards

Thegoodolddays
 
Hi, You know my mind has gone blank I moved to Kitts Green in '75 . I used to walk up packington avenue at least twice a week to visit my parents who lived off Green lane. My friend and I walked to the Packhorse most weekends but do you know for the life of me I cannot think of any blocks of flats apart from the one or was it 2 on the corner opp the community club almost opp the Police Station. There were some maisonettes directly opp the block/s of flats, they have gone too!
Just a blank....... total blank!!!!!!!!
God, I hate this getting old business:(
 
You could get to melbourne house off Berrowside road and where Berrowside and Kitsland road cross there was a pub on the corner(and i dont have a clue what it was called.i was only 6)Both roads were off Longmeadow Crescent.There was also a few shops either side along Kitsland road but one side is now houses and thier are still shops the other side but they are due to be demolished and houses built on the top.

Cheers

Carl
 
Funny enough,i asked my brother and he said exactly the same.(The Two Hands Pub)When was that knocked down then??It could`nt have been that long ago because it can be seen on google earth as can 3 of the australian flats the other side of Kitsland road!
 
As far as I'm aware the TWO HANDS is still trading well it was a couple of weeks ago anyway.
The Cheshire Cat has gone, as has The Packhorse, The Harliquin, The Kingshurst, then The Mackadown went, the Meadway, the Lea Tavern, The Matchmaker (Boars Head), The Glebe, The Malthouse and The Manor House( Bulls Head), all good pubs in their hey day.
Believe me you wouldn't want to be living in any of those areas now!
 
Australian Flats in Shard End

The sixth block of flats was called Canberra House.
 
I used to work with a lady who lived in Adelaide Tower, opposite the Harlequin, this doesn't seem to have been mentioned in the previous posts.
 
Adelaide tower still there, my husband is an electrician and works in there almost every day.
He used to work in the others ,thinks it is about 3/4 years ago when they demolished.
 
Yes,i think you are right sylviasayers.It is my mistake as i said Perth and i now know that was wrong.So the revised names of all 6 flats are Melbourne,Maitland,Sydney,Brisban,Canberra and Adelaide.
Now who lived there between 1973-1977.

I moved to 21 Melbourne House 1973 (age 6) and went to Hillstone Infants & Junior School,Mr Dance was the headmaster and i left the area in June 1977 after the Silver Jubilee(age 10)

My name is Carl Markland,can anyone remember me!
 
Hi Alberta

These are the flats off Kitsland Road,3 one side,3 the other.Kitsland road is off Longmeadow cresent.There are no flats there now.Could you ask your hubby if this is the correct location?

Carl
 
Those are the names of the six tower blocks in Kitsland road and Adelaide is the only one remaining.

My husbands has quite a soft spot for Adelaide tower as many of the residents are old ladies with whom he shares a cup of tea and a chat.
 
Sorry Carl,I have misled you in the previous post.

Adelaide Tower is in Packington Avenue and is still there
.
The Australia flats in Kitsland road have been demolished
They were Brisbane,Canberra,Maitland ,Melbourne,Sydney and Freemantle.
 
Trust me to miss this tread!!....should have joined sooner!

I lived in Brisbane House Flt No 27 from 1958 to 1970. If you google 'Kitsland Road you should find a site with a potted history of the Flats and a photo of Brisbane House being demolished!


Oh well better later than never as me old Mum used ter say!:grinsmile:
 
I Live in Shard End, the Two Hands Pub closed down around christmas time last year and was demolished soon after. It makes way for a new development of houses.
 
Hi Carl,

Sorry it has taken more than a year for me to find your question, but yes I do have further information.

Aged two, I moved into the newly built 95 Kitsland Road in 1953 and lived there until 1965. My mother, Hazel, lived there until she died a few years ago. Her ashes were scattered in the back garden, so she's still there.


Construction of the flats started with Canberra House around 1955/56.
I can still vividly see the builders working away in the rain, wearing bright yellow and red waterproofs, up on scaffolding, as I watched from our sitting room window, opposite.

The three blocks to the south of Kitsland Rd (towards Kingshurst) took over my main recreation area. I fished for bullheads in a brook (a tributary of the R.Cole), which became housed in a concrete pipe before three of the Australian flats were built over it.

For several years the building site became our playground. Sometimes dozens of kids, including I, could be seen clambering all over the structures. We must have created major headaches for Jack, the site foreman.

Some of my happiest childhood memories occurred before the flats were built, when I awoke in that south facing bedroom. Through half-open eyes I would survey the large cumulus cloud that appeared in the window and pretend that it was a mountain on the far side of the prairie that my 'river' ran through.

Fifty years later, I awake in south-west Ireland with a real mountain in my bedroom window, with a prairie and a stream. Just like the one from my childhood imagination. My dogs, five terriers and one Irish collie love to play in the stream (sea trout & salmon instead of bullheads and bleak) each morning with a tennis ball, before we climb the mountain (see pic).

Another strange coincidence is that Beth, our collie, looks very much like 'Blackie' (our 50's collie in Kitsland Road) who was hit by a piece of scaffolding that fell from Canberra House.

I'm in the process of writing a book of short fishing stories. 'Shard End Mountain Canyon' is where it starts.

Let me know if you'd like to read more about Shard End in the 50s and 60s

Anyone remember the Queen visiting All Saints church (the first new church built in England after the war) in 1955?

Roger Baker
www.cloghvoola.com
 
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living in pencroft.my local fishing hole was norman chamberlin park,i spent many a hour there,but never got many fish.:D
 
Hi Roger

Thanks for your piece, it was very informative.

I would indeed be interested in reading more of your recollections and would like to contribute some of my own.

My family moved into Brisbane House in the summer of 1958. Like many we were from the 'bombed out' areas of Birmingham (in our case Small Heath via a single room in a flat in Rubery). I can still remember the wonder of cental heating and of having a bath you could almost swim in!

It seemed in the early days as if we brought our 'slum' sense of community with us. I vividly remember 'Charabanc' trips to Rhyl, fancy dress competitions, the Christmas Party at the (brand new) British Legion building (I got a 'Compendium' of board games) and of course our first Communial Bonfire night, on the site the Two Hands pub later filled.


Another vivid memory that you might share is being picked up by lorry and taken out to pick soft fruits on local farms. I remember being petrified at the sight of a cow!

anyway I could go on all day but (thankfully!) won't.

best regards to all

Bob
 
Hello Bob,
Thanks for the quick trip down memory lane.
I remember the British Legion Christmas party and the community bonfire on the site of the Two Hands pub. I remember that well because Jack (the Australian flats site foreman) put in an appearance, before the fire was lighted, to re-claim the scaffold board planks that some of the kids had 'lifted'.
Yes, I do remember going off 'fruit' picking, but in our case it was peas.
The River Blythe at Coleshill (anyone remember the 'Cuttle' and 'Bomb hole' swims?), and Ward End Park pool became my fishing venues after the brook disappeared under the flats.
I'd love to hear more of your memories and, I guess, so would many more out there.
Best regards,
Roger
 
The pub was the two hands and has been gone about 12 months now. I can remember the flats as i worked on them several years ago for the council. They have been demolished for new houses to be built, I think they were demolished about 2 years ago. Can anyone remember the barber shop there in the corner what was it called.
 
The Barber's Shop in my day was refered to as George's. I remember vividly saving up for my first 'Boston' (with a singe!) only to find my Dad (an ex squaddie like George) had got in first and told him that whatever I asked for he was to give me a 'short back and sides'!

It didn't go well with my 'two piece', Ben Sherman button down and Parka I can tell you!:cry:
 
It was George's, I always went there for my haircut, he knew exactlly how I wanted it.

Terry
 
I thought my memory was OK!.

There was also a toy shop next to George's if I remember right? I recall watching the British 'Yoyo Champion' struting his stuff outside. (never could get the hang of the B****y thing meself!)

Alongside the Toy shop was the newsagents, then the CooP (money in an envelope with the shopping list, always reciting the 'Divvy' number so you didn't forget it.) Next to which was a hairdressers. (I can still recall the smell of the stuff they used to perm hair drifting outside!

On the other side of the road was masons and a fruit and veg shop but I'm struggling to remember what else there was! Can anyone enlightenment.

best regards

Bob
 
Hi Bob I remeber the toy shop on the other side of the road was a grocery shop my mom used to send me there for boiled ham and loose butter but can't remember the name of the shop,also a chemist,and wool shop.
I lived in hurst lane opposite The Guardian Angels church.
Pam
 
The shop next to the barbers was where I use to buy all my records, and the fruit and veg shop over the road was Sharred's. The daughter works with my wife in Water Orton. If memory serves me right the first shop was an outdoor, then a cake shop, then Sharreds, then a wool shop, then, I think was a bookies?. Over the road, a laundrette ? the co-op, a newsagents, the record shop as I called it, then the barbers. Not sure about the laundrette though.
While I am here, can anyone remember Lonnie Donegan filming an episode for his show at the time, just around the corner from the shops, I think about 1960. Just had a look in the A-Z it was Farmoor Grove off Berrowside Rd

Terry
 
Hi Hanco.

Yes I remember it well! They had a big van with all the gear in it. I seem to remember he had to walk out of the door of the house and a flower pot was dropped on his head. (he was waering a Bowler hat filled with something to protect his head!)

We didn't have a telly at the time so I never saw the actual programme though!!

Pam .... Thanks for reminding me of the cake shop, it was my second favourite window to stick my nose against after the toy shop.... For a few pence you could get a big chunk of 'Lardy cake' !

The Toy shop did indeed sell records, in those days there wern't such things as 'specialist' record shops and lots of different shops had a record section.

Another of my favourite occupations was to get the 55 into town and spend the day in Lewis's toy department, (or until the shop staff got fed up with us not buying anything and asked us to leave!!

Any more memories? I'm really enjoying this!!!!

best regards

Bob

PS I've probably walked past your house on many occasions Pam!!
 
I never did see that programme either, though I looked out for it. Regarding the 55 bus, when we first moved to Shard End the bus terminus was at the Harlequin and we lived in the flats in Kitsland Rd so that was a good walk. But luckily it was'nt long before the terminus moved to outside the Guardian Angels church, then it went to the bottom of Kitsland Rd and Longmeadow Crescent and from there into Kingshurst. Have'nt got a clue where it goes now. Not often I use a bus these days.

Terry
 
The terminus is now at chelmsley wood shopping centre, What was the lonnie donegan show called so we can all see it if its on you tube
 
I remember the 55 bus terminus at the end of my road Hurst Lane before it moved to Longmeadow Crescent.
I alos remember a chemist shop opposite the co-op in Kitsland Road I bought my mom a bottle of perfume called 'Evening in Paris' from the shop this was late 50's early 60's.
 
Two members of the Bobcats lived in the flats. I remember going to see them at the Lucarno when they won the Birmingham Bands competion. (I belive that a Kingshust Band called 'The Virus' also competed.

Does thia awake any memories?

regards


Bob
 
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