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Witton Square

What a fascinating forum, like Lady Penelope I used to travel to 'town' on the 5 or if I was going to my grans in Harborne the 7 and then change at Five Ways. Originally the 5 which carried the destination- Perry Common 5, turned at Enderby Road (The Ring), but once the houses were built up Witton Lodge Road it went to the 'spinney' it became the 5a. The 5 still ran at peak times. But to the point of this, am I right in thinking that on match days at Villa Park, the trams used to be parked up in ?Trinity Road? at the back of the field of dreams? I was a bus anorak (still am, this weekend did the Flying Scotsman/Tornado trip at SVR...still believe that GWR King George V was the iconic engine). If I had spare halfpennies and pennies and the threepenny bit that Gran at Harborne always gave me, I would amend my mother's strict travel instructions on stay on the bus until town....and use the 3x, come back on the 33 to Birchfield, 11 to Stockland Green and S67/S76 home. My mother always believed that the buses had been slow and the queue at...wherever it was.....that I was shopping for had been long. Those carefree days seem a long way away. Finally in the late forties, when I first cut my teeth at Villa Park (let the little one get down the front), Dad used to point out those players, mostly defenders, leaving the Witton Arms fifteen minutes before kick off. This in the days of Callaghan and Gallagher and Alan Wakeman and the Moss brothers.
 
I remember Lloyds Bank very well at Witton circle early 70's as my girlfriend worked there. Here is a picture of it at an entrance to IMI (formerly ICI) taken in 2003. I was still living in Aston when there was that awful explosion early 70's? at the IMI and I seem to remember Father Butler from the Sacred Heart Church having to go there to give last rites to some people who died in the explosion.

imi-witton-gates-head-office-building-2003.jpg Sorry to remind anyone who lost someone there on that awful day.
 
In the 1960s Keith Berry took some photos in the Witton Square area.
Two images from Album 5 Keith Berry's Photos with his comments ...
15. Witton Square businesses.
15TramshedshopsBW.jpg
These businesses were in Witton Lane at Witton Square. Just out of the picture to the right is the Tram Shed. There was a Birmingham Municipal Bank branch there for as long as I can remember, later renamed the TSB (Trustee Savings Bank), but there are no retail shops or TSB there now. Summer 1986

18. Witton Square at night 1960s
18WittonSquareatnight.jpg
Taken from the pavement opposite the Tram Depot.
 
My parents used that TSB branch in the photo and I spent many a night hanging around the Aston Hotel in the other picture and indeed Witton Circle itself. I also used those phone-box's lots of times!
 
I remember the explosion at IMI on 15th November 1973 (date from Google) and I bought a reel to reel tape recorder in the early 1960s from Jolly's Radio shop which can just be seen in photo 14 of Keith Berry's Album 5.
 
A tram in Witton Lane outside the Aston Hotel in July 1953 just before it would be driven for the last time into the Witton Tram Depot.
Tram3XWitton.JPG
 
The tram had made a last journey on the No 2 Erdington route (which was replaced by No 64 buses) and was driven round to the old 3X route and someone changed the destination number indicator for old times sake. The working 3X route ended in 1949 but the tram depot was still there.
 
Tram No 692 ready to move into the position it is seen in post#167 after the tram in the distance has entered the tram depot.

One interesting thing in this pic is the GEC advert on the hoarding to the left ... they want Skilled Men for work of National Importance, have vacancies for Draughtsmen, and have Attractive Apprenticeships ... those were the days !!
Witton Lane 1953.JPG
 
Re: Photo No 1 on Post 163, I was at Canterbury Road Infants with one of the Gamwell family who owned the engineering and ironwork company. If memory is correct I think his name was Richard. There was also, I believe, a solicitor who was a member of the Gamwell family and whose office was on the same site. May have mentioned this before, but just past the bank to the left of the Gamwells is the entrance to a firm of tea-chest and shipping container manufacturers owned by a Mr Shorthouse, a good friend of my father's.

All these photos of Witton Square bring back some very distant, but still vivid, memories.

G
 
On the 1917 edition OS Map for Aston Manor there is the Pavilion Electric Theatre positioned next to the Aston Hotel in Witton Road.

Anyone know anything about the Theatre?

Regards Peter
I think it became the snooker hall,I used it a lot in the 60s and 70s.
 
Nice photographs of witton and the surrounding building the one of ICI or IMI of which one you like to say
my brother was on duty in that main gate as he works for them today i think he does Holford drive now
all around the posh estate they changed to now with other companys with in the estate today
and the one mentionioned jollys radio and television shop
well it was there door way very late at night the UB forty band of brum filmed there very 1st video in there
door way late one sunday evening with the lead singer wearing a white Gaberdine mack standing and singing
and walking out of the door way the wife and i myself stood back and watched them recording the seqence
the pub across the road the not the aston hotel the one that was next to the coop
the gaffer used to give is beer on the tab then one month no one payed he got the sack from the pub ;
 
Does anyone remember Patricia Cullen in Witton she had a lot of children... she worked at Kynocks in the war years. Maybe it was called the square in Victoria times ... putting an island in there would change that. Fond memories of Witton my Gran May Tipping lived not far from there.
Did your Gran live in Holdford Drive, had she two daughters named Margaret and Barbara.
 
Hi Grah,
Like wise here as other members have saidits nice to see you back after a long absense i say a long absense in a mannor
Of speaking i know you have done one or two threads before now over the last 6 weeks
Glad you mentionioned the billard hall i have ever only been in there twice in my life
1961 i think it was went with my brother inlaw whom is from aston catherine street aston along with his two mates also from
catherine street and we played for money sadley i was and still not a good players lousey to be precise
I lost money there on that afternoon by 7 oclock we went up to the shareholder on park lane
and potters hill long before they moderised it and done it out we played cards for money
i even lost my money there but any way we had a good drink sunday morning we went to the one on Aston cross by the
Number eight bus stop at the bottom of park lane but we never played for money , ,,well not me i was skint
it ended up the two southeren brothers but red heads lads they liked the crack played every body off the table
by the way in my previous thread not long ago on about the witton circle
i mentionioned the jolly radio shop and said the pub across from the jollys was the aston pub
after writing it i relized it was the witton arms the named pub i should have said as some one mentionioned it
thats when i knew i was wrong the gaffer at the time was a tall thin guy middle aged i would have said
i think he was only 12 months there i think but alot of guys from aston church road took the advantage of him
seeing he was a decent bloke and a soft touch they ran the bill up and never payed him
in the end it cost him is job poor sole, to run a pub you have to be a certain breed beleive me
Any way grah nice to hear and see you back on track, i hope your knees okay now best wishes Alan,,,,
 
Hello Alan,

nice to hear from you and thanks for your kind words and wishes. I did at one time start spending far too much time on internet forums and had to cut it back a bit, but now back on course I think.

I never entered that billiard-hall in my life - if I ever had, and my old man had found out, that would have been my lot! One of my long-gone uncles was a frequent visitor and got pretty good at snooker, but all that came to an end when he got hitched. By the way, did you know a chap called Derek who lived a few doors away from the billiard-hall? He was a real genuine old-fashioned Teddy Boy, but a lovely bloke. I knew him from my time at Foseco in Nechells, where he worked in the experimental foundry. I've often wondered if he's still around - once encountered, never forgotten.

As far as I can recall don't think I ever went into either the Witton Arms or the Aston Hotel. My dad occasionally used the latter, but not very often. The Shareholders I remember - they used to put on "Men Only" evenings back in the 1970's, very naughty..... I never was a gambler - never backed a horse, don't know how to play any card-game, never bought a Lottery ticket...what a bore! I used to play darts for money occasionally, just two bob a game, and usually I won more than I lost. I remember a guy in the Brown Lion in the Jewellery Quarter who won a small fortune on the old ITV Seven - several thousand quid, I believe, and this was in the late 1960's. He could have bought a decent house with his winnings. One week later, guess what? - he was skint and scrounging money for a pint...

Regarding running a pub, that is one job I've never fancied. As I think I once mentioned, another uncle of mine was a publican for most of his life - he had The Lion And Lamb in Sparkhill, The Brittania on Lichfield Road, and finally The Antelope in Sparkhill. He was dead before he was 60 from a massive heart-attack, probably nothing to do with running pubs, but I'm sure it didn't help.

My knee's up and running again (pun), thanks Alan, and I hope you're enjoying good health at the moment - what a drag it is getting old, eh?

All the best,

Graham
 
Hello Alan,

nice to hear from you and thanks for your kind words and wishes. I did at one time start spending far too much time on internet forums and had to cut it back a bit, but now back on course I think.

I never entered that billiard-hall in my life - if I ever had, and my old man had found out, that would have been my lot! One of my long-gone uncles was a frequent visitor and got pretty good at snooker, but all that came to an end when he got hitched. By the way, did you know a chap called Derek who lived a few doors away from the billiard-hall? He was a real genuine old-fashioned Teddy Boy, but a lovely bloke. I knew him from my time at Foseco in Nechells, where he worked in the experimental foundry. I've often wondered if he's still around - once encountered, never forgotten.

As far as I can recall don't think I ever went into either the Witton Arms or the Aston Hotel. My dad occasionally used the latter, but not very often. The Shareholders I remember - they used to put on "Men Only" evenings back in the 1970's, very naughty..... I never was a gambler - never backed a horse, don't know how to play any card-game, never bought a Lottery ticket...what a bore! I used to play darts for money occasionally, just two bob a game, and usually I won more than I lost. I remember a guy in the Brown Lion in the Jewellery Quarter who won a small fortune on the old ITV Seven - several thousand quid, I believe, and this was in the late 1960's. He could have bought a decent house with his winnings. One week later, guess what? - he was skint and scrounging money for a pint...

Regarding running a pub, that is one job I've never fancied. As I think I once mentioned, another uncle of mine was a publican for most of his life - he had The Lion And Lamb in Sparkhill, The Brittania on Lichfield Road, and finally The Antelope in Sparkhill. He was dead before he was 60 from a massive heart-attack, probably nothing to do with running pubs, but I'm sure it didn't help.

My knee's up and running again (pun), thanks Alan, and I hope you're enjoying good health at the moment - what a drag it is getting old, eh?

All the best,

Graham

There was a saying "Proficiency in snooker is a sign of misspent youth" so I would have to confess that I frequented the said Billiard Hall until I was old enough to join a social club.

The first pint I bought, when being on my own, was in the Aston Hotel and served by a lady who was getting on in years. She took about 10 mins to fill the glass as she could only pull the pump about an inch.

And then there was Perry Barr Dogs!
 
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