Radiorails
master brummie
You can keep the snow! I can accept it on a pc screen but not outdoors - certainly not the wet type of snow occurring in the UK. 
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Birmingham Christmas of the past
- Thread starter warren
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adap2it
master brummie
You can keep the snow! I can accept it on a pc screen but not outdoors - certainly not the wet type of snow occurring in the UK.
Totally agree!! Living in Canada, snow is just another 4 letter word, good for Christmas cards...we had our 1st dusting overnight, but it's melted already. Heading south after Christmas....
Dave A
cookie273uk
master brummie
I loved snow as a child (seemed to have more then ?) but as I got older the less I liked it, even so I like to see it few days each year, after all its one of my favourite painting subjects. Eric
adap2it
master brummie
Yes,we all loved snow as kids...it was fun!! and a added source of enjoyment in the winter. The hill section of Porchester St was a great place for sledging or sliding. Slides were common everywhere including the school playgrounds. Sometimes, concerned parents would throw ashes on the slides, much to the disappointment of the kids.
Dave A
Radiorails
master brummie
Living in the Midlands as a child I recall snow most winters. 1947 saw snow up to my arm pits as I fought my way to school - no school closures then - but of course most school staff lived reasonably close to the school I think.
As youngsters the snow was there to be enjoyed, other than school journeys we had no reason to travel as did our parents. The countryside, I guess, was safer for sledge and sliding pastimes especially where decent hills existed.
My part of Devon - adjacent to the sea - sees snow roughly once every ten years and then it is only a covering and soon gone. Dartmoor and the lower parts surrounding the moor and North Devon are a horse of a different colour as far as snow is concerned: they get a decent fall from time to time.
norfolk brummie
gone but not forgotten
I seem to recall that, as a child, we had more snow than in more recent decades. Where we lived, in Sparkbrook, the houses were all slate roofed, and the deep snow on the roof would slowly make gits way down to overhang the house itself.
We would all look cautiously to make sure we were not in the way, when that occurred, because it would happen suddenly, and a fall was quite heavy. It could be dangerous.
Eddie
We would all look cautiously to make sure we were not in the way, when that occurred, because it would happen suddenly, and a fall was quite heavy. It could be dangerous.
Eddie
Hi Eddie
you forgot to mention the long drainage of snow forming and becoming daggers and some as long
As swords dangerling down from the gutters, falling down and stabbing you in the head
thats calling pole axing in the head that would kill you no messing
Iloved the snow get the old sledge out and dragg it from lichfield road to Aston park
and down that high steep hill from the top of the hill over looking the villa ground and the ground of
Aston hall gardends and go down the steep hill
many years ago along that bottom part of the hill there was a narrow walking pathe
and there was tons and lost of shrubby to save you going through the old iron railings
that used to be around Aston park
plus the fact we could earn a couple of bob by door knocking asking the old pensioners
we will clear your snow from your pathe out side the front door and the shops
along lichfield road down to the aston station victoria and vigarage road around by
the Ansells horse stables and those posh house along next to them
all for a shilling best wishes ,, Astonian,,,,,,,,
you forgot to mention the long drainage of snow forming and becoming daggers and some as long
As swords dangerling down from the gutters, falling down and stabbing you in the head
thats calling pole axing in the head that would kill you no messing
Iloved the snow get the old sledge out and dragg it from lichfield road to Aston park
and down that high steep hill from the top of the hill over looking the villa ground and the ground of
Aston hall gardends and go down the steep hill
many years ago along that bottom part of the hill there was a narrow walking pathe
and there was tons and lost of shrubby to save you going through the old iron railings
that used to be around Aston park
plus the fact we could earn a couple of bob by door knocking asking the old pensioners
we will clear your snow from your pathe out side the front door and the shops
along lichfield road down to the aston station victoria and vigarage road around by
the Ansells horse stables and those posh house along next to them
all for a shilling best wishes ,, Astonian,,,,,,,,
norfolk brummie
gone but not forgotten
Absolutely correct, those long hanging icicles could be very dangerous indeed. In fact, I seem to remember that heavy falls of snow, and icicles, from the roof, did cause a few accidents.
As a child, clearing snow was a good way to earn a few pence. I think most of us younger kids did it. When it was really cold we would also make a sliding ice run on the local pavement. It was a bit silly really because although it was fun for the youngsters, it was very dangerous for old people. Someone would always come out and throw ash on the ice slide.
I did my sledging out at Blackwell, near Bromsgrove, where I was at school. There was a lovely steep hill, Hunters Hill, with an almost clear run to the bottom. I say almost, because one winter whilst sledging down the hill, lying flat on the sledge, with a friend sitting on top of me, we headed for a bush. I could not jump off the sledge until my friend had jumped, and he left it too late for me. Broke a finger, never had it attended to, and today the knuckle on the fourth finger of my right hand, is still larger than all my other knuckles!
Wonderful childhood days in the snow, and I like to keep it like that.
Eddie
As a child, clearing snow was a good way to earn a few pence. I think most of us younger kids did it. When it was really cold we would also make a sliding ice run on the local pavement. It was a bit silly really because although it was fun for the youngsters, it was very dangerous for old people. Someone would always come out and throw ash on the ice slide.
I did my sledging out at Blackwell, near Bromsgrove, where I was at school. There was a lovely steep hill, Hunters Hill, with an almost clear run to the bottom. I say almost, because one winter whilst sledging down the hill, lying flat on the sledge, with a friend sitting on top of me, we headed for a bush. I could not jump off the sledge until my friend had jumped, and he left it too late for me. Broke a finger, never had it attended to, and today the knuckle on the fourth finger of my right hand, is still larger than all my other knuckles!
Wonderful childhood days in the snow, and I like to keep it like that.
Eddie
oldMohawk
gone but not forgotten
My winter sledging was done where this pic is. We used to come down Sandy Lane on the left and whizz straight over the main road to go down Chelmorton Road on the right. Not many cars around in those days so we survived !
I remember one Christmas day when it was so foggy we could not see across roads.
I remember one Christmas day when it was so foggy we could not see across roads.
norfolk brummie
gone but not forgotten
old Mohawk: I could be wrong, but it appears to be a policeman talking to someone in the car.
Eddie
Eddie
oldMohawk
gone but not forgotten
Hi Eddie, it's a war time photo and petrol was strictly rationed and maybe a policeman wants to check whether he is driving on official business so you could be correct. In the late 1940s we sometimes used half an anderson shelter as a sledge with 10 on board but rarely made it across the main road .... Happy days .....
Oldmohawk
Oldmohawk
Bob Davis
Bob Davis
Radiorails
Parts of North devon have already had their first taste of snow, all up around the edge of Exmoor, but we do suffer worse than South Devon and Plymouth, where you are protected by those warm channel currents. I have left Bple in snow and ice, gone to Trago - warm and on to Torquay where it has been almost tropical. However who remembers the winter of 1946/47? I can remember going to school aged 11 along the Chester Road waist high snow, remember they did not close the schools in those days except for things like the death of the King.
Bob
norfolk brummie
gone but not forgotten
I know that many of us older folk say "When I was young.........", and the younger members of the family think "Oh, here we go again", but it is true that schooling then, was very different from today.
I taught music in schools until I was 78, five years ago, and on two or three occasions during winter, the school would be closed because of either teachers unable to reach the school, or heating problems.
"When I was young".............During one winter, the school I was attending had frozen pipes, so no school heating. Did the school close?....not on your life. We sat there during lessons, with coats, scarves, gloves etcetera, and still carried on.
Eddie
I taught music in schools until I was 78, five years ago, and on two or three occasions during winter, the school would be closed because of either teachers unable to reach the school, or heating problems.
"When I was young".............During one winter, the school I was attending had frozen pipes, so no school heating. Did the school close?....not on your life. We sat there during lessons, with coats, scarves, gloves etcetera, and still carried on.
Eddie
sospiri
GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN
I remember being in a huge hangar that was 291 Maintenance Unit amd part of RAF Stoke Heath in the winter of 1958/9, not a particularly hard winter, but Shropshire can be quite cold, there was about a foot of snow on the ground, and heating was almost non-existence. Some wag got hold of a few Factories Act Industrial posters and put them up around the hangar. Within no time at all we were all paraded in the centre of the hangar and read the Riot Act by the Unit Commander, not known for being a strict disciplinarian, unlike the Station Commander.. From then on for the next few weeks discipline was enforced - we knew our copybooks had been blotted!
Maurice
Maurice
Bob Davis
Bob Davis
Remember the times in school when the milk in the bottles was frozen.....the answer in those days'if you want it to thaw out put it on the radiator'. Nowadays no milk and they close the school.
Bob
quite right eddie...when i was young
we had some pretty hard winters and i cant recall our schools ever closing because of it...CARRY ON REGARDLESS was the motto and in a strange it was a challenge or was it just the good old brummie spiritlyn
oldMohawk
gone but not forgotten
Seeing this thread reminded me of the forum's 'Christmas Trees Of the Past' thread ...
Our artificial Christmas tree was bought in 1968 from Henry's store in Union St Birmingham. The few branches on it were rather sparse but my son liked it in 1972.
View attachment 85104
In the 1940's my late wife's parents bought an artificial Christmas tree and every year decorated it with a fairy on top, glass baubles, tinsel, and fairy lights until the late 1980s when Christmases in their house ended and the tree disappeared in the house clearance. The somewhat worn and fragile decorations were then used on our Christmas trees for a further fifteen years.
The old decorations have spent the last 3 years in a cardboard box in my loft. I looked at them recently and thought maybe I should throw them out, but with memories of Christmases past I've kept them, perhaps some day in the future they might decorate another tree.
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Yes, Bob, I do indeed! (And also the 1941 one: walking to school, just under the age of five, halfway from the Manor Road crossroads to Foley Road, drifts up to the height of my shoulders to the right, and beyond them, behind a tall, bare hedge, open snow-covered fields stretching into the distance.).
The picture is from 1946/47, of me and a couple of friends. Probably a bit after Christmas. We are halfway down the hill on the Chester Road, A452, looking towards the Parson & Clerk. Great fun, and an even better hill than Manor Road on wonderful days like this. There is virtually no traffic but you have to be careful with each run, just to make sure that the coast is going to remain clear for as long as you hurtle down the hill.
At some stage an open Jeep bumps up the road towards us, from the Birmingham direction. It is driven by a figure huddled in a thick, light brown gabardine mac, looking vaguely military although I can't be absolutely sure. He is swarthy, of Mediterranean appearance. He grinds to a stop and harangues us aggressively about the risks of what we are doing. His accent is strange, it's not the gentle, mid-western voice of the young G.I. who had been friendly with my elder sister two years previously. I can't pin it down. It is harsh and nasal. Is it American? Yes, it probably is; with hindsight it's possibly New York Italian American – or even just simply "Angry American". He huddles down again, puts the thing into gear, gives us a final glare and roars off up the road. Our chastened expressions last just until he has disappeared over the brow of the hill.
The house in the background may have been No. 69, but I might be wrong. No doubt it is still there.
Chris
oldMohawk
gone but not forgotten
Super photo Chris brings back memories. I think any of us who lived through that 1946/47 winter will never forget it. It lasted so long we could go sledging for weeks.
oldmohawk
That crust of ice on the road lingered for weeks and weeks. It deteriorated into a layer an inch or two thick, black with dirt and grit, and it took a team of POWs with pickaxes and barrows to painstakingly remove it, yard by yard, as they inched onwards towards the Hardwick. Nearly two years after the war and they were still here, waiting to go back to their families and whatever was left of their homes.
Chris
Chris
Bob Davis
Bob Davis
Di.Poppitt
GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN
In Witton the men shoveled the snow onto the edge of the pavements so that being 9 I couldn't see over the top of the wall. School was abandoned for a while
and my memory is of cold feet in rubber wellies, and fires in the bedrooms for the first and last time. Dad walked to the Dunlop and home again, and one day he arrived to find me missing and Mom frantic, I had gone to get the loaf of bread, the baker hadn't arrived and I joined a shop full of people waiting for him.
George 5th was said to have said as his last words before he died 'b..... Bogner'
My father said the same about the bread.
and my memory is of cold feet in rubber wellies, and fires in the bedrooms for the first and last time. Dad walked to the Dunlop and home again, and one day he arrived to find me missing and Mom frantic, I had gone to get the loaf of bread, the baker hadn't arrived and I joined a shop full of people waiting for him.
George 5th was said to have said as his last words before he died 'b..... Bogner'
My father said the same about the bread.
Bob Davis
Bob Davis
Don't know, unfortunately.
I wasn't very curious about such things. It wasn't a regular sight to see gangs of POWs being moved about and involved in road repair and similar. But you did see them from time to time. On the first couple of occasions you would probably hold your mother's hand a little bit more tightly as you walked past and wonder whether they were German ("Jerries") or Italian ("Ities" or "Wops"). But by the time they were chipping away at the Chester Road they weren't a huge object of curiosity. Just part of the landscape, after a period when, to our modern eyes, the most unimaginable things had been happening.
The vast majority of them were almost certainly ordinary, decent blokes, thinking about home, seeing children like me when we walked past and missing their own families, especially at Christmas time.
And talking of Christmas (which this thread is about and POWs aren't at all!), and things which were so different then....I still have a vision of Christmas morning and my father opening the front door to our postman as he pushed the Christmas Day delivery (yes, CHRISTMAS DAY DELIVERY!!!) through the letterbox. The postman would be dragged indoors and plied with a celebratory glass of sherry. Eventually he would leave amidst effusions of affection and goodwill and lurch on to his next port of call. There was always some speculation as to what state he would be in by the time he sat down to his own Christmas dinner. A different world.....
Chris
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Bob Davis
Bob Davis
Chris
I agree it is about Christmas and I can remember the postman coming and the buses and trams running until five o clock. Talking of the post, I collect old postcards and I have one postmarked 9,30 25th December, sent to an address 20 miles away with the message, I will be with you this afternoon, 4 o'clock and will bring the cream. That was 1905 however. Anyone for a mince Pie?
Bob
norfolk brummie
gone but not forgotten
Just remembering Christmas, circa 1955. I was still working in the Kay Westworths Music Store, in Snow Hill.
Up until that time, guitars had never been a real big seller, Just a few acoustic Spanish nylon strung finger style guitars, and a few acoustic steel strung guitars, which would have been purchased by classical and jazz minded guitar players.
We had previously had a few big sellers. Accordions were always the party piece at Christmas, and trumpets sold well, when Eddie Calvert recorded "O Mein Papa".
Then 'skiffle' hit the streets. Suddenly everyone wanted to play the guitar, and the run up to Christmas 1955 was incredible. Mr Westworth was buying every guitar he could lay his hands on from distributors. When they arrived at the store, we had very little chance of putting them on display, as the customers were queuing up to buy them.
They had no idea of how to play them, no idea of tuning, no idea of whether the guitar was steel, or nylon strung, and no one seemed to care......They just had to have a guitar!!
We even had to get in touch with a distributor in Holland to send us a bulk supply of guitars, which arrived during the week run up to Christmas. They were terrible guitars..."Hand made with a chopper", I called them. We were hardly taking them out of the paper wrap around them, and they were gone....... 9 guineas - 18 guineas.
Guys were buying them, with a silk cord guitar strap (nothing leather in those days). Suddenly they were the star turn at the Christmas party. Could not play the thing, and many of them could not sing, but they were in show business!!
By the time Christmas Eve arrived, Mr Westworth could not empty the till fast enough. Every guitar, of every shape, size and finish had disappeared.............except one.
Late on Christmas Eve, just before we closed for Christmas, the only remaining guitar left in the store was a Hofner "Committee" guitar, the best instrument that was available in 1955, and indeed was featured by Tommy Steele. It was 54 guineas, with case. In those days a lot of money for such an instrument.
I remember a young man walking into the shop, and was most disappointed when we said everything had been sold, except for this one guitar.
He that he would be back in "Five minutes" and "Do not sell it"
Sure enough, a few minutes later he came back in with the full amount, and purchased the last guitar of the Christmas surge.
In many ways, it was a wonderful, memorable Christmas, but over the Christmas period, I did not want to see a guitar of any description. I had had enough!!
Even though I was a drummer, after Christmas, the same customers were coming back, and asking me to tune it for them. At 2/6d a time, I did OK!
Eddie
Up until that time, guitars had never been a real big seller, Just a few acoustic Spanish nylon strung finger style guitars, and a few acoustic steel strung guitars, which would have been purchased by classical and jazz minded guitar players.
We had previously had a few big sellers. Accordions were always the party piece at Christmas, and trumpets sold well, when Eddie Calvert recorded "O Mein Papa".
Then 'skiffle' hit the streets. Suddenly everyone wanted to play the guitar, and the run up to Christmas 1955 was incredible. Mr Westworth was buying every guitar he could lay his hands on from distributors. When they arrived at the store, we had very little chance of putting them on display, as the customers were queuing up to buy them.
They had no idea of how to play them, no idea of tuning, no idea of whether the guitar was steel, or nylon strung, and no one seemed to care......They just had to have a guitar!!
We even had to get in touch with a distributor in Holland to send us a bulk supply of guitars, which arrived during the week run up to Christmas. They were terrible guitars..."Hand made with a chopper", I called them. We were hardly taking them out of the paper wrap around them, and they were gone....... 9 guineas - 18 guineas.
Guys were buying them, with a silk cord guitar strap (nothing leather in those days). Suddenly they were the star turn at the Christmas party. Could not play the thing, and many of them could not sing, but they were in show business!!
By the time Christmas Eve arrived, Mr Westworth could not empty the till fast enough. Every guitar, of every shape, size and finish had disappeared.............except one.
Late on Christmas Eve, just before we closed for Christmas, the only remaining guitar left in the store was a Hofner "Committee" guitar, the best instrument that was available in 1955, and indeed was featured by Tommy Steele. It was 54 guineas, with case. In those days a lot of money for such an instrument.
I remember a young man walking into the shop, and was most disappointed when we said everything had been sold, except for this one guitar.
He that he would be back in "Five minutes" and "Do not sell it"
Sure enough, a few minutes later he came back in with the full amount, and purchased the last guitar of the Christmas surge.
In many ways, it was a wonderful, memorable Christmas, but over the Christmas period, I did not want to see a guitar of any description. I had had enough!!
Even though I was a drummer, after Christmas, the same customers were coming back, and asking me to tune it for them. At 2/6d a time, I did OK!
Eddie
Di.Poppitt
GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN
My mother had just given birth to my sister, so a fire in her bedroom was a must and I guess they felt sorry for me in the cold. The reason I was out fetching bread was that Mom was in bed still, 2 weeks rest was the rule then.
Wellies and chilblaines went together didn't they.
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