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That’s brilliant Baz, thanks. I couldn’t believe that it was possible to achieve a firing rate of 20 per minute but I’ve just seen a video where they were doing just that - with a mechanical fuze setter no doubt but still amazing. The chap loading the shell into the tray hit the side of the...

Sorry to be a bit late, ( and a bit dim),with this Baz but can you explain about the fuze setting? What did it involve and why was it done on the gun and not beforehand? I believe the fuze contained a timer which was set so that the projectile exploded at the required altitude but what caused...

Do you know them personally Jim or is your memory far better than mine? Did you know apprentices Pete Doyle, Graham Woodward or Wilf Rogers?

Probably was Don but I can’t remember Jim. That’s John Hack next to Sir John Hunt. Do you know the two next to Miles Breeden?

I might have made the call but I think there were three of us in the box at the time and it could have been any one of us. I was no longer an apprentice when this trip occurred. I seem to remember that someone dropped out as a driver and I was recruited at the last minute - possibly by Pete...

What was the purpose of the tower and what did it look like inside? It’s been suggested that it is a water tower.

I understand that the Victorians like to disguise their less picturesque structures with more agreeable facades but they still had a function. The function of the tower was of passing interest in the beginning but now it’s become an obsession! I may have to go down there and break in!

We are trying to find out the purpose of the huge tower attached to the girl’s school. Apparently, you girls used it as a retreat when you needed a fag but it must have had a use before that. Do you know what it was and what was it like inside?

I heard that about 15 years ago, when it was an international college, an old boy of GD did some building work in the tower and was disgusted to find old school photos and records scattered all over the floor.

It appears that the entrance to the school is in Portland Road now with a car park off Stanmore in the corner of the playing field as you say. Presumably, this is because of the density of traffic on City Road. I suppose that the front is a case of ‘ out of sight, out of mind’ - hence the...

Thanks for that David. I’m in contact with a couple of old boys who now live in Australia and none of us could understand why we never knew the purpose of the tower or why we never enquired when we were there. We were there in the early 50’s and, unfortunately, came into contact with Wal on...

I remember that Arnold; I was one of the drivers. I was going on holiday to Scotland that week and volunteered for the leg from Sterling, (I think), to Ben Nevis and back. I drove there in my A40, parked in a lay-by and slept the night on a camp bed in the back. Next morning I cooked bacon...

Does anyone know the purpose of the tower, (apart from providing a hideaway for girls in need of a fag)? I presume it was in the girl’s school and it looks like it might have once held a bell.

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He was good Eric; too good! As I said, he was ex RAF and if he gave you an injection he threw it like a dart but without letting go. He was bombarded with free samples from reps and when I went in complaining of a cold he gave me three injections, ( one a day), that the rep had asked him to...

You were quite right to question the spelling Eric. It was Doherty not Dougherty. I have just found some information on the Birmingham Forum. Dr Doherty moved into 169 Old Oscott Lane, when Dr Fletcher retired in the fifties, before emigrating to Canada in 1966. The practice had two...

Does anyone remember the doctors surgery at approximately 614 Kingstanding Road - Doctors Fletcher, Dougherty and Le Breuilly?

Anybody remember a series called 'Bull Week' made in 1980, staring Mark McManus of 'Taggart' fame? It was about a midland factory where they were working the week or two before the holidays to establish what the holiday pay would be, (I thought it was always called 'Pudding week' in the...

I can answer my own question - the filigree table is in the Blackcountry Museum.

A and P used their ‘Shackles and Wollop’ type adverts to great effect on the London Tube. Many years later they tried again with, ‘This tube is going radioactive’, which was a reference to their work for the nuclear industry - there were other adverts in a similar vein but non of them had...