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Birmingham Sand

R

Rupert

master brummie
I seem to remember being told that Birmingham industry was largely based upon the local sand deposits; the nature of which was very suited to for making molds for castings. Is this the case? During the recent modernisation of the city center there were comments about rediscovery of the sand strata I recall.
 
Rupert, there is an area of Birmingham known as Sandpits, I can't remember the name of the road, but the area starts behind the Town Hall and leads roughly to Dudley Road. Also where Spaghetti Junction is now, there were sandstone cliffs at the start of Tyburn Road. Then there are a number of Sandy Lanes - i.e. Coventry Road to Stratford Road - Lichfield Road to Thimble Mill Lane - Sandy Lane/Perry Beeches, Perry Barr.
 
Sand pits

There was a large sand pits on the edge of witton lakes, we would go and play there as children much to the chagrin of the quarriers.
 
The Geology of the South East area of Brum is covered by 800 foot layer of Reddish brown clay (Keuper marl) laid down in semi-desert conditions over 150 million years ago chalk and other sediments all eroded away, and then come the ice age and the glaciers moved large quantities of stones, sand and gravel over the clay. It left extensive sand and gravel deposits when the ice melted to the West of the River Cole.
So if you look on the high spots of Birmingham which is well over 400 ft above sea level you will find sand and gravel going down hill to the soft red clay which they used to make bricks and line the canals with
All over Birmingham you will find pockets of sand....along the Coventry Rd you will find clay (hence Clay lane) and in the Shirley Billesley and Yardley Wood areas you will find sand and gravel
So Birmingham with its geology is made up of Sand, Gravel and Clay
 
I recall working in the 1950s on vehicles from "The Southport Sand Co." They used to collect sand from the beaches at Southport and transport it by rail to Brum for use in castings. "Birmid Castings" being one of their main customers. E.
 
Bren I remember the quarry on the Queslet Road I would pass it on the bus going to my grans from Sutton. Thanks for the link.
 
Although not quite Birmingham, moulding sand was reglarly transported by N.E.Evans lorries from Bromsgrove to foundries in the Black Country. This sand ,not surprisingly, was known in the trade as Bromgrove Red.
 
hi sylv;
the one you are thinking of is summer hill ladywood and its just along the rd from the old spring hill roller rink and ice skating rink
at sprig hill and goes up the dudley rd and its infront of the old folks home which many years ago wasbad boys schol and nursing home
later in years was the mid wifes homes and they moved to a smaller house along the rd facing tjhe skate rink for many donkeys year from present up till the seventys that section of the pitts was called summer hill area right up to the town and at the end of it the london and midlands cleaning company moved in just after its ceased and just along from there was the old king edwads pub ; when as a nipper we played on there pitts ; also the one on tyburn rd by the viaduct of
tyburn rd and salford bridge ; cor ;those where the days we had tomake our amusements but it was risky of falling down but asnippers you never relised the danger ;
alan ;; astonian ;i lived along the lichfield rd in those days and if i rememberwe had a fight with some ginger haired kids ; me and colin ; my mate
yes and we won ; and beat it home up the lichfield rd ;only to be confronted by the sargents family of kids whom we often chased back and forth ; astonian;;
 
There were many quarries all over Birmingham that later were turned into Landfill sites. Most of these were still operating in the 50's & 60's. To put locations to only a few of them, Foremans Rd, Sparkbrook, Amington Rd Hay Mills, Venetia Rd, Bordesley. Queslett Rd Great Barr. There were very many more and these are just the ones I remember using.

Phil
 
I seem to remember some open ground on which we used to play, (pre war) in Washwood Heath Road on the right hand side travelling from Saltley towards Ward End which we called the "Sand Hills".
Reg
 
Yeah, and the road above it was Wright Road that ran between Washwood Heath Rd., and Alum Rock. Actually there is a picture of the old big house that sat at the top of Bennets Hill or there abouts, that would have been on the Sand Hills you mention. Will post if I can find it.
 
Roverman

I think Rupert is talking about William Huttons house on Bennets Hill, I think you may find it on the Gosta Green through Nechells thread.

Phil
 
In the 1930s a massive house-building exercise in Kingstanding took place. One of the roads, Atlantic Road, was built as a fairly straight road with exactly the same semi-detached houses running along both sides from Old Oscott Hill to Dyas Road. However, as it turned out not all the houses were built in 1930. It wasn't until some time in the 1950s that the road was completed. This break in the Atlantic Road 1930s built houses fell almost opposite the gulley which runs from Atlantic Road through to Kingstanding Road. If you look at those houses today you'll see they're a different design to all the rest. It always struck me as odd that the very long regular row of houses should be different along one small section. Now I'm guessing here, but I think it had something to do with there being sandpits along there, although I've never seen any maps or written evidence of it. Just something vaguely remembered from the past. The ground was a very reddish colour, but that's really all I remember of it.

For anyone interested, the purple dropped pin shows where the different style 1950s houses were built. If it was a sandpit (and note this is all based on flimsy evidence and the memory of a very young child!) it could have been to the left of the purple dropped pin. Viv.

560791fc-000e-e703.jpg


Apologies not a good photo will try again below.
 
Re-posting photo for post #16. Also just noticed there's a "Sandwood Drive" nearby there too. Viv.

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1331823439.155181.jpg
 
HI GUYS
Does anybody remember the old brick factory down the coventry rd in the days gone bye
it was right down passing the air port on the oppersite sde to the entrance of the old air port which made thousands ; the ld style bricks with sand ;
you could see them stacked high when pasing on the old coventry rd as it was in those days it would have been about two miles from the old turn off that took you on the old folsehill rd towards coventry ;and just before there used to be a big road side transport cafe ; until the health and safty was brought out
all truckers used to pull in there for a great big fry up breakfast i know we did when working for pmt machine tools[ machine bumping ]
up and down the motor ways up and down the country it was always packed astonian
 
Up Barr Beacon, you can still see old sand workings from the 50s, east of Pinfold Lane
 
My great grandfather had a sand pit at Church Walk Ward End, where he sold the sand to Walsall Council for their social house bulling scheme between the wars.

He operated the sand pit for over ten years, to a depth of sixty feet, when water then became a problem. He then opened the pits as a tip, which again he operated for another ten years, to become Pardoe's yard where the Gypsies lived.

There were also some quite large sand pits behind Goosemore Lane and Sycamore Road, where the wood yard was.
 
When I was a lad I lived on the Beeches Estate great Barr and when my Dad did building work in the garden and around the house, we never bought sand - we just took a wheelbarrow to the sandhills by Greenholm Rd and got perfect sand no stones.
 
Dave M said:
To be found in Great Barr
Click to expand...

I'm almost convinced now there were sandpits at the edge of Atlantic Road in Kingstanding. On the Great Barr side of Atlantic Road the gulley that runs parallel behind the houses drops away dramatically in places. In fact I'd hazard a guess that Rodlington Avenue, for example, was built on a sandpit. The colour of the soil that I remember was similar to that in Dave's picture. Would all of this sand have been used to make the bricks for building the Kingstanding estates? Viv.
 
Hi Viv - Looking at Google's 1945 aerial view, there seems to be a sand area marked with letter B. I remember the one behind Dyas Rd marked with letter A. The sandpits were fun to play in but sometimes dangerous if you tunneled...
sand1945.jpg

Aerial view in 1945
sand2007.jpg

Aerial view 2007 - Sandpit near Atlantic Avenue gone but a road named Sandwood Drive is there
 
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That's incredible Oldmohawk. That's close enough for me! I was very young but have a very, very vague memory of being able to see reddish sand through the 'missing houses' along Atlantic Road. The one that's marked on your map with 'B' must have been it. There's a sort of ridge all along the backs of the Atlantic Road houses facing Great Barr, which suddenly drops away very steeply. So the road is probably sitting on the top of a whopping great sandhill. And the avenues below are probably built in the sandpits. I'm wondering if the gap in the road which was still there into the 1950s was because the sand was still being removed. Thanks for that. Viv.
 
Viv we had the sand and gravel pits behind what is now Asda this when finished with became a refuse pit now turned into a nature park.Dek
 
oldMohawk. I can also confirm the sandpit at 'A' on your aerial pictures as I have lived at the end of Harbeck Avenue - the cul-de-sac to the left of the 'A' - since 1967 and remember the sandpit at the end of my garden. This was before the houses on Blenheim Way, shown on the 2007 view, were built. I don't have to dig down very far in my garden to find good quality building sand and nice round boulders - I assume left from a very long time ago when the area was a lot nearer to the equator and washed over by a nice warm sea!
 
There's a forum thread about Sand and Gravel near the Great Barr Asda Here and a click on the pic below links to the Sand and Gravel works which was there before Asda.
There's a nice pic on the forum in the post Here (3rd pic down) of the old Booths Lane before it disappeared for sand and gravel requirements.

 
There were sand stone dwellings where Salford circus now stands.Moss
 

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