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Brookvale Park & Witton Lakes

R

Rod

Guest
My wife lived in the houses of both Brookvale, and Witton lakes parks as a child. We spent many hours courting in both parks. Brens dad worked for the Parks Dept and as a result they lived in the tied houses. Alf Tarplee my wifes father, worked as a gardener for Birmingham City Parks Dept, I think most of his duties were carried out at Perry Barr, Witton Lakes & Brookvale.

The Witton lakes house was very spooky at times!!
 
Rod, your comments about Witton Lakes and Brookvale Parks....I can only say "It's a small world, etc." So Bren's Dad was the Park Keeper....... I remember both "Park" Houses in Witton Lakes and Brookvale. A school friend of mine's Uncle lived in the Brookvale Park keepers house very early on. I have to say the Witton Lakes Park Keepers house was a little spooky. I expect Bren's Dad used to have to lock the Park gates every night. I bet he had a bicycle because there were at least four gates at Witton Lakes for instance and they were a fair distance apart. It would have been a lovely place for courting, well both parks certainly. How did you get over there? On the bus or by bicycle? This is one of my favourite shots of the area between the two Parks crossing Marsh Hill. Taken by Keith Berry, who as you know has a marvellous photo site. https://www.pbase.com/beppuu/image/42809239. I wrote some comments about the area underneath this photo. Wish I had a pound for every time I walked these streets and shopped in those shops!

I also have photos of my Mum and Dad doing their courting in Brookvale Park....a right old Monkey Run on Sunday afternoons in the summer according to my Dad. Can't get away from it though. A friend sent me a local Erdington calendar which is of very old black and white photos of Erdington and the picture for the month of June is the Brookvale Park stream around 1912. That would be behind the main Park Keepers House.

Before the Boat House was burned down in Witton Lakes it used to have a small cafe at one end and the roof was thatched. Before WW2 they used to rent out long rowing boats on the first lake. The lake grew very weedy over the years but it has retained it's beauty overall. There is a view from the park that is always in my mind...one of looking towards the chapel tower in Witton Cemetery across the lake..it is such a lovely view and so peaceful. You would never guess that the Motorway is within a half mile.
My friend and I used to walk people babies' in the Witton Lakes. We would just walk up when we saw a baby outside a house in the front garden and ask to take the baby for a pram walk. We had two regular runs from Bleakhill Road. No way anything like that would happen these days.

The last time I was there a couple of years ago. I got off the bus at the Ridgeway and bought some chips from the chip shop on Marsh Hill in the late afternoon, walked up Gypsy Lane, still a lovely treed street, and into the Park. Up past the water raceway, so many stories about playing on the bridge and the raceway itself, along to the lake. People were walking their dogs and all spoke to me. I watched the airliners flying over to Birmingham International, one every two minutes, and was reminded of the VJ Day flight over Witton Lakes Park when I saw many many planes of different types flying in format. I lay on the rise just off the Woolmore Road gate to see these planes which would have landed at Castle Bromwich airfield. One semi detached house in the road leading to the Park part of Woolmore Road suffered a direct hit by German bombers during the war, I remember.

My brother used to play cricket near the Woolmore gate and I got it in the face from a ball one evening and caused a bit of a stir.

I also gazed at the little beach on the "boating" lake and remembered all the days I spent there in what seemed to be the endless summers with my brother fishing for minows and watching the young boys who came with pieces of hessian sacking dredging in a twosome and catching lots of fish. We standing by with our eyes on stalks secretly marvelling their cleverness. We used a bamboo garden cane with a circle of wire at one end and one of my mother's nylon stocking's tied in a knot as a net. I had a friend who lived in Yerbury Grove close to The Ridgeway so we spent many hours in both Parks over the years of our childhood and walking to the shops on Marsh Hill for sweets..

We used to tobggan down the hill and almost end up in the boating lake in those long ago snowy winters. I remember the radio controlled boats on that lake where a local club used to meet with their boats on evenings in the summer. Just fascinating to watch....from yachts to steamers and even special model ocean liners.

The City of Birmingham issued a Fair permit and Fairs used to arrive once in a while. Not as good as the Onion Fair but fun all the same and right down the road too.
 
HI ROD AND JENNYMAN ,,IREAD YOUR STORY WITH GREAT INTREST, ABOUT THE GOOD OLD PARK KEEPERS , THEY DONE A VERY GOOD JOB WE,LL WORTH THE WAGES, THEY KEPT US IN CHECK AND OFF THE FLOWER BEDS AND THE BOWLING GREEN , ESPECIALY WHEN I WAS YOUNG IN THE LATE FORTY,S AND FIFTY,S AT ASTON PARK, BUT MOST OF ALL WE WAS KEPT WELL AWAY FROM THE LOVELY PETER PAN ALL IN TACT WITH HIS FLUTE, AND WATER FLOWING, DOE,S ANY BODY RECALL HORRIS THE PARKIE, A BIG TALL MAN WITH GLASSES, HE WAS ORINAL JAILER ,AT DIGBETH POLICE STATION IN THE THIRTY,S BEFORE HE RETIRED TO BE A PARKIE, HE ALSO TOOK OVER SUMERFIELD PARK, AND FINAIY RETIRED AND PENSION OFF AT EDGBASTON RESOVOIR, BEST WISHES TO YOU ALL ASTONIAN,
 
GOOD MORNING ROD ,, HORRIS USED TO RIDE AROUND ON HIS BIG BIKE IT WAS A HERCULES , DARK GREEN , 27 INCH WHEEL ,MADE FOR THE POLICE ISSUE, OF BIRMINGHAM, IT HAD STEEL MADE HAND BRAKES,, AND BY GOLLIE IF YOU WAS ON THE GREEN, OR TRYING TO PADDLE IN PETER PAN FOUNTAIN ,AND IF HE SEEN YOU FROM ACROOSS THE PARK, HE WOULD BE COMING LIKE A ROCKET OUT OF THE BLUE,TO CATCH YOU AND GIVE YOU A RIGHT SEVERE TICKING OFF, I SAY BRING BACK THE PARKIE,, IT WOULD SAVE THE COUNCIL A HUGE AMOUNT OF MONEY IN THE LONG RUN, IF YOU TAKE INTO ACCOUNT THE COSTOF DAMAGE TO BOWLING GREENS , AND FLOWER BEDS , AND TREE,S BRING BACK THE PARKIE,,,,,,
 
You could ride your bike in the parks before 9.30 am.
I remember playing up a parkie in Witton Lakes with some class mates in about 1943, after dinner at Hawthorn Road Junior boys. He nearly caught me and I was terrified, as he was wearing a flat cap and had a sort of cape on.
I kept away for a few weeks, in case he recognised me.
Peter
 
Peter, Rod's father-in-law was the Parkie at Witton Lakes at one time but probably at a later date from when you were tempting the Parkie to chase you. . Witton Lakes was my adventure place with my friends and especially the out of bounds Sand Pits on the left hand side of the lakes which eventually were built on. . The Parkie's were pretty hard on kids back then but then the kids were often up to tricks. I remember the capes and flat caps too.
A couple of years ago when I spent the afternoon in the Park, a boy started swimming
across the boating lake oblivious to the sign which said "NO SWIMMING" in large letters!
He was about l0 years old and a good swimmer. I walked along and met him as he
completed his swim. I was impressed even though I knew he shouldn't have been
doing it. He simply said he had done it lots of times.
 
I remember the Boathouse very well. I took a photo of it years ago and it's a good job I did because it burned down eventually. Not sure which year. The Boathouse had a thatched roof originally and the front of the building consisted of long panel windows which folded back. Rowing boats and sculls were kept in the Boathouse and as Di said you could take out a rowing boat on the left hand lake. I heard that there were a couple of drownings and the boat rentals were suspended. The Boathouse had a very small cafe that sold tea and cold drinks. It was a very nice building.

I noticed that the divide between the two lakes had been upgraded when I was last there with viewing points towards the right hand lake. I remember tobogganing down the hills on the Woolmore Road side of the park in those very cold winters in the late l940's and early l950's. The locals used to take their homemade sledges and head for the park when it snowed.

Alf, which street did you live in?

The left hand lake has a small, rather steep raceway and a bridge over it at the Gypsy Lane end. It's all still there. I don't believe it was ever used as a water supply but was considered as a back-up after Birmingham connected to the Elan Valley water supply in Wales. The right hand lake which was often used for model boat sailing had a concrete wall built around it.
 
me and my younger brother used to go over Witton Lakes a lot in the early 70's (when we lived in Dovedale road Perry Common)
We used to fish a bit, (kids fishing nets, for tadpoles etc and frog spawn) and sometimes get leeches on our legs if we put our feet in  ???

we used to walk through it and get to Brookvale Park too (on George Road Erdington), but I can't remember how we did that...*

long hot summer days in the school holidays...I rarely remember getting tired with all the walking (wish I was like that now :()

*yes!! I just went to the 'Parks Reurbished' thread and this was it
https://www.pbase.com/beppuu/image/42809239
whether we had a shortcut, can't remember.
 
Don't want to rock the boat (to wear a phrase out) but there does seem to be some confusion about park pools. Handsworth Park had one pool and an ornamental boathouse. Brookvale Park had one pool and in my day was used for swimming, but I'm not sure about boating. Witton Lakes had the two pools with the dividing causeway which was really a dam to keep the smaller pool on the northern side a foot or two higher then the bigger pool, which had an embankment round the Gipsy Lane end, where the overflow ran down to Brookvale Park to fill that pool, which in turn overflowed into the River Tame, opposite the boating lake in Salford Park at Gravelly Hill, after passing under the canal.
Peter
 
Phew...that's a long description Peter but correct. Witton Lakes Park was my playground as a child. I lived at the very top of Woolmore Road, a high pinnacle from where you could see Oscott College in one direction and the whole of the city in the distance with Aston Villa very prominent from the back of the house.

Brookvale Road was very close by just across Marsh Hill, so we were doubly blessed as children to have two splendid parks very close by. I also worked for a few years at
R.M. Douglas (Civil Engineering) Ltd in George Road, now sold a couple of times. We used to spend lunch hours in Brookvale Park after running across to Ken's deli for sandwiches. It was great in the summer.
 
I know The Ridgeway well Alf. I had a friend right from when I started Marsh Hill School who lived in Yerbury Grove so I was always in that area going up and down so many streets. . We used to play in the Cemetery a lot in the summer and also both Brookvale and Witton Lakes Parks. We also used to walk all the way to the swimming baths in Kingstanding going along many different routes to get there. I used to catch the 5a and the 7 bus at the corner of the Ridgeway and Marsh Hill to go to school and to work and just to get to town. I would often alight from the bus just before the corner coming the other way via Witton Circle very late at night after being in town dancing.

Quite a lot of kids in my school classes lived in that area as well.
 
That's exactly how you made it from one park to another Mazbeth. There was a small
"beach" like area at the left hand lake that's probably where you fished. Then you took the path going left again until you came to the reservoir run off bridge. There was a path beside the run off spill that led down to a small field and out through the gate into Gypsy Lane.
You would turn left andwalk along Gypsy Lane on to Marsh Hill, cross over and go to George Road via Boulton Walk ( where the photo was taken)past the Baptist Church and into Brookvale Park. That photo shows that it is totally unchanged after all these years
 
In the late 50s/early 60s there was a model boat club in Witton Lakes they used to sail model yachts on Sunday mornings.
Also remember there being American baseball games on Sundays.
From the back of our house in Marsh Lane Erdington you could walk along the brook all the way to the Lakes.
 
:angel: When I attended Priestly Smith School Perry Common Rd, our 'Two senior classes' with the help of Mr. Cameron the Senior's Teacher (there were only 4 classes at that school : Infants, Junior, Intermediate and Senior.) spent the whole Summer term making a full sized two person Kayak and then we went to Witton Lakes to try it out, it was great fun. All those of us who could swim got a turn paddling it with Mr. Cameron sitting in the back seat, he must have been a very brave, or silly man O0 :2funny:
 
Does Jenny remember David Lines who lived in the house in Brookvale Park. He married my sister Ann Harris. His father Gerald used to work for the parks too.
Lynda
 
My wife asks if they were the people who lived in the house that became the Yacht club? or did they perhaps move into the the house next door when my wife and her family, the Tarplees moved to Witton lakes park?
 
Lynda- The name David Lines rings a bell you know. Can't exactly place him though. Isn't there a Birmingham councillor with the surname Lines? Might be a relative.

The Parkie' house was at George Road/ Marsh Hill end of Brookvale Park there was another house on , the allotments side years ago before they built on it. It was a smaller house and I often wondered who lived there. Keith Berry took this photo and the cottage is in the back ground https://www.pbase.com/beppuu/image/37159532
That must have been the Cottage that David Lines lived in. It is now the headquarters for the Brookvale and Sparkbrook Sailing Club that sail in the Park. There were some lovely flower beds down this end of the Park I remember. Part of the cottage was a cafe for many years as well.

There was a rather unusual Boat House in the Park which is now demolished. You can see this at https://www.pbase.com/beppuu/image/48641771 Keith Berry took this in the l970s. In front is where the rowing boats were laid out originally and the building possibly stored all the gear for them. I remember this building and over the years it became more and more of a wreck. A bit further round going towards George Road was The Sons of Rest building. My Dad belonged to that group after he retired and spent many happy hours with his friends there. They had a billiard table, dart boards, etc. I believe. His final MEB Headquarters was built on Park Road(?) at this end of the Park. He was transferred from Chester Street.

Brookvale Park was a "monkey run" on the weekends for many Witton and area lads and lassies in the l920's and l930's. I have several photographs of my Mother and Father "doing the rounds, etc" in the Park from that era. :coolsmiley:

I think the area is even better now in many ways since the railings were removed on the George Road side and the buildings on the old allotments close to the lake have a splendid outlook.
 
David Lines lived where the yaught club went too. He was in the navy when he married my sister and they have just had their golden wedding. I loved Brookvale Park and spent many happy hours in it. It was lovely to see the pictures after all these years, as it must have been 40 years since I lived near there in Abbey Road.
Lynda
 
Rod said:
My wife lived in the houses of both Brookvale, and Witton lakes parks as a child. We spent many hours courting in both parks. Brens dad worked for the Parks Dept and as a result they lived in the tied houses. Alf Tarplee my wifes father, worked as a gardener for Birmingham City Parks Dept, I think most of his duties were carried out at Perry Barr, Witton Lakes & Brookvale.

The Witton lakes house was very spooky at times!!
Click to expand...


Rod I use to play Football with my mates just outside the house in Witton Lakes every Sunday morning, in the end we had enough to form our own Football Team and we became Brookvale Utd.
We became quite successful playing the Sunday Alliance except for the team we finished behind that first season.

The Team, Alexandra Supplies who played out of the Geach Pub Summer Lane run by Corfields Bro hope I spelt it right they were a friend of my Dads.

In the 2nd season we beat them in the opening match and I was lucky to score the only Goals in our 2-0 win .
I believe it was there first ever defeat in that league.

They went on to greater things and became Newtown Unity out of the Club off Summer lane.

I went on to play for them later.
 
These pictures were taken qite recently..... Picture 14 is the front door of the Tarplee house in Brookvale it brings back so many memories.... On Sunday October 8th 1972 I stood outside that door with Brenda at about 10:00pm or so and we kissed for the very first time.  ^-^  :coolsmiley:  :smitten:  :smitten:  :smitten:  :smitten:  :smitten: I then walked all the way home to Kingstanding via the Ridgeway, floating on a cloud  :D I knew I had just kissed the girl of my dreams.  :smitten:

The other picture is the only shot I could get of the Lodge at Witton Lakes, Brendas home from 1973 till we married the following year.
 
Yes, Rod you are such a romantic but that's what life is all about. Blokes did a lot of walking their girls home in those days didn't they?
Nice to see the pictures of the house. I can remember it when it was in much better condition. This would have been in late l940's through to early l960's. The entrance is very nice and even now it just needs a good rub down and some coats of paint.

The sign on the gate is not very inviting. Does a Park Keeper live there now I wonder?
 
That is a lovely story, Rod, but I'm sure most bar members have similar memories. As Jennyann says, us men always saw the girls back home. I used to enjoy the walk or bus or bike ride back home after the farewell experience. But it was a long way back home by Perry Common from Acocks Green Harborne or even Solihull at various times.
I was in Brum last Wednesday and having read the recent stuff about Witton Lakes, took a No. 7 bus to Perry Common circle and then walked down what is left of Wendover Road to the Perry Common side of Witton Lakes. After 40 years it was so different - the open space had been extended left and right, no allotments any more, and the old pumping house which was built to pump the water supply up to the reservoir in Reservoir Road, Erdington had gone.
Also the old Witton Lakes boathouse (which I remember as being faced in black creosoted wood, and I think had a red-brick house very close if not connected) had disappeared. I'm afraid I didn't have the stamina to walk down Gipsy Lane and George Road to Brookvale Park, which was my first idea, so I walked to the old Short Heath Tram terminus and got a bus to Erdington and a train back to town. I could see where the stream from the lakes joins the River Tame.
Peter
 
Peter, great that you did this but you should have taken the bus to The Ridgeway and
walked down past the shops on Marsh Hill and up Gypsy Lane. That side of the Park and approaches aren't that much changed. There used to be grass tennis courts just as you came in off Gypsy Lane...gone many years now. The walk up to the reservoir run off is unchanged. The Perry Common side is definitely changed but that was never my favourite area. Recently, I found out that the pub on the corner of Turfpits Lane is to be torn down and condos built on it. I used to wait for the bus there endless times. Was it the Golden Keys, the pub? I remember the Pump House and I expect it was empty for years.

I took the Gypsy Lane walk to the Park two years ago in the Spring and bought some chips from the chip shop on Marsh Hill and ate them as I walked along in the Park. It was afternoon and people were friendly, mostly dog walkers. The boathouse has been gone for years now and boats haven't been on that lake for decades. I do remember the black creosoted panels on the exterior. The broom bushes were in full bloom and it was a great feeling to be there. Absence makes the heart frow fonder I know. I do remember sitting on the only bench I could find and watching the planes coming across to go on to land at BIA, they were coming in one every few minutes.

I will look up my photo of the Boathouse that I took years ago and get my husband to scan it so that you can see it. I have been online for years and was always trying to
find info on Witton Lakes. It's only this year that anything has come up on the Search Engines. The Birmingham gov. site didn't have it on their site for years either.
 
jennyann said:
Recently, I found out that the pub on the corner of Turfpits Lane is to be torn down and condos built on it. I used to wait for the bus there endless times. Was it the Golden Keys, the pub?
Click to expand...
am wondering if it was the Golden Cross?
Used to go in there a lot. There used to be a disco in there in about '74. I remember us 15 year olds crowded in the ladies loo around the mirror putting mascara on from a block, and our lipstick of course. :-* 8)

Later, when in my 20's and going out with the linesman from a Sunday football team, we all (the team and friends and relatives) used to go in there for a drink after the game, when they were playing at the Playing Fields on Perry Common road.
 
You're right Mazbeth...The Golden Cross.......I last went in there in 1985 with my brother and in one part all the tables were made from antique Singer sewing machine bases! :) I think there is a Golden Keys somewhere in the area. Liked the story of you and your friends in the loo and I am sure the pub was handy for sports teams to imbibe after their games. There weren't many local pubs in that area at all. You had to go up to College Road, in one drirection, to find a pub or up to Stockland Green (another pub now gone, Stockland Hotel) and along Shortheath Road and over to Station Road to the Red Lion...almost forgot The Leopard in Jerry's Lane not that far from the Golden Cross. :elephant:

I also remember the baseball teams that played in Witton Lakes. I was fascinated by
their uniforms I remember.
 
Mazbeth, was the football team you mentioned called Erdington Libs, cuz I used to be the trainer for them in the 70s. ^-^
 
no, don't think they were based in Erdington...

one player was married to my cousin, and they lived in Tamworth...they guy I was going out with lived in Wolverhampton...and the others lived all over the place...
can't remember the team's name...but could find out...
this was in the early '80's...about '82....the games were held in loads of places...
Wythall?
Tanworth??
Perry Hall Park (playing fields??)
 
Brian tells me he used to play football at Witton lakes in the early 50's. They had to pay 1/- each when they played, and the 11/- paid for the hire of the pitch. :)
 
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