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Guildford Street Lozells

Kenh

my dad told me that Dennis Howel was born in Guilford Street.
and if you could send the picture l would be greatfull they knew one another:)
Jeannie
 
guildford st.

hi jeanne. sent you a private message yesterday. as im a beginner i hope you received it ok. let me know if you didnt. wales
 
hockley

i am trying to reserch the area of hockley which is where i grew up after the age of 5 when i left paddington street. been looking for ages but cannot find any history sites and forums for hockley which i find most surprising. if there is one can anyone point me in the right direction. many thanks as im just about to give up. wales.
 
Have a look on the Main Sites section of this website - under Brookfields you'll find lots of info on Hockley.
Happy reading!!!
 
hello wales and everyone

l work all week and dont have time to check out site..but to let you all know l do check in as often as l can..thank you for memories.

Jeannie.:)
 
Guildford Street

I used to live at 29 back of 146 Guildford Street from 1962 to 1968 from the age of 5 to 11. Attended William Cowper St school and remember using the "gulley" to walk down and play in. My sisters went to Alma Rd school. Anybody remember the Probyn family?
 
Welcome Dave :)At last a member who went to Cowper Street like myself (1941 to 1947) and my Grandmother was born in Guildford Street.
 
Re: guilford street lozells

What super photo's.

I've been trying to find photo's of this area without any luck! Clifford Street is where my father was raised by his grandparents from aged 2 in 1947 until their deaths in 1953/4 when he moved to Great Barr to live with his aunt. Does anyone have any photo's of Clifford Street please! The Pedley's lived at back 67 Clifford Street.
 
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Alf m8,:) Your memory gone Gaga ;) I sez i was ex William Cowper yonks ago,
Left there in 1961 & left Ormond Street (next street to Cowper St) about 1963,
Those streets & Guildford/Porchester/Summer Lane where All my mob came from,
Oooh Posh lot eh! :rolleyes: Cheers JohnY :cool:
 
Re: guilford street lozells

I know John M8 I've got you down and your Sister just testing Ya:rolleyes: Yes we were a Posh lot and we still are:)
 
Re: guilford street lozells

hi there, just read that you lived in summer lane, i was wondering if you knew or heard of the orbells or the collins family, these were cousins of my moms who is 91 this year, she talks a lot of the lane, and the fighting that went on,
 
Re: guilford street lozells

leelou said:
What super photo's.

I've been trying to find photo's of this area without any luck! Clifford Street is where my father was raised by his grandparents from aged 2 in 1947 until their deaths in 1953/4 when he moved to Great Barr to live with his aunt. Does anyone have any photo's of Clifford Street please! The Pedley's lived at back 67 Clifford Street.
Click to expand...

leelou,

I don't remember the area as I lived elsewhere, but I think these two photo's are of Clifford St, please correct me if I am wrong.

Phil

NewtownCliffordSt1959.jpg
LozellsCliffordSt.jpg
 
Re: guilford street lozells

Hi Lindey :) Sorry i didn,t know any Orbells or Collins families of Summer Lane,
Others may know though, Try posting them seperately on the Alphabetical Surname section, be lucky,,
ps Me & Alf lived at the "Posh" end of Summer Lane,, Only the Wimmin got fighting,,:rolleyes:
Good luck ( & love ) to your Mom :brokenheart: JohnY :cool:
 
Re: guilford street lozells

Hello Lindev, How lovely to still have your Mom with you to share things with tell her Hello from me too...Cat:)
 
Re: guilford street lozells

hi there, thank you john and catkin i will tell my mom you all said hello, she lived in asylum road then gt russel street then married my dad and lived in wheeler street, my dad was name john or jack devlin anyone remember my dad.
 
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Re: guilford street lozells

Michael_Ingram said:
Hi Jeannie, I'm from number 26. I am away from home at the moment on a friends laptop but will post a picture and information when I am back home
Click to expand...


Hi Michael, I'm a new member and have just read your post. Have you lived in Guildford Street for long? My Father, Alan Cook and his family moved to number 6 Guildford Street in 1941 until the late 1950's when they then moved to "the countryside" (Kingstanding). Just wandering if any other members may have known him and the rest of the family? My Grandad used to work in Summer lane at the "crocodile works" sadly i noticed the building has been knocked down in the last few weeks.
 
Re: guilford street lozells

Hi Safetylady
Was number 6 on the corner of Guildford Street and Farm Street, on the opposite corner to Mather's pawnshop? Or at least it must have been close to the corner. Did the family have children living there? I must have known the family and your family must have shopped next door to us at Rudhalls.
I lived there from 1941 until 1963 when we moved to the country too - to West Heath. I had aunts an uncles who lived at Kingstanding.
Many of the people living around our streets own machetees that were made at the Crocodile Works. Not to fight one another but for chopping firewood.
You should read Joyce Toons story here:
https://www.astonbrook-through-astonmanor.co.uk/id158.htm
The Toons lived around the corner from us in Geach Street; they were well known by all of us kids for their toffee apples.
I have a bit too, lower down on the same page, about Eden Place in Guildford Street; just a bit down from number 6 Guildford Street
 
Re: guilford street lozells

Hi Michael, From speaking to my dad (alan) i understand that the house (No 6)was on the corner of Guildford Street and Farm Street. My Dad's Grandad lived at 161 Farm street.
My dad's mother was Ellen Cook (known as Nelly, Nee Gilmore) and my Grandad was Albert. The kids of the family were Maureen born 1939, my dad Alan, born 1941, Tom born 1945 and Pam born 1948. Dad went to the school at the top of the road where Guildford Street joins Lozells Road. (sorry, have no idea what the school was called)

I have been tracing my family history and it seems that the family and its various branches (the Gilmores, the Wadmans and the Cooks) never strayed out of the parish of Aston Manor. I've managed to go back to 1799 by looking at parish records etc and only one branch of the family originated from outside the Aston Area (my Gt Grandad Gilmore's parents came from Galway, Ireland to Birmingham, during the irish potato famine of the 1850's). Would it have been usual to only move a few doors away from where you were born? I know families in those days did not have disposable incomes and opportunities like we have now but it seems that my ansestors had a very limited view of the world they lived in (5 or 6 miles give or take!!!)
 
Re: guilford street lozells

I knew a lad who lived in that house but he was a couple of years older than me ( I was born in 1941). I remember him well but not his name. Did your dad have an older brother? I sometimes went in the house. He had a teddy boy suit before any of us others. Your dad would have gone to Gower Street school with Ronnie Pearce from Hospital Street, Johnny Wells from Guildford St, Duncan Bagley from Eden Place, Eddie madeley from kensington St, etc. see here
https://forum.birminghamhistory.co.uk/showthread.php?t=12982&page=2
for pictures; I was less privaledged and had to go to Handsworth Grammar.
It was quite usual for families to move to houses close by. They all rented houses and somtimes when the family got too large for their house they would move to another larger one nearby. For example, my family moved from 6 back of 14 to number 26. Down our back in one family the daughter went to London and came back with a husband. The Wells family had just moved from one house to another in the same yard so the woman and her husband sqatted in the house that the Welles had just vacated. Once you had squatted somewhere long enough you would get a rent book and become the official tenant
 
Re: guilford street lozells

Here are a couple of maps of the Guildford St area from the early 20th c.
On the small detail map the red spot marks number 26 so I estimate number 6 was not quite on the corner but where I have put the yellow spot
 
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Re: guilford street lozells

This one indicates the streets better, red for Guildford Street and yellow for Farm St
 
Re: guilford street lozells

This one puts it in context; from the 1940s
ps remember to click on 'open original, etc.' and then click again to see it clearly and full size
 
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Re: guilford street lozells

Hi Michael,
thanks very much for posting the maps. It was great to see the area where my family lived. I havent been able to talk to dad yet but i'll ask him if he knew you. You're both the same age so there's a good chance.
He told me a story once of the day of the Queens coronation. Someone in the street hired a TV for the day. It was the only one in the street. All the neighbours and kids took it in turns to go inside the house and see the coronation. He remembers that there were tables set up in the street, streamers, baloons etc and all the mothers made food for a street party for the kids even though there was rationing and the families did not have a lot of money.
I think that the teddy boy you mentioned must have been my dad. He was the eldest boy of the family. He was working for Schweppes as a delivery driver at the time and used to get in trouble with his manager because of his quiff!! (Deemed not a suitable hairdo for delivering Coca Cola to the stardust cafe!!). He told me that he once had a great night going to see Fats Domino at the Aston Hippodrome sometime in the late 1950's. Afraid the quiff has long gone along and has been replaced with shiny scalp but the love of the music is still with him.
dad loved his time in Guildford Street. He said they were poor but on the whole, happy.
 
Re: guilford street lozells

Hi Michael,
My dad, Alan Cook remembers you and all the other men you mentioned. My dad was the one with the teddy boy suit. He said that he still regularly sees Duncan who now also lives in the Kingstanding area like my dad. Dad said he remembers you lived next to the shop "Ingrams" (of course your family owned it!). Dad always remembers that when he went to see you he had to knock the door to the shop front next to "Ingrams" by the entry to "The Barracks". He remembers a Mrs Trotter lived in the first house in "The Barracks".
 
Re: guilford street lozells

hi pmc 1947. ive just looked up in my 1956 kellys and the photo you posted showing reeve polishing and plating company is indeed in clifford st numbers 85/87. i can not be sure but i think maybe the other one is of old tom the rag and bone man. i will show it to my dad he often talks of him and knew him quite well. i think they followed each other round the streets as dad was the window cleaner. all the best wales
 
Re: guilford street lozells

hi lindev. you said your dad was john or jack devlin. he didnt ever live in villa st or nursery road did he. its just that i had a friend whos surname was devlin(think her 1st name was christine) funny how the memory goes. any was her dad was known as jackie devlin. this would have been in the 50s and 60s. wales
 
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