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Highgate Street, Hick Street looking for old friends

D

debs_jj

proper brummie kid
My dad Pete Turner is 83 and we have been chatting about his childhood. He grew up in Highgate Street - where he lived from around 1931 til 1952. In the mid 1940's when Dad would have been around 16 he was friends with the following, and wonder if anyone knows of or is related to:

Stanley Newbold, who lived in Hick Street
Brian who married Anne; ( I think Brian also lived in Hick Street)
Norman ? Greaves and his brother ( whose name Dad cannot remember);
Maurice Brain
Kenny Gough - who used to visit Dad when he spent a year in Saltley Grange with TB
Someone with a surname Columbine??
 
Dad's grandparents Mary & John Brasnell lived in Hope Street. They were bombed during the war - Dad, his 12 month old brother, both Grandparents and Dads mum were in the house but all survived, along with the canary! Sadly the neighbours were not as lucky.
 
We (the Bakers) lived at 12/2 Hick St until 1962. My father Peter has passed on but my mother Grace/Doris is alive and well aged 88.
There were/are 5 boys, Peter, David, Phillip, Mark and myself Nick (now 58).
memories : sat outside the wellington pub waiting for dad to come out. The rag and bone man with his goldfish and balloons with holes in them, playing n the bomb site at the top of the yard next to the toilets. Boys Brigade and Lifebouys at the Moseley Institute, fleepit (Alambra)cinema on Saturday mornings etc


If anyone has pictures of the back to back houses in Hick St I would love to see them and show them to my mother.

debs_jj said:
My dad Pete Turner is 83 and we have been chatting about his childhood. He grew up in Highgate Street - where he lived from around 1931 til 1952. In the mid 1940's when Dad would have been around 16 he was friends with the following, and wonder if anyone knows of or is related to:

Stanley Newbold, who lived in Hick Street
Brian who married Anne; ( I think Brian also lived in Hick Street)
Norman ? Greaves and his brother ( whose name Dad cannot remember);
Maurice Brain
Kenny Gough - who used to visit Dad when he spent a year in Saltley Grange with TB
Someone with a surname Columbine??
Click to expand...
 
Nickbluenose said:
We (the Bakers) lived at 12/2 Hick St until 1962. My father Peter has passed on but my mother Grace/Doris is alive and well aged 88.
There were/are 5 boys, Peter, David, Phillip, Mark and myself Nick (now 58).
memories : sat outside the wellington pub waiting for dad to come out. The rag and bone man with his goldfish and balloons with holes in them, playing n the bomb site at the top of the yard next to the toilets. Boys Brigade and Lifebouys at the Moseley Institute, fleepit (Alambra)cinema on Saturday mornings etc


If anyone has pictures of the back to back houses in Hick St I would love to see them and show them to my mother.
Click to expand...

Hi Nickbluenose,
I don't have any pictures of Hick Street, however I am not sure but maybe your brother Peter was in my class at Dennis Road, if he is about 65 and went to Chandos Road junior school and was in the BB. I would be fascinated to know if I am right and if so how is he doing, I also have an old school photo about 1965.
regards Bob
 
Nickbluenose said:
We (the Bakers) lived at 12/2 Hick St until 1962. My father Peter has passed on but my mother Grace/Doris is alive and well aged 88.
There were/are 5 boys, Peter, David, Phillip, Mark and myself Nick (now 58).
memories : sat outside the wellington pub waiting for dad to come out. The rag and bone man with his goldfish and balloons with holes in them, playing n the bomb site at the top of the yard next to the toilets. Boys Brigade and Lifebouys at the Moseley Institute, fleepit (Alambra)cinema on Saturday mornings etc


If anyone has pictures of the back to back houses in Hick St I would love to see them and show them to my mother.
Click to expand...
My grandparents, great grandparents and great great grandparents lived in Hick Street - the Fry's. My great great grandparents Polly and John Fry lived there. John died in 1922 after the first World War but Polly lived there until the mid 1940's. She was actually run over and killed by a bread van on Belgrave Road. Her kids Sidney, Leonard, Dolly and my great grandad John (b.1904) all lived there. John was my great grandad who married Violet Hughes out of Highgate Street and they had a son, also John (b.1927) - my grandad (confusing I know). John married Beryl and when his grandmother Polly died the house passed to him who lived there in 1948 just after they were married. They lived there for a a few years with their kids, which included yet another John - their eldest and my dad (b.1949) before they moved to Ash Road in Saltley. I have a photo of Polly standing outside Hick Street which I'll dig out.
 
debs_jj said:
My dad Pete Turner is 83 and we have been chatting about his childhood. He grew up in Highgate Street - where he lived from around 1931 til 1952. In the mid 1940's when Dad would have been around 16 he was friends with the following, and wonder if anyone knows of or is related to:

Stanley Newbold, who lived in Hick Street
Brian who married Anne; ( I think Brian also lived in Hick Street)
Norman ? Greaves and his brother ( whose name Dad cannot remember);
Maurice Brain
Kenny Gough - who used to visit Dad when he spent a year in Saltley Grange with TB
Someone with a surname Columbine??
Click to expand...
Ask your dad if he knew the Fry's or Harry Hughes or the Greathead's
 
Hi there. What a coincidence! I just came onto the forum to see if I could found out more information about John Fry (my husband's g-grandfather), who lived at Hick Street with his family until shortly before his death in 1922, and saw your post, johnfry (Hi!). It's really interesting to hear about Polly Fry - I didn't know that is how she died. I would really love to see the photo of Polly. Can't wait until you get a chance to dig that out! Do you have any photos of John (ie John senior)? I have been trying to research his WWI record recently and am trying to find a photo of him for my husband - no luck so far, sadly. I'll post on that in a separate thread though, to keep this tidy.

debs_jj - don't know if you are still checking this thread, but I checked the November 1949 electoral roll for Hick Street and found a few of the people you mention (or more likely their parents):
William and Gladys Columbell lived at 32 Hick Street
William and Rosa Greaves lived at 30 Hick Street, also a Catherine Greaves at the back of 27.
Gladys Brain lived at 37 Hick Street
John and Mary Ann Newbould lived at 24 Hick Street, two more families of Newboulds at 2 and 3 Hick Street.
... can't see a Gough, but there are a couple of families called Grove, if that helps?
The Frys, Mary Ann (Polly) and Sid lived at 8 Hick Street.
 
Hi, just seen these postings for Hick Street. My grandparents lived in that street, their names were William and Elizabeth Ansell. My parents lived with them after the war up until 1954, their names were Gilbert and Joyce Ansell, my elder sister Eileen was born there in 1947 and I was born there in 1951 and lived there until I was 3yrs old where we moved to Osler Street, Ladywood. Wonder if the names rings any bells.
 
Hi Talla
did you ever have any other members of Ansell,s living around the area of osler street
as there was a guy whom everybody called Ansel ,at one time he worked for the old BRS services
which was a parcel services delivering parcels all over the place in those days whom used hang around with a family of cambells
from Heath street he was a very nice guy whom in later years of his life became a special constable
that was the last time i met him on duty prior to that day , it was donkeys years before
and he stopped me on point duty when the Brm walkonfon was on in those days
we had a chat about he older days whilst he was keeping the traffic still
to me it could be just a coinicidence by you saying about osler street as my wife was brought up in the next street
namel clark street oppersite osler street school and she went there and alot of boys and girls from the surrounding street
from your street and the remaining streets up to dudley road one friend this guy Ansel was a close friend
was patrick and deirdrie patricks sister
any way i hope you do not mind me asking the question best wishes Astonian;;;;
 
Astonian said:
Hi Talla
did you ever have any other members of Ansell,s living around the area of osler street
as there was a guy whom everybody called Ansel ,at one time he worked for the old BRS services
which was a parcel services delivering parcels all over the place in those days whom used hang around with a family of cambells
from Heath street he was a very nice guy whom in later years of his life became a special constable
that was the last time i met him on duty prior to that day , it was donkeys years before
and he stopped me on point duty when the Brm walkonfon was on in those days
we had a chat about he older days whilst he was keeping the traffic still
to me it could be just a coinicidence by you saying about osler street as my wife was brought up in the next street
namel clark street oppersite osler street school and she went there and alot of boys and girls from the surrounding street
from your street and the remaining streets up to dudley road one friend this guy Ansel was a close friend
was patrick and deirdrie patricks sister
any way i hope you do not mind me asking the question best wishes Astonian;;;;
Click to expand...
 
Hi Astonian, don't know of any other Ansell's living in Ladywood. I lived there from 1954 until 1963 and other than my elder sister Eileen there was also younger sister Janet and younger brothers Clifford and David. We left Ladywood to move to Sparkhill. My dad worked at MEM, Hall Green and was quite involved with the British Legion. There are other Ansell's around but not in Ladywood as far as I know. Yes, I know of Clark Street, Follet Osler had entrances into school off there as well as Osler Street, the school being at the top of my street, I lived at 12/19 Osler Street, on the bend opposite the brick wall of the large factory that ran down from halfway and joined Icknield Port Road. Isn't it lovely to reminisce back to those times.
 
mrsfry said:
Hi there. What a coincidence! I just came onto the forum to see if I could found out more information about John Fry (my husband's g-grandfather), who lived at Hick Street with his family until shortly before his death in 1922, and saw your post, johnfry (Hi!). It's really interesting to hear about Polly Fry - I didn't know that is how she died. I would really love to see the photo of Polly. Can't wait until you get a chance to dig that out! Do you have any photos of John (ie John senior)? I have been trying to research his WWI record recently and am trying to find a photo of him for my husband - no luck so far, sadly. I'll post on that in a separate thread though, to keep this tidy.

debs_jj - don't know if you are still checking this thread, but I checked the November 1949 electoral roll for Hick Street and found a few of the people you mention (or more likely their parents):
William and Gladys Columbell lived at 32 Hick Street
William and Rosa Greaves lived at 30 Hick Street, also a Catherine Greaves at the back of 27.
Gladys Brain lived at 37 Hick Street
John and Mary Ann Newbould lived at 24 Hick Street, two more families of Newboulds at 2 and 3 Hick Street.
... can't see a Gough, but there are a couple of families called Grove, if that helps?
The Frys, Mary Ann (Polly) and Sid lived at 8 Hick Street.
Click to expand...
johnfry said:
My grandparents, great grandparents and great great grandparents lived in Hick Street - the Fry's. My great great grandparents Polly and John Fry lived there. John died in 1922 after the first World War but Polly lived there until the mid 1940's. She was actually run over and killed by a bread van on Belgrave Road. Her kids Sidney, Leonard, Dolly and my great grandad John (b.1904) all lived there. John was my great grandad who married Violet Hughes out of Highgate Street and they had a son, also John (b.1927) - my grandad (confusing I know). John married Beryl and when his grandmother Polly died the house passed to him who lived there in 1948 just after they were married. They lived there for a a few years with their kids, which included yet another John - their eldest and my dad (b.1949) before they moved to Ash Road in Saltley. I have a photo of Polly standing outside Hick Street which I'll dig out.
Click to expand...

Hello 'Mrs Fry'. I'd be really interested to hear who your husband is. John Senior (if you like) was my g-g-grandfather, and yes I do have a picture of him as well as his brothers and sisters standing with their mother and father William and Mary Fry around the late 1800's/early 1900's. My g-grandad John (John and Polly's son) married Violet Hughes who lived in Highgate Street. Her mom and dad were Harry Hughes and Amy Hughes (nee Greathead) from the Highgate area. Sid was my g-grandads brother. I have photos of all these too. In fact Sid was the best man at my nan and grandad's wedding. I'm not sure how we swap email addresses but woukd love to hear more from you. John.
 
mrsfry said:
Hi there. What a coincidence! I just came onto the forum to see if I could found out more information about John Fry (my husband's g-grandfather), who lived at Hick Street with his family until shortly before his death in 1922, and saw your post, johnfry (Hi!). It's really interesting to hear about Polly Fry - I didn't know that is how she died. I would really love to see the photo of Polly. Can't wait until you get a chance to dig that out! Do you have any photos of John (ie John senior)? I have been trying to research his WWI record recently and am trying to find a photo of him for my husband - no luck so far, sadly. I'll post on that in a separate thread though, to keep this tidy.

debs_jj - don't know if you are still checking this thread, but I checked the November 1949 electoral roll for Hick Street and found a few of the people you mention (or more likely their parents):
William and Gladys Columbell lived at 32 Hick Street
William and Rosa Greaves lived at 30 Hick Street, also a Catherine Greaves at the back of 27.
Gladys Brain lived at 37 Hick Street
John and Mary Ann Newbould lived at 24 Hick Street, two more families of Newboulds at 2 and 3 Hick Street.
... can't see a Gough, but there are a couple of families called Grove, if that helps?
The Frys, Mary Ann (Polly) and Sid lived at 8 Hick Street.
Click to expand...

Sid was Polly Fry's son. Her husband John died in 1922 from illnesses received in WWI. Sid never married. When Polly died Sid moved out and went to live with his brother, Leonard. Sid's nephew, also John Fry and his wife Beryl then lived there for a few years until the mid 1950's.
 
Hi John, That's really interesting; thanks for posting the info. I've just emailed you, so hope you get that OK. I have been through the area where Hick Street used to be many times on the number 50 bus and never had any idea until recently!
 
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