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Lyndhurst Estate

barester said:
As a fifteen year old my first job on leaving school was on Lyndhurst estate working as an apprentice plumber for the City of B,ham Direct Labour Dept. Wimpey built the high rise flats and we did the maisonettes and terraced houses. I,d never been over that side of town before except for Villa Park, lived in Yardley Wood so it was a two bus trip to work, 4d on the 13a and 4d on the 64. I was given instructions how to get there but got confused and got off the bus at six ways and headed down Bromford Lane. Came across a building site and asked for the plumber I was supposed to report to. The plumber there laughed and told me I was on the wrong site and kindly took me up to Lyndhurst on his motor bike. It was a great first few months working there, learned so much working with two good plumbers. Most importantly tho I learned how to make the tea in the billy can!! I also remember the scaffold on one of the twelve story blocks collapsing with two painters who were working on it, only minor injuries if I remember correctly. So many years ago but happy memories!!
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I worked with a guy (Brian Maney) who was also working for the City of B,ham Direct Labour Dept on the Lyndhurst estate. He also remembers the scaffold collapse, but said there were a couple of fatality's. I also recall the story of a school boy falling down the lift shaft of Harlech Tower when it was under construction. So much for the good old days when we didn't have elf and safety stopping us getting seriously injured and killed.
 
barester said:
As a fifteen year old my first job on leaving school was on Lyndhurst estate working as an apprentice plumber for the City of B,ham Direct Labour Dept. Wimpey built the high rise flats and we did the maisonettes and terraced houses. I,d never been over that side of town before except for Villa Park, lived in Yardley Wood so it was a two bus trip to work, 4d on the 13a and 4d on the 64. I was given instructions how to get there but got confused and got off the bus at six ways and headed down Bromford Lane. Came across a building site and asked for the plumber I was supposed to report to. The plumber there laughed and told me I was on the wrong site and kindly took me up to Lyndhurst on his motor bike. It was a great first few months working there, learned so much working with two good plumbers. Most importantly tho I learned how to make the tea in the billy can!! I also remember the scaffold on one of the twelve story blocks collapsing with two painters who were working on it, only minor injuries if I remember correctly. So many years ago but happy memories!!
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I was always bemused why Harlech Tower (16 stories) was built so much higher than all the other blocks (11 stories), made even higher by being erected on the highest point on the estate, on what is basicly a huge mound. Original architects long gone I guess, so no-one around to explain, or can Barester throw any light on the subject?
It's possible that Harlech was meant to be a landmark for the estate or even a monument to the architects, but I'm only guessing.
I didn't live in Harlech but visited the roof a number of times to enjoy the view.
In the early years all the blocks were open access but then came key operated entrances. When the blocks were newly occupied there was a rule that anyone under 12 years old should not use the lift alone (I did and was often giving a dressing down by the resident caretaker who explained, the rule is supposed to prevent children using the lift who might not be able to reach the alarm button and hence could not summon assistance if the lift failed.)
The alarm button was always at the top of the floor buttons and would have pretty high on the control panel in the Harlech lift.
Each block had tw0 lifts, one to even floors and one to odd, and, for some reason I can remember the lift manufature: Marryatt (not sure about spelling) & Scott.
Peg.
 
After moving to the Lyndhurst my mom, dad and me became a family of commuters, my mother continued to travel to Hockley Brook where she worked full time in a toolmaking company, I commuted to Harry Lucas School also in Hockley and my father to a non-ferrous rolling mill in Summer Lane on the outskirts of the city.
My father was a hard worker, permanent nights, working 4 x 12 hour shifts so there was no denying he earned a holiday. Our association with Brean Down (near Weston) started just after I was born in Heaton St, Hockley and continued when we moved to the Lyndhurst almost every summer until I was 14 when I refused to go anymore.
Ah! Happy days!
Peg.
Must View!: https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/index.php?threads/peg-monkey-cartoons.48101/page-3#post-616867
 
Christmas was a great during the earlier years of a tower block occupancy, a good community spirit with parties going from flat to flat. I was part of a carol singing trio who's venues were the pubs of Hockley when I lived in Heaton St (on the edge of the Jewellery Quarter) Jim (not his real name - I've forgottem it) was a whiz on the spoons, (if you haven't heard Silent Night to the accompanyment of the spoons you have lived) anyway I moved to the Lyndhurst and left the other group members in Hockley so the band had to reform, I was 13 or so when my parents bought me a guitar for Christmas so the muscial accompanyment to our carol singing moved up a level, but now it was a duo not a trio.
So now instead of performing in the cold and often wet outside it was quite civilsed to be indoors going from flat to flat, although it was less lucrative then the pubs.
Ah! Happy Days!.
Peg.
P.S. Did I learn to play the guitar? After a year I was still on page 3 of Burt Weedon's Play in a Day so I was forced to conclude I didn't have a natural talent.
https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/index.php?threads/peg-monkey-cartoons.48101/page-3#post-616907
 
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It's 1964, I'm 15 in the middle of the school summer break and the devil is about to find work for idle hands.
It's a fine day and I'm drifting about our 6th floor flat, mom's at work, dad's asleep, following his nightshift, and I'm wondering what to do.
I decide to relax on my divan, my gaze settles on my collection of football programmes on the wall, then my Mamod Steam engine steaming away on my dressing table and finally on the model glider hanging from the ceiling. It's an impressive model some 6ft in wingspan in royal blue and white livery, I constructed it for the Persuits & Projects Section of The Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award Scheme and with that section signed-off some weeks ago the model had served it's purpose.
I looked at thought: If I was that glider would I want to be tethered to a ceiling for all time or would I prefer a taste of freedom, albeit brief....... ?
Peg.
https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/index.php?threads/peg-monkey-cartoons.48101/page-3#post-616954
 
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We were very fortunate on the Lyndhurst to be so near to so many leisure spots including Erdington Library and the swimming baths, my favourite after-swim snack was a mug of steaming Oxo and a Wagonwheel and, of course, a bag of chips as you walked home passed the Mermaid Chippy.
Ah! Happy Days!

https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/index.php?threads/peg-monkey-cartoons.48101/page-3#post-616986
P.S. What ever happened to Erdington Village Green? It was only tiny but it was our Village Green.
 
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Astoness said:
peg monkey when i google lyndhurst estate birmingham history forum it takes me straight to this thread...

as for you being off forum if this was because you couldnt log on we were given a weeks notice by warren that he was moving the server and while he was doing this the forum would not be available..thread below..if however you have been off the forum because you think that the cookies are a threat to the forum then please contact warren via private message expressing your concerns as he is our technical adviser

lyn
https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/index.php?threads/april-17th-down-time.48767/#post-616440
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Hi Lyn,
I'm delighted to report I to am now able to go direct to the Lyndhurst Estate thread, it's only recently started to work for me, still don't know why there was a problem.
Peg.
 
Who did a paper round? I did, I had to walk to the newsagents bottom of Station Rd, wait for him to mark the papers, deliver them, get back home to The Lyndhurst to get ready for school, in time to get my first bus (64) at about 7.45 to arrive at school in Hockley about 8.45, I must have got up in the middle of the night!
Ah! Happy Days!(?)
Peg.
P.S. That newsagent also sold and made model areoplanes - the real thing with petrol engines and radio control - cost a fortune in those days.
P.P.S. I got 7/6d per week - 37.1/2p - days before minimum wage! slave labour or wot?!
 
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Below is the plan of my parents flat as I remember it, generally speaking the flats were well designed but having been built with cast metal window frames, and (initially) a poor heating system, in really cold weather the windows ran with condensation, which froze solid on really cold nights.
I remember the lifts being a real novetly when we first moved in (I was 10), my experience of lifts at that time had only extended to Lewis's and Gray's - sadly now both stores long gone. Anyone remember Barrow's opposite Lewis's? - a high class food store, also long gone.
Peg.
P.S. Talking of stores long gone, do you remember Taylor's in the High St (Became Owen Owen)?, they had a small but high quality cafe where you could get the most delicious Danish open sandwiches - a must visit for my wife (then my girlfriend) and me every Saturday.
Lyndhurst flat.jpg
 
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Peg, not a million miles away from my memories of our time in Fairbourne Tower. We were on the sixth floor, 36 or 38, so a vertical flip of your layout.

I personally liked living there, then again, I would. Preschool, playing on the building site and watching the workmen dig holes, I loved it.

My poor mum must have hated the place, it must have been so socially isolating.
 
My parents were fortunate to have a corner flat (Double aspect), from their kitcheen window the flashing beacon of Elmdon Airport could be seen and from the lounge and bedrooms the Temple on Barr Beacon, I'll work out what that means in terms of distances one of these days, unless, of course, someone has done it already?
Peg.
 
During my anorak years (11-15 I guess) I sometimes took a different route home from Harry Lucas School in Hockley, instead of the Inner Circle to Aston Cross and then the 64 to The Lyndhurst I would walk to the top of Hockley Hill and get any city-bound bus and then make my way to Snow Hill Station and train spot. I usually stayed there until I had seen what was at the head of the 7.00pm Pullman to Glasgow (usually a Western Class Diesel) and then walk to Steelhouse Lane to get the 64.
The houses that abutted the railway on The Lyndhurst came late in the construction of the estate, which allowed glimpses of trains using the line, this was the latter days of steam and my parents flat was too far away from the line to allow a locomotive to be identified but you could validate you had actually spotted an engine that you had seen from afar by dashing to the line and checking to see if the loco had been identified by a fellow spotter.
Snow Hill Station was, of course, Great Western and the line passing The Lyndhurst LMS.
Peg.

https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/index.php?threads/peg-monkey-cartoons.48101/page-3#post-616949
 
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In the 60s quite a few lads from The Lyndhurst joined the Boys' Brigade, the nearest company being the 3rd Sutton Coldfield, based at Chester Road Baptist Church (corner Chester Road North and Gravelley Lane, opposite the Pavillion (when it was there!)).
Some church parades culminated on the playground of Lyndhurst School.
Peg.
 
No account of the life and times of The Lyndhurst Estate can be complete without at least a brief mention of The Lyndhurst Pub. The pub was probably one of the last buildings to be constructed on the estate and I can only make an educated guess when that was, 1962-63. I do remember my father responding to the council's invitation for expressions of support or otherwise for the building of the pub and he gave qualified support: Yes, as long as the senior citizens at the Normanhurst Rest Home are not inconvinienced in anyway (At that time the planners had stated the site for the pub would be on the Erdington end of the estate, in the shadow of Harlech Tower). By that time my dad had really settled on the Cross Keys as his favourite watering hole and visited The Lyndhurst Pub infreqently. I went there a number of times, notably on my stag night in September 1972, (no trouble remembering that date) but the less said about that the better, suffice to say I did not visit the pub again for some years after. (I have to say, in my defence, my drinks were spiked).
By all accounts as time passed the pub aquired a reputation as being a troublespot and I believe it finally closed in 2009, or there abouts.
Peg.
 
Fantastic shot Viv! Best I've seen of the estate - I'm going to stick my neck out and name the blocks: for the purpose of this excercise (in the absence of dates) I'm going to assume Burcomb Tower has not yet been demolished, that being the case: from left to right: Burcomb Tower, Kentmere Tower, Glendale Tower and Fairbourne Tower. The last block in the row Normanton is just out of shot to the right.
Where was the shot taken from? There is no doubyt in my mind: Harlech Tower (16 story block, the highest of all) what floor? Maybe 6th or 7th, unless, of course, someone knows better!
The Sutton Road is to the right of the row of blocks.
Peg.
 
The Mermaid wasn't the only great chippy close to the Lyndhurst, heading in the Sutton direction there was another on the corner of Sutton Road and Chester Road, in a parade of shops, which included Ozalid, the drawign office and repro supplies company; I was heading back from this chippy one evening (can't remember what I had purchased but it's a fair bet it was a Fleur-de-lys steak and kidney pie) when I was stopped by a male (can't remember my age, but I must have looked like I was capable of answering an important question), in a broad Scots accent he asked,
"Which is the way to Glasgow?"
Unfazed I replied, pointing in the direction of Brownhills, "The Chester Road North is that way, so........."
Without waiting for me to finish he smiled, thanked me and started walking.
Peg.
P.S. I think Chester Road North actually starts near The Beggars Bush.
 
Another view of some of the blocks of flats in 1959. From Birmingham Mail archives. Viv.

image.jpeg
 
I think our flat was the one on the left-hand side of Fairbourne, sixth floor.
 
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One thing's for sure -it's about that time I started taking more interest in girls - major crush on Honor Blackman first Avengers girl.
Ah! Happy Days!
Peg.
P.S. Wonder why Ian Hendry only starred in the first series?
 
The now infamous 1956 Heaton Street Go-cart Crash is well chronicled on the Heaton St thread (https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/index.php?threads/heaton-st-hockley.47417/#post-588005), so did my association with go-carts end when my family moved to a Lyndhurst Tower Block Flat? No.
True, not having a backyard anymore was a distinct drawback, so go-cart construction was never going to be easy when your only workspace is either the communal hall or outside.
My go-cart building then moved to another level, where quality triumphed over quantity, but not always successfully.
My early go-carts built in Heaton St lacked sophistication in the steering dept. - yes rope and feet was well proven and worked well enough, but cart technology moved on and steeringwheel steering had evolved.
Unfortunately, at age 12, I had still not come up with a successful design, and, on one Test flight, the steering locked sending me and my cart hurtling towards the road, fortunately Beechmount Drive was quiet in those days. Plans for further tests were abandoned when I realised my steering design was fundamentally flawed; and there my carting days ended, to be quickly followed by another diversion: girls. (I've just realised I'm starting to repeat myself).
Peg.
 
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There were white knuckle rides for me other than go- carts - before it had been built on there was a steep slope to the side and rear of Harlech Tower, which was the venue for The Lyndhurst Winter Olympics, as soon as there was a good fall of snow toboganists would assemble at the top of the hill (which descended steeply towards the railway) with all manner of crafts, I remember using a floorboard, it flew, but being narrow brought quite a challenge in the staying on dept.
Happy Bank Holiday.
Peg.
P.S. I currently quote EU statute (working hours directive) to counter the threat of any strenuous work my wife has planned for me at hot weekends - I'll need to think again after Brexit.
 
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