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Kingstanding

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Although we only lived about 2 or 3 miles from Sutton park during and just after the war, it seemed to take us about half an hour in the oldmans battered Austin 7. That proberly includes stops for punctures and a halfgallon in the tank. In the famous language of--Kids plus journeys--equals boredom, and continuous -'are we there yet', I suppose I just might be overstating it. The one thing I remember most about Sutton Park was the almost colourless coarse grass.---oh--- and the difficulty in finding a patch that DID'NT have Rabbit sh--er--droppings on it.-----golightly.
 
Re: kingstanding Powell's pool

Old Mohawk Thanks for putting me right on that name as a matter of fact I was having dinner at the restaurant there when we came home for a visit in 2000 and I was still under the impression I was at pals pool.
I was talking to my 6 year old great granddaughter on Skype yesterday and it made me think what technology did we have in the 1940s I can remember having a battery powered torch With strict instructions from my dad not to keep turning it on or I would flatten the batteries but apart from that all our spare time we had to make our own games up IE cowboys and indians, soldiers, rounders, polly on the mop and cricket in the middle of the (watch out for the copper on his bike) What else does anyone remember. Moss in Aus
 
Hi Moss,
Thinking about technology in the 40's, I can remember having a 'Shocking Machine' - you held the metal handles, adjusted a plunger and saw how big an electric shock you could stand !! - I don't know whether I was the only one who had one - seems a bit daft now I think about it. How did we survive ?
oldmohawk
 
Hiya Gibbo,my grandparents lived in Hurlingam Rd,number 144,untill the late 1960's.They moved there from Small Heath.I think that they moved to Kingstanding in the 1930's
 
Re: kingstanding global warming

Old Mohawk Do you remember in the 50s the government introduced the Clean Air Act this made it against the law to allow chimneys on factory's and houses to emit black smoke. All houses had to burn smokeless fuel. It was so successful that if you stood on Hawthorn road, Kingstanding road corner looking west you could see a range of hills that you never realized were there before. Any ideas as to what this range of hills was? Could be Dudley or even the Clent Hills
Moss in Aust
 
Hi Moss - I don't think I ever stood there to look, but it was probably Sedgely Beacon or Clent. I can just see the Wrekin from where I am, when its not raining. It's hard to imagine the 'peasoupers' fogs we use to put up with in the smoky old days. I think there is a thread on here about them.
Phil
 
I remember that view so well, even 70 years later. I lived in Hill Crest Grove, as it was then called, where from my bedroom I could see a marvellous panorama from Gravelly Hill in the the west to Sedgley Beacon in the east. When we went 'up the road' (up Warren Road) to the shops in Hawthorn Road, you got an even better view because you were about 50 feet higher.
I do remember the view from the Kingstanding Road bus stop waiting to go to town. where you were about 10 feet lower,
From Hawthorn Road you wouldn't see Sedgley Beacon, and I doubt if you would see Dudley Castle hill, but you would not miss that very impressive eminence known as Rowley Hills, which ran roughly from Rowley to Dudley. By the 1950s, there was a big telecomm dish at the Rowley end which I think has been replaced by smaller things.
Further to the left were the lesser heights of Warley and Quinton, over which you could sometimes get a glimpse of the peak of Clent Hill.
Panning further left you got to Edgbaston, over which you could most often see the trees on the top of Frankley Beeches. Further away was the panorama of Beacon Hill in the Lickeys, and Waseley and Windmill Hills to the right.
I often think about that view, and enjoy it whenever I get an opportunity to see it again.
Peter
 
Mauricesellars and oldMohawk---do you remember how, before the clean air act---when you stepped outside, during a real peasoup fog, you could hear that dull heavey roaring sound of traffic in the distance? It was almost continuous, and was of course added to by Brums mighty industrial drone as well. The fog was usually tinged yellow, and caught the back of your throat. What with all the smoking of tobacco, it's no wonder so many had serious lung trouble. There's something I've been wanting to learn a bit more about, and that is factory hooter's or whistles. When we were kids in the late 40's and fifties, they were a common sound, just part of normal everyday living. What happend to them--- why did they disappear, apart from the obvious main cause, ie. the loss of our industrial output. Why does NOBODY use this anymore. The last time I heard one, I was told that it was a nuclear warning test. golightly
 
Hi Maurice & Golightly - I think the hooter at the ICI (Kynochs) was called the 'bull' although I my memory might be wrong here. I can remember the husband of my Moms friend get ready to rush back to work when it went at lunchtime. I also remember the sound of ammunition test firing almost daily. Seemed a normal sound to me as a child.
oldmohawk
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Hi Keegs I lived in 82 Hurlingham road i moved therejan 1933 my mother and father came from Victoria road Aston i knew a lot of people in Hurlingham road so i might remember them i move to Aldridge in 1960s on the Birmingham over spill list and lived there till 1970 and emigrated to Australia merry Christmas and happy new year to all
Allen Gibson
 
Re: kingstanding bull

golightly. One bull/siren that used to go off every day which could be heard plainly in Kingstanding came from the West Bromwich, Smethwick area possible from Mitchell's and Butlers brewery you could set your wind up watch by(no digital watches in those days) it went off at 12 midday. Any body remember in the 60s when a lorry blew up in the West Brom area, this was heard plainly in the Kingstanding area. The lorry was carrying various chemicals, the driver had just stopped and left his vehicle, when he stopped some of the containers tipped over, the chemicals mixed causing a chain reaction and a massive explosion. This destroyed the lorry completely. Moss in Aus
 
Was standing in doorway in the Titanium plant at I C I when lorry in West Brom blew up.The explosion sounded loud enough from that distance and I thought it was something that had gone off at I C I at first.The story I heard was that the lorry driver realised that some of the carboys on his lorry was smoking and managed to drive it onto some waste ground and "take off"before it exploded.
 
I heard the West Brom lorry explosion although I was nearer in Hamstead. I think there was also an explosion at the ICI which caused slight damage to buildings. I knew someone who worked in the offices and who was affected by it.
 
hope you dont mind me opening this thread back up

wow i remember kingstanding and finchley park i was only 11 when i left in 1976 i lived at 323 kings road which as now been turned into 2 flats

ok the woods at the top of the hill in the park was my first kiss and tell lol
my brother got his head stuck under the roundabout lmao not funny at the time
i used to play on the maypole until i had an elergic reaction to all the rust on it
the swings was the first swing where we swung that high we went over the bar
looking back the things we used to do were really stupid

remember the school holidays we was one of those families who never had much (but what we did have was love for each other and that's all that mattered) we had to go to warren farm school in the holidays for school dinners all six of us .
also in the holidays our mom used to give us a bottle of squash and pack us all of to sutton park great times

if i can find my old school photo's i will post them


damm you got me posting now lol great site love the stories and pictures
 
oldMohawk said:
Hi Moss,
Thinking about technology in the 40's, I can remember having a 'Shocking Machine' - you held the metal handles, adjusted a plunger and saw how big an electric shock you could stand !! - I don't know whether I was the only one who had one - seems a bit daft now I think about it. How did we survive ?
oldmohawk
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Hi okiMohawk.

I've still got a still have one my Dad it thought it was cure for his rheumatisum, it didn't really do any good.

He used to put one handle in a bowel of water and throw a coin in then he'd ask you to hold the other handle after swiching on the coil and ask you to get the coin out (no way did you get it out).

When it gets warmer I;ll get into the loft and find the shocking coil out and take a picture and post it forum.

Dad bought from Humphries the cycle shop on Lichfield Rd. Aston near the Vine Pub.

Ray
 
A photo taken today from my granddaughters bedroom window in Dyas road. I don't know why but I don't appear to post on some threads but can on the practice thread?. Jean.
 
oldMohawk said:
That's a sad story Reg.
With regard to the POW's in Sutton Park, I remember the 'camp fence' was wooden palins about 2ft high - no guards in sight - bit different to Colditz. The 'Jerry' prisoners (as we called them then) looked quite happy to be out of the war. oldmohawk. Can you tell me where! in Sutton Park, was the POW camp. would I be right in Guessing it was by the woods near Banners gate. Reg.
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Hi Reg, The 'camp' was in a field by the path which goes into the park from opposite a pub which used to be called the 'Parson & Clerk'. The bit I remember was near a small group of trees around a concrete bunker used in connection with a firing range. I think there was (or still might be) an up to date photo earlier on the forum.
Phil
 
Thanks OM! I'll have to take a look for that. I always thought it was by Banners Gate, On that flat patch by the first woods .The Parson & Clark is still there, incidently.
 
Hi Reg - I'm only going on my memories from so long ago, they are fading somewhat.
I have posted somewhere in the forum about the kids in Grindleford Rd Beeches Estate suddenly finding 'Germans' at the bottom of our gardens. They were Luftwaffe POW's looking quite happy to be in England. We fraternised with them !!
I'll have a search for the post and I also posted a photo of us kids on the field where they built the camp.

Grindleford Road Kids WW2 Germans on our Play Field

The kids of this road on the Beeches Estate Gt Barr played on a nice field, which even had a babbling brook. A couple of photos show us kids with our bikes we used to race on a dirt track we made on the field. One day a number of German POW's were dumped on 'our' field, in a makeshift camp, they...
birminghamhistory.co.uk birminghamhistory.co.uk
Phil
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I would love to see that Please!! i think the missus would too. I've just had a quick look but couldn't find anything. Reg.
 
oldMohawk said:
Hi Reg - I'm only going on my memories from so long ago, they are fading somewhat.
I have posted somewhere in the forum about the kids in Grindleford Rd Beeches Estate suddenly finding 'Germans' at the bottom of our gardens. They were Luftwaffe POW's looking quite happy to be in England. We fraternised with them !!
I'll have a search for the post and I also posted a photo of us kids on the field where they built the camp.
Phil
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Click to expand...
Great pictures!! OM. Thanks for your memories.
 
]Few pics in and around the old rifle range
Thanks Dave. Much better to look at from the comfort of my chair, especially in this weather. Reg.
 
Dave M said:
Few pics in and around the old rifle range
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Thanks Dave, thats the place - interesting reading on that plaque. I've just been thinking about the POW's there and I think they were Italians glad to be out of it - dont think they jumped the fence to visit the Parson & Clark
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Phil
 
Hi did anybody live near Crayford Road, as my Dad lived there during the second world war he was a kid then, they were a big family called Roberts.
 
Seem to remember aproaching POW camp in Sutton Park via Banners Gate.It was on left just past first area of woods.Had uncle who at that period was foreman with B'ham Roads Dept.He would get working parties of PoWs at times to supervise on various jobs.He also sold on rings broochs etc.for the POWs that they had made out of various materials.Can recall a couple of mates and myself asking a lorry load of POWs, that had stopped in Kings Road for some reason,if thet had enjoyed "Marching on to England"
 
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