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Furnace Lane Lozells.

P

PhilFurnacelane

proper brummie kid
I came across this society whilst having a few spare minutes.
To my amazement, there were pictures of Furnace Lane where I was brought up.
No 3 until about 7 years of age and N0 13 until I was 18 and the house was demolished.
What childhood memories came flooding back. I do not care that we had to drag the tin bath in front of the fire or that the toilet was outside and it froze every winter.
Yes, my mother did sent me up to Crabtree's to get Danish salt butter cut of an enormous block and down to Jackson's the vegetable shop to get the potatoes
They are still good childhood memories.
 
Welcome to the Forum and thank you for sharing your memories with us...
 
welcome from me too phil totally agree with you about the old days...we may not have had much but it did us no harm...if you are talking about crabtrees that was on the corner of gerrard st and wheeler st there is a photo of the shop on the forum...keep the memories coming as its what keeps this great forum afloat:) ps also use the search box top right of the page you will surprised what you may find...click on the thread below it will take you to some amazing photos of the area including crabtrees shop.
.
https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/for...ls-and-witton-pic-reposted.38980/#post-435678


lyn
 
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Hi Lyn
We definitely did not have much and as you say we came to on harm as we grew up.
Thank you for directing me to the picture of Crabtrees shop.
It is amazing when you think that there was a pub on almost every corner in that area and a shop on almost every corner, but then cars were a luxury and most people worked within walking distance or a short bus ride and every shop you could want was either in Wheeler street, Lozells road or Newtown Row.
I was fortunate enough to go to William Cowper Street school and my mother also went there.
My mother cleaned offices at night at William Lucas and my father work at a company called Benton and Stone in Aston Brook street. We never went hungry, though some of our clothes and shoes did come from second hand shops.
Auster times. I think that some people of the younger generations would not believe the times we grew up in.
 
same here phil...we did not go without the main things of life..although decent clothes were often swapped around our street especially baby clothes and blankets...i have not heard of william lucas so do you mean the joseph lucas factory in great king st??...i think most of the population of that area worked there at some point including our dad..my auntie was there for over 40 years..summer lane was the best for pubs on every corner..during the 1960s there was no less than 15 pubs on the lane....see the summer lane pubs thread we have photos of them all:)

lyn
 
Yes welcome Phil. Lyn & I both lived in Paddington St. Furnace Lane was a well entrenched part of life in that area. They were known as the Gulley's and referred to as 1st, second or third. The first being the lower one that backed on to Alma St school. Apart from being the local lovers lane, it was a short cut and a great place to hide out. I don't remember any homes on the first, but do recall some on the second on top of the hill. The third had homes, in fact, I had a school friend that lived there, but I don't remember his name. BTW, is William Cowper School, the old Cowper St School?
Dave A
 
Astoness said:
same here phil...we did not go without the main things of life..although decent clothes were often swapped around our street especially baby clothes and blankets...i have not heard of william lucas so do you mean the joseph lucas factory in great king st??...i think most of the population of that area worked there at some point including our dad..my auntie was there for over 40 years..summer lane was the best for pubs on every corner..during the 1960s there was no less than 15 pubs on the lane....see the summer lane pubs thread we have photos of them all:)

lyn
Click to expand...

Hi Lyn



Yes. You are correct Joseph Lucas and it did employ a lot of local people.

I remember one day seeing all the employees leaving the factory at the finish of the day and spilling out on to the roads and some racing across to all the double decker buses lined up in row to take them to various locations throughout the city.

Talking of Summer Lane, my mother gave me an old book many years ago called 'The Summer Lane and Newtown of the years between the wars 1918 - 1938' The author was Pauline and Bernard Mannion and it was published in 1985.

Are you familiar with the publication ?
 
phil i am sure there is a photo of all the workers coming out of the lucas factory somewhere on the forum..will try and find it..yes i have heard of that book and would love get a copy but i dont think its in print now:(

lyn
 
adap2it said:
Yes welcome Phil. Lyn & I both lived in Paddington St. Furnace Lane was a well entrenched part of life in that area. They were known as the Gulley's and referred to as 1st, second or third. The first being the lower one that backed on to Alma St school. Apart from being the local lovers lane, it was a short cut and a great place to hide out. I don't remember any homes on the first, but do recall some on the second on top of the hill. The third had homes, in fact, I had a school friend that lived there, but I don't remember his name. BTW, is William Cowper School, the old Cowper St School?
Dave A
Click to expand...

Hi Dave
I remember Paddington Street, it was at the bottom of the 3rd lane of the 3 lanes as you rightly say, backed on the Alma Street school. I lived in the middle lane in one of the houses on top of the hill and we used to make go carts out old prams held together with nails bent over and race them down the hill toward Clifford street.
I did it one day on a neighbours push scooter and did not make it to the bottom and I still have the scars on my forehead.
Yes, it was Cowper Street school, with a stern but fair headmaster Mr Powell.
 
Astoness said:
phil i am sure there is a photo of all the workers coming out of the lucas factory somewhere on the forum..will try and find it..yes i have heard of that book and would love get a copy but i dont think its in print now:(

lyn
Click to expand...

Hi Lyn
Judging by the presentation of it, it looks like the authors wrote and commissioned it themselves.
It is very cheap paper, printing and photos, bound with sticky tape, in fact, they may have done it all themselves.
Definately out of production.
It should be scanned and put on the forum site for others to read ?
 
phil i think the mannions have produced at least one other book...we have no objection to you scanning the book for the forum:)

lyn
 
Astoness said:
phil i think the mannions have produced at least one other book...we have no objection to you scanning the book for the forum:)

lyn
Click to expand...

Hi Lyn
The book runs to 147 double sided pages. That would take a lot of scanning and it would be a big file. Could a file of that size be uploaded?

Phil
 
oh crikey phil that is a lot of pages its a very tall order...not being technical as such i cant answer that question..maybe one of our other members may be able to help

lyn
 
PhilFurnacelane said:
Hi Dave
I remember Paddington Street, it was at the bottom of the 3rd lane of the 3 lanes as you rightly say, backed on the Alma Street school. I lived in the middle lane in one of the houses on top of the hill and we used to make go carts out old prams held together with nails bent over and race them down the hill toward Clifford street.
I did it one day on a neighbours push scooter and did not make it to the bottom and I still have the scars on my forehead.
Yes, it was Cowper Street school, with a stern but fair headmaster Mr Powell.
Click to expand...
You mean the "4 wheeler plank"? My dad had tools through his work and my plank would be a bit better "engineered",didn't have to hammer dozen of nails to secure the old pram axle to the wooden parts, they were bolted on. If you lived at the top of the hill on the 2nd gulley, your parents may have been victim to the Paddo boys quest for wood for bonfire night. I have to confess that I was part of a gang that stole a green wooden fence and gate from one of the gardens in that vicinity, it really did make good kindling...Mr Powell was a great headmaster. I was gifted with being able to draw and paint pictures and he gave us much encouragement to pursue a career in the world of art. Unfortunately, it didn't work out. What years were you at Cowper St?
Dave A
 
adap2it said:
You mean the "4 wheeler plank"? My dad had tools through his work and my plank would be a bit better "engineered",didn't have to hammer dozen of nails to secure the old pram axle to the wooden parts, they were bolted on. If you lived at the top of the hill on the 2nd gulley, your parents may have been victim to the Paddo boys quest for wood for bonfire night. I have to confess that I was part of a gang that stole a green wooden fence and gate from one of the gardens in that vicinity, it really did make good kindling...Mr Powell was a great headmaster. I was gifted with being able to draw and paint pictures and he gave us much encouragement to pursue a career in the world of art. Unfortunately, it didn't work out. What years were you at Cowper St?
Dave A
Click to expand...

Hi Dave

I was there from about 1955 at the nursery, though to the juniors and left about 1961.
My teachers that I remember were Mr Jones and Mrs Chandler in my final year
 
PhilFurnacelane said:
Hi Dave

I was there from about 1955 at the nursery, though to the juniors and left about 1961.
My teachers that I remember were Mr Jones and Mrs Chandler in my final year
Click to expand...
You must be about 10 years younger than me, as I left Cowper St 1951. However, Mr Jones and Mrs Chandler were there. FYI, Mrs Chandler used to be Miss Hammond until she got married.
Dave A
 
Hi Dave
Yes, it would appear that I am younger than you. I am now 66.
You were a true 'War time' baby and I was a true 'Post war' baby.

Phil
 
Hi to you both

And on top of being 'War Babies' and 'Baby Boomers', according to the media, we must be survivors, given the food that we ate when we were little, Lard on bread with salt, evaporated milk on bread, I even had sugar sprinkled on a buttered slice of bread, dripping on bread. All our food fried in lard.
We are still here.

Phil
 
good post phil and dont forget we didnt have sell by dates back then and not many people had fridges either

lyn
 
PhilFurnacelane said:
Hi to you both

And on top of being 'War Babies' and 'Baby Boomers', according to the media, we must be survivors, given the food that we ate when we were little, Lard on bread with salt, evaporated milk on bread, I even had sugar sprinkled on a buttered slice of bread, dripping on bread. All our food fried in lard.
We are still here.

Phil
Click to expand...
Can you imagine going into a restaurant and ordering any of those "delights", not that they would be on the menu...we also got lots of exercise and most people were slim because of that. A lot of luck involved in longevity, TB was the biggest threat at that time, because of our "fresh" air.
Dave A
 
Lyn

Would you could you eat it now ?
Dave/Lyn
When you look at the cheap cuts that we ate then, pigs feet, ox tail, ox cheek, now the restaurants charge the earth for these cuts. I remember when we ate ox tongue because we could not afford boiled ham and how ox tongue is more expensive than ham ?
The one food I cannot eat, childhood did it to me . Brawn.
Are there any foods you two would not eat now because of eating them in childhood ?

Phil
 
phil i cant say as there is anything i ate back then that i would not eat today....there is one thing though and its not really food...COD LIVER OIL AND MALT..came in big brown jars and our mom used to shovel it down us every day especially during the winter..i can still taste it now...yuk it was awful stuff

lyn
 
Hi Lyn
I do remember that. You are correct,it was awful and my mother also gave it to me, thankfully just for a short while and I have never tried it since.

Mikejee.
Yes. They were brilliant. I am fortunate to live in Halesowen and we still have a few 'Lardy' chip shops.
They taste wonderful when you eat them, it is when you wake up in the middle of the night and feel like you are sucking on a bar of lard.
Still worth it for the taste.

Phil
 
phil you are lucky to have a lardy chippy by you...have to say the best fish and chips i have tasted are at the black country museum...cooked in dripping and how they get the batter as they do is a mystery to me..:)

lyn
 
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