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Sheldon Bombing

Hi Brian,

My uncle - Arthur Stevens - was caretaker of Silvermere Road School at the time. My Aunt Elsie ,his wife, was my mothers sister. We were in a public shelter on Coventry Road at Barrows Lane during the raid when someone came in and said there was a big fire and it looked as though it was the school. My mother immediately became frantic but fortunately we ascertained after the raid that they and their daughter were OK.

Old Boy
 
Old Boy said:
Hi Brian,

My uncle - Arthur Stevens - was caretaker of Silvermere Road School at the time. My Aunt Elsie ,his wife, was my mothers sister. We were in a public shelter on Coventry Road at Barrows Lane during the raid when someone came in and said there was a big fire and it looked as though it was the school. My mother immediately became frantic but fortunately we ascertained after the raid that they and their daughter were OK.

Old Boy
Click to expand...

I do seem to recall a Mr Stevens being the caretaker when I was at Silvermere Road school from 1955. Such a shame that Silvermere School is now demolished. Regards Ian Leggett.
 
Hello Brian, An interesting reply as I had not fully realised the school had been damaged in the bombing. From what my father told me as an ARP and First Aid man was that the plane was being chased and it off loaded the bombs anywhere to gain speed. I was not referring to the flat roof houses but to the bungalows that back onto King George V Playing Fields. All the roads ended in "dale". I have a Silver Echoes school magazine here which I was involved in printing during my later years of 1957/8. I am not on Facebook but if there is another way to see pictures that would be great. friend sent me photos of the school as it was being demolished about a year ago. Regards Ian.
 
Many thanks for pictures. Brings back some memories.I met my girlfriend there and we will have been married for 49 years this year. Regards Ian.
 
Silvermere Road was not surfaced then, just a footpath and kerbstones, the road was just stone hardcore. The houses on Berryfield Road only reached to Silvermere, otherwise just the rough road, Mapledene was just a rough road. All of the Cranes Park Estate was completed before the beginning of the war. Cranes Park Road was surfaced right to the end by the shops,where it joins Whitecroft Road which was also surfaced but not Mapledene.
The other side of the road from the school were fields for the whole length of Silvermere Road, where they grew corn.
Hope this helps!
 
I remember Miss Onions (she looked so old and wrinkled when I was there (1955-8)and the Headmaster was Mr Barlow. Do you recall Mr Gregory as a teacher for the later classes (4th year). I had a Mr Knight who was a superb teacher. There was a Mr Bruce? who was a PE teacher but sadistic chasing us around the grass area by the gym and if he was faster then a plimsole across the backside was the result. And woe betide anyone who forgot their gym shorts. Penalty? Gym in the nude.
Great pictures. The Arden Oak terminus! My paper round was along Arden Oak and Olorenshaw roads. The paper shop was just round the corner on Coventry Road. That was 1956/7. In later years, 1964/5 I was a manager at Wrensons grocers at the Arden Oak branch. I remember street party like the one shown, in Parkdale Road as I was dressed in a uniform to resemble a soldier in the Lifeguards (silver being armour) with a sword and black wellington boots. Ivydale Avenue was where we used our trolleys (go carts) which we had made from old prams and wood. We would go to the top of the road next to Sheldon Public House and get our speed up, crossing Cranes Park Road (with a look out in case a car came) and down Ivydale and turn at the bottom.Dangerous manouvre but fun.
Love to see any more photos. I did not have a camera so very little is on record although i do have a photo of Parkdale Road VE Day.
Looking at the stage in Silvermere Road school, that is where I recorded and played back the morning service in assembly which we had taped from BBC Third programme. Regards Ian.
 
Hi Ian, Mr Barlow was the Head all through the war, his office was one of the few remaining rooms on the first floor, he used to let me help him construct beehives in the lunch break, which he placed out on the temporary roof for honey. I think I can remember Mr Gregory, Miss Onions of course but no one else, I have a poor memory for names. I'll post a couple of pictures of the boundary, I delivered papers from there in the mornings on Tigers Island, what was the name of the proprietor? I've told Cathy Pearson about your VE Day picture, she lived at 111 after being bombed out of 77, she says she remembers being at the party and would love to see the picture. . Best wishes, BrianArden Oak Road, 1951.jpgTerminus 1967.jpg
 
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Hi Brian, Where was Tigers Island? Sorry but cannot remember the paper shop proprietor. I lived at 48 Parkdale Road from 1943 to 1965 (my parents bought the house new in 1939). I will search out the photo.I remember the trolley buses well as the 58 service. We walked from the Wheatsheaf to Parkdale Road for some years until the 60 service was added with the diesel buses. I have a great picture on my living room wall of the Bull Ring in 1949 with the buses driving over cobbles. Regards Ian.

Hi Nick, Will also find the photo for you. Not sure how to put it on the forum yet.Regards Ian.
 
I lived at 37 Goldthorne Avenue as a child 1935 to 1939 (aged 5 to 9) and we used to play on Tigers Island ( not so much traffic then)it was on the Birmingham boundary on the Coventry Road near the old Eldom Airport where the trolley buses turned around, I remember lots of weeping willows there. My father worked for Bryants and we lived there while they built Eldom airport, we moved to Shirley in 1939 Eric
 
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So Tigers Island was at the Boundary then. Must admit I never knew that. So does anyone know why it was called that?.
We used that roadway a lot as we walked to Elmdon Vale to go along the hills and ride our trolleys down the hillside. In the winter it was a great place for the sledges. With Elmdon airport we would walk up the stairs in the terminal and watch the planes as they unloaded. Usually Don Everall Rapide, Aer Lingus Dakota and later BEA Viscount. My father set up a St John Ambulance Air Ambulance from Elmdon in 1949 (the first in the UK) using the Rapide. I remember the Kings Cup Air Race at Elmdon, and at some stage a Hawker Hunter jet overshot the runway landing in the field near the A45. Regards Ian.
Cranes Park;; Joe Hodrien (Greengrocer). Woodfields (Sweet shop).Moyle & Adams (Grocers). A wool shop, butchers, chemists, shoe repairers
 
I might be wrong but I always believed Tigers Island was where the Coventry Road split. There was a petrol station at both ends and The Wagon and Horses public house.
When I worked for GPO telephones around 1966 I was based at Lyndon repeater which was on the left hand side of the island when travelling towards city centre. This was a large mainly underground building used for communications and designed to be used in the even of nuclear war.
 
That certainly does start to bring back a memory recall. That was a large island and always wondered why it was split in that way. Also the 58c bus terminus and late night service. Regards Ian.
 
Just found this.

Tigar (sic) Island first appears in the 1891 Census as the home of the Burgess family; Thomas Burgess was employed as a gamekeeper, presumably at nearby Elmdon Hall. (My thanks to Les Homer for pointing this out. He can remember a cottage of that name on the site of the new office development, Eagle Court.)
 
Hi everyone. This is my first post on here. I'm finding all of the pictures and stories on this and other Sheldon threads very interesting and fascinating. I was born in Sheldon in 1981 and lived in Newark Croft (just off Carnford Road) until 2001. When my wife and i got married, we moved to Mardon Road (just round the corner from the Ivydale bombings) until 2008 where we moved to Catherine-de-Barnes in Solihull. I'm always on the look out for old photo's and stories of the history of Sheldon. Although i don't live in Sheldon anymore, i always call it home and have some great memories. My dad still lives in Newark Croft who i still visit every week. I think our house on Mardon Road was built in the 30's, probably around the same time as the houses on Parkdale, Ivydale, Silvermere, etc. It's amazing how much Sheldon has changed, and continues to change going by some of the old pictures other members have put up. I particularly like the pictures of the corner of Arden Oak Road/Coventry Road, where our favourite curry house Shabar now stands.
 
Hello Everyone, The Coventry Road was made into dual carriageway from the bottom of Wagon Hill presumably to relieve the traffic on the Hill probably when the bus's were introduced before the war. The new road on the left going to town was called New Coventry Road, I've attached some pictures. This is not Tigers Island!
Good to know the origin of the name Tigers Island.
It seems everyone would like more pictures and I would suggest that you go on "facebook" and go to "East Birmingham Past & Present" page there are literally hundreds of very interesting photographs from way back to the present day and some very serious researchers. I have been amazed and have downloaded about 600! Good luck and Best wishes.Waggon Hill.jpgWaggon Hill 2.jpgElmdon 2.jpgTivoli, Yardley.jpgThree Horse Shoes, Sheldon.jpg
 
Have we yet ascertained where Tigers/Tigah Island is, I still believe it was where I played as a child on the Coventry Road boundary towards the newly built airport. This was 1935 /39 over 75 years ago and I was only aged 5 to 9 (am 83 now) so memories are a bit vague, but I do remember trolley buses turning (must have been the terminus) and I certainly remember swinging on the fronds of weeping willow trees. Eric
 
When I was cycling we use to go on club runs meet in Sheldon and on the way back race for the speed limit sign at Tiger island. lots of fun! John Crump OldBrit. Parker, Co USA
 
Tigers Island.jpgCoventry Road Sheldon looking from the boundary towards Elmdon. The houses on the right are on the Tigers Island Estate.
 
Tiger's Island Cottage......was on A45... and was located opposite Estate in recent photo ..... the footpath alongside Airport boundary marks the cottage garden, one concrete fence post remains ..... the cottage was located on the current car park ... a small bungalow was adjacent ....last cottage resident, a keen gardener ... was a retired gent, with a pronounced limp ...... Hope this helps.
 
Finally, a Mr Ingram of Hall
Green has yet another suggestion
for the origin of
Tiger’s Island :

“I was told many years
ago that the island used to
carry a very large advertisement
for Esso petrol, which
had a tiger on it. Remember
the ‘tiger in your tank’?”
 
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