Recent content by Bookworm

Kents Moat was the site of one of the medieval Manor houses of the Sheldon Parish. Victor Skipp wrote a very interesting book about the three field system of those times. The Comp bordered this area and was part of our cross country course. There were other manor houses in this area.

It would be a pity not to save archive material from a very important Birmingham school. I was in the first intake and my form teacher and geography teacher was Mr. Briggs. I do not remember Ken Thomas (my brain is quite ancient) but I have posted an attachment which shows he was there from...

Hi John... Yes I remember the flats. Opposite the GPO sports ground. High rise (two storeys). I used to deliver groceries there. When we first lived there the buses stopped at the Swan Yardley. I started my early education at Church Road School... and had to walk there and back. Later at...

Hi John.. I must be a few years older than you (born late 1943). Lived the first 21 years in Brays Road. Our house was number 90, in what we called old Brays Road, before the development down to the Radleys after the war. Went to the Comp. and worked part time as an errand boy for...

Hi Spargone.... The original hut I refer to is the stand alone one you can see in the field. Where that came from I do not know but it was substantially built. I spent most of my time in scouts in that hut. Later a new much larger hut was erected in the fenced compound you can see. My...

Interestingly that is not the later scout hut but the original one. The new one was further down in its own fenced compound. I helped dismantle it on what is now Gilbertstone recreation ground and also with its reconstruction. I had great times in that old hut and we played Wide Games on the...

Hi Michael, I was also in the first intake. I have most of Victor Skips books and am still finding them inspiring. There is much information on the Sheldon Heath Appreciation Society (Facebook). You were obviously one of the top stream (I wasn't) and probably remember Mike Smith who was a...

There were three areas in what was the open field system. Rye-Eddish, Elder and Ridding. These were situated about where Mackadown Road is. Each field had arable, common pasture and meadow (to provide winter hay.) The arable area operated on a rotation of crops and a fallow period to...

Thanks jmadone.... I have that book and played a tiny part in it when helping in the research while at Sheldon Heath Comp. Another book Around Sheldon (images of England) has an image of Gilbertstone House, Lyndon. Built in 1866 for Samuel Thornley. It was on the hill where Herondale and...

I wonder if the 'Baggies' was part of the land owned by the wealthy paint manufacturer from Birmingham who had his mansion near the woods and pool in Brays Road. We played in both places. There was a particularly good tree swing in the Baggies where you climbed up one tree to swing to another...

I have a book that is the records of an air raid warden (by John V Abbott). It has maps showing where bombs fell and shows that four high explosive and three incendiary bombs fell on and around Cranes Park Road. There is no indication that any bombs fell on Parkdale Road. I hope this helps. I...

An ordinance map of the 1930's clearly shows a hospital in Waggon Lane. I remember as a boy seeing (to the right of the park in Waggon Lane) some derelict wooden hut type buildings. I was told this was the old isolation hospital.

Ray... Bored me!? This is the stuff of Dickensian novels (you have seen my sobriquet). I read it to my wife (a retired deputy head) who, while not normally taciturn, was struck dumb! ( whether in awe or envy I do not know). I would like to think it was Mrs Roberts although this is improbable...

This is a most interesting post Ray. The situation both during and after the war was very fluid. Some that had been evacuated remained to live with the families they went to by mutual consent. Others were involved in a shameful government plan that saw children sent to the colonies...

Sheldontony... Lyndon Green School is really in the Gilbertstone area. Lyndon Green is a little further over (but not by much!). The school is almost surrounded by Wychwood Crescent with Wensley Road along the top. I cannot remember when it first opened (I was in the first intake) but it is...