Recent content by cathrays

L.p. Hi Jim Have just seen your Coronation photos and I recognise almost all of the people on it. I am seated next to Malcolm Davis and Raymond Williams. My brother,John, also appears in the picture (in costume), along with Isobel Morrow. I am sti.ll in regular touch with Isobel ( who...

Hi Gilly, Have just found this forum. I was at Blakenhale Junior in the 50's and remember your Dad well. He was in fact my favourite teacher there. I would not say he was very strict ( for those times.) I seem to remember him saying he had been in the Navy. And didn't he come from Wales. I have...

Jeez! It's my old cobber, Jim Wilkes! Well, I'm blowed. Good to hear from you! I heard you married Eunice from across the road from us.....Younger sister of Thelma. We had a few run-ins with their father, I'm afraid. I live here in Australia, as does my brother, Bob. My other brother, John...

Hi Phil. Who is Mrs Roberts? Do you mean Hilda Roberts - she who was desperate for us rat-bags to lose our Birmingham accents and learn to talk posh? Perish the thought! No, my lady was an opera singer with all the passion and temperament of a diva. She once took me along to a performance of...

Phil: It's my turn to say that I found your post both stimulating and profound. I agree with almost everything in it. Incidentally, I, too, was at the Gaitskill school opening....... I would like to have said that it was the English class system that drove me to Australia. I am afraid it was...

I started School at Bordesley Green Primary. (The headmistress was Miss Thomlinson and my favourite teacher was Miss Mottershaw.) To get there we caught a school bus at the corner of Sheldon Heath Rd and Este Rd. I remember Bordesley Green as a very old, run-down primary school, very dark and...

Thanks Alberta! As we say in Oz, this is like a mad woman's knitting! What has brought all this about? Is it a backlash against the Labour government? Is there an implicit suggestion that the Comprehensive experiment has failed and is to be expunged from the Universe? I wonder what the crux of...

Hi Can someeone explain to me why Sheldon Heath Comp has changed its name so dramatically. I am twelve thousand miles away and it seems quite bizarre, to say nothing of being quite pretentious And the School badge that I remember had a white hart and arrow following the legend of St Giles. This...

Hi Ted I dips my lid to you. That was a rip-roaring description of Dougie French, the lunatic and the sadist. If you are the Ted I think you are, say "hi" to Jill from me. Cheers, Ray

G'day, Oldallens, I was at Sheldon Heath between 1955 and 1962 so our paths may have crossed. I am guessing that I was in the year ahead of you. I have some happy memories of the School.I was a busy person in those days (not like now when all I am looking for is a quiet life!) I was captain of...

Len: Those are two fascinating pictures. I certainly wasn't aware of the existence of the portrait of Dr Bray.Coincidentally a few years ago I bumped into a descendent of Dr Bray.He was a professor of politics at a University here in Australia where I now live. We met, twelve thousand miles...

Thanks Jean I left Franchise St when I was 5. My memories are VERY hazy and I am trying to make sense of what little I can remember. I'm sure my Nan and Mum would remember your people. After all they only lived a few doors away but alas they are both long since gone. I enjoyed your photos. Ray

Hi Ray I have connections to Franchise St going back to at least the 1920's through my Grandmother, Rose Edwards and my parents ( who were Smiths) I was born at no. 46 Franchise St in 1944. I would love to view your picture of the Wellhead. Can you give me a link to it? Sorry, this is off...

Re: Newtons coach co. Jean I was born - and my nan lived - next door to Newtons Coaches at 46 Franchise St. My nan's name was Rose Edwards. What number on Franchise St was your nan's? Ray

Jean I was born in Franchise St. My dim recollection is that a Mrs Gopsall owned the sweetshop in Franchise St. Is that your recollection, Jean? Ray