Recent content by Findwilliam

Sorry. I remember the Windsor on the corner of Bearwood Rd and a road that was at right angles to it. I also remembered (maybe wrongly) Wharton's garage being on a corner. Video was interesting (17/6 for a full service!!). So I might have rusty memory there. But Wharton's garage was definitely...

Surely our greatest historic cricketer: Sydney Barnes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Barnes and, if you like cricket (and peiople who got Bradman out!): Eric Hollies: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Hollies Mike

Wilf O'Reilly: Britains best-ever speed skater? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilf_O'Reilly

I think Ken Wharton had a garage in Bearwood, next door to the Windsor Theatre (later the Ice Rink). Probably the 60s?

When the Windsor Theatre closed, it became an ice rink. I used to go there to skate (more speed skating than Torville and Dean). We were even allowed to go there on sports afternoon -- much better than football or cricket. By the way, a much better speed skater than I ever was was one of...

My grandmother was a member of the Girls Friendly Society when she worked at Baxters: https://www.scholarshome.org.uk/ancestry/gen/smart_GFS.html Does anyone have any information about what they did in those days (1913-1916)? Mike

I found a letter from Baxters to my grandmother, dated 1914. Letterhead gives address, phone, etc: https://www.scholarshome.org.uk/ancestry/gen/baxter_letter_head.html Mike

was built in the 1930s. I have some pictures of it -- including a collectin of ones by my father from 1557 to 1961: https://www.scholarshome.org.uk/FWB/stmarks/index.html one or two earlier, and a few later, too. Mike

Well, I guess we might be related. My Smart background (up to 1900) is at: https://www.scholarshome.org.uk/ancestry/gen/agnes_and_james.html This is the top level. There are more (back to about 1800). You might also like to look at Jared's work...

This was a major employer in the area. I remember it turning out new diesel locos (one a week) in the late 50s and early 1960s -- an exciting thing to me as a trainspotter. I saw a new one every time I went up the 'baggies' (the factory was near Hawthorns Halt, a station used for football...

No. But my grandmother (Agnes Busby, nee Smart) worked for Baxters from about 1911 to the the mid 20s I guess. I have pictures of her at Baxters. She said that the owners were very good to their employees and there was an annual day out (again, I have pictures) where they entertained the...

I worked at Scribbens as a holiday job (in 1963?). Loading lorries in the warehouse. I was about 16 at the time, and got a holiday job every summer, whilst I was tudying to go to Uni. I remember 'throwing' large boxes of cakes down a roller conveyor that we ran into the back of the vans. Someone...

Wasn't the "Beat the Fox" machine also able to play noughts and crosses (called Tic-Tac-Toe) in the rest of the world? I remember the valves and relays in it. I used it as an example of an implementation of a conceptual system (one to play noughts and crosses) using different technologies when I...

Hi, I worked there (during a summer holiday job in 1964 I think). I was at Holly Lodge Grammar school and in the Sixth Form, planning to go to university. I just pitched up at the Smethwick unemployment office at beginning of the summer holidays, and was sent down there. I didn't trell them I...

Re: William Busby (son of Augustine): possible case of bigamy? Yes, suspicious isn't it? Lots of Busbys in Oxfordshire. And lots of people moved from Oxfordshire to Bham, Smethwick and the Black country in the 1950s. But 'my' William (William Busby, my great grandfather who married Harriet)...