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Hobbies 2015 - 2019

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Readers might be interested in a thread here. Most of us remember our first visits to libraries.

Libraries : My First Visit To A Library.

Reading on the forum about the city centre libraries reminds me of when I first joined the Perry Common Library as a young child probably just after the end of WW2. I remember it was somewhat forbidding inside with polished wooden floors, the musty smell of books, rather severe looking...
birminghamhistory.co.uk birminghamhistory.co.uk
 
I remember as a young(ish) child during the 40's going to Aston Cross library, the rather stern librarian would not you peruse the shelves, she would ask what subject interested you and bring out a few books for you to pick one, glaring at you whilst you decided - not very encouraging for young readers. Eric
 
cookie273uk said:
I remember as a young(ish) child during the 40's going to Aston Cross library, the rather stern librarian would not you peruse the shelves, she would ask what subject interested you and bring out a few books for you to pick one, glaring at you whilst you decided - not very encouraging for young readers. Eric
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I guess she believed in the adage 'children should be seen and not heard'.
 
A lot of shops were like that, even after rationing ended. Mind you, if that still occurred there would be a lot less casual buys and we would probably save a fortune
 
jmadone said:
I discovered the joy of reading at Mapledene junior school. There was a very well stocked library there and we were allowed to borrow one book at a time. Imagine my delight when the treasures of Horrel Road public library were opened to me. You could borrow up to 3 books at a time. There I came across Biggles, the Famous Five, the Secret Seven and endless other literary heroes and heroines. My love for books has never diminished and I will read books covering so many differing subjects and genres. My current reading is by Micheal Palin entitled the Python Years a diary of his years with the legendary series. I picked it up at the X ray dept. at my local hospital for just 50p.
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The Sheldon library was a favourite of mine too, most saturdays I was down there and reading Enid Blyton books and looking for my next books to borrow. I loved Enid Blyton, The wishing Chair , The famous Five and The Faraway tree they took you to another world as a child. I still love reading, my friends and I buy a lot of books from op shops andd then do a swap , reading gets a little expensive when you read a lot haha.
 
I saw this pic of a tram on Moseley Road by the Imperial Cinema and decided to add colour.
BWNo42.jpg

The pic with colour and a new sky added. Some information about the scene below the pic.
textNo_42.jpg

The film 'Whispering Smith' was released on 6th Dec 1948 and the No 42 tram service closed in 1949 so dating the pic to sometime in 1949.

The Horrell & Bowman frontage looks quite modern for that time but gives little indication of what they did. Someone worked at the company in 1950 as a firegrate fixer. On 24th Sept 1965 the London Gazette reported that Horrell & Bowman Ltd, Builders Merchants, were liquidated.

Lots of youngsters on the tram and one lad wants a closer look at the driver. A girl on the open balcony points at something across the road.

An aerial view dated 1938 shows the Imperial Cinema and the stepped frontage of the Horrell & Bowman building next door. A tram is passing the cinema.
ImperialCinema1938.jpg

The Imperial Cinema closed as a regular cinema in 1963 but independents took over showing Indian ‘Bollywood’ films until 3rd March 1983. 'The Cave Arts Centre' used the building from 1985 until 1994. It stood empty for 10 years and was finally demolished in 2005. The cinema site now appears to be a fenced car park and the 1950s Horrell & Bowman frontage on the building next door was probably removed long ago.
MoseleyRd2019.jpg
 
oldMohawk said:
I saw this pic of a tram on Moseley Road by the Imperial Cinema and decided to add colour.
View attachment 137694

The pic with colour and a new sky added. Some information about the scene below the pic.
View attachment 137695

The film 'Whispering Smith' was released on 6th Dec 1948 and the No 42 tram service closed in 1949 so dating the pic to sometime in 1949.

The Horrell & Bowman frontage looks quite modern for that time but gives little indication of what they did. Someone worked at the company in 1950 as a firegrate fixer. On 24th Sept 1965 the London Gazette reported that Horrell & Bowman Ltd, Builders Merchants, were liquidated.

Lots of youngsters on the tram and one lad wants a closer look at the driver. A girl on the open balcony points at something across the road.

An aerial view dated 1938 shows the Imperial Cinema and the stepped frontage of the Horrell & Bowman building next door. A tram is passing the cinema.
View attachment 137696

The Imperial Cinema closed as a regular cinema in 1963 but independents took over showing Indian ‘Bollywood’ films until 3rd March 1983. 'The Cave Arts Centre' used the building from 1985 until 1994. It stood empty for 10 years and was finally demolished in 2005. The cinema site now appears to be a fenced car park and the 1950s Horrell & Bowman frontage on the building next door was probably removed long ago.
View attachment 137697
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oldMohawk………..great work! What program did you use to add color?
 
Richarddye said:
oldMohawk………..great work! What program did you use to add color?
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I use a free open source app named Gimp. Use Google Search to find it. Gimp is a big download but easily installed and uninstalled if not wanted. It has a big learning curve and needs perseverance. I put some text in the top right of the pic so anyone can see it is a digitally manipulated pic. Experts manipulate pics using the 'paid-for' Photoshop app.
I had trouble with the collapsible gate in the cinema entrance ... :)
 
Have any of the book readers here tried the works of Francis Brett Young? Several of them supposedly work in references to Birmingham as 'North Bromwich'. White Ladies, I think, alludes to Ansell's brewery. Jim Redlake is perhaps more centred on Leicestershire but also covers part of the East Africa campaign in WW1, something covered in more detail in Marching to Tanga.
The author served as a medical officer during that campaign. This interested me as my grandfather also served there until he contracted malaria, resulting in him being sent back to the UK and finishing the war with an anti-aircraft unit.
I find the author's style a bit too descriptive for my taste,( I'm not too bothered about the colour of someone's eyes), but when describing East Africa it painted a very useful picture for me when trying to flesh-out grandad's history.
East Africa might not have been a 'killing field' in the same way as The Somme but disease took a very heavy toll on humans and animals, some regiments suffering more than 90% incapacitation.
 
oldMohawk said:
I use a free open source app named Gimp. Use Google Search to find it. Gimp is a big download but easily installed and uninstalled if not wanted. It has a big learning curve and needs perseverance. I put some text in the top right of the pic so anyone can see it is a digitally manipulated pic. Experts manipulate pics using the 'paid-for' Photoshop app.
I had trouble with the collapsible gate in the cinema entrance ... :)
Click to expand...
Thank you for that info, particularly about the learning curve -( Will keep you posted!
 
Spargone said:
Have any of the book readers here tried the works of Francis Brett Young? Several of them supposedly work in references to Birmingham as 'North Bromwich'. White Ladies, I think, alludes to Ansell's brewery. Jim Redlake is perhaps more centred on Leicestershire but also covers part of the East Africa campaign in WW1, something covered in more detail in Marching to Tanga.
The author served as a medical officer during that campaign. This interested me as my grandfather also served there until he contracted malaria, resulting in him being sent back to the UK and finishing the war with an anti-aircraft unit.
I find the author's style a bit too descriptive for my taste,( I'm not too bothered about the colour of someone's eyes), but when describing East Africa it painted a very useful picture for me when trying to flesh-out grandad's history.
East Africa might not have been a 'killing field' in the same way as The Somme but disease took a very heavy toll on humans and animals, some regiments suffering more than 90% incapacitation.
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There a a few blue plaques to Brett-Young. One is in Sutton Coldfield and one in Brixham, Devon. Both are sited on Catholic presbyteries.
 
Richarddye said:
Thank you for that info, particularly about the learning curve -( Will keep you posted!
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It is a steep learning curve. I've just found the first pic I had a go with on the BHF ... five years ago !!
It is in an experimental thread set up after the BHF was seriously hacked in 2011.
oldMohawk said:
Seeing a forum member recently changing a black and white pic to colour, I wondered if I could do it - good exercise for my old grey cells !
The 1950s world I lived in was not black and white. So using a freebie open source program called GIMP I had a go.
Dads1stCar.jpg

Dad1stCars.jpg

Here are pics of my dad's first car in front of our house. I remember that the next door neighbour's privet hedge was a lighter green than ours, and her curtains were cream coloured. The houses were very uniform with blocks alternating between green and brown. The housing trust would not allow any deviations. Weeds are difficult to colour in !
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cookie273uk said:
With the large Forum membership we have, surely the must be other members who paint like me. It would be nice to see some of their work on the Forum. Hoping. Eric
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Well not quite like you Eric but I have done a fair bit of painting, here's an example. found in a dire state in a pub car park, scruffy white when I found it.
 

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Eric Gibson said:
Well not quite like you Eric but I have done a fair bit of painting, here's an example. found in a dire state in a pub car park, scruffy white when I found it.
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Well let's give it the bus treatment

Jaguar XJ6C built from 1975 to 1977 some say 1974 was the start date
The car was built in the Jaguar factory located at Browns Lane Coventry
The car also came in a V12 version that had fuel injection by Lucas but a lot of those parts were in fact Bosch

As a side note the same fuel injection system was on the XJS the replacement car for the V12 E Type.

The model never sold well the doors were heavy to close, but the major complaint was wind noise at motorway speed, all cars came with a vinyl roof and some owners chose to remove it.

The 6 cylinder car was a 4.2 litre with a Borg Warner model 65 transmission and never came as a manual.

At the time Jaguar did offer 3.4 engine in a series 2 XJ along with the 12 cylinder engine

The cars came with chrome pressed steel wheels as this car was considered a "top of the line" not all Jaguars came with CPSWs and was a option just like a radio.

The most common radio installed was a Motorola 108 Sr a am/fm 8 track combination.

I forget the price but I do recall the reg number of a car that was one of the first in Brum "RL 80" a white 12 cylinder car.

Back then if a customer was happy with their car the same guys got to be the go-to for the same cars, I recall a V12E Type that was a go-to car for me "1 AJN"

Just a little tittle my uncle Clive my pops brother worked for Jaguar all his life from the time he finished his national service till he retired, he was in charge of all interiors.
 
And still on the road I'm told. :)

The car in the background is a Vanden Plas 1300 Princess which was being reconstructed under the rear to stop the subframe falling out.
 
oldMohawk said:
I use a free open source app named Gimp. Use Google Search to find it. Gimp is a big download but easily installed and uninstalled if not wanted. It has a big learning curve and needs perseverance. I put some text in the top right of the pic so anyone can see it is a digitally manipulated pic. Experts manipulate pics using the 'paid-for' Photoshop app.
I had trouble with the collapsible gate in the cinema entrance ... :)
Click to expand...
From memory the gate was black. How the hell would I member that ?
 
I seem to remember seeing this before, where it was stated that they were watching the site where the theatre royal was before demolition. My memory may be wrong though
 
Eric Gibson said:
And still on the road I'm told. :)

The car in the background is a Vanden Plas 1300 Princess which was being reconstructed under the rear to stop the subframe falling out.
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That would be the replacement of the "heel board" a all to common problem on 1100 and 1300 style car and a real miserable job
 
oldMohawk said:
In New Street sometime in 1957 this group gathered and looked at something. Everyone looks slightly gloomy, the kids look bored, so I decided to add some colour.
View attachment 137783

They were behind a wire fence which made things a bit difficult difficult.
View attachment 137784

And today ....
View attachment 137785
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Lovely treatment, the two girls look great in matching color.
The plants on the building add some needed color to the front, look at the now pic
The building has stood the test of time looks good.
Look at the store in the lower left in the recent pic, something's are meant to be I guess.
 
Robert Ensor (bob) said:
Lovely treatment, the two girls look great in matching color.
The plants on the building add some needed color to the front, look at the now pic
The building has stood the test of time looks good.
Look at the store in the lower left in the recent pic, something's are meant to be I guess.
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Young children back in the 1940s/1950s were often dressed quite formally compared to present times. Look at the three young children in the bus queue in the post below.

They Were Caught In Our Old Street Pics...

When I first looked at this photo, I thought is it a pic of a special No 8 Inner Circle bus, or about window cleaner's carts parked by bus stops, or is there someone famous in that bus queue ? The footpath looks rather narrow for a bus queue, the youngster by the bus stop doesn't look too happy...
birminghamhistory.co.uk birminghamhistory.co.uk
 
Someone noticed this pic in post#988 of the Then & Now thread had a bent lamp post but it could be straightened.
index.php

Using Cage transform in the Gimp photo editor I've straightened it (nearly) still slightly bent in the middle .... :)
With more time I could get it straight. Parts of a pic can be moved without significantly affecting other parts.
strGreat Barr Newton Road- Hamstead Road.jpg
 
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