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Dorridge

I used to live on Newbold Close in Bentley Heath. My best friend Peter and I did a lot of train spotting in Dorridge and at the Bentley Heath crossing. I used to take ballroom dancing lessons at the Bentley Heath Community Hall. Anyone know what ever happened to them?
 
Mr Gillooly was a chirpodist, he moved his practise into Manor Road, actually opposite where the Bouchers lived and very near the church. I was in the same class as Janet Gillooly at Dorridge infants and Junior school. And Jimmy Knibb was the demon barber.

Thanks Paul for this collection.
Glad that you used my Dad's shop. He did sixty haircuts per day in his prime. You don't get that service now!
 
Hi just another appeal for a photo of The Vine pub in Dorridge, someone somewhere mustttttt have one , I wonder if the Knowle society have one, does anyone know anyone in the society that could ask. I am convinced that the building that is there today is the original pub building. Helllllpppp
The reason you can’t find anything after the 1911 census is because my grandfather leased The Vine at the start of WW2 so he could move his entire family out of Birmingham and left when the lease ran out in the early 1970s! We are looking to see if we have any photos of it but my mum remembers that parts of the building were rented to various local businesses - Midland Bank, a local sculptor, cattlemen as there was a cattle yard at the back and Restalls (spellings prob wrong) who made dyes, my grandfather also ran an antique shop from it too! Hope this helps!
 
The reason you can’t find anything after the 1911 census is because my grandfather leased The Vine at the start of WW2 so he could move his entire family out of Birmingham and left when the lease ran out in the early 1970s! We are looking to see if we have any photos of it but my mum remembers that parts of the building were rented to various local businesses - Midland Bank, a local sculptor, cattlemen as there was a cattle yard at the back and Restalls (spellings prob wrong) who made dyes, my grandfather also ran an antique shop from it too! Hope this helps!
 

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Wow didn't know this , yes it would be amazing if you had some photos , there aren't many at all in circulation , I don't think ive seen one that's more than 30 years old.
 
Wow didn't know this , yes it would be amazing if you had some photos , there aren't many at all in circulation , I don't think ive seen one that's more than 30 years old.
My mum has seen the photo of Vine House and said that used to be the main building of what had been a coaching inn as it had stables, a hay loft and a number of outbuildings, there were also two greenhouses which housed vines and during WW2 one of the vines produced sweeter grapes and they used to barter them for things they needed! We’re still looking for a photo but can’t find one at present!
 
My grandpa Benjamin Thexton and his brother in law Frank Cock started Cock & Thexton in the 1930s. Uncle Frank and Auntie Cissie lived above the shop and Granny and Grandpa Thexton lived at Farleton, 3 Forest Road, a few minutes’ walk up the hill. It was the first house in Forest Road but still No.3. My mother Margery and her brother Ronald went respectively to the King’s High School, Warwick and Solihull School. Margery met Eric Fiddian at Birmingham City Council House and after the war lived in Dorridge, in Temple Road, which was unmade up then with no houses after the Whelocks’ until Avenue Road. We went to school in Solihull.

Cock & Thexton had a bakery (buzzing with terrifying wasps!) across the back yard where cousin Billy would take me when I was little to get a warm Chelsea bun, which I would eat walking up the hill to Forest Road with Grandpa. The Cock Robin Cafe and the sweet shop were added and followed by the off licence. I worked in the sweet shop in summer 1962 before going up to university. The box of chocolate buttons by the till were a constant temptation.

In those days almost everything was delivered, not only groceries but meat, fish and vegetables. Mr Lander the Milkman used to let me ride on the horse sometimes. It was a patient beast and stoically bore this over-excited cowgirl on its back as it plodded along Temple Road on Saturday morning.

My brothers were born at 7 Temple Road and, like me, christened at St Philip’s Church.

Our biggest thrill - leaning over Grove’s Bridge to see the steam trains thundering through between London and Birmingham. Then Mummy de-smutting us with spit and a hanky as we all got black faces from the smoke!
 
The reason you can’t find anything after the 1911 census is because my grandfather leased The Vine at the start of WW2 so he could move his entire family out of Birmingham and left when the lease ran out in the early 1970s! We are looking to see if we have any photos of it but my mum remembers that parts of the building were rented to various local businesses - Midland Bank, a local sculptor, cattlemen as there was a cattle yard at the back and Restalls (spellings prob wrong) who made dyes, my grandfather also ran an antique shop from it too! Hope this helps!
Hi Karen did you manage tp find any pics please ...tia
 
I used to live on Newbold Close in Bentley Heath. My best friend Peter and I did a lot of train spotting in Dorridge and at the Bentley Heath crossing. I used to take ballroom dancing lessons at the Bentley Heath Community Hall. Anyone know what ever happened to them?
Bit late finding this but my sister and I took dancing lessons at the community hall early 60s.Our house still there Bentley farm Close No 2.
 
My mum has seen the photo of Vine House and said that used to be the main building of what had been a coaching inn as it had stables, a hay loft and a number of outbuildings, there were also two greenhouses which housed vines and during WW2 one of the vines produced sweeter grapes and they used to barter them for things they needed! We’re still looking for a photo but can’t find one at present!
Hi did you ever have any luck
 
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