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'Little' Boldmere

Lady Penelope

master brummie
I found this photograph at Sutton Library yesterday and it's one I haven't seen before. It's not a very good photo but it was taken from a copy of a postcard in a book. This is the Erdington end of Boldmere Road and the road on the left is Sheffield Road. I would love some help with naming the type of shops that can be seen with the sunshades down. The one on the corner with the beautiful lamp is now The Boldmere Tap (previously the Boldmere Oak). I can remember when the corner shop was a grocers (but also had an alcohol licence) and the shop nearest to the camera was 'The Teatime Shop' (now part of Boldmere Glass). I have a map from 1889 and the shops hadn't been built and I think this image was taken at about 1910 or so but happy to be corrected.

Any help you can offer would be gratefully received and if anyone can improve the quality of the picture it would be wonderful. Many thanks in advance.
 

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Modifying Morturn's version, a little sharper . The shops at the corner are 359,361,363 and 365 Boldmere Road. I have a 1928 Warwickshire Kellys, but virtually all the shops in the road are not numbered in it, though private houses are ! In the 1940 edition 361 was William Arthur Lee , watch repairer; 365 was James William Smith, beer retailer.

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Much later, but by 1966 there were seven butchers shops on Boldmere Road ! Viv.
 

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There may have been a hosier’s shop. Viv.
 

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Thanks Mike, your post solves puzzle as it looks as though the corner shop was originally a pub of some sort. I remember when I lived close by in the 60's and a pub was planned for this space it was said that there was one there originally. Picture great too - you can clearly see the houses on Chester Road. I'm going to try to take a photo of the same view today as long as I don't have to stand in the road! I like the pushchair - quite unusual for this era?

Viv, I think the Butchers referred to are in 'Big' Boldmere which is at the other end - joining Jockey Road. There are still two or three there now. There was however a butchers at the Chester Road end for a long time. I have a photo (somewhere) of animal carcasses hanging up outside - very hygenic! This end of Boldmere is in the 'forgotten triangle' which moves about in records from Erdington (as in pic) to Sutton / Wylde Green and finally Boldmere. It now has an official title of South Boldmere which we come into.

Off topic alert! I've been searching for a thread which you contributed to about the shopping centre now called 'The Lanes' at Wylde Green. I've found a couple of interesting photos in the same book the one above came from but I can't find the thread. I think we were looking for the original Beggars Bush. Any ideas please? Thanks.
 
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I'm not so sure that 365 was a pub. Beer retailer could mean a beerhouse or an off licence. The look of the building does not look like a pub building of that period. I would think it far more likely to be an off licence
 
That's true Mike. I think it was the lamp that made me think it was a pub. Beerhouse is more likely. The information you gave in an earlier post will enable me to try to trace these shops. A great help.
This shopping centre retained it's 'village feel' until the 1970's. It had a post office, butchers, chemist, three or four grocers/general stores, greengrocers, a wood shop and newsagents to name but a few. Originally it had it's own bakers and the bakehouse is still there behind some of shops. No use bemoaning the loss of these shops and I was as guilty as anyone using the supermarkets as they were cheaper rather than supporting the local ones.
 
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Mike, do you have a map from around the time of the photo please? I've got a much later one but I'm also interested in the building almost completely out of the left of the picture. I think this was a terrace but it had impressive railings. This plot is now home to flats and bungalows for older people.
 
The old maps site, where I usually go, is not working oproperly, prersumably because of being overloaded in the lockdown. I do not have any saved, but can give you these two, c1901 and c1914. Presumably BG stands for bowling green

map c 1901 junc,jockey road and boldmere rd.jpgmap c 1914. junc,jockey road and boldmere rd.jpg
 
I found this photograph at Sutton Library yesterday and it's one I haven't seen before. It's not a very good photo but it was taken from a copy of a postcard in a book. This is the Erdington end of Boldmere Road and the road on the left is Sheffield Road. I would love some help with naming the type of shops that can be seen with the sunshades down. The one on the corner with the beautiful lamp is now The Boldmere Tap (previously the Boldmere Oak). I can remember when the corner shop was a grocers (but also had an alcohol licence) and the shop nearest to the camera was 'The Teatime Shop' (now part of Boldmere Glass). I have a map from 1889 and the shops hadn't been built and I think this image was taken at about 1910 or so but happy to be corrected.

Any help you can offer would be gratefully received and if anyone can improve the quality of the picture it would be wonderful. Many thanks in advance.
Lady P
Only just caught up with this, but my route to Green Lanes School was Chester Road, Boldmere Road, Sheffield Road and over the railway bridge which in those days was a lattice pattern. There used to be a theatre in Sheffield Road, called the Little Theatre, but it changed its name I think. Is it still here? Also is Anstey college still in existence on Chester Road? By the way I was tidying a cupboard yesterday and I came across a whole set of papers I had downloaded on Goosemore Lane, although they were more wide ranging than that and mentioned the caves in Gravelly Lane, the Lakehouse & Baldmere. One of the shops was a toy shop and there was also a sweet shop, this would be just after the war.
Bob
 
The old maps site, where I usually go, is not working oproperly, prersumably because of being overloaded in the lockdown. I do not have any saved, but can give you these two, c1901 and c1914. Presumably BG stands for bowling green

View attachment 143816View attachment 143817
Thank you mike but as the bowling club was not formed until 1920 I think that BG stands for burial Ground as I once saw a reference to the bodies being moved to the Oscott college around 1914, If you do come across one from the 1920's it would be much appreciated
 
Lady P
Only just caught up with this, but my route to Green Lanes School was Chester Road, Boldmere Road, Sheffield Road and over the railway bridge which in those days was a lattice pattern. There used to be a theatre in Sheffield Road, called the Little Theatre, but it changed its name I think. Is it still here? Also is Anstey college still in existence on Chester Road? By the way I was tidying a cupboard yesterday and I came across a whole set of papers I had downloaded on Goosemore Lane, although they were more wide ranging than that and mentioned the caves in Gravelly Lane, the Lakehouse & Baldmere. One of the shops was a toy shop and there was also a sweet shop, this would be just after the war.
Bob

Hi Bob, are you referring to the Goosemoor Lane website? If so, I found that really interesting. However, I don't know about the caves in Gravelly Lane only the ones at Gravelly Hill.

Interesting about the toy shop in Little Boldmere - I'll looking into that. Can you remember where it was? When I moved into Boldmere in the summer of '69 (isn't that a song?) anyway, there were several grocery shops, paper shops, a ladies haberdashery, chemist, butchers, Post Office, an ironmongers and greengrocers. For the life of me I can't remember what was on the corner opposite what is now The Tap. Will ask my cousin as she has a better memory than me and grew up in Sheffield Road.

The theatre is now Highbury Little Theatre and we're members. Not that we can go at the moment. It's going great guns and the only problem we have is that the seats came out of an old theatre and are very small. Not really made for people with arthritis!

My old school friend walked part of your route to school as she lived in Goosemoor Lane and went to 'Little Green Lanes'. She well remembers the old wooden bridge but wouldn't have gone there till 1953. Her sister was there from 1951.

Anstey College went long ago and there is a housing association development on the site.
 
I found this photograph at Sutton Library yesterday and it's one I haven't seen before. It's not a very good photo but it was taken from a copy of a postcard in a book. This is the Erdington end of Boldmere Road and the road on the left is Sheffield Road. I would love some help with naming the type of shops that can be seen with the sunshades down. The one on the corner with the beautiful lamp is now The Boldmere Tap (previously the Boldmere Oak). I can remember when the corner shop was a grocers (but also had an alcohol licence) and the shop nearest to the camera was 'The Teatime Shop' (now part of Boldmere Glass). I have a map from 1889 and the shops hadn't been built and I think this image was taken at about 1910 or so but happy to be corrected.

Any help you can offer would be gratefully received and if anyone can improve the quality of the picture it would be wonderful. Many thanks in advance.
I worked for a time in 1961/1962 in the grocers shop at 365 Boldmere Road as a 16 year old after leaving school. Having failed O Level Maths which I needed to get a job in insurance, I took this job whilst I waited to re-take Maths. The manager/owner of the shop was called Basil Hill, a man for whom I developed the greatest respect and we got on very well together. I really enjoyed the work, so much so that he tried to persuade me to choose the grocery trade as a career. He said that he would train me if I took the job on permanently. I agreed, but my dad had other ideas saying that I would be much better off with a career in insurance which he maintained was 'a job for life'. So I reluctantly took my dad's advice and went into insurance after getting my Maths O Level in 1962, but I never forgot Basil and the positive influence he had on my life, albeit for a short time, in the early '60s. Now that I am well in my 70's I am reminiscing more and more about the past and thinking about people whom I have cause to remember for whatever reason. Basil will, by now, have passed away, but I have been trying to trace his family, which has led me to discovering this forum and your messages about 365 Boldmere Road. I have nothing but happy memories of the time I spent working there.
 
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