Hiya,
Thank you. Turns out to be W H Doherty as mentioned on a previous post. There is a one liner on the W H Doherty website confirming the firm moved to Maypole Lane in 1953. There is also a mention on the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust website. They hold plans by an architect, Robert Harvey, of proposed alterations to the factory in Maypole Lane 1965-68. The company was started by Bert Doherty, The secretary of the company is Heide Doherty born 1944. So this suggests that your recollection of a German connection is correct. There is now a W H Doherty at Vulcan Works Boulton Road Solihull. The Doherty Group also have a factory producing electric motor shafts in Hungary.
www.dohertygroup.com
Now that's an interesting photo ! In my memory there were a couple of bungalows built in the field, next to the factory. I couldn't figure out what those blurred areas in the park were, then I remember being told that there were AA guns sited there. The censor must've been active.
Thanks for the interesting information. I used to frequent the area mid- 50s, a couple of my friends lived in Westfield ave. in those days.1934 - 1953 | Doherty Group
History of Doherty Hungary kft and it's beginnings in Birmingham in the UK. This section tells the story from 1934 up to 1953.
Bit more of the history of W H Doherty
Thank you. Turns out to be W H Doherty as mentioned on a previous post. There is a one liner on the W H Doherty website confirming the firm starte
Peter & Terry by any chance?
Maybe, - I had them down as football pitches - The big AA gun site in the area was just the other side of the Maypole at "Kings Wood" - Moundsley Farm , in the triangle of land between Crabmill Lane and Druids Lane. The same photo mosaic shows that site clearly. It had 4 of the big 3.7 AA guns in emplacements with the "predictor" emplacement looking like a 5th on the photo. - A standard layout for such a site. There was hutted accommodation for the gun crews to the West of the gun emplacements and a Motor transport compound to the North. With the gunsite at Kingswood and the big RAF base at Wythall I'd imagine the football pitches at Daisey Farm recreation ground would have been in high demand - maybe more mud than grass! Giving rise to the "blurred look". - If there were any guns on Daisy Farm Rec, I'd imagine them to be the smaller 40 mm Bofors, and would have been there for only a limited time, as they tended to move those around.
Fascinating - Thanks Mikejee. I really appreciate that. The ramp is still there, I often wondered what it was used for. It is now used by the young scallywags from Druids Heath for their monkey bikes. The site is littered with the detritus of beer cans and drug-taking and you often can't get up Crabmill lane for the Fly Tips, something that will only get worse when the Lifford Lane refuse site closes for refurbishment later in the year.
Thanks, I was told that the guns in the park were Light AA. Perhaps they were defending the balloon site in Maypole Lane.
No, there was a girl who lived in Westfield Ave, a couple of houses down, on the right. Sadly, I forget her name. My mate, Colin Booth, lived (I think) at the bottom end of the road in Courtway Ave.
Maybe Maureen or Christine Mosley.
Girls just about younger than you by the sound of it. Good reading your recollections. Used to do the daily walk from Nafford Grove to Grendon Road School from approx 58 to 63 via the gulley in the Sladepool Farm Road dip.
I went to Highters Heath school. I never understood why I wasn't sent to Grendon Rd. That gulley was a handy short cut, a mate of mine lived a couple of doors from it.
