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  1. ChrisM

    its mikejees birthday

    All the best, Mike! Chris
  2. ChrisM

    Stretton Lodge School, Gravelly Hill

    And his School Report for that time. (It tells us that one of the sisters was named Nellie). Chris
  3. ChrisM

    Stretton Lodge School, Gravelly Hill

    My elder brother, who was at Stretton Lodge between 1927 and 1931, recalled that there were three elderly sisters who ran the school. He thought that they had connections with Church Stretton and that this was the reason for the school's name. (It was ironic that when he was called up in 1942...
  4. ChrisM

    Erdington

    I am not aware of any reason why the Goosemoor Lane thread should remain closed and so I have unlocked it. https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/index.php?threads/goosemoor-lane.29520/ Chris
  5. ChrisM

    Is This Your Motor?

    The overtaking car still looks a bit like a Morris 10 or 12 to me. I used to be able to recognise them, from childhood, and can still sort of visualise them. It's the face - the relationship of headlights to radiator and bumper- which rings bells for me. The clincher would be the radiator grill...
  6. ChrisM

    Is This Your Motor?

    Essential user's allowance, John. A tiny ration given to those who needed to run a car because of the demands of work or other "approved" activities. My father had one because of his responsibility in the running of a large metal producing factory and also his spare-time occupation of local...
  7. ChrisM

    Is This Your Motor?

    Many thanks for the interest. Here's a very slightly different view of the overtaking car. Chris
  8. ChrisM

    Is This Your Motor?

    "Is this your motor?".....A bit unlikely a question, this, as the image isn't good enough to show the numberplate! And it's probably as far back as winter 1941 or 1942 as well. Foley Road, Streetly. A fairly bog-standard car but I can't remember its make. Any suggestions please? There's...
  9. ChrisM

    Uniforms of WW2

    Thanks for that very interesting article, Viv. What I find staggering is the mention of a possible weekly wage of £25, even for skilled men such as these. That's about five times an average factory worker's income at the time. The price of the end-product - a hand-made officer's uniform - must...
  10. ChrisM

    GET WELL SOON ERIC....(cookie273uk)

    Best wishes for a speedy recovery, Eric. Chris
  11. ChrisM

    MERRY CHRISTMAS BHF 2022

    Great image! Suspect that it is 1939 or 1940 (unless the balloon is misleading us). They weren't there at Christmas 1941...... Chris
  12. ChrisM

    MERRY CHRISTMAS BHF 2022

    Happy Christmas, everyone! The earliest ones I really remember were all in wartime when mums and dads did their best to make them magical for us children. The food probably wasn't as plentiful and the presents may have been second-hand or home-made and in some households it wasn't the entire...
  13. ChrisM

    The Life and Military Service of a Hockley Lad - Stanley Easthope

    Thank you, Lyn and Mike. An eagle eye and just what was needed! Got mixed up with my "St.s"! Now corrected and an acknowledgement to BHF. Chris
  14. ChrisM

    Camps visited by Birmingham youngsters

    It has to be quite a few of them, Viv, even though in an area Like Birmingham many would have ended up doing essential war work in arms factories and would therefore have been on the reserved occupation list - whether they wanted to be or not. What a shame, isn't it, that despite our huge...
  15. ChrisM

    The Life and Military Service of a Hockley Lad - Stanley Easthope

    I have been writing up some information I have received from the family of a Hockley lad, Stanley Easthope, who in WW2 joined the Home Guard at a very early age and whilst on duty in 1942 or 1943 witnessed the death at a blitz-damaged building of a woman who had ignored warnings not to cross a...
  16. ChrisM

    THE WINTERS OF 47 AND 63

    FINALLY a now-versus-then Google Streetview image for anyone who knows that stretch of the Chester Road. Can hardly believe how much everything can change in (a mere!) 75 years when yesterday's image is so much clearer in the mind than today's. Chris
  17. ChrisM

    THE WINTERS OF 47 AND 63

    The memory in words........ WINTER 1947 Here are I and a couple of friends on the Chester Road in Streetly, on the hill leading up from the Parson & Clerk towards the Manor Road crossroads. (I'm on the right, in BVGS black-and-white scarf and short trousers). Great fun and an improvement over...
  18. ChrisM

    THE WINTERS OF 47 AND 63

    January/February 1947, Chester Road/A452 in Streetly, the hill beyond the Parson & Clerk, as you go up towards Brownhills. Yours truly, nearly 11, in BVGS black and white scarf (and short trousers, natch!), with two friends. A great day - remember it well! Chris
  19. ChrisM

    Birmingham Family-related Mementos

    Like me, Janice, you probably owe your existence to a wound which got your Grandad out of the trenches and out of the dangers he might not otherwise have survived. My own sons could say the same thing about both of their grandfathers. Injuries which were serious enough at the time but which...
  20. ChrisM

    Birmingham Family-related Mementos

    Here's one of mine, for starters. A little oval, black-painted tin with a bit of gold decoration. And inside it, a crumbling flower slowly turning to dust. And also inside, a slip of paper, in my mother's handwriting from a century ago. My parents were married in the Parish Church...
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