• Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.

    We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team
  • HI folks the server that hosts the site completely died including the Hdd's and backups.
    Luckily i create an offsite backup once a week! this has now been restored so we have lost a few days posts.
    im still fixing things at the moment so bear with me and im still working on all images 90% are fine the others im working on now
    we are now using a backup solution

Search results

  1. 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...
  2. ChrisM

    Birmingham Family-related Mementos

    The periodic rummage through a box of junk out of the loft sometimes reveals something which one hadn't forgotten about but hadn't looked at in years. A family memento, old but possibly with a clear connection to the present - and definitely with a Birmingham connection. Has anyone got...
  3. ChrisM

    A THIRTY SECOND MEMORY OF STREETLY

    There’s a distant roar, ever growing. It seems to be approaching us. Dad and I are in our dining room, at the back of the house on the Chester Road in Streetly, where we spend most of our evenings because there are easy chairs there and a table and the wireless set. And it’s a warm room in...
  4. ChrisM

    Memories of Streetly

    STREETLY MEMORIES Anyone who knows Streetly will almost certainly know that part of the Chester Road which stretches from the Parson & Clerk, on up the hill, to the Manor Road/Bridle Lane crossroads. (I know most of it is outside the City boundary by several hundred yards or more but those of...
  5. ChrisM

    Birmingham City Utilities Home Guard (Gas, Water, Electricity, Salvage and administrative departments) - Commemorative Booklet

    There has been previous mention in the main Home Guard thread of the commemorative booklet covering the 29th Warwickshire (Birmingham) Battalion issued in 1946 by the City Council. This Battalion was manned entirely by members of the Gas, Water, Electricity, Salvage and administrative...
  6. ChrisM

    The Home Guard Children’s Christmas Party, 1943 – Streetly

    It's Saturday evening and I'm sitting at our dining room table. I am seven. I've got a blank sheet of paper in front of me and a pen in my hand. Mum has just told me, as she always does, to write neatly, watch my spelling, don't make any blots, and especially, DON'T KNOCK THE INK BOTTLE OVER...
  7. ChrisM

    WW1 Decoration Record Card Interpretation

    I am struggling to make sense of this WW1 Medals record card and should be very grateful if anyone with a bit more experience could give me a hand. It tells me that it is a Gloucestershire Regiment record, issued in Warwick and dealing with men who have a different regimental affiliation. The...
  8. ChrisM

    100 Years Ago Today

    Two Brummies were married 100 years ago today, on 31st January 1921. "On 31 January 1921, at the Parish Church Harborne, in the County of Stafford, Henry Maurice Myers, bachelor, 21 years, Assistant Works Manager, of 80 North Road, son of Charles Myers, Dealer in Fine Arts, and Elsie Tovey...
  9. ChrisM

    Birmingham Open Air Schools (Cropwood, Haseley Hall, Hunter's Hill, Marsh Hill, Skilts and Uffculme)

    There were six Birmingham Open Air Schools opened after 1911 and dedicated to the care of sick Birmingham children: Cropwood, Haseley Hall, Hunter's Hill, Marsh Hill, Skilts and Uffculme. Of these, the following have individual threads within this Forum: Cropwood, Hunter's Hill, Marsh Hill and...
  10. ChrisM

    The Buildings of Birmingham, Past and Present (Second Series)

    The Buildings of Birmingham, Past and Present (Second Series), printed and published by Thomas Underwood, Castle Street, High Street, Birmingham (believed 1870). A copy of this has recently come into my temporary possession. I am wondering if this is a publication well known amongst Birmingham...
  11. ChrisM

    Birmingham In November/december 1940

    I have been re-reading a book, published in 1942, which has buried within it a description of a visit to Birmingham in November/December 1940. I won't identify it publicly but some members may also be familiar with it. I have transcribed a few passages. The author has arrived at his hotel...
  12. ChrisM

    Cofton And Longbridge November 1940

    Can anyone give me a bit of help with a mystery, please? Arthur Grant, aged 26, husband of Doris Georgina Grant, of 111 Nuthurst, Road, Birmingham was an "Aero assembler fitter", almost certainly at the Longbridge Austin factory adjacent to his home. He is listed as a Civilian Casualty...
  13. ChrisM

    Tovey (and Brown)

    My mother's father and mother were not the luckiest of parents. George Thomas Tovey (1871-1949) married Rebecca Brown (1871-1945) in 1891. In 1894 they were living at Back 239 Great Colmore Street where Rebecca gave birth to a son, also named George Thomas. This little boy died of acute...
  14. ChrisM

    Wesleyan College Handsworth 1944

    A little conundrum. Can anyone please identify this building (not that one can see a lot of it)? It is the background of a 1944 Home Guard picture. The HG group is one operating in the Aston and Hockley area, although this location may or may not be in that immediate area of Birmingham. It...
  15. ChrisM

    Watkin, Hubert S., Alum Rock, Yardley and Small Heath

    Hubert Watkin worked at the Birmingham City Transport depot in Arthur Street, Small Heath. During the war years he lived in Bankdale Road, Alum Rock and then in Willclare Road, Yardley. He served in the Home Guard from 1940 to 1944. I have put a bit of information about him online here...
  16. ChrisM

    Book : "Tracing Your Birmingham Ancestors"

    This book has, I think, only appeared in the last week or two: "Tracing Your Birmingham Ancestors - A Guide to Family and Local Historians" by Michael Sharpe. It may or may not have hit the libraries yet. I mention it only because it looks to me, as a non-genealogist, like a valuable sort of...
  17. ChrisM

    75 Years Ago Today

    This evening 75 years ago, a Tuesday in May 1940, the Rt. Hon. Anthony Eden, MP, then Secretary of State for War in Churchill's new government, broadcasts the following appeal to the country. The German onslaught on Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg and France has been in progress for just four days...
  18. ChrisM

    Home Guard at Austin, Longbridge

    I have recently pulled together some information about the Austin Works Home Guard unit and put it online here: https://www.staffshomeguard.co.uk/DotherReminiscences117Longbridge.htm If anyone can add to the story I should be delighted to hear it. And, especially, if further members of that...
  19. ChrisM

    Old Birmingham Railway Sites

    I have recently had the following interesting questions from a nephew of mine: An old school friend has been tasked with leading a group around old railway sites in B’ham / West Midlands, and we recently undertook a recce of various examples, such as the site of the old Central Goods depot...
  20. ChrisM

    Myers family in Birmingham - 19th century

    LisaMaryCameron writes in connection with her gt. gt. aunt, Alice Myers, who was an employee at the Kynoch Lion Works in Witton at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. See this thread where she is mentioned. My father is Edward John Cameron, His father was Edward John Cameron, His father...
Back
Top