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  1. T

    Lucas Great King Street memories

    My late aunt, Alice Bow, worked at Lucas Great King St all her life until she retired aged 60 in 1971. She never married and perhaps either she never met anyone - or preferred working to being at home all day as a married woman !
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    Lucas Great King Street memories

    Hi Dave, I was born (1946) and bred at the other end of Bridge Street West to you, and lived down an alleyway called 'Cottage Row'. It was slap bang next to St Saviours church where myself and my siblings were Christened. I went to 'Burbury St Junior Infants School' which was also slap bang...
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    GEC WITTON WORKS

    Hi Mike, I somehow received your message above by e-mail as well, and this is the reply I sent you below. However, it came back as 'undelivered' probably because it wasn't your actual e-mail address. I would love to hear details and see photos of 'Witton Rugby Club' as we always knew you by...
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    GEC WITTON WORKS

    I posted on the forum a year ago about playing rugby against the 'GEC WITTON RUGBY CLUB', and the post match refreshments and food in the THE MAGNET CLUB. I'm just wondering if there is anyone out there who used to play for the club, and if they have any history and/or photos of it. As I said...
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    Silver Blades Ice Rink

    I'm showing my age but as an 18 year old, I went to the Silver Blades rink when it first opened in 1964. I was there every Saturday night and there was a regular disc jockey whose name I can't remember - which isn't surprising seeing as it was almost 58 years ago. Was it perhaps Ricci the Dee...
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    Grammar schools and comprehensives in Birmingham in the 50s and 60s.

    Spargone, I don't think that what I said was that big a statement actually. From what you've written, I assume you want a return to the 11+. That's because you said that proponents of comprehensives like myself, want the elimination of all alternatives. That's some statement, as is your other...
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    Birmingham Schools Football History / & photos

    Hi David, Actually, I've got a confession to make about George Churchward in that we had a nickname for him as well. Being around my age, you will no doubt remember a radio comedy programme called 'Round The Horne' previously known as 'Beyond Our Ken'. It starred Kenneth Horne, Kenneth...
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    Birmingham Schools Football History / & photos

    Hi db. Thanks for your reply and I think everyone got on with George Churchward mainly because he was such a nice bloke. Perhaps that's why our headmaster got him to move on because unlike George, he was the strictest disciplinarian you could meet. I would imagine that he thought George was...
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    Grammar schools and comprehensives in Birmingham in the 50s and 60s.

    Hi Richard, Yes, it was a totally absurd system which decided your life at the age of 10/11. You passed to a Grammar or Technical school and failed to a Secondary Modern school. Luckily, many children like yourself went on to have successful careers whether they passed the 11+ or not. People...
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    Grammar schools and comprehensives in Birmingham in the 50s and 60s.

    It's a small world Michael. So Rodney Bedall was a professional actor and had a good career. You just never know how people's lives work out and I suppose Rodney's was quite a successful one.
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    Grammar schools and comprehensives in Birmingham in the 50s and 60s.

    I suppose at the end of the day Susan, your mother and 'boozy' had your best interests at heart but as you say, your activities away from school shouldn't have been of any interest apart from yourself. Reading some of the comments on a couple of Facebook sites about Bournville, it seems the...
  12. T

    Birmingham Schools Football History / & photos

    I went to the brand new (at the time) Ley Hill Primary School (opened I954), and we played Rathvilly at both football and cricket. Rathvilly was a private school as I recall, on the Bunbury Rd. Gil Merrick taught sport at Greenmore College, another private school, which was in Priory Rd just...
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    Grammar schools and comprehensives in Birmingham in the 50s and 60s.

    My mother did the same to pay for my uniform and sports gear when I passed my II+ in the fifties. A 'Provi' Cheque would be issued and a collector would come to the door every Friday night with mom paying for the cheque in instalments, so much a week. Most clothes shops and outfitters accepted...
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    Cadbury's Bournville Factory

    The 'Marshall Plan' was one of the biggest American ideas to get western Europe back on its feet - untold amount of dollars involved apparently.
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    Cadbury's Bournville Factory

    No wonder there was food rationing after the war in Britain. It wasn't just chocolate that was sent, every sort of food and drink was despatched there. A little known fact at the time perhaps.
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    Pubs Of The Past

    When the door's a jar - lol.
  17. T

    Pubs Of The Past

    'Originally' is the word one uses when referring to it's use as a pub only. One will just have to agree to disagree, won't one ? (There is evidence that it was a coaching inn.) ;)
  18. T

    Pubs Of The Past

    It could be The Great Stone Inn at Northfield by the medieval church of St Lawrence. It was originally a coaching inn so no doubt that would have provided food, overnight accommodation, and of course alcoholic beverages.
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    Cadbury's Bournville Factory

    I broke my leg playing rugby way back in the early part of 1971. I was taken to the 'casualty' of the old Accident Hospital in Bath Row and about 10 minutes later, one of the Cadburys was brought in who had broken his collar bone after he fell from his horse fox hunting. We both ended up in...
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    Old Birmingham Schools - Changed Or Demolished

    I don't know of council boarding schools in the Birmingham area but I know that there were state boarding schools that didn't cost any parent a penny. However, their children had to fit certain criteria before they were allowed to go there. I'm not sure but I believe they still exist. Perhaps...
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