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I'm trying to help a friend research her grandfather and I'm hoping someone could help with information about the medals he was awarded. Many thanks for any help.

I was wondering how many people on this forum went to Lyndon Green Infants and Juniors. I started there shortly after it opened and left in 1960. My teacher in reception was Miss Parker and for the life of me I can't remember the teacher in the second class. I do remember doing the Owl and the...

TheVictualler’s Database shows George Burton as running The Anchor in Park Streetfrom 1804 to 1826. Chapman's Directory of 1808shows George Burton as a victualler in Park Street and this is also shown insubsequent directories. Wrightson's Directory of Birmingham for 1825 shows his address as 46...

I thought some of you might be interested in the following information I have copied from Showell's Dictionary of Birmingham, 1885. The local movement for the establishment of public Baths first took practical shape at a meeting held Nov 19, 1844, within a week of which date subscriptions...

I wasn't sure just which section to post this in, so please feel free to move it if it's in the wrong place. We certainly have produced some great singers/bands in Birmingham and the Black Country, but I'd like to put a word in for those who never 'made it' but were still part of a thriving...

I used to play for a team called Shirley Comets, but it should really have been Shirley Comics. However, we did win an award one season, The Sporting Losers Award. We really were that bad. We had one match against the doctors and patients at Monyhull Colony, a mental hospital in Kings...

Do any of you remember French skipping? It used to be played by linking knicker elastic together in to a loop. Two children would then stand inside the elastic, with it around the back of their legs. A third child would then perform a series of jumps or challenges into, onto and out of the...

I'm not sure if this is the correct section to put this query, so I apologise if it's in the wrong place. I keep telling people how good this forum is and that they should join, but one of them has got back to me to say that he can't join with his GMail account. Are people who only use GMail...

I had Family Tree Maker 2011 for Christmas and am trying to come to terms with it. I've transferred all my data onto it with no trouble. In fact, it was extremely easy. My question concerns the prining of multi-page reports. The single page reports are great, but those that go over several...

At one stage, one of my ancestors was shown as a brass founder, but later on his occupation is brass tap dresser. I've tried without success to find what this involved, so has anybody got any idea what it was? Many thanks

Some of you may have seen my brother, Doug Smith, and pupils from Swanswhurst School on Midlands Today last week, talking about the Birmingham Blitz and the on-line data base that the pupils have set up listing those who were killed in the Blitz. They also hope to eventally have a list of those...

I was listening to the radio this morning and heard one of the presenters talking about having a 'piece', meaning a sandwich. He said it was a Scottish expression, but it brought back old memories of using it in our family when I was a boy, and we have no Scottish ancestry. Did any of you use...

I'm not sure if this has been posted before, but there's a good artcle in the History section on the BBC website about the setting up of the police force in Birmingham. The following is just a snippet from it. I particularly like the bit about night serving police officers having to 'grow a...

If there was one thing that got me interested in books, it was that great series of comics when I was growing up, called Classics Illustrated. I hesitate to call them comics in a way, because, although their format was definitely in the comic style of picture and bubble writing, their content...

Do you know, that even with me being over 60 now, I still have panic dreams about not having done my homework? It just shows what a big part of our lives our short time in school proved to be. As if to prove it, I have clear recollections of some of the things my teachers used to say, and I...

Oh, hello. I didn't see you there. I was lost in thought. I was thinking . . . But tell you what, why don't you come with me and I'll show you what I was thinking? Close your eyes and we'll soon be there. Open them again. It's a Monday in 1962 and we're standing in Medina Road, Tyseley. Just...

May I share this with you all? We're very sad at the moment because out little Bobby Budgie died last night, but it was such a strange experience leading up to it. We had Bobby for over 10 years, and he was a wondeful companion. He could talk and his whistling was like that of a canary...

I was thinking about what I missed about the old Brum and was wondering what other people were sad that we have lost. For me (at the moment before I think of any others) these are some of the things I miss. The noise of the starlings and their incredible acrobatic flying displays every night...

If I've done this correctly, the photo shows my dad, my younger brother and me in 1951. May I share with you some things about my dad, Parks Policeman (later Sergeant) Smith? Dad was a sergeant in the parks police and must have been on duty at most of the parks in Birmingham at some time in...

I spent some enjoyable times at the Night Out in the late 60s and early 70s. From what I can remember, it used to be free entry on a Sunday night. There were acts like Roger Whittacker, The Rockin' Berries and the very talented Roy Castle, amongst many others. I can even remember going once to...