• 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

10 Years Wow!

that can easily be rectified froth:D:D:D only joking...well done on reaching the 10 year mark:)

lyn
 
15 years old this year eric ...i think it should be possible to find out the exact date bhf started possibly june/july 2002 (jim may know)..ive looked at a few members who i think has been here for a while and jennyann joined on 24th of july 2002....if anyone can beat that date please come forward:)

lyn
 
Last edited:
sorry phil my error.. i meant to put jennyann who joined 24th july 2002 not sylviasayers who joined 5th august 2002..edited my post:rolleyes:
 
also gingerjon (john houghton) who co founders of this forum joined 24th july 2002 so i think its safe to say that on that date we will be 15 years old:):)

lyn
 
Last edited:
I don't want to shout to loud, but I was also there at the beginning, This forum started off on the Astonbrook-through-Aston Manor web site, but it got to big for that site and Rod told me that he was going to start this forum up after another forum about Birmingham closed down, Rod Birch and myself started a web site named "Our Aston a Scrapbook" but we were both no good on the computer so we had to involve Rod's schoolboy son to help us, but we hit problems my computer went bang and I lost contact with him for a while, but in the mean time John Houghton and Rod contacted each other and the Astonbrook web site was formed, they both then contacted me to help them with all the data I had collected about Aston over the years, the first three members of the forum was John, Rod and myself, followed by Sylvia whom I had contacted about Burlington Street school photographs, John and myself have both left and rejoined a couple of times since, due to personal issues with other members...., I cannot recall the date when Rod's and mine "Our Aston" but it was pre 2000.......if you have the Carl Chinn's magazine issue 1 you will find the story in that issue........John
 
Using the forum's super search feature this must be one of the earliest posts (25 Jul 2002) on the forum (unless someone finds an earlier one) :cool:
On my office wall I have a painting (print) of Aston Cross depicting a l948 street scene. It is in colour and has the perspective facing Aston Cross from approximately where the Library was and is looking up Park Road. Ansells Brewery is being rebuilt with it's brick fascia which has scaffolding on it. The red electric sign saying - Ansells --the Better Beer, is in place. The clock tower is prominent. Just coasting up to the tower is a No. 2 tram sporting a Littlewoods advertising banner along it's side and an ad for Roadley's of Corporation St, who sold prams. This would have come directly from the terminus at Chester Road, Erdington,
along Sutton New Road down Gravelly Hill, across Salford Bridge and along Lichfield Road on its way to Steelhouse Lane. A few yards in front of the No. 2 tram, is a No. 78 tram, which is sporting a C-W-S banner on it's side and an ad for Dutch Tinned Meats on the front. This tram would have started it's journey at the Streetly Road Tram Terminus travelled along Streetly Road past the Plaza Cinema to Stockland Green, down Slade Road to Salford Bridge and along
Lichfield Road to Aston Cross and then into town at Steelhouse Lane. In the gap between the two trams is a view up Park Road and there is a tram coming down the the hill. I am not sure what the number is on this tram but I remember catching it at Witton Circle going along Witton Lane and up Park Road and down to Aston Cross. With this perspective the background to the picture is the Co-operative Store and next door part of George Mason's grocery store. There is so much going on in this picture since there are at least ten shoppers on the pavement in front of the stores, the tram driver and some passengers in the two trams in the forefront plus to motor vehicles of the day. I have had this picture for years and there is no name on it. Has anyone else got the same picture? I bought this in Brum several years ago and I believe this artist has painted other pictures of Brum street subjects.
https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/index.php?threads/painting-of-aston-cross-in-l948.10/
 
thanks for that john..i think thats its wonderful that given its ups and downs over the years that the forum is still going strong so well done and thanks to everyone who has stuck by it and as i always say..onwards and upwards...:):)

lyn
 
Congrats Frothy. Good to see members notching up big numbers. Shows the strength of this forum. Viv
 
BHF was just over two years old when I joined on 24 July 2004 and there were certainly a good many members then and a friendly buoyant forum it was. Of curse, quite a few have passed away, some have been banned, and many others have lost interest and left. I used to bump into one or two on Facebook, but I've closed my account there now, so that's now probably unlikely. It's the way of the world and people move on when they've gathered the information they want or have lost their principle friend(s) that they used to chat to.

BHF and the Keyboard Corner Forum (a musicians' forum) are still the first places I go to once I've scanned my email and answered any urgent stuff, and sometimes glanced at the news. Unfortunately neither place pays me 300 quid a day to act as an old peoples' rest room! :) :)

Maurice
 
I was a member of VB and when that finished Rod got in touch to ask me to look at BHF and I joined May 22nd 2003
Pom/Chris was here in Jan 2003
Postie has been on since Nov 2002.
 
Really interesting thread folks. Nice to know the history and background. I really appreciate all the support and willingness to share knowledge by other members. It took me years to realise that it's not just a 'question and answer' device but so much more than that. I've learned a lot in the (nearly) 10 years since I joined and really enjoyed the journey. Thank you!
 
I used the internet at work but did not look at it much on my home computer using 'dial up'. I was interested in anything related to the old Birmingham Ice Rink and had a few half-hearted searches for it from 2004 onwards, but I was looking for the Ice Rink in Summer Hill.

Little did I know that there was loads of info on something called the Birmingham History Forum but they had it in Spring Hill which actually finished at the library and the street became Summer Hill towards town.

Eventually, on 1st Aug 2007 I found it and dived into the forum with my first post here ...
https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/index.php?threads/springhill-ice-rink.3143/page-4#post-55025
For convenience even I now call it the 'Spring Hill Ice Rink' even though it was actually the 'Summer Hill Ice Rink' ...:D
 
Last edited:
This is indeed an interesting thread, reading other members posts makes me realise how little my 8 years membership (9th March 2009) is compared to some - and I still cannot remember how I discovered it ! but so glad I did. Eric
 
Six years here which, as will be expected, seems to have flown by far faster than the same period of time I spent in the R.A.F.
I am pretty certain that the avenue that brought me here was Mac Jospephs great 'Old Ladywood' web site.
There is much here to catch the attention of anyone who is interested in historical matters, no matter how recent. (anything post 1970 is recent to me ;)). Unfortunately for me my acquaintance with the city and Midlands in general did go when I moved from Warwickshire to Devon in the mid 1950's. I did spend a while in the Malverns and Herefordshire when in the R.A.F. so I managed to visit the city from time to time. Suburbia seems to have changed very little in many places, there a far more cars and less gardens, but the views of the new city, particularly on the new tram system thread, seems to have altered in many places beyond recognition.
 
I always thought it was in Spring Hill, oldMohawk when I went in the 1960's with my little blue legs and boots several sizes too small, borrowed from my friends sister (the boots not the legs). I really loved it.
 
Hi Chris it has been a real pleasure to read your posts, and have the odd drink togeather over the last ten years. Looking forward to the next ten. Rob
 
October 23 2007 according to the records is the time I joined this Forum. Yes, indeed time flies - tempus fugit !
Anthea
 
Back
Top