Speedy23
master brummie
This should be worth a look - it's an archive of old aerial photographs. Have fun.
https://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/asearch/advanced
https://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/asearch/advanced
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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
Aerial Photographs - Britain From Above
- Thread starter Speedy23
- Start date
aston lad
master brummie
Britain from the Air
I know that this thread has been posted before, but my search on here doesn't work......anyhow just to let you know that the web site in question has uploaded another 6000 new images to its site, some new ones of the city and Aston .....https://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/
I know that this thread has been posted before, but my search on here doesn't work......anyhow just to let you know that the web site in question has uploaded another 6000 new images to its site, some new ones of the city and Aston .....https://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/
rosie
brummie
Re: Britain from the Air
Thanks for this link aston lad, I hadn't realised that by registering with them, the pictures could be "zoomed". I've just been looking at places like Warstone Lane Cemetery from the time before they flattened the gravestones! Some of my relatives came from around Brookfields and Hockley so it has been interesting trying to find the places.
rosie.
Thanks for this link aston lad, I hadn't realised that by registering with them, the pictures could be "zoomed". I've just been looking at places like Warstone Lane Cemetery from the time before they flattened the gravestones! Some of my relatives came from around Brookfields and Hockley so it has been interesting trying to find the places.
rosie.
Re: Britain from the Air
I imagine that Forum members could make a useful contribution to that site by registering and adding pins to landmarks they recognise. (Perhaps some already do).
I've just spent a happy hour with the help of Alldays 1938 map trying to decipher this one, of Hockley in 1939:
https://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/image/epw062659?search=Birmingham&ref=124
As ever, I find that what I'm looking for is just off the edge, but to save wasting the effort I have added a few pins. Perhaps someone familiar with the area could add a few more. In particular I'm leaving to Wendy and Brian the job of naming and locating Key Hill correctly!
Chris
I imagine that Forum members could make a useful contribution to that site by registering and adding pins to landmarks they recognise. (Perhaps some already do).
I've just spent a happy hour with the help of Alldays 1938 map trying to decipher this one, of Hockley in 1939:
https://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/image/epw062659?search=Birmingham&ref=124
As ever, I find that what I'm looking for is just off the edge, but to save wasting the effort I have added a few pins. Perhaps someone familiar with the area could add a few more. In particular I'm leaving to Wendy and Brian the job of naming and locating Key Hill correctly!
Chris
Brookfields Lad
master brummie
Re: Britain from the Air
Thanks for that, Bob. You inspired me to have another go and I find that in fact a bit of what I was looking for IS in the image - Great Russell Street (adjoining Tower and Brearley Streets). I have inserted a pin for it and surrounding streets in the bottom left hand part of the image.
If you are familiar with the area could you (or any other member) have a look, please? I'm 99.9% sure I have it right but it would be good to hear it confirmed!
(I don't know if I'm alone but I find it quite difficult to decipher aerial photographs and it makes me marvel how pilots coped in the days before navigational aids. The use of Alldays sends one cross-eyed - I don't know if using a modern A-Z Gazetteer is any easier but at least with the former you know there is a reasonable chance that map matches photograph and you are not looking for streets which no longer exist).
Chris
Thanks for that, Bob. You inspired me to have another go and I find that in fact a bit of what I was looking for IS in the image - Great Russell Street (adjoining Tower and Brearley Streets). I have inserted a pin for it and surrounding streets in the bottom left hand part of the image.
If you are familiar with the area could you (or any other member) have a look, please? I'm 99.9% sure I have it right but it would be good to hear it confirmed!
(I don't know if I'm alone but I find it quite difficult to decipher aerial photographs and it makes me marvel how pilots coped in the days before navigational aids. The use of Alldays sends one cross-eyed - I don't know if using a modern A-Z Gazetteer is any easier but at least with the former you know there is a reasonable chance that map matches photograph and you are not looking for streets which no longer exist).
Chris
rosie
brummie
Re: Britain from the Air
My Husband found the house he was born in, the picture's a bit fuzzy but wonderful!! Of course it's all gone now.
I'm pretty hopeless with maps, I've been known to turn one upside down to come home!
I went to a carboot and they had an old A-Z, the chap said it wasn't much use but I said if you were looking for the old streets it would come in useful. (I already had it though.)
rosie.
My Husband found the house he was born in, the picture's a bit fuzzy but wonderful!! Of course it's all gone now.
I'm pretty hopeless with maps, I've been known to turn one upside down to come home!
I went to a carboot and they had an old A-Z, the chap said it wasn't much use but I said if you were looking for the old streets it would come in useful. (I already had it though.)
rosie.
oldMohawk
gone but not forgotten
Re: Britain from the Air
Many thanks for the information and the link Aston Lad, I've often looked but never thought of registering.
Old aerial views for parts of Britain can be seen on Google Earth when the date is set to 1945, with the usual zoom and pan features.
I find it is best to locate a place using today's view then switch to the 1945 view.
A couple of 1945 Google Earth images are shown below...
Many thanks for the information and the link Aston Lad, I've often looked but never thought of registering.
Old aerial views for parts of Britain can be seen on Google Earth when the date is set to 1945, with the usual zoom and pan features.
I find it is best to locate a place using today's view then switch to the 1945 view.
A couple of 1945 Google Earth images are shown below...
aston lad
master brummie
Re: Britain from the Air
Firstly, I have to correct the title...its Britain from above........I was able to show not only my children but my grandchildren the house I was born in, the same house also saw the births of my own father, his brother, and some of my brothers and sisters over a 40 years period, the junior school I attend, the streets I played in, and I was able to see some of the area before it was turned into a bomb peak during the war.....brilliant.....didn't think that I would ever be able to show my children were I lived for the first 16 years of my life....
Firstly, I have to correct the title...its Britain from above........I was able to show not only my children but my grandchildren the house I was born in, the same house also saw the births of my own father, his brother, and some of my brothers and sisters over a 40 years period, the junior school I attend, the streets I played in, and I was able to see some of the area before it was turned into a bomb peak during the war.....brilliant.....didn't think that I would ever be able to show my children were I lived for the first 16 years of my life....
Re: Britain from the Air
If what is written on another forum is correct (https://www.secretleeds.com/forum/Messages.aspx?ThreadID=4981) the results , apart from those for a limited area mentioned in the link, of an complete aerial survey of the UK carried out by the RAF around 1950 (which presumably would have included Birmingham) have been destroyed as it was claimed that no-one was prepared to accept the volume of material. It is tragic that this was allowed to occur, but emphasises the importance of sites such as ours (& Secret Leeds) in trying to preserve data of historical interest.
If what is written on another forum is correct (https://www.secretleeds.com/forum/Messages.aspx?ThreadID=4981) the results , apart from those for a limited area mentioned in the link, of an complete aerial survey of the UK carried out by the RAF around 1950 (which presumably would have included Birmingham) have been destroyed as it was claimed that no-one was prepared to accept the volume of material. It is tragic that this was allowed to occur, but emphasises the importance of sites such as ours (& Secret Leeds) in trying to preserve data of historical interest.
I Am Nico
master brummie
My cousin was an aerial photographer in the WRAF based near Wilsmlow, She loved her job. What made me laugh is that she had her hat especially made as she had a very big head.
maypolebaz
master brummie
. . . strikes me she'd need a custom made hairnet too, Nico !
I Am Nico
master brummie
I will ask her Baz she could do with a laugh. It was after the war as she is 80 now. I think she was taking the photos for new maps and what damaged had been done. I have mine on today it's gone very cold.
Was looking for something in Kingstanding on Streetview/Google maps and after scanning the area using the satellite views it struck me how symmetrical some of the road systems are (photo 1 and 2). Maybe this was fairly typical of inter-war municipal estate design. What I also noticed is that part of the area around Burford Rd/Tysoe Rd looks incomplete (photo3), as if it was intended to have the same symmetry as other road designs in Kingstanding. Maybe the Council ran out of money. Viv.
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Phil
Gone, but not forgotten.
Vivienne
The thing is when these estates were laid out they had a clean slate to work with and only had to allow for topographical features. Whilst the inner city areas had all sorts of problems with existing buildings. Even Mr Manzoni couldn't get away with flattening everything no matter how hard he tried.
The thing is when these estates were laid out they had a clean slate to work with and only had to allow for topographical features. Whilst the inner city areas had all sorts of problems with existing buildings. Even Mr Manzoni couldn't get away with flattening everything no matter how hard he tried.
I Am Nico
master brummie
When I used to fly in to Birmingham the area the plane circled before landing had a circular road in the middle then all the other roads situated around it in a uniform pattern covering a big area.
Yes Phil. At most the obstructions would have been farms, the rest was mostly farm land pre-1930. The biggest headache for the Council must have been buying up farms and farmland. I wish they'd been more attuned to archaeology at the time too, as there must have been loads of Roman stuff buried along the route of the Ickniekd Way/Holly Lane/Kingstanding Road. Too late now.
Nico don't remember planes going overhead when I lived in Kingstanding, but you may have flown over. Or it might have been another 1930s development. Viv.
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Just keep an eye on those potholes Lyn, you never know! Viv.
A new source of aerial photographs of the UK for the period 1945-2009 is being put online. These were obtained by an aerial photo unit of Cambridge University, and are now being put online. The country , including birmingham appears to be well covered, BUT, as yet, none of the Birmingham photos are online. You can see where they were taken, however clicking on the markers shows thumbnails have not yet been uploaded for this area. I looks like to see good resolution you will have to pay, but better than nothing. A search for Birmingham shows 4,984 hits
Map at
Map at
NoddKD
master brummie
brummy-lad
master brummie
One of the markers is in the area of the illusive Wycliffe Church and Sunday School, perhaps we may yet have definitive proof for the location of the No. 8 bus.
www.midlandspubs.co.uk
Pub Historian
I have seen references to Britain from Above in posts dotted around the forum. I finally got around to logging in this morning just to have a look what is available. All very hit and miss of course and you have to be lucky to find a building relating to your past. But BINGO they have a photograph of the off licence once run by my parents. Shaw's are delivering soft drinks to the offie. The pic is ten years before my parents took it over but what a find for me. The arrow is pointing to my bedroom window from where I would sit on the window sill and watch life go by as a kid. Notice how almost every inch of land is developed and built on. The space at the top of the photo was the car park of the Waggon and Horses.
Attachments
www.midlandspubs.co.uk
Pub Historian
Thanks for that info - I checked my locality but the pics are not online yet. Excited and frustrated all rolled into one!
