Re: Alum Rock Rd - Wardend area
Yes Pom what a wonderful assembly of pictures. Well remember the area having gone to school at Leigh Road. St, Marks, the railway bridge, the police station, the hardware store by the police station and the junction of Wright Road, Malthouse Lane and Aston Church. Towards town at that junction there was a barbers shop where I used to get my hair cut. Can't think of the name right away but it will come to me.
Most mornings, after I started work, would find me at that junction waiting for a chance to cross Washwood Heath Road and go speeding down Aston Church on my bicycle en-route to the drawing office. From the photo's that corner does not seem to have changed much except that the shops on the S/W corner seem to be gone. Wrights news agents was the main shop there. Just up Malthouse lane a bit was, I believe an Outdoor, right on the bend. The goal keeper of our junior school soccer team used to live there. If I remember correctly his name was Billy Willis. What a player.
I can't say that I remember those years fondly though, well not all of the time, life was often a bit of a struggle. Two wars had decimated the country and there was only a declining infrastructure left. You always remember your formative years though for better or not so.