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Aston Cross

G G Jean said:
Did they have children Max?. Jean.
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Yeah 3 Graham ,Elaine and Anita. They lived up a yard almost opposite the entrance to Ansells. They were the smallest houses i have ever been in, but they were a really nice family i miss them. Max
 
I think that entry was close to my friend Marian Hardwick who lived in the printers shop. Mr Hardwick used to make invitation cards etc. Jean.
 
Max paulyxx just messaged me and was telling me all about your aunt's end of Park road too. May even have known them. Jean.
 
G G Jean said:
I think that entry was close to my friend Marian Hardwick who lived in the printers shop. Mr Hardwick used to make invitation cards etc. Jean.
Click to expand...

Graham bless him unfortunately accidently blind his friend in one eye,so i guess that would be remembered ( around 1955 ). Max
 
And a couple more of Aston Cross - this time looking in the other direction.
The older of the pictures ( pilched from another thread on the forum ) is taken from approximately where the clock used to be. The modern day picture shows the clock on the island at the junction of Park Lane, Rocky Lane and Lichfield Road.

Ian.
 
For seven years in the 50s and 60s I got off the number 8 bus and crossed over Aston Cross and up Park Road to get to King Edwards Aston Grammar School. HP Sauce was on the recently cleared site on the left looking towards the clock tower, and Ansells Brewery on the sharp corner behind the clock. The smell permeated the whole area, and Atkinsons brewery was somewhere in the area too. What we didn't notice at the time, but seems much worse now was the smoke. I went out with a clean white shirt every morning (my mother had a washing machine in my later school years!) but it was stained yellow or brown by the time I got to school and :Dchecked my hair in the mirror in the outside toilets.
 
Brenda,
The filthy air we breathed in Aston had it's advantages:rolleyes:...the atmosphere was so polluted the germs couldn't live in it...hence we stayed pale but healthy.:).
 
hi jean
its certainly is there and emediately i thought our friend was wrong caroline street was hockley and i think there is one over on the border on smethick and winson green area
and there is an electro plating in coroline street and on the subject on catherine street thats where roy wood oriniated from when a little kid and grew up
i think they left the street around the mid fifties also the moody blues and they went to upper thomas street juniors which was just about two hundred yards along the lichfield rd from our terrace on the subject of lichfield rd i am having a good clear out in the loft and i hope to put my hands on a couple of books which willl related to camden street school with a coule of pics of there london trip and but also the most wanted of all is for mandy and her grand father whom i knew and was photographed in a book up the back house in the terrace next to
ours in cromwell terrace on the lichfield rd so hope fully in the new year she should get to see her along waited pic of him
so as we have to go through this festive two days and the hunt will begin
well jean i will scamper off now do my last bits and peices i have got to dash down to acocks green sort the daughters problems out the so called husband
as left her in the lurch any way best wishes to you and pete dont forget to stuff your turkey and do not over endulge your self and watch the waist line
its okay with the brandy have a nice christmas and a happy new year to you both astonion alan
 
Ray, how true how true....i'm sure all that filth and pollutation did make us healther or stronger it built up a resistance.....a little bit of dirt l really believe is good for us.......Brenda
 
I seem to remember schemes of sending children to Switzerland to recuperate from illness, but I can't remember them being sent to Aston. :D
 
hi max
merry christmas and a happy new year to you all if my memory serves me correctly they was neibours to the cox family david and ronald cox
they lived in the first house of the opening they was good friends and good people and honest
and we all went to upper thomas street school as well
best wishes astonion
 
The road on the left of the clock led to Aston Park. The road on the right led to Salford Park.
I was bought up in Aston Brook Street, off Aston Road, opposite Shellys factory. Does anyone have any photo's of Shellys? I would love to see it again.

If I went round Aston now, I would get lost! How sad!
 
i dont know if this is true or i had my leg pulled someone told me years ago that they brought anyone with a chest complaint to nechells area to breath in the tar fumes from the gas works because the fumes were supposed to be benificial to aid breathing, still like i say i am very gullible ,any doctors on line!
phil
 
Hiya Phil
if you are gullible then so am i ..i was about 5 yrs old when my mom dressed me up in hat,scarf and mittens and took me to smell the tar ...still do it with my grandkids now
 
Maggieuk, l to remember when the steam roller came around along with the hot tar...dad would say go and get a whiff of that it will do you the world of good, l had asthma all my life and thought the fumes of the tar would be of no benefical quality...but one always did what dad said....Brenda
 
Funnily enough I am asthmatic and I love the smell of Tar and I think it eases my asthma,
but any literature ever given to me says avoid paint,gasoline,some perfumes,car fumes and tar.Alberta.
 
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seeing as though ansells and park road are mentioned here is a pic of it and the houses opposite....
 
maggie i am glad you have verified this myth but it did not help my mom with her chest as we got a new house on kingshurst to get better air quality , but with her i dont think the fags helped bless her
phil
 
I lived with Windsor St gas works on on side Saltley Gas works on the other for more than 20 years which ever way the wind blew you got it, never really got used to it just lived with it although I have never had any breathing problems so maybe it did me no harm. Dek
 
View attachment 66647Hi, Don`t know if this has ben posted before, but this image is from a pack of greeting cards which were passed to me several years ago. I think its a really good picture. Can`t make out the artist (looks like RTL). I can post more if they are of interest. PS just found out that the series of greeting cards was distributed by the Evening Mail, don`t know how long ago.
 
Hi dek ;
many thanks for posting that pic of that xmas card i must have missed them some how we have had a lot of pics
of the cross but i do not think the xmas cards have been put on i would like to see more if possible if you have them as i have history connections with the cross going back years so i would most certainly would like to see them ; i was born and lived virtualy right next door along the brewery
about one hundred yards and i think alot of our other members would like also to see them ;
should you think of selling them i would like to buy them off you for a good price at any time best wishes astonian
 
While searching for relatives on Ancestry, i was surprised to see on the 1861 census that there were a family of three living at(Clock Tower No1 Lichfield Road)
Wonder if anyone can throw any light on this address.
 
2 Lichfield road.jpgMoss does this help which Mike originally did for me. My gt grandfather was George Taylor and you can see he had the shop there.2 Lichfield road.jpg
 
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