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Birchfield Road Perry Barr

I used to shop in the Perry Barr Co-Op in the 50's. Next to it was a green grocers and I went in for the usual potato's and veg and decided to buy mushrooms. I asked for half a pound and the reply I got was 'They are 1/6d a quarter you know' !!!

The Co Op was just above the turn into Ason Lane in my memory, was the next turn Brag Road and then a row of shops with a wide footpath then came Thornbury Road with the Police Station on the corner and the Odeon on the Birchfield Road?
 
This is a drawing from a postcard I have of the Birchfield Rd toll gate c1870. I originally posted it on another thread but I think it rightly belongs here (anyway, I can't now find the thread I originally posted it on!!). Viv.

Birchfield_Road_tollgate_c1870.JPG
 
what a great drawing viv..and theres the old crown and cushion on the left...lovely
 
Hi Charlie

I have just joined the forum and i see you lived in putney rd i used to live in Hutton rd between Brackley Ave and the old woodward. Hope to here form you
 
Astoness said:
what a great drawing viv..and theres the old crown and cushion on the left...lovely
Click to expand...

So if I've got this right Lyn from our discussions on another thread, the little Crown & Cushion in the drawing is the one that stood in front of the very big Crown & Cushion on Birchfield Road.Then the little Crown & Cushion was demolished and the road widened when the underpass was built through Perry Barr in the 1960s. Then the big Crown & Cushion was demolished and replaced a few years back. How confusing is that?!:05.18-flustered: Viv.
 
Hi Vivenne 14

I am a beginer on this site if its amy help i think your photo of Birchfield rd is going up to Heathfield rd Trinity rd crossroads from the odeon
 
Hi Mikejee

I am new to this site and i see you have posted some old photos of Birchfields I am trying to find a map with Kensington Gardens, Franchsie st i think it was just below the Wellhead pub Hope you can help. Thank you
 
jonsyl said:
Hi Charlie

I have just joined the forum and i see you lived in putney rd i used to live in Hutton rd between Brackley Ave and the old woodward. Hope to here form you
Click to expand...

I used to go out with a lad from Brackley Avenue......Dennis...erm....Warner I think. That was about 100 years ago anyway!
Welcome to the Forum jonsyl.
 
Hi Charlie

Yes i remember Dennis also some more names Rooks,Higgins,Stevens,Rices,Greens,all lived in Brackley Ave,in Hutton rd where Arthur Matthews,Judie Hewitt,Terry Coton,Alan Wright,John Hickman,David Hook,Cristine & Peter Price,Anita Ward,Josie & David Morris, Betty & Derek Plant,Harold Baliey,John & Peter Howell all lived between,97 & 161
jonsyl.
 
jonsyl said:
Hi Vivenne 14

I am a beginer on this site if its amy help i think your photo of Birchfield rd is going up to Heathfield rd Trinity rd crossroads from the odeon
Click to expand...

Welcome jonsyl I'm sure you'll enjoy this site and many thanks for the info on the photo. Viv.
 
Blimey, your memory's much better than mine! I went to school with Alan Wright (St Mary's Jnr and Infants) and used to play with him and our friends in the woodyard and by the railway line in Hamstead Road - Health and Safety, what's that?
Also remember Dennis (of course), Judy Hewitt and some of the others. Anita Ward was the daughter of my mom's cousin and their house backed on to our back garden. She lives in Spain now.
 
I always thought that was not the right place to put the Street sign as A.B. Row was round the corner the St. is in fact Prince St if my memory serves me right. Dek
 
Hi Jonsyl, my husband lived at 151 Hutton Road from 1948 until 1952. Peter Howell and David Hook were his 'mates'.

He then moved to Handsworth Wood. He did remember a tall blonde girl, about five years older than he was who used to be around - and it turns out to be Charlie! His name is Ralph Roberts. when he left the house was lived in by some others in the same family - also called Roberts - Janet and Kathleen. A cousin in Stamford Road with a policeman for a father was Judy Walker. Thought you might know some of these. Janet still lives there, at 121.
 
Thanks for posting that photo of the Birchfield cinema Topsyturvey.

Those are the Co-op shops to the left of it that was posted on the previous page then?
It's strange but I remember the Birchfield cinema but I have no recollection of the Co-op shops - interesting!
 
I can (just) remember the shops but not as a Co-Op. I think they were demolished in the late 1950's, perhaps? The film advertised outside The Birchfield Cinema in Topsyturvey's photo is 'Carmen Jones', and I remember seeing that, but not at The Birchfield. Maybe The Stockland.

Behind the shops, on Aston Lane, used to be Roy's Bakery, makers of RoyAl bread.

Big Gee
 
Now this view is hard to believe. If I've got my bearings right, you'd now be looking at a flyover at this spot. Don't know the date, but it must be about early 1900s. Viv

Holy_Trinity_Church_Birchfield_Rd.jpg
 
yes viv you are just about right...what a brilliant pic..i was christened in that church..trinity road to the right and birchfield road to the left...

thanks for posting it...

lyn
 
cracking shot of birchfield road..looking towards aston lane..can make out the old crown and cushion on the left..the birchfield cinema on the right and the library next to it..the church you can see in aston lane is still there and so are the houses to the left of it but the houses to the right of the church have now gone.


Image below retrieved by Oldmohawk
image.jpeg
 
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Astoness, Great picture! Remember the scene well. My wife used to take our young son to watch the diggers at work. He is 53 yrs old now. Where did the time go? regards willey
 
willey here is another good one..the cinema is on the left just in front of the bus..again the library next to it and in the distance i can make out holy trinity church...it really is hard for me to believe it looked like this before the powers that be decided to wreak havoc on the birchfield road

lyn

Image retrieved by Oldmohawk
image.jpeg


library.jpg
 
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Great pics, Lyn, and you can see the Co-Op on the left, as referred to in another thread. I can remember the 'old' Birchfield Road like it was yesterday. The reason for the wreaking of havoc on Birchfield Road is plain to see in the second photo, which I would guess is from the mid-1950's. Birchfield Road became almost a no-go area with the ever-increasing traffic - I can remember being stuck in gridlock for a couple of hours with my old man just down from Trinity Road, going towards town. It really was murder, and something had to be done. The underpass and flyover solved the problem at least for a time, but the underpass especially could do with a bit of a make-over these days.

The family of a pal of mine were one of the first to occupy the new high-rises (can't remember which one) and we were envious! Of course, the lifts worked, there was no graffiti, and no noisy neighbours - at least for a year or so.

Really lovely to be taken back to my childhood....sniff!

Big Gee
 
oh big gee i understand totally why the underpass came into being but it still does not stop me feeling quite sad when i look at pic 2 and see all those lovely buidings that had to be sacrificed..i travel this way often and also have to walk under the underpass to get to the other side of the road..its leaves a lot to be desired especially when walking under neath in the dark with no lighting and the smell is that bad sometimes that we have to cover our noses and run through as quick as we can...used as urinals you see....

glad you like the 2nd pic though.. it serves as a reminder to us just how lovely our city once was...

lyn
 
It makes me sad, too, Lyn. When I was a sprog my mom and I would spend the best part of a morning along Birchfield Road, and if I'd been good she'd buy me the latest Dinky Toy at R Watts toy-shop. Later on in life, I'd spend hours in Birchfield Library, one of my most favourite places. Trouble is, the car took over everything. Birmingham made cars, and so the powers-that-were thought it right and proper to encourage them. Twenty years ago I'd have argued that the destruction of Birchfield Road, as you and I knew it when we were young, was progress, but now I'm not so sure. I think with the benefit of hindsight that there may have been other ways around the problem of every-increasing numbers of cars. Maybe.

But let's not miss out on looking at your photos and taking huge and perhaps sentimental pleasure in a brief look back at how life was in a slower-moving, perhaps more sensible, world than the one we're lumbered wit now.

Big Gee
 
Astoness. I have never seen that photograph before. It really captures the atmosphere of the place and yes what a poor place it all is now. Better to live in the memory I think.

Big Gee, I too remember R. Watts. My mother placed an order one Xmas during the war for a Meccano set. When Christmas arrived you were not sure whether you would get any sort of set let alone the one that you ordered. It was just a lottery. Things have changed!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all! Regards. willey
 
Willey,

one of my very earliest Christmas memories is when my older brother got a Hornby Dublo train-set and I got a cap-pistol and a Frog Spitfire. This would have been about 1951. My parents would have bought these from either R Watts on Birchfield Road or Darlington's on Witton Road. Given the cost of these prezzies, I'd guess that the old man must've picked up a Christmas bonus that year...

Big Gee
 
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