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Birmingham Newspapers

The Mercury Girl

Can any-one remember the Mercury girl,organised through the mercury newspaper i was a semi finalist when i was about 16/17 my father bought me a french lace gown from Catherine Martino's but i did'nt win the final Which took place at the Plaza Wylde Green.......:)Cat
 
ragga said:
I see on here the Birmingham planet has been given a mention .
I remember it well and you use to pay for it , ""I Think""
but on this image you cannot see the price tag .
ragga View attachment 11170???
Click to expand...

Great picture of the Birmingham Planet, the very first newspaper with colour pages???. Thanks for the memory. The paper was produced in Newhall Street on the opposite side of the road to the Telephone Exchange and, if memory serves, it was owned by Labour MP, Woodrow Wyatt. Thank you for the image.
 
Yes, the Planet newspaper was not free but I can't remember the price. The actual date I saw the paper's production facility was 1967. Around that year the first of the free papers came out. They were financed entirely by paid advertising and had very little editorial. The first free paper I remember had offices in buildings close to the Swan Yardley (left side on Coventry Road going away from city) and I think it was called the Yardley Advertiser. As for the Planet, I think I've exhausted my knowledge of it. Thanks for your reply.
 
it was the late 1950s and lived in mott street hockley
there was a fire in a wood yard in howard street
and some of my family were on the front page of the mail was it then called the evening despatch
trying to find the picture anyone help me please
 
Yes Michael,I remember Mr Edwards the paper seller from Frankfort st riding around the streets of Hockley on his bike,selling both The Birmingham Mail and The Evening Despatch.Moss
 
nulty, Yes you are correct. It was called "The Evening Despatch". As with the "Birmingham Mail" and "Birmingham Post",all have been microfilmed and copies of them reside in the Local Studies Dept. of the Birmingham Central Library. Without a precise date, it is quite a slog to wade through the films. Good hunting! regards. willey
 
There was also a pinkish colored newspaper called The Sports Argus I believe. This dealt with sports. Was there also a 'BLUE 'UN'?
 
I used to fetch that for my dad every Saturday with all the football in but I can't remember a BLUE UN.
 
Back in the late fifties I was a paper boy for Townsend and Dennet on the Walsall road. Even though we preferred delivering the smaller Despatch unfortunately, on my round, nearly all my customers preferred the Mail.
 
hi nico ;
well in my opinion there was not much differents when you look back at itstarted as the birmingham post a giant of news paper and full of news in
small print and then they started and changed it to the despatch with shorter pages and then they reverted and went back to larger pages
but the stories was readable from the print angle i mean ; i did prefere the despatch thou myself along with the sunday mercury
which was a diamond of a paper until it started to get taken over by lots ad lots of advertising ;and less storyies and then i reverted to the old rag of a paper the news of the world complete gutter chip and fish paper ; glad it gone now and for this sunday sun paper its the same old smutt;as there last one
viturely the sme hogg was just the name change ;i do not buy it ;
i thiiought this morning when i seen your request about the period paper what year would had it been myself the other day about asking the sme question ; because when i was a kid in that period my case of myself was in around the fifty four -five i was a hit and run case
i got knocked down out sde the astoria picture house one afternoon on aston cross my case wasin the papers and some months after it was reported that they had traced the driver and i never actualy read it myself my mother turned to me and said alan they have found the driver and the police had got him ;
there was no legal aid in those days so i could not claim a penny and i had ended up with a big plate inmy leg for the rest of my life the only cosolation i had at the time of the accident the doctor and surgeon whom actualy wittness my accident ended up operating on me all night with blood tranfusion all through the hight to keep me alive my leg bone was completely crushed and smashed to bits unreplacable crumbled to bits henc the plate bewen the parts of bone ;
and i have oftenend noew i am older to go and reseqarch this topic and find out whomthis person was whom done it to me
well i am in my sixties now and only a child when tis happenendso i can presume ashe must be dead by now fifty years ago later on in life ;
so now i know it must have been the evening despatch i must one day get to central and do my swotting ;
have a good day every body best wishes astonian;;
 
There was a blue 'un, I used to stand in a queue for it on Saturday evening outside "the top queens" on the corner of Victoria Rd.and Park Rd. Aston.then just after the end of the war they brought out the pink 'un (the Argos).The Sporting Buff was mostly horse racing...
 
Hi
Were the blue and the pink ones both called Argus or was the blue one a
sporting edition of the mail? I can see them both now in the newsagents, but
I can't for the life of me remember!

Kind regards

Dave
 
No Dave they had separate names as they originate from separate newspaper groups originally. I have a feeling the Blue [Mail?] one was printed by the Post and Mail and the Pink un by the Despatch but may have it back to front. It was common to see crowds waiting outside newsagents for the delivery van to drop them off on Saturday evening.
 
I suggest you treat this with care as it is from Wikipedia - The Sports Argus was a Saturday sports paper printed on distinctive pink paper and published in Birmingham, England between 1897 and 2006.The first edition was published on 6 February 1897. For many years the Argus was the largest-selling sports newspaper in Britain and had between 32 and 40 pages.[SUP][1][/SUP] Its final edition as a standalone newspaper was published on 13 May 2006. Although its circulation in 2005 averaged 10,000, it was losing nearly £100,000 a year, in part due to the move away from football matches being played at 3pm on Saturdays.[SUP][2][/SUP]
The title survives as the name of the 16 page pull out sport sections in the Saturday and Monday editions of the Birmingham Mail.[SUP][3][/SUP]
 
thank you all who replied to my request what a wonderful site this is you actually get replys very quickley thank you all
 
hi ray ;
the paper shop next to the pub where you got your paper from our kid used to do his p[aper round from there for the owners he think he got ywo and a kick ; [ half a crown ] for aweek works ]
best wishes astonian;;
 
Alan,It wasn't the shop that sold them a bloke used to stand in the pub doorway,then a van would arrive and throw the bundle of papers to him.Tell you what mate on a cold night that van always had a big cheer.
There were no Pink Argus printed from 1939 - 1946,The football league was suspended for the duration.Villa Park was used as a barracks for an Infantry Regiment.
 
hi ray
many thanks for that info;i never knew about the villa being used as a barracks; thanks ray;
ray i hope you do not mind me saying this ;but it was about three,or four years ago i mentionioned
it before ;but when you walked up clifton rd towards park rd ; there was large houses on the right hand side about half way up wa a sign in huge white lettersand fading as this was in the fortys and looking back i reckon it was done
late 1800s to early ninteen 100s is there any chance they may have been your releys ;
do you recall the hand bag shop as well at the top on the corner seling crocodile lether bags and etc;
or do you recall the dave ward and family ;as i knew them up the bigger end of clifton trd i knew alot of them ;
ray have a good day best wishes astonian;; alan;;
 
Alan,My mom had 4 sisters who all lived in Clifton Rd.so I did have a lot of cousins there,but they didn't have my name.The Smiths,Taylors,Baglins and Slaneys were all my cousins.The wards I knew lived in the big yard at the Park Rd.end, I only knew the eldest Harold and Eddie,they were both regular soldiers when I last saw them,although there were nine in the family,so you would likely have known some of them.I do remember the handbag shop,and the horsemeat shop just around the corner.
 
hi ray ;
i must have forgtten the horse meat shop to mention it i do recall it when we walked up clifton rd on our way home we used to stop for a moment and discuss it and make comments about it
yes the wards did live down the big yard i usaly se one of them over at the car boot in kingsbury where i go every week
the brothers all live up the swan yardley way and have done for some years i used to drink with them in the old bill and bull
until we moved on in the pub trade and left brum ;
ray have a nice day best wishes alan ;; astonian;;
 
I remmember the ratch and mail cry as I thought the seller was saying, he had a pitch at the Swan to catch the eleven and fifty eight bus passengers.
 
The main difference between the Evening Mail and the Evening Despatch was the Mail was a Broadsheet paper and the despatch was a Tabloid, the same layout as most modern papers are today, Daily Mail, Express etc; I always prefered the Despatch, it was much easier to read on the bus going home from work, plus it had "The Phantom"
jimbo
 
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