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Birmingham Years (1949-1964) Bournville, Kings Norton etc

R

RenegadeUK

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I am several chapters into my biography and have just reached the age of 11 in two chapters and 27,000 words.

At the age of 14 I left Birmingham and moved to South Wales with my family, my father was a mobile grade Civil Servant. Does anybody have any memories or photographs of the following between 1949 - 1964


  • Kings Norton Village Green, The wool and baby clothes shop, Queen Elizabeth's Coronation street party
    The Treasure Trove (Antiques and Junk Shop), Sirtchley
    Woodlands Park Preparatory School, Weoley Castle
    Heath Road South, Northfield
    Lickey Hills, Beacon Hill, Tram Terminus at Rednal
    Rowheath Park - Saturday Dinner Dances in the Pavillion or Open Air Lido
    Boy Scout troop at the farmer's Barn on Hole Lane
    Bournville Boys Technical Grammar School, Griffinsbrook Lane
    The ballroom dancing school, just off Frankley Beeches Road, Northfield
All the photos on this thread have unfortunately been lost, and thus posts deleted, but interesting memories are in the text
My next chapter should see me through to leaving Birmingham at the age of 14 - but any help would be appreciated
 
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Thank you for those pictures. I remember Bakewell's hardware store and all the galvanised dustbins sat out front on the pavement. There was a butchers and a bakers not far away from Bakewell's on the same side.

Sadly my grandmother's wool and baby clothes shop (Slaughters) was on the only side of the green's triangle that nobody seems to ever take photo's of......on the right hand small row of shops as you are stood facing the church...it had a little covered alley-way between it and the Philatelic Stamp shop next door.

During the Queen's Coronation Street Party that filled the whole green, there was a fair with a greasy-pole, roundabouts, helter-skelter, dodgems, big wheel, ring the bell with a big mallet etc. On the grassed area in the centre was a massive fire pit, over which two whole oxen were being roasted on spits and young sweating men, stripped to the waist were queuing up to take turns on the hand-driven spits. The beef was sold for 2d a plate, with hot rolls and individual yorkshire puddings.

I vividly remember queuing outside shops for rationed food with my mother (and younger brother in the pram) and collecting our weekly ration stamps, free orange juice and brown medicine bottles filled with cod liver oil, from the Council Offices at the Saracen's Head every Friday morning.... I would have been about two and a half or three then.
 
The detached whitewashed shop in the second picture was a cycle and cycle repair shop. My first two wheeled racing cycle was bought from that very shop by my grandmother. It was a BSA in red and white with dropped handlebars and three gears. I thought it was the bees knees.
 
the cycle shop was chas manns, he used to run the cyclist touring club from there

the treasure trove was cotteridge not stirchley, used to help out there sometimes

jake
 
Thanks Jake for reminding me....yes it was Chas Mann's cycle shop...and I remember one afternoon in the early 1950s when we all lined up on the main road down from Cotteridge to watch the "Milk Race" stream past and on out towards Rednal.

...and silly me....time was bending the grey cells there....I got Cotteridge and Stirchley mixed up in my head.....I know exactly where the Treasure Trove was....I could walk right to it (if it was still there)....my father worked there for twelve months in the post-war years...I wonder if they ever sold the moth eaten Grizzly bear that lurked by the front door and always scared the bejasus out of me as a small boy. Any idea when it closed its doors for the last time?
 
Wow, thanks Postie, that is exactly how I remember the Rednal tram terminal although I was only three and half years old when it was closed down....but I vividly remember that semi-circular open-fronted bus shelter in the background with its lead roof and glass back....interesting though that the picture seems to be a painting rather than a photograph (although its accuracy might suggest it was painted FROM a photograph)

Sakura, no I never actually LIVED in Bournville, I lived on the Redditch Road, Kings Norton, and later Heath Road South, Northfield but I spent a great deal of time in and around Bournville. As a child my mother went to Bournville School and I actually sat and passed the 11+ exam in the main hall there.

My mother worked at Cadbury so I went to shows at the Cadbury theatre, collected our cheap brown 2lb bags of 'seconds' chololate bars from the staff shop on Fridays, played cricket on the factory sports green, learned to swim at the Bournville baths, sailed toy yachts on the Bournville sailing pond, played on the green, bought sweets at the parade of shops and went to Bournville Boys Technical Grammar School on Griffinsbrook Lane for four years. I also visited Selly Manor and Minworth Greaves several times on school outings.

Most of my friends also lived within the Bournville Village Trust Estate so I spent most of my childhood cycling around its confines.
 
Re: Writing my Biography, Birmingham Years (1949-1964) Bournville, Kings Norton

My husbands family all worked at Cadbury's so depending on how old your mom would be maybe they worked there at the same time.
On the other hand I was there for a short time from 1969 to 1972 in Sales Marketing after we moved to Wirrel Road Northfield when we got married. Our son was born in 1972, daughter in 1975  and then we came to Canada in 1977.
We were there last year and stayed at the hotel by Cadbury's on Linden Road.  We walked all around the village as John had lived at 3 Linden Road and we were interested in doing all the walks he had done for so many years.
How some things have changed, we visited Cadbury World and of course brought lots of chocolate back. A lot of the village was just the same but very busy.
You probably took your exams at the school next door to this with the bell tower.
 
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Excellent springtime piccy there Di...love the daffodils

But.....eeek....where did all the traffic come from?.....you could have had a picnic on the white line in the middle of the road in my day...

I remember the bank on the corner well, all dark wood elizabethan style panelling inside. I opened my first bank account there when I was thirteen....and used to buy Bassetts liquorice sherbert dips from the newsagents and sweet shop at the other end of the parade after swimming lessons...my first ever toy sailing yacht came from the same sweet shop (they also sold a few toys) and a rubber band driven balsa wood aeroplane too - I only just remembered that while looking at your picture.

I used to sit for hours on the wooden seats in the central rotunda shelter, eating the sherbert and just watching the world go by or the shiftworkers streaming away from Cadbury's on foot and on their bicycles.
 
Yup that is where I used to sit alright. The doors were permanently open in those days so you could go inside and sit in the warm if the weather went bad on you (doubt if you can these days though)... I cannot place the view of Bournville park at all yet....Woodlands Park I remember well but I will have to study an OS map to place the park in Bournville itself.

Ahhh.....I have it placed...now I don't think I ever ventured that far up Linden Road to find Bournville Park, I didn't go much further than the shops and Selly Manor.....so is that stream coming from (or heading towards) what I always referred to as the shallow Boating Lake (closer to the Bristol Road South?....and is it the Bournbrook or the Griffinsbrook?...and where does it head off to then?....or rather where does it come from?....looks like the direction of the Cadbury factory...

You are a good photographer by the way
 
Renegade they have turned the rotunda into a visitors shop, no more dreaming the hours away in there. ::)
 
*Speaking in an even gruffer and deeper voice*
OK seeing as I've got a boxing match after my rugby game, I'll let you off this time. >:D
 
Have a lot of connections with bournville......My Father worked at cadbury's and he was a member of the Bournville Prize Silver band. (I have pics) I too joined the band as a cornet player in my very early teens (but didn't last)
I was member of the 1st Bournville Cubs/Scouts/Seniors and Rovers between 1954 and 1964. When I first joined, we were in the barn (ex farm) on the corner of bournville lane and Linden rd?...Don't recall the name of the barn but I do recall the stories of "Froggatts Ghost"
(I think started by the Rover Crew to scare the cubs and scouts Sh**less) The barn is now a hotel. The troop later moved up the road to Laurel Grove and a purpose built Wooden Building with Rover den, senior den, stores and main hall, all under one roof. The area had a car park as well as a grassed area. I dont have pics of the hut but I do have some of me with some of the scouts up Snowdon.
I too remember the treasure trove in cotteridge, complete with the Bear. As for the brook in the park, a regular haunt for us kids, as I recall it ran through three parks (or was it just one seperated by roads?) we used to play Phoo sticks and try and get them all the way from the yatching pool to the end of the 3rd park.

By the way we were married at St Francis of Assisi on the green. (1968)

Hope this helps
 
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