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Brandwood House Barracks Kings Heath

ChrisM

ChrisM

Super Moderator
Staff member
I have some interesting information about a very young German-Jewish refugee who ended up as a member of the Home Guard manning a Heavy Anti-Aircraft battery somewhere in Birmingham. His unit was the 71st Warwickshire Home Guard H.A.A. Battery.

The only clue about the location of this battery is that he and his comrades attended a Stand-down dinner in February 1945 at Brandwood House Barracks, Small Heath.

Can anyone cast any light on this unit, and also on Brandwood House Barracks, please?

Should be grateful for any help.

Chris
 
Chris, Brandwood House was a Barracks located on Dawberry Fields Road, Kings Heath. I'm not sure if Brandwood House still stands but the site is still used as a T.A. Centre by 202 Field Hospital.

https://www.armyjobs.mod.uk/westmid...ndBSquadron,202FieldHospital(Volunteers).aspx

Living not far away, we often went to the barracks to watch the action through the railings that ran around the barracks. In the early 60's I joined the Army Cadet Force there, but that didn't last too long ( didn't like ironing the uniform).

Colin
 
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Thanks very much for that, Colin.

I'm also posting the question about this particular battery and its location on the "Gun Sites" thread.

(My error - of course it is KINGS Heath!)

Chris
 
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These images were amongst the papers of the gentleman I mentioned in the first post in this thread.

Could the building possibly be Brandwood House?

Chris
 
Chris, the building in the first picture could have been the building on Dawberry Fields Road, although I think there may have been additions. I do remember that it had a wall about 2ft high with 6ft high railings, which we were able to look through, and the main entrance would be to the left of the building. Looking through the gate you could see a parade ground surrounded by open fronted garages along two sides where vehicles were stored.

Colin
 
Thanks, Colin.

Do you think that the background of this further image could be the same place?

Chris
 
Re: KINGS (!) Heath - Brandwood House Barracks

I have now assembled the various bits of information concerning Brandwood House Barracks, the 71st Warwickshire (Birmingham) Home Guard Heavy Anti-Aircraft Battery and, especially, one of its members, L/Cpl. Alexander Schadowsky, a German national, here:
https://www.staffshomeguard.co.uk/DotherReminiscences74KingsHeath.htm

Thanks, Colin, for your interest and help.

Chris
 
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I wish I could see this photo - how do I get rid of the red cross in the corner? I am interested in Brandwood House because I am the great granddaughter of George Frederick Lyndon who once owned it.
 
Jane, Welcome to the forum.
I see that you are a new member , so you will not be aware of recent events . The site has very recently been the subject of an attack by hackers. The text side of the site has been recovered, but unfortunately almost all the photos have been lost. This is why it is now peppered with red crosses.A new , more protected system of photo storage is being put in place, and, when this is fully working , possibly the person who posted the photo you have an interest in will repost. I am not sure if the instant messaging system is fully up and working again, but when it is possibly you could contact the poster and ask them personally.
Mike
 
Jane,

Mikejee offers some very useful information and guidance which will be helpful to many members as the Forum gets back to normal.

I have noted your interest in two images which I have previously posted. At present the changes to the Forum seem to be preventing me from uploading these again but I'll keep trying.

Chris
 
Linda,

All I have on the area is several images of Brandwood House photographed in the war years. It's online and the link is in post #8 above.

Chris
 
Welcome Linda. I shall move your post to a separate thread.

Hi Chris. I don’t seem to be a able to get your link to open.

Viv.
 
Thanks for letting me know, Viv. It's coming up okay for me using Chrome on a normal PC or laptop. I wonder therefore whether you are using an Apple device (iPhone or iPad) and it does appear that, there, the Safari defences are objecting to it, for reasons wholly unknown and possibly dependent on the security settings for the device (or even the fact that its an old website page). Even so, by pressing a few buttons on the Safari warning page, and telling it you ain't interested, it still does seem to appear - for me, anyway.

I'll create a new link, to see if that works any better: http://www.staffshomeguard.co.uk/DotherReminiscences74KingsHeath.htm

Chris
 
Thanks Chris. That link works for me. I’m on an iPad.

You might be interested in this snippet. Source: British Newspaper Archive.

Viv.
 

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The images purporting to be of Brandwood House during the war years are of a different building. My father was caretaker there shortly after the war until 1969. I grew up in the building and the frontage was different, the main entrance doors being to the left hand side and the roof being in one continuous section. The old building was demolished in the late 70's/early 80's and the current barracks (Roger Nutbeam House) constructed. Major Roger Nutbeam was an army medic who was killed on RFA Sir Galahad during the Falklands War in 1982. Various TA regiments were based at Dawberry Fields Rd during the sixties including the R.E.M.E. Eventually 202 General Hopital was established there and continues to this day.
 
Welcome to the Forum, Keyboardpaul, and thanks for your comments about Brandwood House. (I assume that you are referring to the images which appear in my Home Guard website page, linked previously in this thread. I'll repost them below).

There was some doubt at the time about the identity of those images and I am glad the matter has been raised again. So, two questions arise:

1. If the images online (and repeated below) are not of Brandwood House, what DO they show?

2. Can anyone provide, please, a definite image of Brandwood House during or around WW2 - or at any time prior to its demolition in the late 1970s/early 1980s?

The current images came with information from the daughter of the young man whose Home Guard service I was commemorating in the website, Alexander Schadowsky, later Sinclair, born in Germany of a German mother, who had found refuge in England and was later engaged in attempts to shoot down Luftwaffe aircraft.

Chris

003possBrandwood640web1.jpg

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May be of no help but there is a mention in May 1963.
Headquarters of 48 Division (TA) Column R.A.S.C at Brandwood House, King's Heath, commander of unit Lt-Col JA Blount.
 
c1916 map - the curved drive appears to come off Brandwood Road. In the photo does it seem the small wall fronts the road?
1631181073994.png
By 1937 the drive appears to have disappeared
1631181220837.png
By 1956 Dawberry Fields Road has been built and the TA seem to have extended the original property
1631181318998.png
 
Chris - have a look here:
andyunderscore.com

Brandwood End, 1838

Before becoming part of the city of Birmingham in 1911 Brandwood End used to be part of Kings Norton Parish in the county of Worcestershire. Kings Norton Parish was divided into different Yields fo…
andyunderscore.com andyunderscore.com
 
Thanks, everyone. Brandwood House looks a much grander and older building than the one shown in my photographs. And less institutional.

Unless the latter was part of the later additions, after it had passed out of private hands......Any thoughts, Keyboardpaul?

Chris
 
Hi Chris, yes there is one image of Brandwood House in the ‘20’s at https://www.golfsmissinglinks.co.uk...od-house-golf-club-brandwood-road-kings-heath. This looks to be quite a small building at the time and no doubt it was extended when it was RAC Headquarters and later by the TA. There were many outbuildings when we lived there. A large drill hall (used for functions and by local badminton clubs), an office block on the Dawberry Fields Road side, an indoor rifle range and many garages housing trucks, Austin Champs and occasionally, artillery pieces. Unfortunately I can’t find any external shots of the building, only family pictures in the Officers and Sergeants Mess. The Officers Mess was quite a grand panelled room on the upper floor, polished wooden floor, snooker table and separate room for the regimental silver display cases and a separate bar.
 
Keyboardpaul said:
Hi Chris, yes there is one image of Brandwood House in the ‘20’s at https://www.golfsmissinglinks.co.uk...od-house-golf-club-brandwood-road-kings-heath. This looks to be quite a small building at the time and no doubt it was extended when it was RAC Headquarters and later by the TA. There were many outbuildings when we lived there. A large drill hall (used for functions and by local badminton clubs), an office block on the Dawberry Fields Road side, an indoor rifle range and many garages housing trucks, Austin Champs and occasionally, artillery pieces. Unfortunately I can’t find any external shots of the building, only family pictures in the Officers and Sergeants Mess. The Officers Mess was quite a grand panelled room on the upper floor, polished wooden floor, snooker table and separate room for the regimental silver display cases and a separate bar.
Click to expand...
Correction - AA Headquarters - not RAC from 1936
 
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