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Brookvale Park & Witton Lakes

The year you skated at Brookvale, Mohawk would more than likely have been l962. That winter, my last before I left for Ontario, was brutal and there certainly was ice on Brookvale.

Thanks for the extra info Mike. You, your brother and cousins had great times in the park too. I know that we who lived adjacent to Brookvale and Witton Lakes Park were indeed fortunate not only was there acres of space to run around but water as well. You could make your choice in the summer where you would head and even make both parks in a day's play.

Those bamboo cane fishing nets that you could buy locally for 6d weren't much use really but nets made out of Mom's stockings usually did the trick for catching minows. I have mentioned in other posts the ultimate in fishing gear at the time, which needed two people to be successful. A piece of sacking (burlap) cut into an oblong, one person would grab one end and one the other and under the water it would go bringing up many little fish. The views in Witton Lakes, in particular, haven't changed much over the last 60 years. Great memories
 
Those were the days a Phill every time I look at the pics of skating outdoors brings back so many nice memories of time & pals gone by.
I REMEMBER GOING WATER SKI ON WITTON LAKES ONE BOXING DAY. WHEN THE BROOKVALE WATER SKI CLUB COULD NOT USE THAT LAKE, THEY USED WITTON LAKES. I HAVE NEVER BEEN SO COLD!!!!!!!
If my memorey is correct the lady who helped run the club worked in the GEC MAGNET club shop when it was just on the corner of main drive & Turbo bay building.
 
I don't want to appear morbid but haven't there been several drownings and a couple of suicides in both the lakes. One suicide victim lived in our road. Jean.
 
Jean I remember a young lad drowing in the Lake and a lad being attacked by a Swan
 
Any one remember an American GI drowning in Brookvale Lake just after the war? I seem to recall my mom & dad talking about it?
 
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I remember my mom telling me about it when she took me tiddler fishing in the little brook under the bridge. She said he got trapped in the weeds. Jean.
 
I was searching for old photographs of Brookvale Park when the links directed me here. Having registered with this forum, this is my first post. Apologies for its length

First off, how refreshing it is to be able to read people`s memories who appear to have some of the same experiences as I had when I was a child living in Birmingham. I now live in Wales, both my parents have died and I have lost touch with any relatives that were lived in Birmingham around at that time.

I moved to Birmingham from Wales with my parents when I had just reached my 5th birthday. My Father had recently left the navy and the only work open to him when he returned home was as a miner. So we left the Valleys, my Father took up a job in Dunlops and we moved into a house in Neville Road. For those of you who don’t know where this is, it`s located on an incline overlooking Brookvale Park, across and above George Road. The house was situated on the lower side of Neville road and had an unobstructed view to the island in the mid centre of the park. If you walk along George road with the park to your left you will come to a gap in the houses where a wide track rises up to Neville road. My old house is the one on the right with a large wall facing you at the top of the incline, number 58

My memories of these years are of happy times. We would spend many an hour in the park playing in the sand pits that populated this side of the lake. Quite often on weekends my Father would hire one of the canary yellow catamarans and take me out on the lake. They would be parked outside the boat house like a row of soldiers, waiting for orders. Half a crown for an hour I believe it was. These were wonderful times and despite imperfect recollection, I am sure the summers were always long and hot with the skies full of swifts and swallows, ducking and diving all around us.

A few years later we would go out on the rowing boats, but I always preferred the catamarans.

All along the banks edges anglers would patiently sit, fishing for roach and hoping to catch at least one pike that I knew lived in the lake, whilst I would try and net the sticklebacks that populated the old swimming pool. I recall those 6d fishing nets. As soon as you put the net in the water it would cling together. The old pool then was simply a square concrete pool, with no evidence that walls were ever there. Only now have I discovered it was the remains of a swimming pool. I always wondered as a child what it had been.

As I grew older, and with the freedom that came with it I would go to the park with friends and spend many an hour climbing the trees that grew along the edge of the lake. With great trepidation we would explore the old allotments that lay beyond the far bank and we would seek out bird`s nests built amongst its hedges.

From the back garden on dark nights, I would observe tall lights illuminating the horizon. These I was to learn much later were the floodlights from Villa Park. Far more exciting for a 6 year old to believe it was a launch pad.

The winters in the early 1960`s were very cold and I recall snow often fell. On these occasions the lake would freeze over and we would skim stones across it. I remember it snowing one year quite early. Was it March? I can`t be confident, but the snow was definitely thick on the ground early that year. I can still see the milkman`s footsteps leading down the drive to the front door from my bedroom window.

Does anyone recall the tobacconist on the corner of George road. For reference this was located opposite the lake island. Even though I have never smoked I can still smell the shop to this day. We used to collect empty Corona pop bottles for the money back on the returns. It wasn’t much but it kept us in chocolate and crisps.

They were happy days.
 
welcome mike, lovely to hear your happy memories. i too used to spend many hours playing in brookvale park, in the sand dunes, fishing for tiddlers, paddling in the stream and going on the boats. if we were lucky mom and dad would have enough money for us to get an ice cream from that shop you mentioned. the park keeper would keep us all in order if we were a bit noisy but he was very good and one day when i scraped my knees badly he took myself and my brother home on his motorbike and sidecar. all the best.
 
So many memories of Brookvale Park I think we should hold a reunion.
The corner shop on the track up to Neville Rd was an off licence.
If you went up that track, turned right behind the george Rd houses, you passed the rear garden of my grans, and before the houses were built on the left was what we called the sandy banks.
Mike
 
Mike do you remember the playing fields at the back of the banks. They are still there but can't remember what they are called. The granchildren were in the sports there a few years ago. Jean.
 
rob128
there was a goat inside the railed brook by R M Douglas. I seem to remember it belonged to some one that lived in Boulton Walk, near the Methodist / Babtist? Church in George Rd.
To g g Jean
can not quite place the playing fields.At the top of the banks was Queens Rd, and Redbank Ave was built on them.
I lived at 175 George Rd, went to Slade Rd school infants, 1948.
Mike
 
Mike my sons first house was in George road then they moved round the corner into Roseary road. It was a run down house and they spent time renovating it to sell and move on. My grandchildren went to Slade road infant school for a couple of years before they moved to great barr. I think I have the wrong end of the road you were on about with regards the playing fields. Jean.
 
g g jean

Are the playing fields the ones at the top of Broomfild Rd? They were not there in my day.{ I think!}
Mike
 
Mike I am not sure of names of roads but will ask Steve when I next speak with him. I could take you there but road names I'm useless at. Bye. Jean.
 
Shera said:
welcome mike, lovely to hear your happy memories. i too used to spend many hours playing in brookvale park, in the sand dunes, fishing for tiddlers, paddling in the stream and going on the boats. if we were lucky mom and dad would have enough money for us to get an ice cream from that shop you mentioned. the park keeper would keep us all in order if we were a bit noisy but he was very good and one day when i scraped my knees badly he took myself and my brother home on his motorbike and sidecar. all the best.
Click to expand...

In 1962 when I was 7, I tripped in the park and hit my head on the side of a large tree alongside the path on the allotment side of the park. Ended up having 18 stitches. I recall the park keeper taking me into his hut, blood pouring down my shirt, whilst we waited for the ambulance to arrive. I guess he earned his money that day
 
Mike 31 the playing fields are part of a Greek owned building and Steve can't remember the name. He is going to sleep on it. Jean.
 
Keith my son said it was not that club and has spent the last twelve hours trying to remember the Greek name. Jean.
 
View attachment 29233

Looking through old photos just found this one of the bandstand in Brookvale Park, taken from across the bowling green. Year about 1951.
This was taken before the sides were filled in house the boat club.
Ignore brothers and cousins.
mike
 
Great photo Mike 31. The cousins are very cute. I remember that shot of the bandstand. Thanks for posting.
 
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