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Brougham Street, Lozells

DaveInston

DaveInston

master brummie
I lived in Brougham Street, which ran between Wills street and Nursery road and paralled Hunters Road and Villa Street, in the 50s and 60s.
Has anyone memories or any pictures of the street or any of the neighbouring streets.
 
Hi Dave,part of St Mary school was in Brougham St,they called it the annex,and it was there we done our boxing training the main part of the school was in Willis St .
Our church was`St Francis in Hunters Rd.where we held the boxing matches, do you remember a fire at the annex,all our boxing equipment was destroyed,and our boxing strip,light blue to and dark blue nicks,and some kind person anonymously bought us a new kit,light blue tops with dark blue edging,and the shorts light blue with dark blue edging,the shorts were the shiny blue type,we was the best turned out school but all said and done we was the best boxing school around,if any body remembers our school put it the school thread it would be nice to hear from anybody who went there.
The bottom of Brougham St was the girls school wow what lovely memorizes girl,some of them i remember Shirley Mason, Judy Sharples,Jacqui Pritchard, and of course Mary O.Range, happ happ happy days

Maurice''Mossy'' Knowles:rolleyes:
 
Thanks for posting the picture Dave. My great uncle Charles Henry Baker lived at no 26 when he married in 1892.
 
wills street

hello dave
rember brougham street. went to st marys school in wills street .in the 50.s . went to the anox in brougham street for lessons mid week.
moved from aston to hunters road .i now live in yorkshire...........by dave
 
I worked in Villa Street at Watson's Garage from 1951 to 1964, my Ma in law lived from 1956 in Hunters Vale for a few years. E.
 
Thanks for the pic Dave. We lived on corner of Farm St/Hunters Road and I went to the Annex in Brougham Street. We used to go to St Francis Church, before your time though I think. It brings back nice memories.

ChrisB
 
Was that the Catholic Church in Hunters Road?

My foreman and his family used to go there and we used to service the priest's car, there was also a junior cleric there who rode a motor bike. E.
 
Yes it was the Catholic church, Eric. We moved from the area in 1958 though so I think I probably missed the motorbike cleric. He sound as if he was quite fun.


ChrisB
 
Memories a bit dim Harbourne but It must have been around the mid to late 50s, my foreman was Irish, John Rice, he lived next door to the garage in Villa Street with his wife and two young sons, can't think what the head priests name was, he used to drive a black Morris 10. E.
 
Yes, same as mine. It could have been Father Dermot but I'm not sure.
 
Speaking of Brougham Street. When I left school I worked with a young lady named Rose Leader (sp) We both worked at Abbotts the furniture store on Lozells Rd, she was in the accounts office, I was a junior salesman.

Rose lived in Brougham Street, opposite the school entrance I believe. There was a very strange front garden in Brougham Street, it had big lumps of coloured glass, and strange ornaments.
 
brougham st

nice photo daveinston put on of brougham st. although i lived in villa street the next road down i remember it well. i am still on the lookout for any more pics of villa st if anyone can help
 
Here's a better scan of the picture of Brougham Strret I posted. In fact, I just bought the origanal postcard off ebay. When I get it I'll scan at maximum resolution and post it for you again
 
A couple more remnants which may be interesting for you.
The sassy young lass is my cousin enjoying an Ice lol outside Hurlstons Shop on the corner of Brougham street and Wills street. The other is a family picture taken near Albert Cottages about halfway down Brougham Street. Both were taken in the late 1950s.
 
My ex-wife went to the school at the bottom of Brougham Street.It was a catholic school run by nuns and she said they were all sadists and used to take it out on them for no reason at all!!BobS.
 
great pics dave. i will show the one of your family to mom and dad. they may know them as we lived in villa st from 58 onwards. wales
 
I went to St Marys School from 1936 to 45. the head mistress was a nun , but there was a teacher Mrs Saunders, who was a bit of a sadist!! The head priest at St Francis was Canon Orielly. my brother Ken went to Wills St , 1932 to 41.

Jean.
 
I went to the same Catholic School at the bottom of Brougham Street from 1957 when I was 5. It was St.Francis school and is one of the only two remaining buildings from the original Street to this day. Yes, we were taught by nuns and some of them were very strict, but there again I have fond memories of some of them. Sister Collette I remember was a very nice lady, Holy as anything! I believe I have a pic of her somewhere. The head Priest at the time was Father Emery. I remember he used to pick us up and give us an aerial somersault, very exciting ! I recall though that he always stunk of fags and booze !

Looking back at one episode that is quite funny now but rather traumatic for kid at the time, I remember that I was caught by one of the nuns picking my nose in class! I got the strap in front of the class and then had to spend the rest of the lesson crawling on my hands and kness searching for the offending Bogey ! Ah ! Those were the days !!

Jeez! The mental trauma was so bad I still can't do my times tables to this day !!!

St Francis school backed onto the convent which lead through into Hunters Road that ran parallel to Brougham street. In Hunters Road was also St Francis' church (see pic).

A little up the street from St Francis School was what I believed was St Marys School. It was a bit of a mystery to us kids because it appeared empty and was isolated from the street by a formidable wall and a heavy wooden gate. The wall, even for kids, was unclimbable and and the place remained a mystery to us.

In about 1960 we all moved up to "juniors" around the corner in Wills street ( I believe now this was part of the former St Marys) and was known as "the annex". The only thing I remember about this place is that the school prefects were thugs and bullies. Any misbaviour was punished by being told to stand outside the Headmasters office. Of course we were made to wait there regardless of misbehaviour or not. When the Headmaster returned from his lunch he would automatically, and without question or excuse, cane everyone in the line !!

Ah ! Fond memories !

In later years my Mum and Dad took me out of the Catholic school system and I went to Harry Lucas School in Farm Street. I loved that school. The Headmaster, Mr Walker, was a reeeeeeally nice guy. And guess what? I never had the cane once at that school !
 
dave. what memories you have. my bro went to harry lucas but hes about 3 or four years younger than you. as we are both the same age(give or take a year) we must have passed each other many times. do you recall any of the moorehouse family that lived in brougham st. lyn
 
Hi Lyn,

I'm not sure about putting family names of the still living on a public forum without their permission. However, if you would like to pm me I'll welcome starting a discussion.

I can't say I remember the Moorhouse family. My cousin Shiela is still alive and well and living in Great Barr (Shiela is the Mom in the previous picture) I'll ask her when I visit Brum again soon.

My family occupied all but one of the houses in Alexandra Terrace halfway down Brougham Street. Although it seems that Alexandra Terrace is long forgotten. Thinking back there never was a sign saying "Alexandra Terrace" so, even if you lived nearby at the time, you may never have known that it was called that. You may recall though that it was up steps about halfway down the street. Originally the terrace was six houses, we lived at number 5. Number one was destroyed in WW2 and the site remained derelict and was known as the "bomb peck".

Directly adjacent to the terrace was a very big house known as "the Bunns house" that had a pear orchard in the garden that was a rich scrumping ground for us kids (do kids still do scrumping I wonder?).

The Bunns house was very notable because of its size, I guess about 10 bedrooms. The end of the garden onto the street was marked by an impressive line of mature sycamore trees. In October there was always masses of leaves fallen in the street that I used to love to trapse through and I loved playing with the "whirly bird" sycamore seeds which we found amongst the leaves.

The Bunns House was derelict when we were kids and, of course, we were forbiden to enter. All the kids were convinced it was haunted and of course we didn't pay much heed to the warnings to keep out. I always remember that I found a WW2 gas mask and an old Nazi helmet in there which I proudly wore in the street much to the consternation of the grown ups !!! As you can imagine, I was a right lttle b*gger !!!

In about 1966 the Bunns House was converted into a "halfway House" by the city council and marked a further sharp declne in the area. The decline process began of course with the massive urban redevelopment plan of the early 60s. When I left Harry Lucas in 68, the school and the Lucas Factory where pretty much the only buildings remaining standing in a wilderness of urban destruction!

Directly across the street from Alexandra Terrace was Marlborough Terrace. Glenda lived at number one and my mate Brian lived at number 4 (I think). I found Glenda on Friends Reunited a couple of years back.

I left the street in 1968 directly on leaving Harry Lucas and migrated with my Mom and Dad to Weston-super-Mare, I'm still here now with family and Grandchildren (Mom and dad died about 10 years back). It was traumatic as a kid to leave Brum, but I realise now that Mom and Dad got their timing exactly right !

I remember a few more names, so, if you want to drop me a line....
 
ha dave i remember the scrumping very well. me and me bro scrumped a load of green grapes once from the top of villa street. ok i will pm later on and have a chat.
 
Thanks for the pm Lyn. Thinking about it I'll mention a few names here, I'm sure they won't mind.

I don't remember the names you mention.

We used to hang out a lot in Villa Street. The meeting place was outside the cafe on the corner with Nursery Road, directly opposite was "The Crown" on one corner and there was a Greengrocer on the other corner. I have strong visual memory of many kids from Villa Street but I can't remember their names. My biggest mate was Colin Beech, Colin was one of the youngest of a big family of "The Beechs'" who had a fierce reputation of being a "bit hard". Actually I believe this was a myth and they were all pussy cats really ! I've got a tape recording from the 60s of the Beech kids at play which I recently transferred to CD. Colin, if you're out there mate, drop me a line for copy !

I remember the Vine very well. Our biggest and most profitable pass time was taking bottles back for the "thrupence on the bottle". I remember the bar maid in the Vine was the most tolerant in accepting bootles that didn't necessarily originate from there. Most other pubs would tell us to "b*gger off" !

Getting back to Brougham Street. I was mates withe the Beale Brothers, Andy and Timmy. Andy was the older Brother and Timmy was (and still is I hope)the same age as me. When Timmy and me got together we were known as "The Kids from Hell!". Some of the things we got to ! Well! One thing is sure I won't relate them here !!!!

Andy and Tim lived at number 60 Brougham Street, their back garden I remember backed up with the back garden of the Vine in Villa Street.

I had a pm as well Lyn, from Kieth Acton who mentioned that you recently had a walk-about in "the old end". Actually, last year we drove up from Weston-super-Mare, were I've lived now for the past 40 years, to do just that. Of course there's not much to see of either Brougham Street of Villa Street now, it's all been replaced for the most part by a small park. Actually I thought it was kind of nice with trees and squirrels running about (the squirrels, not the trees!). Certainly it's a lot better than "the wilderness of Urban destruction" we seen in the 60s! Maybe we could get together and put up a plaque in rememberance of the old streets?

In fact, only two original buliding survive now in Brougham Street. There's St francis' School at one end, and at the other end is number 1 on the corner with Will Street, opposite what was Hurlstons Shop (see ealier pic) on the other corner. In fact number one is empty and dilapidated now and I'm sure that, if it's not pulled down, it will probably fall down of its own accord !

I remember the Angel up as well at the top of Villa Street, on the corner with Wills Street and George Street (do you remember "Wee ways" sweet shop in George Street?). The Angel is actually still there, but now converted to a private house. I took a camera with me, although, as it's private, I thought it best not to take a photograph. I did take one through of "The Waterloo" further up in Wills street. It's now derelect and abandoned after a fire in the 90s I understand.

More later...

Dave
 
Hi Dave - as usual your account of Brougham Street made fantastic reading. Keep them coming.

If you have any photographs of Nursary Road, Farm Street etc, or any of our school mates from Harry Lucas I would be especially pleased?

Look after yourself

keith
 
dave. what good memories you have of the old end. glad you and keith got in touch. i dont recall any of the names you mentioned except for the beech famil. i remember them well. me and my brother used to hang around with them. how nice that you have them on tape. their dad was the chimney sweep as you prob know. do you remember the long entry down to their house? right to the bottom and 1st on the left if memory serves me. i have a pic of the angel pub so i will sort it out and post it for you. dont know if you have seen all the pics i have put on. they are under 2 different threads. go to search at the top of the page type in nursery rd/villa st the 2nd thread under nursery road newsagents. any probs finding them just let me know and i will confuse you even more lol most members on the site know how i am searching for a photo of the vine pub if ever you come accross one please let me know. wales.
 
Hey Lyn! That's fanatstic ! I remember the long entry to the Beechs house perfectly. You prompted my memory though to remind me their dad was the chimney sweep. On the recording "Old man Beech" comes over really well. The recording is an MP3 file and not too big. I'm sure it wouldn't be appropriate to post it here, however, if you send me an email address I will gladly send you a copy if you want.

The story of the tape recorder is a story all of its own. I was the only kid on the block to have his own tape recorder. I remember it was a Fidelity and my Mom paid £24-19-11 for it. Of course, as you know, that was an absolute fortune in those days (I guess the equivalent of £500 at least these days) and my Mom and Dad were, by no stretch of the imagination, rich. The first thing I did was to carry the recorder around to the Beeches to show off and hence the recording that still survives.
 
Also, keep looking on ebay. Millions of postcards were printed in the old days and it's surprising the vast number of scenes and themes they depicted. As I mentioned I just found the original post card of the picture of Brougham street I posted here. I'll be waiting anxiously for the postman this week !
 
hi dave. that would be great. i will pm you my email address thank you. i remember my 1st record player the lide was orange and the 1st record i played on it was the wonder of you by elvis. shout by lulu took a bashing too. have you seen all the photos on the other threads i told you about. it would be good if you could get down to our 60s bash and meet up with some of the other members. any chance of it lyn
 
Hi.Dave.I see you didn't mention Fred or Brian.I hope you are the Dave that I know or that bit wouldn't make sense.Did you go to live in Great Barr in later years?BobS.
 
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