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Chelmsley Wood - Area 10 - Auckland Drive

Chris_Baker

master brummie
My family was one of the first to move into Area 10 of Chelmsley Wood when it was still being built. I think it was in 1969 and I was still at Yorkswood Juniors in Kingshurst (used to go on my bike). We lived on Auckland Drive. For the next three years until we moved away I had a paper round, morning and evening all week. This included the Newnham House block of flats, Auckland Drive, the streets round about and a bit of Chester Road. We moved away in 1972 and I've never been back since except to drive past!

I was idling away my time on Google Maps today and was surprised to see that I could find our house but not the block of shops where the newsagent was. Given that this was over 40 years ago my mind may be playing tricks but I could swear that the shops were somewhere between Auckland Drive and the flats. There are some houses in that area that are obviously newer than the rest. Was the block of shops knocked down, then, and when?

I'd be glad to hear from anyone who knows, or who was around the area at that time.
 
Chris, if you go to Google maps you will see waste land on a new road called Burtons Way,runs between Windwards Way and Auckland Drive.
This is now called Smiths Wood Village centre and it is where the shops have now been relocated.
In the past few years hundreds of houses have been demolished and new ones built.
The regeneration plan is to have every area with its own village centre and shops, the next one to be built is Craig Croft which has now been renamed
Chelmunds Cross.
 
Hi Alberta,

Not a great deal of waste ground there now, pretty well all built on !

The shops in question were in a little row near the old Woodsman pub near Bacons End, and they and the
pub were demolished some years ago. I remember the shop at the end of the block was a CB shop.

The shops in Burtons Way are replacing the old Smith's Wood shopping centre at Arran Way, soon to be demolished.
The latest move is the new Post Office , which moved across in January.

Kind regards

Dave
 
I took these two pictures today (27-2-15) of the new so-called village centre, it is now almost complete. Also, I took a couple of pics of Arran Way, the sooner they are demolished the better.
 

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Thank you, both. Very interesting. I had no idea that this kind of regeneration was going on there. I must stop by one day soon and have a wander around.
 
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