Chester Road Bridge Accident - Poor Image

[Lady Penelope]

I realise that this is a very poor photo. It's a scan of a photocopy of a newspaper cutting. You can see what a near miss the bus (No. 28) is having but the lorry carrying the tank wasn't so lucky. The road was lowered not long afterwards causing different problems with flooding.
Such an interesting photo though.

We judge the original photograph to have been taken in the 1950's and it probably appeared in the Birmingham Mail. Bit worried about how close that little girl is standing to the bus or is it in fact stuck too? I do wish I knew more about this accident.

I'd really appreciate any repairs anyone can do to the picture or any additional information or thoughts please.

I'm also attaching a photo of flooding which happens during heavy rains as a result of the road being lowered. I've posted it before on the forum on the 'adverse weather' thread.

 

[jukebox]

Flood picture improved a bit - not sure if I can do anything with the other one. Later edit - poor attempt!

 

[mikejee]

I think from this cutting from August 1958, that the incident must be that mentioned with the steel hopper earlier that year

 

[mikejee]

Unfortunately there are no Birmingham mail issues on the archive for the 1950s

 

[Lady Penelope]

Thank you both.

Mike that's a really good cutting as it ties the date of the bridge to between April and August so not many issues of the Mail to go through as I first thought. Unfortunately it was a daily paper but I could do it a bit at a time.

 

[Pedrocut]

Birmingham Post, September 1958 shows Pickfords slowly creeping through the bridge.

 

[Lady Penelope]

Thanks Pedro, I was under the impression that the flooding only occurred after the road was lowered but this photograph from August 1948 shows quite deep water. It must have been lowered again after the incidents in Mike's post. This picture is from Marian Baxter's 'Sutton Coldfield, the Second Selection'. I think the picture originally came from Birmingham Library.

 

[John L]

There have often been problems with railway bridges in Erdington due to flooding and low bridges on that line. Here are a couple more photos from 2012 (Chester Road), 2018 (Summer Lane) & 2015 (Summer Lane):

 

[Jonob]

Here's a 1956 image, J.

 

[John L]

Summer Lane does floods too (in 2017) :

 

[Jonob]

Summer Lane does floods too (in 2017) :

View attachment 168366

Summer Road?

 

[John L]

100% correct Jonob. I got my roads and my lanes mixed up.

 

[Lady Penelope]

Summer Road was originally Summer Lane!

 

[Lady Penelope]

Here's a 1956 image, J.

That's a good one Jonob. It shows the houses on Chester Road which were demolished to make way for the car park and also the lack of railings on the 'Erdington side' of the road. Thank you.