Church Road, Yardley.

[Dave89]

Hi

I also remember the record shop. I bought a Judge Dread LP from there
but I hate to think how many years ago. I still like Judge Dread records though!

There was also a photocopier shop near the corner with Harvey Road.
It was started by a couple of ex Gestetner engineers. This would have been early 90s.

Kind regards
Dave

 

[suemalings]

I used to go to Dawkins newsagent regularly. My scooter was nicked from outside when I was about 11 years old. When I went recently to pay the papers for my MIL (who still lives in St Edburghs Road) the young man in there showed me a lovely photo of Mrs Dawkins standing at the bus stop outside the shop. I remember Mrs Ward and David. I used to see her in Miss Henn's shop, halfway along Wroxton Road. The Dawkin's SIL (Roy, I think) painted me a lovely picture of Yardley Church and the Trust School.

MIL would like to know who you are! See if she remember's your family. Would you send me a private message and let me know your name?

 

[oldbrit]

Just down from the newsagent on Church Rd, that I am sure you are talking about, the Barbers shop, Billy Haden I think, There was a crescent with a shop on the corner, maybe a sweet shop, this was in the early 1950s, The street was short, a cul de sac can't think of the name? But we lived there at one time on that street, at the end, before we moved to Moat Lane. This street was demolished now a parking lot for the Tesco store? Loved the fresh bread from the bakery.

 

[Lumpammer]

Just down from the newsagent on Church Rd, that I am sure you are talking about, the Barbers shop, Billy Haden I think, There was a crescent with a shop on the corner, maybe a sweet shop, this was in the early 1950s, The street was short, a cul de sac can't think of the name? But we lived there at one time on that street, at the end, before we moved to Moat Lane. This street was demolished now a parking lot for the Tesco store? Loved the fresh bread from the bakery.

I think the cul de sac you mean was Milton Crescent, which lead to Hardings bakery. In have just looked on Google and it is still there but with no name. I used to go to Hardings on a Saturday looking to help one of the drivers for the day, I also used to go to Saturday matinee at the Tivoli.

 

[Edifi]

I worked with a wonderful man at Marsh &Baxter's at Castle Bromwich who lived opposite Yardley Old Church.His name was Victor Saunders ,he had a son named Keith who lived almost next door.Does anyone remember them

 

[oldbrit]

I think the cul de sac you mean was Milton Crescent, which lead to Harding's bakery. In have just looked on Google and it is still there but with no name. I used to go to Hardings on a Saturday looking to help one of the drivers for the day, I also used to go to Saturday matinee at the Tivoli.

This was on the other side of the bakery same side as the barbers' shop etc,

 

[jmadone]

I think the cul de sac you mean was Milton Crescent, which lead to Hardings bakery. In have just looked on Google and it is still there but with no name. I used to go to Hardings on a Saturday looking to help one of the drivers for the day, I also used to go to Saturday matinee at the Tivoli.

Am I right in remembering that the Saturday matinee at the Tivoli was in the afternoon. I can remember once going to my "usual" one at the Sheldon in the morning and then going to another one in the afternoon but I can't recall whether it was the Tivoli or the Adelphi in Hay Mills.

 

[wendylee]

Am I right in remembering that the Saturday matinee at the Tivoli was in the afternoon. I can remember once going to my "usual" one at the Sheldon in the morning and then going to another one in the afternoon but I can't recall whether it was the Tivoli or the Adelphi in Hay Mills.

Hi,
Oh yes the kids Saturday matinee at the Sheldon, loved it! The Adelphi was in Hay Mills it was nicknamed "The fleapit" for some reason. It was later a bathroom supply place sometime in the 70's as we bought some kitchen cabinets and bench tops there.
I think the Tivoli was near The Blues ground.
Wendy

 

[devonjim]

Hi,

I think the Tivoli was near The Blues ground.
Wendy

Tivoli was at the Swan, Kingston was by the Blues ground, opposite the bus garage.

 

[jmadone]

Tivoli was at the Swan, Kingston was by the Blues ground, opposite the bus garage.

But both owned by the same people.

 

[jmadone]

Hi,
Oh yes the kids Saturday matinee at the Sheldon, loved it! The Adelphi was in Hay Mills it was nicknamed "The fleapit" for some reason. It was later a bathroom supply place sometime in the 70's as we bought some kitchen cabinets and bench tops there.
I think the Tivoli was near The Blues ground.
Wendy

The Adelphi was also a nightclub at one time,

 

[devonjim]

The travel agent was Bill Simmonds trading as W .T. Simmonds he also owned the newsagents next door. He ran it with his wife and they had a daughter but I cannot remember her name. Bill died young due to all the Senior Service he smoked and his wife continued with the business for a while. I left the area in 1959 after living in Hob Moor Road close to the Yew Tree for 20 years. My parents continued to live there until retiring down to Gloucestershire in 1967.

Booked our honeymoon trip to Tunisia at Simmonds's in 1968!

 

[wendylee]

OOOps thanks devonjim, I got that wrong then yes it was the Kingston at the Blues Ground, but now I cant visualise where the Tivoli was near the Swan. Thank goodness I am certain where the Sheldon was, we had many saturday matinees there as kids.
Wendy

 

[devonjim]

On the corner of Lily Rd. Just along from where Tesco's now is.

 

[wendylee]

On the corner of Lily Rd. Just along from where Tesco's now is.

Hi Devonjim thank you for that, I remember the name Tivoli cinema but now you have given me the address I cannot for the life of me visualise it.... does anyone know when it was demolished?
Wendy

 

[devonjim]

www.cinematreasures.org/theaters/39677
Wendy does this help?

 

[oldbrit]

Snogged a few "birds" in the back of the Tiv. Flash Gordon and the Pathe news. Happy days after the war

 

[geofred]

oldbrit, was the road you were thinking of The Causeway? I am certain it was first on the right going towards the Swan from the Yew Tree and just past the field/barracks which was opposite Harvey Road.

 

[oldbrit]

oldbrit, was the road you were thinking of The Causeway? I am certain it was first on the right going towards the Swan from the Yew Tree and just past the field/barracks which was opposite Harvey Road.

Thats it!!! The Causeway Thanks the little grey sells are getting darker. It backed onto the park that was there. Walked through and came by the Old Bill that was a cop shop at one time.

 

[Lumpammer]

www.cinematreasures.org/theaters/39677
Wendy does this help?

I can remember that a Comet Electrical was on the site of the Tivoli and a bank on the corner of Lily Road. Must have been 70’s.

 

[wendylee]

Hi Jim It does help, I do not have any memory of the cinema now I have seen the photo,, the information on the tells me i was only 10 when it closed, I have never been there maybe I just recall someone talking about it! thanks for the help.

I can remember that a Comet Electrical was on the site of the Tivoli and a bank on the corner of Lily Road. Must have been 70’s.

Ah yes I do remember Comet Electrical

 

[Andycap]

But both owned by the same people.

Living top end of Bolton rd, near Golden Hillock rd which was on the No8 Bus route, we did the short trip to sparkhill to attend the Waldorf in walford rd, and the Piccadilly on the stratford rd......took the bottles back for a refund to pay for the entry fee during school hols ha ha...

 

[Elmdon Boy]

The Adelphi was also a nightclub at one time,

Yes I remember going past it on the bus, late 60s or early 70s and seeing the group 3 Dog Night appearing there. They had a hit record at the time, Mama told me not to come.
It was later used as a religious temple or perhaps a mosque I seem to remember.
In the late 50s I saw the film The Duke wore jeans starring Tommy Steel there.

 

[Spargone]

It was later used as a religious temple or perhaps a mosque I seem to remember.

The Adelphi was at one time the Namadhari Sangat Community Centre.

I always thought of the Tivoli as the place for the 'big' films, compared to the Sheldon. The Tivoli showed Oklahoma and Bambi for instance. The Sheldon was closer to us, so as children we got to go to the Saturday morning shows. The only 'big' film that I remember there was Sink The Bismark. Once we went to the Tivoli by car. Dad tended to bring a different car home every night from the Rover works so he was a bit slow reacting when a message came up on screen, scratched onto a bit of 'black' film, "Will the owner of..." Very embarassing! Best memories of the cinema were probably going to the News Theatre in town to see some cartoons. There was a certain thrill in reading the moving 'text messages' above the cinema but maybe best of all was popping into the Oxford restaurant, sitting on a padded stool with chromed stem, and having a bowl of tomato soup! In retrospect that was probably stretching Mum's budget to the limit. (In those days Mum and two children sometimes got to share a whole small bag of Butterkist popcorn. My nephews had a mega-bucket each and refused to share a single grain).

 

[Dennis Williams]

Regarding the Tivoli, Swan and New Inn

Living in South Yardley all my childhood, now some forty odd years in Church Road Yardley, you may understand why I have such a like of the Swan Pub and it's environs, at the junction with Church Road, and Coventry Road.....a significant part of my Bowls life, as Dad played there for many years, when they had a Green....and my teenage life, when we followed the Rockin' Modernaires who played there regularly.....all gone now of course......but this post was inspired by an old pic of the old TIVOLI Picture House, which was opposite the lesser known Pub The New Inn, which still exists, but in a much different form....the Tivoli, now the Swan Centre and Tescos finest....was also the scene of a Night Club, The Cavendish, where we once saw Bob Monkhouse do the bluest act I've ever seen! And I do remember some old lady giving me some stick for snogging in the back row of the Tivoli when about 14........and this was well before anything even slightly risque was even thought of...! Nosey mare....! Anyway, here are some pics I've collected of that iconic spot over the years....

 

[oldbrit]

Regarding the Tivoli, Swan and New Inn

Living in South Yardley all my childhood, now some forty odd years in Church Road Yardley, you may understand why I have such a like of the Swan Pub and it's environs, at the junction with Church Road, and Coventry Road.....a significant part of my Bowls life, as Dad played there for many years, when they had a Green....and my teenage life, when we followed the Rockin' Modernaires who played there regularly.....all gone now of course......but this post was inspired by an old pic of the old TIVOLI Picture House, which was opposite the lesser known Pub The New Inn, which still exists, but in a much different form....the Tivoli, now the Swan Centre and Tescos finest....was also the scene of a Night Club, The Cavendish, where we once saw Bob Monkhouse do the bluest act I've ever seen! And I do remember some old lady giving me some stick for snogging in the back row of the Tivoli when about 14........and this was well before anything even slightly risque was even thought of...! Nosey mare....! Anyway, here are some pics I've collected of that iconic spot over the years....


View attachment 133751View attachment 133752View attachment 133754View attachment 133755View attachment 133756View attachment 133757View attachment 133758View attachment 133760View attachment 133761View attachment 133762View attachment 133764View attachment 133765View attachment 133767View attachment 133768View attachment 133770View attachment 133771View attachment 133772View attachment 133773

Dennis. I started the Modernaires band in the 1950s but when I left for the USA in 1957 they disbanded and then another group took the name. We played upstairs at Swan pub many many times, packed them in for dancing over the weekends, great times and lots of fun. We played all the local pubs for years. Arthur Ashworth was our manager, he lived in Sheldon of course now, except for me, are all long gone now, happy I lived at 126 Moat lane, for almost all my life, till I left age 23 for the USA (Snogging in the back of the Tiv did that a few times also). My first girl friend June Howell live in the Prefabs on Moat lane

 

[Spargone]

Regarding the Tivoli, Swan and New Inn

Some good pictures there! I am curious as to where the rear-engined bus is going, (opposite Harvey Road?), was it a 'short route' number 11?
I remember when the underpass at The Swan was being built, that was when The New Inn became a pre-fab. One of the first things they did was to convert the roundabout into a traffic light-controlled crossroads. To my mind, as a schoolboy stuck on a 58/60, the traffic flowed a lot better. I wondered if back at the city engineer's office they were having the same thought and that they were just about to waste £1.5M, (was that the figure?), on the underpass. It never really fixed the outer circle problem anyway. (The unique characteristic of Birmingham roads is the way 1930's dual-carriageways suddenly collapse into 1830's 'cart tracks', squeezing between a gap in the houses that Hitler unfortunately never widened.

 

[oldbrit]

The #11 went down Church Rd to the Yew Tree then on to Aston and around, used to take it to the Villa games as a kid loved to ride the #11 all the way to Smethwick to see my Grandparents.

 

[Elmdon Boy]

I always thought of the Tivoli as the place for the 'big' films, compared to the Sheldon.

Spargone, I saw the following films at The Sheldon. South Pacific, The Vikings (Kirk Douglas), The king and I, Davy Crocket and the River Pirates, 633 Squadron, A night to Remember ( First Titanic film), All the early James Bond films, Fistful of Dollars, A few dollars more, The good the bad and the ugly, The Battle of Britain, The Blue Max, Magnificent men and there flying machines, these are the ones I remember, I think they can be classed as 'big' films.

 

[jmadone]

The Adelphi was at one time the Namadhari Sangat Community Centre.

I always thought of the Tivoli as the place for the 'big' films, compared to the Sheldon. The Tivoli showed Oklahoma and Bambi for instance. The Sheldon was closer to us, so as children we got to go to the Saturday morning shows. The only 'big' film that I remember there was Sink The Bismark. Once we went to the Tivoli by car. Dad tended to bring a different car home every night from the Rover works so he was a bit slow reacting when a message came up on screen, scratched onto a bit of 'black' film, "Will the owner of..." Very embarassing! Best memories of the cinema were probably going to the News Theatre in town to see some cartoons. There was a certain thrill in reading the moving 'text messages' above the cinema but maybe best of all was popping into the Oxford restaurant, sitting on a padded stool with chromed stem, and having a bowl of tomato soup! In retrospect that was probably stretching Mum's budget to the limit. (In those days Mum and two children sometimes got to share a whole small bag of Butterkist popcorn. My nephews had a mega-bucket each and refused to share a single grain).

I can remember being taken by my parents to see "The Cockleshell Heroes". During the war my Dad was a Royal Marine and it was a "must see" film for him. I can remember queuing with them for the second showing and the queue was from the foyer, down the stairs to the emergency exit and then back up to the foyer. During the film Dad kept pointing out various things and locations especially around Portsmouth at Eastney Barracks. There was one point in the film where the R.M. band was marching through the barrack gates and my Dad swore to me that he'd seen the Drum Major throw his ceremonial staff (Mace?) up in the air on one side of the gate, march through and then catch it on the other side!
Happy Sheldon memories.