Lady Penelope
master brummie
What a lovely post bullring boy. Just read your post on another thread. Look forward to seeing your name come up lots more times.
-
Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.
We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team -
HI folks the server that hosts the site completely died including the Hdd's and backups.
Luckily i create an offsite backup once a week! this has now been restored so we have lost a few days posts.
im still fixing things at the moment so bear with me and im still working on all images 90% are fine the others im working on now
we are now using a backup solution
Courtyards and yards of brum
- Thread starter Astoness
- Start date
smashing post bullring boy...hope you enjoy the forum..photo here of skinner st to the right..skinner lane on the left ..click on the link below to take you to the skinner lane thread there are a few other pics on it
![City Skinner Street 1968[1] (2).jpg](https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/data/attachments/67/67918-ab540203259f8fe15de842bf27f1401c.jpg "City Skinner Street 1968[1] (2).jpg")
lyn
lyn
Last edited:
bullring boy
master brummie
Thank you so much for your replies and the pictures. I could go on for hours about the times I spent in Hurst street and the surrounding area as a kid, including endless trips to The Hippodrome to see the variety shows and the pantomimes. I think my sister and I were taken to the theatre because there weren't any babysitters in those days! I remember falling asleep during the show, but the two acts that would always wake me up were the ventriloquists and the comedians. Arthur Worsley was my favourite. My dad really liked Ruby Murray and we actually had a box to see her! Tommy Cooper was on the same bill, so that was me sorted!
Wonderful pictures, but conditions were dreadful, mostly outside loos. But the people were generally hard working and honest. I had a part time job as a payments collector for a credit draper in the, in the Lozells and Aston area and collected on a weekly basis. Some customers were out at work and left their doors open, with little piles of money left on the table, with notes like 'club man', insurance man', 'milkman' etc. and I never bothered to lock my car. I am not sure that would happen in today's climate! How things have changed!
bullring boy
master brummie
Hi Wally. How right your are! When reminiscing about our life in the back to backs my older sister always talks about how everyone's door was always open in the yard, and as a child she could always wander in and out of people's houses and always feel safe and welcome. We when moved out to a terraced house in Selly Oak, our front door was always open during the day. We had a little glass door in the hall which you just had to push open to enter the house. We had a doorbell and when it rang I knew it was someone like the Co-op man or the man from Davenports delivering beer and pop! When I heard the door pushed open without the doorbell ringing, then I knew it was one of my many relatives calling round- as they did frequently. I used to get really excited at the sound because I knew that meant I'd get to play with my cousins. I suspect nowadays we all keep our front doors well and truly locked. I guess we've made much material progress- my kids as they grew up didn't have to share an outside lavatory with the neighbours, they didn't have to wash in a tin bath and they've never had to light a coal fire to keep warm- but perhaps we've also lost the comforting sense of community and security. On balance are we winners or losers? It's for each of us to decide I guess.
how true that is wally...very often dad would have his window cleaning money left on the window sill of the terraced houses he cleaned...not so much on the sills of houses that were on the pavements..quite amazing that the money stayed there because lets face it most folk did not have much money back then..happy days though
lyn
MWS
from Bham
Is it the rain?
Pat Sattar-Jennings
master brummie
Great photos & history. I lived in a back to back house Winson Green in the later 60s when I married & had my 3rd child at home - think if was 9/259 Heath Street & in 1973 lived in a back to back house in Greenway Street, off the Coventry Road.
mw0njm.
A Brummie Dude
People did not do nasty things then. even though they had no dosh. it was a comunity,every one looked after one another..
Lovely memories of when I was a youngster in the late 40s and early 50s, our mom took us to the Bull ring on a Saturday , we had winkles and bought a bag of mussels to cook at home, then we walked down past the police station and Birds factory and got to the Crown pub and walked along Heath mill to Allcock street where my aunt lived in a back to back.
I remember a big brick air raid shelter in the yard and the wash house also the toilet block that was up against the railway viaduct, in the winter it was a ghastly sight when the Loo's were frozen.
After playing in a few bomb sites with my cousin we walked back to catch a 50 bus back to the Maypole and our modern prefab, Happy days .
I remember a big brick air raid shelter in the yard and the wash house also the toilet block that was up against the railway viaduct, in the winter it was a ghastly sight when the Loo's were frozen.
After playing in a few bomb sites with my cousin we walked back to catch a 50 bus back to the Maypole and our modern prefab, Happy days .
mw0njm.
A Brummie Dude
when we went fishing in Coleshill.it was a day permit req. you put the dosh in a box fastened to the gate.
The question of people's honesty in those days may have partly been due to the 'Blitz' where people shared air raid shelters and were much closer to each other and helped one another in all things and everyone knew each other's business! Am I being too philosophical?
sospiri
GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN
Not at all, Wally. I knew the names of 80% or more of our neighbours in a 50 yard radius in Sparkhill in the 1940s and I was still in Junior School. Today when I check through the names on the 1945 Electoral Roll, those names still leap out at me at the age of 83. And they were not just names, as you knew quite a lot about them too. Where they worked, the names of their pets, it was just the way of living. Nowadays people living in cities rarely know the names of their next door neighbours let alone someone living 50 yeards away.
In a village or rural area, things may be somewhat different. In my Greek village, my mainly Greek neighbours are my best watchdogs! If a stranger is hanging around, they will quite often keep an eye on that person until they have established whether they are dealing with friend or foe.
Maurice
In a village or rural area, things may be somewhat different. In my Greek village, my mainly Greek neighbours are my best watchdogs! If a stranger is hanging around, they will quite often keep an eye on that person until they have established whether they are dealing with friend or foe.
Maurice
Bob Davis
Bob Davis
No you are remembering things as they were, yes there were thieves and vagabonds about, but they targeted the wealthy, it was all a sort of Robin Hood thing, they did not take from the poor. There was no ostentation then, no designer clothes or bling, the odd Hyacinth Bucket dwelt in the suburbs, but in the main people were friendlier, closer together and even after the war had passed that spirit remained for a while, so can any of those members who remember the war, remember when the change came about, was it the swinging sixties or was it before. I can remember people getting cars, the angst over possible promotions and (it happened to me) the promotion not staying within the company but going to an outsider and around 1958 to 1962 to my knowledge, that outsider now had a university degree. No idea of the job he had been brought into do, no knowledge of the average working man and his day to day life. Just a desire to be as dominant as he could get away with and funnily enough the managers kow-towed to this new breed of business man rather than try to help him change things gently. I saw it happen at both Dunlop and Cannings. When I moved to the West Country, and eventually found a job that paid less than I earned in Birmingham, I realised they were years behind in their thinking and operation and within two years was acting like the people I despised and getting away with it. I think it would be better if you did it this way...........mumble, mumble - and go ahead with it Mr Davis (they were always very formal) and we brought in early automation to the accounts and wages, started to cost jobs properly. We got rid of the back of the cigarette packet system of estimating. Now I get offered graduates to improve my business and increase my profits but they lack the basic human touch and there is no text book or computer that can tell you how to react with the people you deal with. In the forties it was a natural thing for our parents, if you like they knew their place and were content with it. I apologise if I have gone off thread slightly, but I remember when my Dad was in Ladywood and we visited people in the back to backs, we were made welcome and they were proud but honest people and now I grieve for the future. I would suggest that possibly Covid 19 has been an eyeopener to most of those born in the fifties and sixties.
Bob
when we went fishing in Coleshill.it was a day permit req. you put the dosh in a box fastened to the gate.
Hi Pete,
Was that down by Cuttle cottages at the bottom of the hill? I used to take my lad there
when he was little, and he fell in. We had to walk back to Chelmsley Wood, but some kind
person gave us a lift back from near the Police Station.
We caught a Stone Loach there on another occasion, took it home, and kept it in an
aquarium for years.
Kind regards
Dave
mw0njm.
A Brummie Dude
yes. i loved it there. fishing the Blyth.
My dad would have lived in a similar house to this one. 10 BK 79 Vicarage Roadnos 3.4 5 and 6 court 7 cheapside..circa 1905
View attachment 116090
court in cromwell st..duddeston circa 1905
View attachment 116091
yard in milk st 1950s...demolished 1955
(Pic2 (missing) court in cromwell st..duddeston circa 1905
IMG Photobucket won't release this pic2 at the moment ... I'll get it when they are not looking ...
back of 131 fazeley street.. circa 1905
View attachment 116092
This is great. I am researching Barr Street and this is so close. Thank you
Carol davis
New Member
i lived at 2/37 Dolobran Road prior to moving out in 1971
I note with interest your list of family names. My grandmother's maiden name was Martha Holtham although I am not certain of the spelling she was from a family of 7 siblings but was born in St Johns Worcester. I am not sure when she moved to Birmingham but her three daughters were born there they lived in Ladywood her married name was Wilcox
Right in the city, safe for kids and a community spirit. With a few tweaks of course.
Like a layer of breeze blocks between houses, more toilets and three floors.
Better than living in a flat.
Special thanks to Mikegee for the brilliant deduction in finding Carey's court , they should build some more.
Like a layer of breeze blocks between houses, more toilets and three floors.
Better than living in a flat.
Special thanks to Mikegee for the brilliant deduction in finding Carey's court , they should build some more.
My Gran & Grandad brought up 11 Children in a courtyard house in Gerrard St & my Gran was fortunate that she never lost one. They moved too a bigger house with an attic in Fentham Rd Aston where they all grew up.
Seeing your photos just brings back memories for me. My parents, brothers & I, moved to Hereford as Dad worked for Henry Wiggins and was relocated in 1964, but we use to live at 6/177 Icknield Port Road & Firs Farm Estate Castle Bromwich.
Athough I love it here Brum will always be home.
Seeing your photos just brings back memories for me. My parents, brothers & I, moved to Hereford as Dad worked for Henry Wiggins and was relocated in 1964, but we use to live at 6/177 Icknield Port Road & Firs Farm Estate Castle Bromwich.
Athough I love it here Brum will always be home.
These are great photos of Brum. I was born in the Sorrento Hospital and1of my brothers in Dudley Road hospital we now live in Hereford.
We lived at 6/177 Ickneiled Port Rd off Dudley road which was 6 houses either side a path 3 box outside toilets each side which you shared with your neighbour & 2 wash houses to share. Mom use to get up at 6 to put boiler on for washing when it was her turn to use.
Tin Bath in front of fire, water heated on tiny stove in poky kitchen. We left there about 1958 to move into flat, which was luxury, on the Firs Estate Castle Bromwich.
We lived at 6/177 Ickneiled Port Rd off Dudley road which was 6 houses either side a path 3 box outside toilets each side which you shared with your neighbour & 2 wash houses to share. Mom use to get up at 6 to put boiler on for washing when it was her turn to use.
Tin Bath in front of fire, water heated on tiny stove in poky kitchen. We left there about 1958 to move into flat, which was luxury, on the Firs Estate Castle Bromwich.
patricia NASH
knowlegable brummie
patricia NASH
knowlegable brummie
the strange thing was no 2 courts were a like all over brum central there was hundreds of them
