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Dorridge

which no on knowle wood road is showing as the royal oak....ill have a walk down and check it out. if its still there ???
 
Well as my memory serves me next to what is now Vine cottage, where the newer houses are, but before you get to the entrance of coal and oil depot, was the entrance to the livestock yard where cattle auctions were held. The houses on the right hand side of Poplar Road, as you enter it from Station Road, all had at one time, maybe still, a pig sty built at the rear of the property. Access to the cattle yard could be made from the rear of most properties on the right hand side if wanted. I know this because as a very small boy my friend Chris, who lived a little further up on the right from number 15 and myself entered the market from the rear of his building and thought we'd save the auctioneer some time so we obtained the marker paint and a brush used by the yardmen to mark the pigs and we just finished the job and painted 5 pigs completely blue!

Where the sheltered housing is further up Poplar Road on the left, the vehicle delivery centre (MAT Transport) as was, was preceded by a coal and cattle delivery yard. Cattle would have been herded from this yard to the market down what is Copstone Drive.

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To me placing a pub next door to the market would be most appropriate.

You may also want to know that where the odd number houses end and just before Fennis Close, This was the site of the first Village Hall in Dorridge. I attended disco's regularly there with even live bands performing. It was so popular the place was packed solid with people. Monies raised went towards the building of the New Village Hall next to St Philip's Church where further a new youth club was implanted in the basement. This new venue was never as popular.

Eventually the next village hall was built up by the Railway Inn and the bowling club was also built.

At the rear of the Forest Hotel, where the car park for the precinct is was a flat green boiling club and above the Garages at the rear of the Forest was the Dorridge and Packwood British Legion Club. Now long gone.

I'm going to try to get my cousins to add there memories as one of them and his wife worked damned hard with for the Youth Club.
 
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Dorridge and Packwood British Legion whose meeting place was above the garages at the rear of The Forest Hotel wanted something more permanent for Remembrance Sunday. So they commissioned the construction of a Cenotaph of their own. It was made of wood and stood next to Cock and Thextons where the car park for the first precinct is today. I don't know what ever happened to it but I'm proud to say it was built by my Father in his workshop at the back of 15 Poplar Road.
 
Hi thats a great picture, a clever man indeed in building that. Its ironic but the present day memorial is there also , right in that very spot my children in cubs and nowadays Scouits still lay the wreath. Thanks for that great picture.
 
I had a response from the Knowle Historical society over the weekend regarding The Vine (public House) , its now offices and I dont even know if its the same building as it was back then but apparently according to them it was still on the census in 1911 as a public house and the landlord was a Mr Joseph Lawrence. Any more infos would be most appreciated especially photos.
 
Hi just another appeal for a photo of The Vine pub in Dorridge, someone somewhere mustttttt have one , I wonder if the Knowle society have one, does anyone know anyone in the society that could ask. I am convinced that the building that is there today is the original pub building. Helllllpppp
 
It is listed as an Inn with Joseph Lawrence as the licensee in the 1912 Kelly's directory - I don't have access to later versions online apart from 1940 and it is not listed then.

Janice
 
changinman1 said:
Hi just another appeal for a photo of The Vine pub in Dorridge, someone somewhere mustttttt have one , I wonder if the Knowle society have one, does anyone know anyone in the society that could ask. I am convinced that the building that is there today is the original pub building. Helllllpppp
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Hi have you tried dropping in to the Knowle Library as the History Society can usually be found upstairs on Saturdays. Need to check they still do this.
 
I don't know anywhere. The best bet is finding a picture with a characteristic sign on it
 
I used to live on Newbold Close in Bentley Heath. My best friend Peter and I did a lot of train spotting in Dorridge and at the Bentley Heath crossing. I used to take ballroom dancing lessons at the Bentley Heath Community Hall. Anyone know what ever happened to them?
 
applet said:
Mr Gillooly was a chirpodist, he moved his practise into Manor Road, actually opposite where the Bouchers lived and very near the church. I was in the same class as Janet Gillooly at Dorridge infants and Junior school. And Jimmy Knibb was the demon barber.

Thanks Paul for this collection.
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Glad that you used my Dad's shop. He did sixty haircuts per day in his prime. You don't get that service now!
 
changinman1 said:
Hi just another appeal for a photo of The Vine pub in Dorridge, someone somewhere mustttttt have one , I wonder if the Knowle society have one, does anyone know anyone in the society that could ask. I am convinced that the building that is there today is the original pub building. Helllllpppp
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The reason you can’t find anything after the 1911 census is because my grandfather leased The Vine at the start of WW2 so he could move his entire family out of Birmingham and left when the lease ran out in the early 1970s! We are looking to see if we have any photos of it but my mum remembers that parts of the building were rented to various local businesses - Midland Bank, a local sculptor, cattlemen as there was a cattle yard at the back and Restalls (spellings prob wrong) who made dyes, my grandfather also ran an antique shop from it too! Hope this helps!
 
Karen H said:
The reason you can’t find anything after the 1911 census is because my grandfather leased The Vine at the start of WW2 so he could move his entire family out of Birmingham and left when the lease ran out in the early 1970s! We are looking to see if we have any photos of it but my mum remembers that parts of the building were rented to various local businesses - Midland Bank, a local sculptor, cattlemen as there was a cattle yard at the back and Restalls (spellings prob wrong) who made dyes, my grandfather also ran an antique shop from it too! Hope this helps!
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Wow didn't know this , yes it would be amazing if you had some photos , there aren't many at all in circulation , I don't think ive seen one that's more than 30 years old.
 
changinman1 said:
Wow didn't know this , yes it would be amazing if you had some photos , there aren't many at all in circulation , I don't think ive seen one that's more than 30 years old.
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My mum has seen the photo of Vine House and said that used to be the main building of what had been a coaching inn as it had stables, a hay loft and a number of outbuildings, there were also two greenhouses which housed vines and during WW2 one of the vines produced sweeter grapes and they used to barter them for things they needed! We’re still looking for a photo but can’t find one at present!
 
My grandpa Benjamin Thexton and his brother in law Frank Cock started Cock & Thexton in the 1930s. Uncle Frank and Auntie Cissie lived above the shop and Granny and Grandpa Thexton lived at Farleton, 3 Forest Road, a few minutes’ walk up the hill. It was the first house in Forest Road but still No.3. My mother Margery and her brother Ronald went respectively to the King’s High School, Warwick and Solihull School. Margery met Eric Fiddian at Birmingham City Council House and after the war lived in Dorridge, in Temple Road, which was unmade up then with no houses after the Whelocks’ until Avenue Road. We went to school in Solihull.

Cock & Thexton had a bakery (buzzing with terrifying wasps!) across the back yard where cousin Billy would take me when I was little to get a warm Chelsea bun, which I would eat walking up the hill to Forest Road with Grandpa. The Cock Robin Cafe and the sweet shop were added and followed by the off licence. I worked in the sweet shop in summer 1962 before going up to university. The box of chocolate buttons by the till were a constant temptation.

In those days almost everything was delivered, not only groceries but meat, fish and vegetables. Mr Lander the Milkman used to let me ride on the horse sometimes. It was a patient beast and stoically bore this over-excited cowgirl on its back as it plodded along Temple Road on Saturday morning.

My brothers were born at 7 Temple Road and, like me, christened at St Philip’s Church.

Our biggest thrill - leaning over Grove’s Bridge to see the steam trains thundering through between London and Birmingham. Then Mummy de-smutting us with spit and a hanky as we all got black faces from the smoke!
 
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