changinman1
master brummie
Hi ...would anyone by chance have any photos of Poplar Road , Dorridge in their collections please.
Cheers
Cheers
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Dorridge
- Thread starter changinman1
- Start date
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BernardR
Guest
Hi - Have you tried the Knowle History Society (not the 'Knowle Society' though they may be worth a try as well) they have a (or used to have anyway) a pitch up the stairs in Knowle Library but can't recall when it is manned. I may have a name for you if I can remember it. They have old maps etc etc. Another place is Solihull Library who have a fair few photos they can copy for you.
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changinman1
master brummie
Fan flamintastic.......the cottages there are still as they were......my house is about a quarter of a mile up Poplar road...a 50,s built house.....I wonder where I could get one of my section of Poplar road......
cheers for taking the time to find this for me.....
cheers for taking the time to find this for me.....
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BernardR
Guest
Having lived previously in Knowle I think the problem may be that higher up Poplar Road was most likely field and of course the brick making quarry that was off Mill Lane but ran at the rear of the houses built on the left hand side of Poplar Road. Therefore the likelihood of other than private photographs existing is pretty remote in my opinion. However searches of old maps may prove of use.
changinman1
master brummie
so did Poplar road just simply finish after the cottages until the 1950,s when my houses were built....
changinman1
master brummie
Hi thanks for going to the trouble....it is actually Knowle high street...cheers Karl
changinman1
master brummie
great ....i wanted to see them in their original state I have not seen any pics of these houses before....., mine was built in 1957 I believe and is situated on the even side of the road near to edstone close .....where roughly is your house , and is it true you have lived there since 1960 ? , and I noticed a toddler in the window........what was you doing to the ground.....new drive?. When I bought mine it had the old Birmingham windows still ....I replaced them though . Any more pics would be appreciated.....what else ..oh ye is it true that they had outside loos.....can you give me an idea of the original layout of the houses please....thanks ......
I moved from Poplar Road around 1970 but lived at 118 from 1960, which was when I was born. My parents bought the house from new in 1959.
It definitely did not have an outside loo and was quite a decent house for its time.
The house backed on to Edstone Close - where I spent many days playing football until the residents ganged up on us and turfed us out - as you can see in the images.
(Replacement images)
It definitely did not have an outside loo and was quite a decent house for its time.
The house backed on to Edstone Close - where I spent many days playing football until the residents ganged up on us and turfed us out - as you can see in the images.
(Replacement images)
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changinman1
master brummie
wow...im impressed.......I live at 110.....been there since 1999...luv the pics....the road has hardly changed.........cant believe that you had no fence seperating u from the edstone clse houses......
When you get a moment, can you get a decent photo of 118 as it is today and send it over ?
Poplar Road was dominated by the railway when I was there. There was a very busy car marshalling yard just down the road from me that saw transporter wagons being loaded up non-stop ...... all new houses last time I drove past.
There was a "fly-ash" track running alongside the yard which was still there a couple of years ago where you could walk around to the level crossing on Mill Lane. We used to spend many days paddling in the brook alongside the path, catching small sticklebacks or catching small frogs around the edge of the railway track where they used to frequently fall into the concrete ducting for the signal cabelling !
All the kids in the area were railway buffs as there wasn't much else to do except kick around on Edstone Close green. I even remember my school (Dorridge Primary) finishing early some days so that the teacher could walk us up to the bridge over the crossing to see the Blue Pullman prototype diesel train go past ...... still in steam days then !
The guy across the road (name was "Passmore" I think) ran the Mill Lane crossing signal box and I was the only kid allowed up there ...... completely terrified me as he always kidded me I was in charge !!!
All the kids used to hang onto the crossing gates as he used to open them ...... of course they are all barriers now !
I remember the day a diesel loco derailed and was left near hanging off the bridge in Dorridge centre ..... still remember people walking under the bridge business as usual. No fuss in those days and no health and safety either !
PS: Our neighbours in the 1960s (one up the hill from us - "Sutton" family) are still there today so you should hook up with them sometime !
Poplar Road was dominated by the railway when I was there. There was a very busy car marshalling yard just down the road from me that saw transporter wagons being loaded up non-stop ...... all new houses last time I drove past.
There was a "fly-ash" track running alongside the yard which was still there a couple of years ago where you could walk around to the level crossing on Mill Lane. We used to spend many days paddling in the brook alongside the path, catching small sticklebacks or catching small frogs around the edge of the railway track where they used to frequently fall into the concrete ducting for the signal cabelling !
All the kids in the area were railway buffs as there wasn't much else to do except kick around on Edstone Close green. I even remember my school (Dorridge Primary) finishing early some days so that the teacher could walk us up to the bridge over the crossing to see the Blue Pullman prototype diesel train go past ...... still in steam days then !
The guy across the road (name was "Passmore" I think) ran the Mill Lane crossing signal box and I was the only kid allowed up there ...... completely terrified me as he always kidded me I was in charge !!!
All the kids used to hang onto the crossing gates as he used to open them ...... of course they are all barriers now !
I remember the day a diesel loco derailed and was left near hanging off the bridge in Dorridge centre ..... still remember people walking under the bridge business as usual. No fuss in those days and no health and safety either !
PS: Our neighbours in the 1960s (one up the hill from us - "Sutton" family) are still there today so you should hook up with them sometime !
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changinman1
master brummie
definiteley will get a photo of 118 over the weekend...and post it .....
changinman1
master brummie
love your story....bet dorridge was even lovelier then as it was more rural....now u have the new estates the other side of the railway.......what was the original heating in the houses ?
my house is slightly different to yours....ours was built with a thru lounge and a serving hatch (yuk)...I boarded it up....and I am pos you had to go out of the kitchen door outside to the garage and loo......as when we moved in there was a toilet in a kind of out building but with a roof attached to the side wall....its all different no though as we had it extended.....
I like the fact that its east facing....quite nice....get the sun all day (well most).....both my boys go to Dorridge infant and junior school....its a lovely school....high standards as well.....
my house is slightly different to yours....ours was built with a thru lounge and a serving hatch (yuk)...I boarded it up....and I am pos you had to go out of the kitchen door outside to the garage and loo......as when we moved in there was a toilet in a kind of out building but with a roof attached to the side wall....its all different no though as we had it extended.....
I like the fact that its east facing....quite nice....get the sun all day (well most).....both my boys go to Dorridge infant and junior school....its a lovely school....high standards as well.....
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BernardR
Guest
I can't help with the Poplar houses although I recall visiting a friend of a friend whose family had just moved into a new house built in 1955 Kingscote Road. However my father bought a house in Billesley built around 1949 and that certainly did not have an outside Loo.
The house I lived in in Dorridge was built in 1955 and had a [second] downstairs (loo next to the coal store) but the main loo was upstairs.
The house I lived in in Dorridge was built in 1955 and had a [second] downstairs (loo next to the coal store) but the main loo was upstairs.
changinman1
master brummie
yes that maybe what the case was in my house...as there was a loo and next to it a coverted larder....and a roof over it which was a definite add on.....so I guess originall it was an outside loo and a coal house.....mmm thnks for that.
changinman1
master brummie
where did u live in dorridge Bernie.........and why am i clssified on here as a novice brummie.......im born and bred .....is it classified on how many posts u put in..
changinman1
master brummie
Thanks Paul....ye How Will U Check The Layout.....have U Got A Document....
Sorry, not about Poplar Road, outside loos or 1950s houses but…
I’m finding this thread interesting as both of my parents spent some of their childhood in Knowle and Dorridge. My father lived at a house called “Holmlea” in Chessetts Wood Road. He was there from around 1913/14 until he went off in 1917 to fight for King and Country on the Western Front. The family moved there from central Birmingham for health reasons – the mother had t.b. and the rural air of Dorridge was deemed beneficial. My mother’s home was with her grandparents at “Salisbury” at the top of Station Road near to Lodge Road and High Street. She was there much longer, from around 1904 until her marriage in 1921. (Map attached – acknowledgement to the excellent “History of Knowle” by Eva Wootton, The Roundwood Press, 1972).
I was driven past both of those properties about 60 years ago and I suspect that the area might have changed since then and since my parents knew it as children - just the merest touch, perhaps! And whether the houses still exist, I have no idea.
Sorry to intrude upon your thread, changinman1, and I hope you get the pics you want.
Chris
I’m finding this thread interesting as both of my parents spent some of their childhood in Knowle and Dorridge. My father lived at a house called “Holmlea” in Chessetts Wood Road. He was there from around 1913/14 until he went off in 1917 to fight for King and Country on the Western Front. The family moved there from central Birmingham for health reasons – the mother had t.b. and the rural air of Dorridge was deemed beneficial. My mother’s home was with her grandparents at “Salisbury” at the top of Station Road near to Lodge Road and High Street. She was there much longer, from around 1904 until her marriage in 1921. (Map attached – acknowledgement to the excellent “History of Knowle” by Eva Wootton, The Roundwood Press, 1972).
I was driven past both of those properties about 60 years ago and I suspect that the area might have changed since then and since my parents knew it as children - just the merest touch, perhaps! And whether the houses still exist, I have no idea.
Sorry to intrude upon your thread, changinman1, and I hope you get the pics you want.
Chris
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Hi Changinman, My sister has lived in Dorridge for a few years now, she loves it. She walks for miles around the area, at times she even got as far as Packwood house and back. I visited her not so long ago and she trailed me around the park, i'm afraid i'm not as fit as she is, and i'm ten years younger.
Thanks for that suggestion, jennyann. Chessetts Wood Road appears now to be full of many desirable properties. Looking at roughly the spot where my father’s home stood I suspect that the modest structure now lies under a treble garage or a swimming pool.
I remember his saying that the house backed on to the GWR main line – a source of great envy to me - and he told me a story about that.
As a fifteen or sixteen-year-old in around 1916, he made a practice of taking a shotgun out into the adjoining fields to pot a rabbit or two for the family table. Inevitably, from time to time the juiciest targets were on the other side of the line, a minor inconvenience which did not discourage him in the slightest from violating GWR airspace with his pellets. But one day the Railway Police hammered on the front door, voiced their disapproval at this practice which had come to their notice, warned that a recurrence would result in prosecution and went on their way.
My grandfather issued the required reprimand and in the course of the ensuing discussion invited my father to show him precisely where this misdemeanour normally occurred. Out of the back door, down the garden, into the field and up to the railway line. At this point, my grandfather - who had picked up the shotgun on the way out - spotted a target in a field on the other side of the line, found the temptation too hard to resist, banged off at it and was promptly nabbed by the Railway Police who were still lurking in some nearby undergrowth.
Setting the right example was clearly no easier for a parent 90 years ago than it is today.
Chris
I remember his saying that the house backed on to the GWR main line – a source of great envy to me - and he told me a story about that.
As a fifteen or sixteen-year-old in around 1916, he made a practice of taking a shotgun out into the adjoining fields to pot a rabbit or two for the family table. Inevitably, from time to time the juiciest targets were on the other side of the line, a minor inconvenience which did not discourage him in the slightest from violating GWR airspace with his pellets. But one day the Railway Police hammered on the front door, voiced their disapproval at this practice which had come to their notice, warned that a recurrence would result in prosecution and went on their way.
My grandfather issued the required reprimand and in the course of the ensuing discussion invited my father to show him precisely where this misdemeanour normally occurred. Out of the back door, down the garden, into the field and up to the railway line. At this point, my grandfather - who had picked up the shotgun on the way out - spotted a target in a field on the other side of the line, found the temptation too hard to resist, banged off at it and was promptly nabbed by the Railway Police who were still lurking in some nearby undergrowth.
Setting the right example was clearly no easier for a parent 90 years ago than it is today.
Chris
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changinman1
master brummie
mr carrot our very own brummie funnyman lives in that neck of the woods also.... chessets wood
Re: The Defence of Dorridge
If you had lived in Dorridge 90 years ago these are the blokes who would have ensured that you slept peacefully in your bed, safe from the threat of Boche incursion.
They are the Knowle and Dorridge Volunteers, the Great War equivalent of the Home Guard in WW2. Here they are, photographed at Stoneleigh in September 1918. Amongst the stalwarts with their rifles is one serving soldier, an eighteen-year-old in the kilt of his Highland Regiment and currently convalescing after having been wounded in France. He is the young chap on the extreme right at the rear, ironically one of the few who aren't armed. He has survived the Western Front and will much later become an officer in the Home Guard in 1940. Between these two notable achievements will be a lesser one – the creation of me.
There are only two other identifications. The young soldier’s father, my grandfather, is at the front. He is holding “Billy”, the family’s dog. How good it would be to identify other members of this group and find out more about their duties in connection with the defence of Knowle and Dorridge.
Chris
If you had lived in Dorridge 90 years ago these are the blokes who would have ensured that you slept peacefully in your bed, safe from the threat of Boche incursion.
They are the Knowle and Dorridge Volunteers, the Great War equivalent of the Home Guard in WW2. Here they are, photographed at Stoneleigh in September 1918. Amongst the stalwarts with their rifles is one serving soldier, an eighteen-year-old in the kilt of his Highland Regiment and currently convalescing after having been wounded in France. He is the young chap on the extreme right at the rear, ironically one of the few who aren't armed. He has survived the Western Front and will much later become an officer in the Home Guard in 1940. Between these two notable achievements will be a lesser one – the creation of me.
There are only two other identifications. The young soldier’s father, my grandfather, is at the front. He is holding “Billy”, the family’s dog. How good it would be to identify other members of this group and find out more about their duties in connection with the defence of Knowle and Dorridge.
Chris
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I used to know Dorridge very well, back in the 1950s, as I cycled there every day from Packwood to get the train or bus to school.
Poplar Road was a cul-de-sac, I seem to remember. On the corner was a grocer's called Cock and Thexton, where my mother used to shop. I remember the astonishment one day to find that it had been turned into a "self service" shop, rather than us having to wait at the counter to be served.
Angela
Poplar Road was a cul-de-sac, I seem to remember. On the corner was a grocer's called Cock and Thexton, where my mother used to shop. I remember the astonishment one day to find that it had been turned into a "self service" shop, rather than us having to wait at the counter to be served.
Angela
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BernardR
Guest
One research resource that may not have been mentioned [for this area] is the 'Knowle Society'. The History section have great archives - including photographs - of the area. They have a presence in the Library in Knowle which is manned by volunteers on Saturdays.
We handed over the old legal documents of our last house to them when we moved out.
We handed over the old legal documents of our last house to them when we moved out.
