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Memories : Essence Of The 50s And 60s

Astoness said:
oops sorry BB i should have read that post properly:rolleyes:...back to walmer park..how well i remember that engine as well as my aunt lived in bracebridge st and i would stay weekends sometimes and myself and cousin would play in the park/rec...happy days and thanks for the photo of the engine as well...just as an aside and you may well know this already but newtown row and the high st used to be called walmer lane..many years ago of course..as for the origins of the engine and who put it there(and also what happened to it) we have a couple of members who maybe able to check the newspaper archives for you as it may have been reported...fingers crossed..actually if memory serves me right i think we have a thread for walmer rec

lyn
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I didn't know that Newtown Row and The High Street was once called Walmer Lane! I wonder who 'Walmer' was? I did discover a very old photograph in the forum showing a bandstand in Walmer's Recreation Park.
 
Is it just me that remembers "Uncle Holly" badges which we were given was kids when we went to see Santa at Lewis's?
Another thing haha.... why do banks insist on telling me that it has ALWAYS taked 5 working days to clear a cheque. back in the 60's/70's it took 3 working days, i'm sure of it...... aren't I???? haha
 
Hi Stan

I remember that long queue up the stairs to see Santa (and uncle Holly) at Lewis's back when a visit to Santa's grotto was a big thing.

As for clearing a cheque, it always has been 3 clear complete working days, which in reality means five days.

Uncle Holly.jpg
 
Phil said:
Hi Stan

I remember that long queue up the stairs to see Santa (and uncle Holly) at Lewis's back when a visit to Santa's grotto was a big thing.

As for clearing a cheque, it always has been 3 clear complete working days, which in reality means five days.

View attachment 125607
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Hi Phil,
Thanks for the badge fella...... I have never met anyone that remembers them, so pleased that you have confirmed that my memory is in tact. As for cheques.... well it just seemed longer when i used them... thank god for electronic transfer now hehe. Much appreciated man.

Stan
 
Stan. H said:
Hi Phil,
Thanks for the badge fella...... I have never met anyone that remembers them, so pleased that you have confirmed that my memory is in tact. As for cheques.... well it just seemed longer when i used them... thank god for electronic transfer now hehe. Much appreciated man.

Stan
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Stan

Electronic transfers are not so hot, whenever I pay anybody it disappears from my account as soon as I pay it, but whenever I receive payment advice of such a payment into my account I am informed it might take 5 to 7 days to appear on my account.

Three to five days to clear a cheque doesn't sound so bad now.
 
Phil said:
Stan

Electronic transfers are not so hot, whenever I pay anybody it disappears from my account as soon as I pay it, but whenever I receive payment advice of such a payment into my account I am informed it might take 5 to 7 days to appear on my account.

Three to five days to clear a cheque doesn't sound so bad now.
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I never seem to have that trouble paying out, but any money to my account does seem to take longer i agree. I reckon the banks hold onto it and get a little more action for themselves with our cash before they release it haha. Who knows? Computers were supposed to make life easier.. well up to now... not so much!
Stan
 
Grocery shops like this one were still around in the 1950s. Large slabs of fruit cake next to the HP sauce and jars of fish paste ...
pearks-grocery 1958.jpg
 
The days of real personal service. I note it was a Pearks Dairy store.
For most shoppers, who bought the weekly food provisions (usually women), it was essential to be cognisant of the prices and how much you were spending. If the total was over budget - more week left than money - it was so easy to ask the assistant to remove any non essential items. The total amount of your shop was usually written on a bag or piece of paper as was no real problem to make a deduction and alter the amount. Whereas today it is very easy to overspend and would be an embarrassment, I guess, to delete any items. Not only would the checkout be inconvenienced, the queue waiting equally unimpressed. :eek:
 
Now that brings some tasty memories back. I remember slab fruit cake like that. We often had it. Next to it is Swiss roll. Underneath the display cabinet are Cadbury's half-covered biscuits in a tin/box. Seem to remember biscuits in large cube tins with a see-through lid, but don't think these are of that type. I liked the ones with the chocolate ridges on one side. Also there's salad cream in the cabinet - still love that (on a sandwich on its own). Absolutely detested fish paste - and still do.

"Pearks"(Edit) shops - not heard of them before. Viv.
 
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274-0.jpg

https://www.search.birminghamimages.org.uk/search.aspx?&PageIndex=56&SearchType=3
The above photo, from the web site linked here, icludes reference to a Pearks shop (not only one 'e').
There is also a photo of their branch in Small Heath in this thread (post 652):
https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/index.php?threads/old-adverts-from-days-gone-by.46060/page-33
 
I remember Pearks shops but can't recall where, the Home and Colonial was where mom shopped in Kingstanding (Warren Farm Road) when we were kids.
 
oldMohawk said:
There was a Pearks shop on the Beeches Estate where I lived. Another chain of grocery shops around in the 1950s was Wrensons. I remember the one in Hawthorn Rd and another in Birchfield Rd. A photo of a Wrensons shop possibly in Orphanage Rd Erdington.
from Wrensons thread https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/index.php?threads/wrensons.674/page-8#post-450011 and https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/index.php?threads/wrensons.674/page-8#post-537949
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Pearks, Wrensons, George Masons, how many other grocers were there around Birmingham and the West Midlands that had multiple stores? Where the three mentioned local or semi national. I know that when we visited other towns, we came across David Greig as a semi supermarket group similar to Wrensons/Peakes/Masons and there were others, whose names now elude me, particularly in the Home Counties. In the Wrensons picture, notice how smart the staff were, all white coats and aprons, funny how we are now beset by health and safety in almost everything we do and yet there are no latex gloves or hairnets or hats of any sort and we are all still here, the bacon on the slab at the back of the counter in the slicing machine - Berkel? is that right?- the scales, older shops still had them with weights and a steel tray, the go ahead crowd had the ones with the pointer, which showed exact weights...shall I put another one on, if it was under or shall I take one off, if it was over. But best of all was the Bull Ring and 'those scales are on the slope, put them straight before you weigh up my potatoes, sprouts, apples' - take your choice my mother was always at war with the market traders in the Bull Ring. However the point of this post was remind me where Wrensons was in Orphanage Road please.
Bob
 
Hi Bob, with ref to the Wrensons possibly being in Orphanage Road I took the information from the Wrensons thread but it was not entirely clear. Click the links and have a look at the thread ... see what you think. Or perhaps someone from Erdington can comment.

oldmohawk
 
Wrensons.JPG
oldMohawk said:
Hi Bob, with ref to the Wrensons possibly being in Orphanage Road I took the information from the Wrensons thread but it was not entirely clear. Click the links and have a look at the thread ... see what you think. Or perhaps someone from Erdington can comment.

oldmohawk
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I vaguely recall it, on the corner right opposite the library, it must have been the first property on Orphanage Road
 
nickcc101 said:
You can also see Orchard tyres who supplied all the tyres for Stockland coaches.
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Well there a memory mnemonic! That's the place that used to have an enormous tractor tyre against the wall. It was so big we could get inside it.
 
Funny looking at the images in #166. Workmen always erected those canvas tents when digging the street up. No street worksite would be complete with it the coke brazier and black iron kettle. Tea made on a coke brazier well boiled with milk and sugar already in, what's not to love.
 
Morturn said:
Funny looking at the images in #166. Workmen always erected those canvas tents when digging the street up. No street worksite would be complete with it the coke brazier and black iron kettle. Tea made on a coke brazier well boiled with milk and sugar already in, what's not to love.
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You did not mention the toilet facilities in the time back along. Nowadays the site has to have canteen and welfare facilities, be well guarded with either Haras fencing or interlocking barriers, licences - from the council - to dig up the street, licences gained through faux NVQs to manually dig up and resurface the street and one of those must be related to a supervisors qualification. Risk Assessments, method statements, licences to operate any plant being used on the site, it goes on and on. Back to the toilet facilities, in busy areas there were ample public toilets in towns in those far off days, now a rarity or a local pub and judging by some recent posts on other topics, plenty of pubs and in the countryside there was always the hedgerow, happy day.
Bob
 
oldMohawk said:
Hi Bob, with ref to the Wrensons possibly being in Orphanage Road I took the information from the Wrensons thread but it was not entirely clear. Click the links and have a look at the thread ... see what you think. Or perhaps someone from Erdington can comment.

oldmohawk
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OM
I had completely forgotten the length of Orphanage Road and the fact that it actually ran into Erdington Village and parallel with Sutton New Road and now I remember where Wrensons was, I always knew the Chester Road end and had thought shops??? but silly me the BHF puts me right thanks. It is strange how memory plays tricks on you, roads that were so long walking or on the bike are now much shorter in the car and journeys that took so long on the bus (particularly if he was early and crawled into town) are so much quicker by car, mind you on my last trip home, I took a 65 from the Perry Common terminus, my Dad had advocated that that route change when the 78 tram was withdrawn and went to Town on a bus not West Midlands a fairly old single decker all over dark blue that rattled and shook and went at such speed and over red lights, that I began to wonder if he was a proper stage licenced bus. When I got off he assured me that he was lawful competition and quite legal, the bus was K registered, K in front not behind.
Bob
 
And these days of sexual equality, women doing similar work would not agree to using the hedgerows! It gets sillier & sillier....

Maurice :)
 
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