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Family in Davey Road, Aston and Perry Barr

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brummieinlondon

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Hello,

My grandma and grandad (Frank and Beat Draper) used to live in Davey Road, near Perry Barr, until they moved out of Brum in the late 50s.

I'd love to know more about what life was like around there, in the days when they met and were first married (late forties and 50s). My grandma went to work at Cannings in the office when she was 14 (that would have been just before the war) and then married my grandad who was an engineer in a factory, but I don't know which one.

He was a wonderful man, and is very much missed. He was in the Birchfield Harriers in his youth, but had to give it up on account of his flat feet! She is very poorly now and not able to talk for long, so I don't want to bother her with loads of questions...

I'd just love to get a flavour of what their lives might have been like, what the area was like, where people went out, what were the people like...

thanks!
 
Seeing the words 'Davey Road' reminds me of happy childhood memories. My Mom had a dear friend Ethel Buckingham. She was very jolly and we used to call her 'Buckie', and she had a London accent. She lived at number 23 with her husband Wally, and daughters Audrey and Pat. In their house, probably in 1945/46, I tasted my first ever very small 1/4 inch slice of banana. When my Mom and 'Buckie' wanted to have an afternoon chat they used to send my sister, Audrey, and me, for a trip completely round Brum on the Outer Circle bus - got rid of us for two or more hours ! They were good times, I've put a pic on - Audrey on the left, Buckie centre and Pat who was in the Wrens.
 

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My mother's maiden-name was Diaper, and some members of her family changed it to 'Draper' because they didn't want to be associated with a baby's nappie.....anyway, I do have a vague recollection of my mother once speaking of a Frank Draper in Davey Road. We lived in The Broadway, a stone's throw away. However, I'm pretty sure that this Frank Draper was not a relation. Interesting, though.

Davey Road had (and has) some pretty nice properties, although these days I think most of it is cheap rents for students at the nearby University. I was at school with a Paul Hooton who lived in Davey Road.

Mohawk, would you know if 'your' Ethel Buckingham was any relation to the Buckinghams who had a chemist's shop on Witton Road?
When I was a kid we used to sledge down Davey Road when there was snow on the ground, down the hill from Normandy Road right opposite All Souls Vicarage. How we were never killed remains a mystery....

I also have a vague memory of once reading that Davey Road follows the track of the Roman road that runs through Sutton Park. I'd be interested to know if anyone has further information on this.

Big Gee
 
Hi Big Gee,
No they did'nt own a chemists shop. They originally lived on Perry Common where my Mom must have got to know them. Wally Buckingham worked at Kynochs (ICI) and used to come home for lunch. I think Kynochs had a 'hooter' to warn people it was time to go back to work but memory might be playing 'tricks' here. One thing I remember about their house was the nice floor tiles just inside the front door. They also had an outside lav - bet that's not there now !
oldmohawk
 
Hiya Mohawk.

Kynoch's certainly did have a hooter - locally it was known as 'the bull', and it went off about 10 minutes before local workers were required back at their place of work. It also coincided with me coming home for lunch from Canterbury Cross School - when 'the bull' went my mom would hurry me out of the house whether I'd finished my lunch or not.

Outside lavs - when we had a bathroom put in, around 1967 - yes, as late as that! - we still automatically used the expression 'just going outside' even though we were actually going upstairs! I can remember to this day my old man getting up several times in the night during the bad, bad winter of 1963 to pour boiling water into the outside lav to prevent it freezing. Eventually the penny dropped (pardon the pun) and he wired in an electric heater. Outside lavs were part and parcel of life in them there distant days...

Big Gee
 
outside w.c/s were a gold mine to me being a plumber was kept very busy in winter time repairing burst pipes in Davey Road Tintern road Kenilworth rd all round the Witton area not so much work now people wised up to B and Q lagging
robb128
 
I suppose all our talk about outside lavs and 'the bull' will give 'brummieinlondon' the flavour of what life was like when he logs on again. I had vague memories it was called 'the bull' and I also remember hearing what sounded like machine guns testing ammunition at Kynochs. I also remember an explosion at ICI possibly in the late 50's - a friends wife working in the offices suffered from the shock of it. Also, I now recall that people who worked at Tuffnells smelt of the chemicals they used there - really digging deep into old memories here ! ;)
 
Hello BrummieinLondon. I lived in Woodall Road which was at the bottom end of The Broadway, about 500 yards from Davey Road. The houses were Victorian terraces, as the lads have already said, the loos were outside. My dad built a bathroom onto our house in the early 50's, when building materials could be bought again after the shorages during the war. The Broadway ran from Witton to Perry Barr, and near to Davy Road were a row of shops, roughly half way between the two places. One was Burtons where we kids bough sweets if we had any money once rationing was over, there was a Chemist shop where I bought Spanish liquiorice, it was lumps of shiny black stuff and I think it was actually for constipation. That didn't bother us kids much we could eat anything - and did. I think there was also a barbers shop, and I know that on the corner of the row was a greengrocer who would sell an apple for a penny. (1d).

In Perry Barr there were two cinema's the Odeon and the Birchfields, the programmes changed I think twice weekly and the cinemas were always full. I think your grandparents could have spent some time there. Most men had a favourite pub. My dad used the Aston Hotel in Witton, the one pub I can recall in Perry Barr, nearer to Davy road than the Aston, was the Old Crown and Cushion. If your grandfather was a football fan, he most probably would have gone to see the Villa play at their ground, Aston Villa, in Witton. On Saturday even in those days the roads were full of cars on the Saurday when Villa were at home.The other end of Davy Road lead into Aston Lane, the Villa Ground is a five minute walk along it. Your grandmother would have known her neighbours and there was always a fair bit of chatting over the garden fence. They had all been very much thrown together during the war and had become used to helping each other.

The bus routes were along Aston Lane through to Witton and into town or to Perry Common or into Perry Barr and out either to Handsworth or Great Barr, Walsall and West Bromwich.

I hope we've given you a taste of how life was in the early to mid years of the 20th cnetury.
 
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Hello Di,
You've given a good description of life around there in those days. I took my driving test at a place in the Broadway and got caught up in heavy late afternoon traffic around Witton island. I also saw my first Cinemascope film at the Birchfield Cinema, I think it was called 'The Robe'. I recall that the Odeon Cinema was somewhat posher than the Birchfield Cinema.
oldmohawk:)
 
Thank you so much for your replies, it has really brought the place to life for me.

I've been down Davey Road in recent years but it's so different now, it's hard to get an idea of how people lived.

I really wish I knew which factory he used to work in. My nan thinks it was something to do with making auto parts.

I had no idea about the outside loos! Knowing my grandad, he would have found some 'heath robinson' way of fixing things, some complicated mechanical structure which emptied a kettle of water down the bowl every hour or something. He was incorrigible for taking things to bits to see how they worked, most memorably with their old piano (he ended up with a few keys left over when he put it all back together!)

They both played the piano, grandad said he'd had to play Robins Return at school every day whilst the kids marched in, and my nan had lessons every week in her front room.. although it had limited success in her case, her being more for speed than accuracy. She and her sister Hilda used to race eachother to the end of duets, with a lot of questionable notes hit en route!

Were people very religious in those days? My nan's father was related to Plymouth Brethren and was very strict with them until he died (when she was 13 or so) and my mum remembers being taken to the methodist church to pledge never to touch a drop when she was 7 years old (didn't stick to it!). But my grandparents were never churchgoers in later life, to my knowledge, so I wonder if it was more of a habit thing. Did everyone troop off to church on a sunday, come what may, or was it more ad hoc?

thanks again for all your memories, any more for any more??

(a female) brummie in London :)
 
Old Mowhawk I went with my nan to see the Robe at The Odeon Perry Barr and cried most of the way through it but I was only a kid. Pete remembers a few people from Davey road. I remember the Chattertons. Jean.
 
brummieinlondon said:
I really wish I knew which factory he used to work in. My nan thinks it was something to do with making auto parts.
(a female) brummie in London :)
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Hi brumieinlondon,
First of all apologies for assuming you were a he. Some main auto parts factories in that area were Hardy Spicer, or Salisbury Transmissions, or Forgings & Presswork. All of these later owned by GKN. I only used to visit No 21 Davey Road but it was a highlight in my childhood. I don't know about religion in those days, but people did tend to help each other - probably stemming from experiences in WW2. The Kynoch's factory was a prime target for the Luftwaffe. Getting back to outside Loo's, I'm not sure, but I think in some parts of Aston, more than one family had to share outside loos. They didn't call them loos in those days !
oldmohawk
Phil:)
 
We weren't short of a church or two, but I can't think of a methodist in Witton or Perry Barr. Most of the children were marched off to Sunday school as soon as they were able to walk:) There were the usual stalwart families who all worshipped together, but they were in the minority, There were two Anglican churches in Witton, one in Wenlock Road, St James and of course St. Peter and Pauls Aston, which we called Aston church, known in the records as Aston juxta Birmingham. I went to a Baptist church in Trinity Road, Witton, just along the road from the Villa Ground. There was a factory on the corner of The Broadway and Witton Road, called Hudsons, they finidshed off aeroplane canopies during the war. They rivited the separate pieces together. I don't know what they did in peace time after the war.
 
Hi again, thanks for the new posts..

I'll check out some of those factories, I'm pretty sure Frank worked very near his house, my nan gave the impression that all the men around there went off to work at the same time so I figured they must all have worked in the same place. Or maybe all the factories had the same start time.

He was always very fascinated with the inner workings of small things.. I had a plastic toy when I was a kid with all these little plastic characters that slotted into a plastic landscape. He was forever slotting them in and out and mumbling about 'tolerances' and 'how did they get these to fit so tight'!

The church thing always interested me.. I suspect the religion was more on my nan's side. Frank was more of a humanist, although I think his brother was very devout.

Frank used to paint quite a lot too, industrial landcapes, lots of funnels and canals! I might be completely wrong about this, but I think I remember him saying it was something he did through the union at his work. Would they have sponsored cultural activities at all? or is that way too utopian!!

No worries Phil, I should have called myself brummiewenchinlondon :)
If they weren't loos.. what were they?!
 
We called the loo the lav or lavvy. Can't answer for Phil though:)

I'm not sure where your grandfather would have learned to paint, but I'm sure the union could have been party to setting up class's. My mom went to Canterbury Road school, it is further along the Broadway towards Perry Barr, to night school, where she learned leather work. She cut out the pieces of leather to make a hand bag or a purse, punched holes all around the edges with a hand held punch, and sewed each piece together with a ribbon of leather, which is called a thong, threaded through a wooden needle. I have a purse tucked away somewhere that she made in the 1940's. I recall her making clutch bags and purses for my aunts, who were happy to have them as they were the sort of things hard to come by after the war.
 
Hi Brummieinlondon,
I forgot to mention there was a son in the Buckingham family named Ernie. He got me an interview for my first job on leaving school. I got an apprenticeship, leading to a career in Engineering, so my Mom's friendship with Ethel (Buckie) shaped my life.. The family eventually moved to Old Wolverton from where they could just about hear cars racing at Silverstone.
With regard to loos, same as Di, we called them lavs !:)
 
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Oldmowhawk I knew a Buckingham family who were Jehovas Witnesses and visited my neighbour Connie Sleigh. They moved to Wales then back to Birmingham. The wifes name was Madge and the husbands Jim Buckingham. Wonder if they were related?. Jean.
 
Hi, Jean,
I don't know any others of their family. I wasn't surprised that Ernie was very religious because he was always a rather serious person, never joked much. His wife was named Lilian. Audrey was like her Mom very funny and jolly. I went to Sutton Park once with her on the 107 Midland Red bus, and for some daft reason I ripped my ticket into lots of very small pieces. Sure enough a ticket inspector got on at New Oscott and with Audrey laughing at me, I had to fit all the bits together on the seat like a jigsaw puzzle. The daft things you do when you're young !:D
 
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I belve Jim still lives in Trinity road. Well he did till a couple of years ago. They used to take Connie and Bert to Gronant where her sister lived. I bet they are related with that name and religion. I am sure Connie said they came from the Witton Perry Barr area. Bye. Jean.
 
Hi All, this has brought back so many memories for me from my childhood. I lived in Maidstone Road at the Witton end of Davey Road until 1959 when we moved to run an Off Licence on the Pershore Road in Stirchley.
We too had an outside 'closet' next to the 'coal'us' but in 1954 my Dad and the chap next door, Bill Warren, knocked them together and built a bathroom which was accessed through the kitchen. Up until that point we had an old tin bath that was stored in a cupboard in the kitchen which was lowered to the floor (it stood on end) over a drain that was situated in the middle of the kitchen floor. The new bathroom suite was bought from Coles of Bilston and I remember that all the pieces - bath, washbasin etc. were all in different sheds around the site. There was also a sort of zoo there I seem to remember.

I remember some of the shops on The Broadway - Blowens, Barbers sweet shop, Cambridges a news agent and on the corner of Davey Road was a greengrocer.

On Saturdays Maidstone Road and all the other roads used to fill up with cars and charabancs for the Villa match, the kids in the road used to do a 'car minding' service at 3d a car, great times.

My friends brother built a 'soap box' trolley which we used to race down Normandy Hill, how we never got killed I don't know, it was the same when we graduated to riding bikes.

I went to Canterbury Cross School in 1955 but the first years had to traipse up to 'The Annexe' which was an old house somewhere in the vicinity of Trinity Road I think. There I had Miss Enoch, Mrs Priestley and Miss Fingelstein. When we went to Canterbury Cross proper we were in the 'huts' which were like prefabs in the playground. Mr Chapman was the headmaster and other teachers that I can recall are Mrs Lang, Miss Weaver, Mr Broadhirst, Miss Hopkins, Miss Dempsey, Mr Jones and Miss Pinches.

I went to Saturday morning 'pictures' at the Odeon and sometimes as a family we would go to the Birchfield picture house. They were all 'continuous performances' in those days and very often people would arrive half way through the film and wait to see the whole thing through so you could understand what was going on. There were always whispering people saying 'this is where we came in' and then get up and leave having seen the end of the film first and the beginning at the end - very strange now I come to think about it!

There's so much more I could talk about - our home made 'wash and brush up' machine that caught fire in Normandy Road, the Coronation, our first telly that my Dad used to hide under the stairs whenever we went out, pretending to be newspaper sellers shouting 'spatch a mayol' like the chap outside Lewis's or sometimes 'andy carrier'. So much good innocent fun and not a care in the world.

See you all soon

bob
 
Hi Bob,
Thanks for reviving some happy memories. I had forgotten about the 'continuous film showings' it seemed quite normal then to go into the cinema halfway through the film, watch it to the end, then stay to the point in the film where we came in. Haven't been to a cinema for years, and most of the ones I visited aren't cinemas now, although some of the buildings are still there.
oldmohawk:)
 
BobDavies said:
Hi All, this has brought back so many memories for me from my childhood. I lived in Maidstone Road at the Witton end of Davey Road until 1959 when we moved to run an Off Licence on the Pershore Road in Stirchley.
We too had an outside 'closet' next to the 'coal'us' but in 1954 my Dad and the chap next door, Bill Warren, knocked them together and built a bathroom which was accessed through the kitchen. Up until that point we had an old tin bath that was stored in a cupboard in the kitchen which was lowered to the floor (it stood on end) over a drain that was situated in the middle of the kitchen floor. The new bathroom suite was bought from Coles of Bilston and I remember that all the pieces - bath, washbasin etc. were all in different sheds around the site. There was also a sort of zoo there I seem to remember.

I remember some of the shops on The Broadway - Blowens, Barbers sweet shop, Cambridges a news agent and on the corner of Davey Road was a greengrocer.

On Saturdays Maidstone Road and all the other roads used to fill up with cars and charabancs for the Villa match, the kids in the road used to do a 'car minding' service at 3d a car, great times.

My friends brother built a 'soap box' trolley which we used to race down Normandy Hill, how we never got killed I don't know, it was the same when we graduated to riding bikes.

I went to Canterbury Cross School in 1955 but the first years had to traipse up to 'The Annexe' which was an old house somewhere in the vicinity of Trinity Road I think. There I had Miss Enoch, Mrs Priestley and Miss Fingelstein. When we went to Canterbury Cross proper we were in the 'huts' which were like prefabs in the playground. Mr Chapman was the headmaster and other teachers that I can recall are Mrs Lang, Miss Weaver, Mr Broadhirst, Miss Hopkins, Miss Dempsey, Mr Jones and Miss Pinches.

I went to Saturday morning 'pictures' at the Odeon and sometimes as a family we would go to the Birchfield picture house. They were all 'continuous performances' in those days and very often people would arrive half way through the film and wait to see the whole thing through so you could understand what was going on. There were always whispering people saying 'this is where we came in' and then get up and leave having seen the end of the film first and the beginning at the end - very strange now I come to think about it!

There's so much more I could talk about - our home made 'wash and brush up' machine that caught fire in Normandy Road, the Coronation, our first telly that my Dad used to hide under the stairs whenever we went out, pretending to be newspaper sellers shouting 'spatch a mayol' like the chap outside Lewis's or sometimes 'andy carrier'. So much good innocent fun and not a care in the world.

See you all soon

bob
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A few memories there Bob!! I lived in Davey Road , the Normandy Rd end (144) And the same as you , trollys and toboggans down Normany Rd , minding the cars , we charged a tanner, entered the Villa ground at half time when they were obliged to open all the gates , watched the 2nd half then a dash back to "your" cars to pretend you'd been there all the time .

Canterburry Rd School with the dreaded Miss Pinches . We seemed to know all the kids in our age group in the area , as opposed to today.
 
mooch, you must know my mom and dad and my brother david and myself john, we used to live on the oppposit side to to you at 115 davey road, we had the same dreaded miss pinches as well, yes saveing cars and going down the villa and playing up and down the bank at the wittion end not allowed today. kind reguards sidwho
 
Hi Sidwho , I'm trying to place you , remember if there is a couple of years in age between us it may be a case ... " Those older boys over the road" or " Those younger boys over the road " I'd be suprised if I didn't know you though. My name is Evans , my older brother is Roy , 144 is 2 doors down from Normandy Rd . One of my mate,s lived at 95 .
 
Bob, just re-read your post and there were more memories I missed, " Dispatch 'n Mail!!!!" being shouted . And I'm sure Carl Chinn did a piece on the "Andy Carrier " lady , discovering who she was etc. She seemed to be a permanent part of the city centre.

On a Saturday night during the football season we kids would go into the street and shout "Sports Argus" before the real guy got there and watch with much merriment as all the doors opened and the street was full of blokes looking for the yet to arrive paper seller.

My mom always shopped at Mr Blowen's grocery shop. Miss Barber's sweet shop had the famous Barber's Tea sign outside and as a small child I thought she actually made all the Barber's Tea there.
 
mooch, yes i do remember the evans family across the road, my brother and i are the young ones. we left canterbury road in 1962 and then went to birchfeild road secondary school. your dad i think got me a guarage to rent in melrose road, he was also on the residants group and they organised social events at broardway school. hope you know who i am now. if you would like to send you a pm i will do so kind reguards sidwho
 
John , my memory is slowly churning , may I ask if you and your brother David were "Gingernuts" ?
 
mooch. your memory is spot on dave and i are the gingernuts, its quite a small world after all these years. hope to here from you again soon
 
I was brought up in 48 Davey Road from 1956 to about 1964. I remember the Off Licence that was on the corner of Davey Road and the Broadway run by a lady called Bessie. The terraced houses did not have built on garages, naturally, but there were garages built for the houses up that end of the road where we used to play as kids.
You went in the front door into a hallway which had the front room leading off it. It used to have a large bay window in which we would put up our Christmas tree. Further along you would reach the sitting room and if you kept on going you would go through a door into the kitchen. Just before the kitchen, the stairs would lead you to the first floor. In ours, we had a bathroom through the kitchen. The kitchen back door led into the garden plus a gate that took you down 'the entry' which would be the path leading to the road. As kids we used to walk up that wall using feet and bottoms and chat for ages near the roof of it!!
Upstairs had a large bedroom at the front of the house, a middle bedroom which looked over the back garden plus a
bedroom at the rear of the house.
The back gardens backed onto the Ellison's playing fields. We used to get under the fence and play along the edge of the field being scared that we would be caught!!
I can also remember that the road used for parking when Aston Villa FC were playing at home and we used to ask the drivers if we could look after their cars whilst they watched the game!!!!
There was also an off licence on Aston Lane too (which ran across the top of Davey Road) which I used to go with my godfather to buy his jug of beer. Oh the memories come flooding back!!!!
 
Good job Mom didn't know about your playing in the field Stash! I remember going to the Annexe the first year of school. It was situated in Birchfield Road, where the flats are now I think. It was an old detached house with a huge (to us) monkey puzzle tree in the front garden. We used to gather in the school playground every morning and then walk to the Annexe. Our classroom was a prefab building in the house garden and there were other classrooms in the main building I think. We had a load of wooden toys to play with and a sandpit in the garden. We were there for the Coronation and had to bring any item relating to the event eg bread wrappers with crowns on etc. The first Xmas there I had measles and missed the end of term party. I was told that Father Christmas landed on the roof of the prefab to deliver our presents! I don't suppose for one minute this was true but believed it for years afterwards! I also remember the Birchfield Road flooding and the policeman on duty carried each of us over the road! He'd probably fall foul of health and safety now. The next school year we were moved to Miss Hopkin's class which was in the prefab in the main school playground. We seemed to spend a lot of our time in annexes of one kind or another. When I was 9 we were moved (after Mr Jones class, sigh!) to All Souls Church Hall where we were taught by a lovely man called Mr Howells. I remember looking forward to moving back to the main school, but no we were then shunted to Westminster Road church hall and after that we left for pastures new. Classes were very large in those days and I think ours was well over 40 so I suppose that is why we baby boomers had to use these outside classrooms. Didn't do us any harm though! Judy
 
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