My grandparents Harold and Elsie Ireland lived at No 4 Gospel Lane, near the Olton Boulevard/Warwick Road junction and my other Grandad George Bayliss lived opposite at no 11. My parents Beryl Ireland and David Bayliss both grew up in Gospel Lane, marrying in 1961. No 11 was a council house but No. 4 was privately owned and Grandad bought it as a new build in 1933. My brother still owns it so it has been in the family for 80 years. If you go on Rightmove.co.uk there are some houses for sale in Gospel Lane B27 7AA click on Streetview and you can take a virtual tour of the road as it is today.
I remember visiting my grandparents regularly as a child in the 1960s. Sometimes the chimney sweep would come and I would be taken outside to see the brushes appear through the chimney top. The coal man would bring a bag of coal and carry it through the entry to the coal house, next to the privvy. I think he had a horse and cart, I know one of the delivery men did. Grandad toasted "Mother's Pride" from a waxed paper packet using a long toasting fork close to the flames. Sometimes we were allowed in the parlour which was the best room, reserved for guests. It had fancy cushions on a barely used three piece suite and smelled of slightly wrinked apples from the fruit bowl and sweet peas from Grandad's allotment. In 1971 the house was victim to an arson attack and had to be completely refurbished in 1970s style during the following year. Fortunately my grandparents were unhurt.
No 4 bears little resemblance now to the house from my childhood but the original fireplace in the front room is still there behind a 1970's gas fire. There are a few 1930's houses remaining at Warwick Road end but most of the road is a modern 1990s built housing estate.
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-37224268.html
