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gospel lane

Anyone remembers the Grocers at 184-188 Gospel Lane? I believe the shop was called "Wallisdown Stores".
It was opposite the entry of Fox Hollies park and next to the allotments.
In the Seventies (1970-1976) it was owned by Kenneth and Winifred Perry. They had a son Richard Perry who was into Motorsport and owned a silver TVR Vixen.
All info about the shop or the Perry family is welcome
 
I noticed the other day that The Gospel Oak is being renovated once again after letting it be vandalised practically down to a shell. Anybody got any idea what is going to be now?

Phil
 
Drove past the Gospel Oak over the weekend , I see there is a sign outside. "Coming soon apartments for sale". Another pub bites the dust.

Phil
 
I did post this somwhere else but I will put it on here as well. The Gospel Oak Pub is now a CO-OP food sales outlet. The exterior remains exactly the same but there is a sign over the door.
 
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
 
The Gospel Oak is now a Co-Op the land at the back has been built on to create the flats/houses. The Red Lion is supposed to being re-opened as a Hairy Lemon!
 
I never knew that!! I used to walk up that way to Pitmaston School. I used to live Tavistock Road at Broomhall Cresent end.

I can remember what Stitcher was saying about all those lovely houses on St Bernards Road and the Solihul end etc..and the golf course - spent hours there collecting golf balls and used to make a few pence selling them back to the golfers (ha ha ha had to buy sweets somehow!!)

I also remember there was Langley Hall Road just off Gospel Lane and a social club there - there was a path that led to what we called a brook/pond and some trees there we'd spend afternoons there with a picnic and mess in the water when we couldn't afford to go over to Tudor Grange swimming baths and park. I looked at this a while back on a map it's amazing how far around we used to go as kids. We'd walk for miles and loved those big houses - they always seemed really posh for us kids off the council estate. But I'd not change it if I was given a chance cause where we lived was nice and a real community back then (mid 1970's onwards) our end of the street was great.

I often wonder whether it's still as nice there.
It's nice enough as we live just off St Bernards Road in Mereside Way, it's close to the Olton Mere but most of the large Edwardian houses are still there though some have been converted into flats now. Obviously Solihull has changed greatly over the last 40 years since we moved here from Hall Green. I am a member at the golf club you mention though nowadays they don't let people in to hunt the balls.
 
Does anyone recall the McGhee family(Albert & Laura) who lived at 47 Gospel Lane 1939 to around 1965 - trying to find out what became of their daughter, Joan Millicent KNIGHT who lived with them till 1950
 
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