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Gosta Green Through Duddeston

Funny I should pick this up today. I was thinking of a similar queue on
Saturday mornings at Rudders and Payne, Aston Hall Road. I was a regular. We were after the off-cuts of timber, for firewood (1940-1945 ish).
 
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Been there done that got the T-Shirt and the pic'

Me, me Sister and went to Windsor St Gasworks every Sat... Through the week 'Me Barra' was 'me dolly's pram'


Pom :angel:
 
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pooltons / the soldiers

fantastic, the newspaper clipping of the soldiers,
i remember it well as i,ve said i lived in cromwell st
next to the phone box on the corner as you,ve said the chemist on the other was wimbushes then i think a food shop, goodes i think,then the bootmenders(fred andie )i used to spend a lot of time in the shop watching and helping him grt days,then the sewing machine shop,
pooltons then roadleys the toy and pram shop,my dad had a bit of a
win on vernons pools and he gave us, being my older sister sheila,and younger sister beryl,my brother had,nt come along then i think,he also took us to the pics to see the greatest show on earth fantastic,
happy days i,ve lot,s more memmories to share ::(:)):)
regards dereklcg
 
Rationing.

I seemed to have lost some of my notes but found this bit about Food Rationing.
RATIONING was first.introduced in January 1940. Clothes became rationed in June 1941, then rationing was extended to tinned meats, fish and vegetables in November 1941, sweets in July 1942. Sixteen points ( ration coupons ) a month were allowed. This meant that rich or poor could only get the same amount by way of ration coupons.
People could buy what they liked using the coupons if the goods were available. One tin of salmon or a number of tins of pilchards for one months supply.
After the coupons were used up it was then a matter of waiting for when the next months coupons came into force. Sometimes it was possible to buy extra coupons unofficially of coarse. Everything had to be queued for.
Introduced in January 1940 the first things to go on ration were Butter, Sugar, Bacon, and Ham , but things did not get really difficult until 1942.
August 1942 Sugar ration was 8 ounces, Fats 8 ounces, Butter 2 ounces ( some people had never tasted Butter before the War.)
Meat ration 1/2d a week inc 2d Corned Beef Bread was not rationed until after the war,. Sweets July 1942 Personal Points 2 ounces- ¼ lbs
1942 Dried Egg Powder- Disappeared 1945.
Points Ration System ( German Origin.)
 
Ernie, you have entertained us regally with this post, not forgetting Peter and Phill. Thank you:)
 
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Ernie, On you first post and of this thread the Gosta Green Water Trough/Fountain is shown in its original position on the photograph. It stood at the end of Legge Street and Aston Road, right outside Gosta Green Library... you can just see the sign on the Library wall for Aston Road. In the background is Aston University.
I have done quite a bit of research on this Fountain/Water Trough... and my friend photographed it for me. I have yet to see it. The ironwork on the top is not there now. If I can get to Birmingham next month it will be my first stop... to finally see it and moreorless stand where 265 Aston Road used to be... My father, grandmother, great uncle and aunt were all born at 265...
The Fountain has now been moved but not too far away. My family had the building 265 Aston Road which was the first house next to Gosta Green Library. 265 is now under The Students Union... If you look at the old Delicia Cinema today the fountain is just to the left of it.

View attachment 12901
I also found this postcard photo of Aston Road, Gosta Green in Birmingham Central Library in 2000 and was delighted.
Looking on the Right Hand side.... the Tram is about level with the Fountain found in the previous photo... you can see half of the top of the roof, next to it is Gosta Green Library. Where the pavement slopes upwards is 265 Aston Road... where my family had their home and business of N.Budd & Son... they also had next door 264. There is a long sign over both buildings. The backs of these buildings came out in Legge Street.
 
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GEORGIE. I don't doubt you for one minute, I shall take a close look at the fountain next time I am over that way and also see what the iron work is on the roof top.
I hope that you can get there and just take a moment or two to
think of those days gone by and what life must have been like for your family.
I am sure it will be a mixture of sadness and happiness, a photograph or two even though the place could be changed beyond recognition.
 
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It is going to be weird for me.... I did go to 265 as a very small child... so can remember inside some of the building.. I can't remember the front but I remember going through the small gate in the Double Yard doors in Legge Street. My uncle did a drawing of what it looked inside for me too. There were machinists sewing the tarpaulins etc... I remember Sheep Street yard a bit more though. Georgie
 
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Great Lister St.JPG I guess I may have posted this before. I remember the waste ground but until I saw this news clip did not realise that it was a bomb that caused it.
I remember sheltering under the stairs when I was very young and hearing a very loud bang, I guess it must have been this bomb. I remember Averill's being mentioned by my Gran and Shepherd's was another place she shopped..
Worrall's in Windsor street I remember, down two steps and the counter to the left and on the counter stood a small weighing machine with a brass scoop on one end and a flat platform were brass weights could be put on.
I remember Mrs Keen's next to the was ground in Great Lister Street, she sold nothing but sweets and shortly after they went off the ration and the shop was completely empty they started selling surplus gas masks painted up to look like mickey mouse.

Mrs Keen's shop was first shop to the left along Great Lister Street and
Mrs Worrall's shop was to the right of the Photograph 1st building in Windsor Street.

This was another piece that came about whilst researching Family History.
Great Lister St Bomb Story.jpg
 
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Saltley High St 1910.JPG
This is High Street, Saltley 1910.
Nechells Great Lister Street Henry Street Silks Cafe 1960 .jpg
This looks as though Silk's Coffee Shop is in Great Lister Street, but I remember it across the road in the mid 1950's and later around the corner from the Photograph, still the photograph cannot lie.
Nechells Great Brook Streer by Vauxhall Rd.jpg
This was the upper class area when they were first built for the professional people. Only a stones throw away from back to backs.
Aston Rocky Lane Hercules Cycles.JPEG
Hercules - Tubes. The caption says it all.

Nechells Henry Poolton Great Lister St c1935 .jpg
This was approximately opposite Hammers Ltd Linen Drapers.
 
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Hercules

Mom & Dad worked there in the 30s met and married while there:)


Ernie
 
Hercules - Tubes

ALF. My Grandfather, Mother and Uncle worked at the Tubes and the Hercules, I guess they were two factories but the Tubes supported Hercules.
Would that sound about right?
 
Hi Ernie, you are right about 'Silks' . As I've said many times, my brother was to the family like the son Georgie Silk never had (They had two girls Pauline and Gillian). Between the time I lived in the area they had moved shops about three times as the redevelopment encroached and destroyed the area.
Where the shop is shown in the picture was their last port of call before retiring altogether from both the Betting and Cafe trades. You would have also moved out of the area by the time they had that last shop as Coleman St had gone too.
My sister and I used to get a bag each of the most fantastic tasting 'Bacon Fat and Tomato Crust Dips' given to us every Saturday from Georgie Silks sister after we had finished the 'Neighbour Hood Coke run'
This looks as though Silk's Coffee Shop is in Great Lister Street but I remember it across the road in the mid 1950's and later around the corner from the Photograph, still the photograph cannot lie.
Click to expand...

Georgie, sorry to say you just miss out again... your Evelyn and Tom's shop that I used was just to the left of the last shop shown in the picture, there was a number 14 & 43 bus stop just outside those shops, that I caught to go down to Bloomsbury Girls School in Lingard St. The school was just passed the library and just before Saltley bridge. The 43 would turn down Bloomsbury St and the 14 carried on down Saltley Rd.



Pom :angel:
 
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Pomgolian

Would this be a snap of the school you caught the bus to every school day, taken in Goodrick St in 1966.


pmc1947

Nechells Goodrich St 1966 ad.jpg
 
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re gosta green

GER22VAN.Bloomsbury was a boys as well i went there around 1954-1959.if i remember,right mr.scott was head.That was a long time ago.
 
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Thanx pmc, That is Bloomsbury Girls Ernie!
The Lingard St end was the Infants and Juniors and the Goodrick St end was the girls school.



Pom :angel:
 
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Am I right? lingard st and goodrick st ran parallel. The school was in between, there was a top entrance in goodrick st.for juniors.op the shop.one lower down for girls.and a entrance in lingard st, for infants. lingard and goodrick met at the shop in fowler st.is that right. pete
 
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re gosta green

Ernie, do you remember a 'gowy',a a convance made up of old wheels and nick nacks,i called them gowys. "go cart" pete
 
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PETER. Right I am with you, got one up in the loft that I made for my youngest daughter ( she is now 36 years old ) I had one when I was a kid and had loads of fun with it. Plank of wood with fixed axle at back, axle at front mounted on wood with bolt through centre for steering. No brakes and it was steered by my feet and a piece of string tied to each end of the front axle.
We called them a GO CART.
 
re gosta green

yer thats it,we had hours of fun,driving down the hill,on the bomb peck in phillips St. some times the front axle come off.Prams bits of tin,cooker lids all sorts went down that hill,i did catch out off mom when i went home with my bum hanging out my pants.
 
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bloomsbury street

Hello again
I can remember the Library on the corner of Bloomsbury Street and the girls school in Lingard street. if you remember the railway bridge across the Saltley road, i was born in the house directly underneath this at number 80 Saltley road way back in 1939. we then moved to 242 Windsor street where we remained until slum clearance kicked us out in 1955.
At the bottom end of Grt lister street was Bannister and Thatcher the chemists , a small newsagent we got our superman comics from and a good selection of shops, Baines the bakers roadleys the toys shop, the cycle shop (Dawes?) No supermarkete then. Just the Maypole... or George Mason.... Wrensons ...home and Colonial. the lovely smell inside these shops of Butter and Biscuits. buying "broken biscuits" or getting the "seconds " from Cadburys. ;)
 
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re gosta

Cabman2.i know the bridge.i just about rem some shops there too a wishy washy laundry.my friends lived just around the corner from you in goodrick st.but in the 50s.he kept grayhounds. i remember them bringing that statue in melvina rd. pete
 
Cabman2. You mentioned the cycle shop, did you mean the one two doors away from the Old Nelson pub ? This shop was 220-221 Great Lister Street and was run by Thos H James, he may well have sold the brand of Dawes cycles which could be confusing. The front window was always full of new bike parts for sale and tyres hanging in racks at the back of the window also he sold tins of gramophone needles ( the type used in windup gramophones.)
As you walked into the shop the wooden counter was on the left hand side, I think there must have been lots of people would buy a bicycle on the never never as I think they priced them by how much the weekly repayments would cost. At a guess I think the cost of a new Bicycle then ( 1948 - 50 ) would be anything from £14 up to near £20. Some had just about everything from multi gears to dynamo that charged a battery fixed on the frame.
 
re gosts green

ernie.was that shop on the left lookin towards the gas works?my puch bike was covered in lights front and back,becouse i lived next to millers lamps,and it is who you know not. what .you know hey wink wink. pete
 
James Cycle Shop.

Peter. If you were standing at the bottom of Henry Street looking across at Rupert Street and the gasholders then James Cycle shop would have been to the Right across the other side of the road.
I hope this answers your question Peter.
 
re gost green

I remember, when we lived down cattles grove,we would drive down the hill on the gowy,and sit at the bottom in cramore st.waiting for a paper mill lorry to go up the hill,and tie the rope on the back of it,they were that slow then,the driver new,but did not say any thing.great times.
pete
 
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Mine was not that posh to have a cab to it, but still had hours of fun if I could find someone daft enough to push me on it. The biggest problem was when I first made it and finding two pairs of good pram wheels for it. It must have delayed me making it for weeks. I suppose I could have made a three wheeler but I had never seen one of them and I guess I did not have the brains to construct one back in the mid 1940's.

Those gravel roads years ago were treacherous for taking the skin off
hands and knees if you fell off.
 
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re gosta green

ernie,jim.we hardest part was trying to hold the pram axel on.bending nails over was a heath robinson job.turn sharp and the lot colapsed. mine was a "gt delux ssports lx sri tdi" it had a toe bar on.
 
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