Hello Lyn, what a smashing photo of Villa St, yes that is the shop I see that the photo was dated 1964 what a difference a few years makes to places, she never had outside displays so had possibly retired (?) or sold by then. She had a grown up family of five boys who were all working when I was a child and then a surprise late arrival of a little girl who must by now be in her late 60's. If it helps I can talk you through the buildings in the photo, tell me to stop if this is boring.
Out of shot is Firmins then an entry, there were houses and a small engineering type works down there also two / three houses, the next building was the back of the little works from down the yard the next was a house that was turned into a florists shop by Mrs Evans her husband had died when The Hood was sunk , then came a yard with a large shed owned by Mr and Mrs Wood their business seemed to be something to do with wood but not new wood so perhaps they did something with reclaimed wood ? The next small house I'm not too sure about it may have been a family home or maybe used for stock for the shop ? The long wall was the gardens that belonged to the transverse houses the first house belonged to the Mullis family . Then there were two houses Mr and Mrs Moore and Mr and Mrs Hilton lived there. Then there was a small iron mongers called Murphys they also sold paraffin Mr Murphy had a hair lip and cleft palate making it very difficult to understand him he was also a jeweller (he made my wedding ring) they retired about 1963 to Oxhill Road Handsworth Singletons came next then what was known when I was a child as the new post office. This is a photo full of nostalgia for me , so many memories. I think the shop you were thinking about may have been O'Brians on the opposite side of the road they went up two steps. Also about the O'Neils, they had three sons Roy was the oldest, he was driving the van when I was just a child then Peter he must have been about seventeen and Terry who was my age, so the yard you talked about in Church St might have been Roy branching out (?) So very grateful to have seen this photo. Thank you very much. Pat.
hello pat your memories are a joy to read please keep them coming...as this thread is about hunters vale i think i will now steer you to the villa street thread as we can continue chatting about villa st on there..on that thread i have posted more photos of villa st leading up to the post office on both sides ..in fact if you put them all together they show most of that section of the street...click on the link below but please start reading the thread from post 1...if you cant view some of the photos dont worry as the forum was hacked some years ago and we lost all of our images but most have now been reposted later in the thread...chat later on the villa street thread...lovely to meet someone else from the old end
Villa Street Lozells
hi all. i used to live in villa street hockley between 1958 till 1971 and i am desprately looking for any photos of the old vine pub or photos of the houses ect in villa street. can anyone out there help.
birminghamhistory.co.uk