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Growing Up In Brum - Roy Blakey Inspired.

Re: Birmingham History

Hi jean
What a sad story I could feel the emotion coming from you as I read your story I found it heart warming and happy for you towards the end of your story
You could not have found a better place as cuttnal green it as not changed over the years still a very nice village
To be living in and peaceful and so quite I live just along the red from it and I would not certainly leave for any hustle and bustle
Its habit bleak in the winter but its like any country sides
But I would not move back into city life to live for no amount of money
Have a nice day best wishes and it was nice too read your story best wishes astonian,,,
 
Re: Birmingham History

A lovely story Jean, it was good that it turned out so well in the end. One of my school friends was evacuated to a village in Nottinghamshire and 40 years later was still visiting the family who had taken him in. Two other brothers in our road were evacuated to the Cannock Chase area and when they came back they had amazing tales of large forests, animals, and wide open fields. On the other hand my brother-in-law was evacuated to Warwickshire and was not treated well by the couple who took him in, so he came back to find a bombed-out family were lodging in the front part of his house and he had no bedroom or bed.
 
Re: Birmingham History

hi folks there is an old thread just for evacuee stories...if you go to post 53 it gives my story of when dad was evacuated to skenfrith in wales and how we took him back there some 70 years later only to meet up with his best friend at that time who still lived close by..im afaid that all the photos i posted of that visted were lost when the forum was hacked although obviously i still have them.. the link is below

lyn
https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=12598&page=4&highlight=skenfrith+wales
 
Re: Birmingham History

A TRUE BRUMMIE.
Historically it is said that a True Cockney would be " One born within the sound of the Bow-Bells of St Mary-le-bows church in Cheapsiide,London ".
Here's one to ponder then.
What might our our equivalent be for a " True BRUMMIE " ?
 
Re: Birmingham History

We played the ' Jews Harp ' ( ouch ).
There was a period ( around the 1940's ) when a bit of a musical ' fad ' arrived up our end of Brum. Some of us kids had tried the mouth organ ( with limited achievement) and some had even ventured into trying to play the piano ( no success
here at all ). The flute type music didn't seem to appeal enough to anyone to even try.
The JEWS HARP appeared on the scene and for some reason it caught on.
This small instrument was held with one hand and placed between the top teeth and the bottom lip ( or bottom teeth ).
Vibrating sounds could be accomplished by ' flicking ' the centre tongue of the ' harp ) with one of your fingers.
Changing the shape of the mouth slightly and your in/out breathing strength produced a limited change in ' tone '.
Sounds produced were of the ' Didgeridoo' type.
The only down side bits to this ' fad' were that if you got the operation of the harp wrong you ended up with either a couple of aching teeth or a bruised lip.
So why would we bother with this instrument of torture.
Well, you know what kids are like.
First and foremost you got this unusual sound from it. You wasn't expected to get a normal ' tune ' out of it anyway because of the limited tone range. You could also put your harp in your jacket pocket with ease and carry it around with you.
Probably of most importance was that you wanted to be ' with the others ' cause they'd all got one.
 
Re: Birmingham History

WERE GETTING THERE. ( If you are enthusiastic about Television Adverts you might want to look away now ).
1947 ish. Early Black and White Television is being viewed, thanks to the BBC, in ever increasing homes. ( Marvellous even though there was very little viewing times on offer ).
1956 ish. Commercial Television comes to our ' Telly's '. Even more marvellous because we now had a choice of what we might want to watch.
Hang on a bit though. As time passed some viewers were getting a bit frustrated by the ' Commercial Adverts ' '
that endlessly interrupted the viewing of every programme. ( Not so good ).
What to do ?
Variations on avoiding this ' intrusion ' came by way of such things as (1) Nip out and clean your shoes. (2) Go out and put the ' kettle on ' ready for a cup of tea during the next advert session. (3) Let the cat in and pour it a bowl of milk.
(4) I know at one period in our house we even tried to use the ' Averts ' as a game time by competing with one another in guessing what the next set of Advert Products might be.
GLORY,GLORY. Came the arrival of the ' Television REMOTE CONTROL '. Now at least we could ' Mute ' the sound when the ' Ads 'came on. ( Marvellous ).
TOP JOB NOWADAYS THOUGH. With the introduction , within the latest Televisions, of RECORD / MUTE / FAST FORWARD and CATCH UP we can push that little ' fast forward ' button and ' fizz ' through the Adverts in ' split seconds.
BRILLIANT. WERE GETTING THERE.



.
 
Re: Birmingham History

NICE TIMES.
Going back in time a little, the natural living locations of many extended families would be found to be ' Living close to one another '. Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles and Cousins would be all living within a few streets of one another or at worst a short bus-ride away.
Christmas, Birthday or Wedding ' get to-gethers ' were easily achieved.
Extended family get to-gethers for ' picnic days ' at for example ' The Lickeys ' or ' Sutton Park ' were also easily arranged and achieved.
If any one family were , at anytime, going through a few problems ' Hands on' assistance from the extended family would be on hand without a second thought.
A typical social visit in our case would have been going to see our Uncle Ted and Auntie Gert and our two cousins Melville and Joan who lived in Erdington. Mom's got her best frock on and is putting a ' dab ' of scent behind her ears, Dad's got his best suit on and his new ' cap ', we kids are in our Sunday Bests as well and rare-ing to go. We will be taking a short walk up to the Bus stop, catch a No 29 to Perry Barr and then a No 11 to Erdington. Be there in no time.
Nice family moments. NICE TIMES.
 
Re: Birmingham History

Such happy and easier times Roy, I remember such times like you, bus's running 24 hrs even with just 1 passenger, cheap fares too, you could get anywhere in our great city at any time , with many, many routes. I look back now and times were indeed hard especially for my poor old mom and dad, but they were such happy times too.
 
Re: Birmingham History

As you say Paul. Numerous buses and a huge variety of ' Cross City Routes' available.
For local City travelling it would almost have been a ' Sin ' at that time to ' Lust' after a Car.
What a cracker anyway. No initial purchase cost of a Car. No Car repair costs. No Car Insurance costs.
And eventually : No M.O.T. costs and as a bonus you could be out and about and have a little ' Tot ' without the worries of
' Drink-Driving '.
 
Re: Birmingham History

WAS IT A " PORKIE ".
( 1942 - 1943 ish ) . As kids one of our roaming / adventure areas was the open fields of " Old Oscott Hill ", Birmingham.
At this time there were fields on both sides of the road with banked hedge rows and road side ditches. The only buildings
at the bottom of the hill back then were the " Maryvale Orphanage / Maryvale School " and the Pre-War housing estate to one side ( starting at Lingfield Avenue ).
On this particular day we were in the area where " Oscott Manor School" and the " Kingfisher " pub now stands. One of the lads spotted something amongst the long grass in this area. On investigation we found a young Barn Owl that had got into trouble and was lying injured. It had a small open wound at the base of one of its wings and it was obvious that it was
not able to fly.
This little story then goes :
We carefully took this this little Owl home, nursed it in our house and kept observations over the first few days. We then made a wooden and chicken wire net cage so that we could put our bird out side in the back garden. The Owl got more and more ' Perky ' as the days went by.
Dad then called us all to-gether and told us that it was the ' right time ' to release our Owl and give it it's ' freedom ' .
So we all gathered in our back garden on this dark night and removed our little friend from the cage and gently released it.
It was lovely to see as it took to the air and fly off into the darkness.
incidentally, the area described earlier as ' open fields ' is now covered by a Post-war housing estate, the ' Kingfisher ' pub, the ' Oscott Manor School' and other buildings.
A LITTLE PS. A couple of nights prior to releasing our Owl Dad had said to us that whilst he had been out in the back garden one night that he had heard another Owl ' hooting ' from the area backing onto our garden and that he reckoned it might be our little Owl's ' Mother ' calling to her youngster.
Was our Dad telling us a well intended ' PORKIE ' to guide us kids to accept and make the right decision to let our little friend fly away ?
YEP, I think he was.
 
Re: Birmingham History

To BernardR from Roy Blakey.
I understand your ' thread transfer ' proposals. No problem. Best Wishes, Roy Blakey.
 
image.jpeg Re: Birmingham History

MAJESTIC SENTRIES IN THE SKY.
( Around 1942 ).
We had been to School, had our Tea and as usual we then all gathered to decide where we might go a roaming.
On this occasion we set off up the Chester Road nipped into Sutton Park and had a little exploration of the Streetly side of the park.
Nicely ' worn out ' and with the Summer Sun starting to set we began our walk back home passing the Parson and Clerk pub and making our way to the top of the Kingstanding Road hill. It was at the top of the hill here that this ' Barrage
Balloon ' view presented itself .
From this ' view point ' it could be seen that the sky was filled with scores of these ' floating giants ' and spread out all across Brum. The other eye catching bit was the way the setting Sun was gleaming on the top of every balloon giving every single one a ' golden cap '. We lads had seen Barrage Balloons many times before but not in these numbers and
not with these ' natures colours' presentation.
As we carried on our journey back home and down the hill to-wards the Kingstanding Circle we tried to do a bit of a count of the number of balloons we were seeing but as we descended the hill the distant view across Brum started to disappear because we were losing our elevation and we did'nt get anywhere near completing ' our rough count '.
No matter. We had seen something Special.
 
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A very interesting story Roy, from a very special time in our great city's history, and in a way a 'peek', into childhood of the time, loved your paintings too. paul
 
Re: Birmingham History

Folk, I believe that everyone has a little story, an experience or a point of view that goes with ' growing up '.
Whether that memory is connected to the 1930's, 40's , 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's ( and so on ) is not important.
There is always an interest in other folks points of view no matter the time period.
This thread " Growing up in Brum " is here for you to join in irrespective of whether your input might be about Grandad,
Grandma,Mom, Dad or yourself and yours.
 
Roy makes an excellent point. Whilst inspired by Roy (my fault not Roy's) it is for any reminiscences of the type posted by Roy.



Sent from my LG-D802 using Tapatalk
 
Re: Birmingham History

Roy Blakey said:
Folk, I believe that everyone has a little story, an experience or a point of view that goes with ' growing up '.
Whether that memory is connected to the 1930's, 40's , 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's ( and so on ) is not important.
There is always an interest in other folks points of view no matter the time period.
This thread " Growing up in Brum " is here for you to join in irrespective of whether your input might be about Grandad,
Grandma,Mom, Dad or yourself and yours.
Click to expand...

Growing up in Brum were some of the best years of my life. Scampering around blitzed houses, making catapults, french arrows, kick the can, fishing & rowing in Brookvale park, trying to hide my rod when the Parkie was doing his rounds so i didn`t have to pay 4p fee, playing marbles, organizing boxing matches amongst us kids, ( i got whupped by a girl :-{. Then getting a bit older & discovering girls & coffee bars. What a pity they invented tv.
 
Re: Birmingham History

I loved your story about the Majestic Sentries in the Sky, Roy. I too remember seeing barrage balloons in the sky but nothing like the spectacular sight you and your friends saw on that evening. Guess they were part of our lives if we grew up during the war. Like Smudger, as children growing up in Soho Avenue, Handsworth, we used to spend a lot of time exploring the bombed out jewellery factories in Hockley. They were only small workshops and when I think back now, they were very dangerous for us kids to wander around. We used to climb under barbed wire and up onto floors which only had a few boards left to walk across, and then back down to scrabble about looking for 'jewels'. Came back often with bits of gemstones to keep in our treasure box. Also I remember well a gang of prisoners of war mending the road in Soho Avenue. I don't know what nationality they were as I was very young, but I would wander down and watch them working and offer them a biscuit if I was able to pocket any on my way out of the house.

You bring back some smashing memories and I love reading your stories.

Judy
 
Re: Birmingham History

My brother and I used to go shrapnel hunting when the all-clear had sounded during the blitz. We lived in Ansell Road, Sparkhill, not far from the BSA that was always a target for German bombs so there were plenty of 'souvenirs' to be found. Tony once picked up a whole incendiary bomb that was 'dud' because it hadn't gone off. Imagine our mom's face when she saw us approaching but she acted promptly. Tony was ordered instantly to place it on a bucket of sand next to our front door. She told an ARP warden, he told the army at Golden Hillock Road Barracks opposite the end of Ansell Road and they turned up in small army truck, took the bucket of sand with its incendiary bomb lying on top, fired a bullet into it and it flared up as intended. We learned later that the Hun deliberately included an occasional incendiary with a delayed-action device on them to catch us out in just that fashion. Nice people, eh?

Dennis
 
Re: Birmingham History

Hi Roy, As a 10/11 year old I used to help the Co-op baker, I used to meet them at the railway yard at Rupert St/ Avenue Rd (Nechells) and the round finished at Argyle St (Cookoo Bridge) . This was with horse & cart, no hand washing after handling the horse (Roman), none of the bread was wrapped, yet nobody died of any germs! Can you imagine todays"Health & safety" brigade? The strange thing is I don't ever getting anything for my efforts other than a couple of slices of dripping toast at "Villa Cafe" Holborn Hill.
 
There was a war on when I was young so it was normal for me to come home from infant school for a quickly eaten tea of egg and chips before the sirens started and we rushed up to the air raid shelter. Eventually Mom & Dad must have become tired of the nightly routine of getting us into our siren suits ready for a night in the shelter and we started to spend nights in the house with my sister and me sleeping under the stone slab of our 1940's pantry. One night we suddenly awoke to find a neighbour dragging us from under our slab to carry us into the shelter because some Luftwaffe pilot had decided to drop an incendary bomb on our house. Dad in the meantime dealt with the bomb which had come through the roof to lie burning on the bedroom floor. He shovelled it up and threw it out of the bedroom window. It was something to talk about during playtime at school next morning, but I remember a more exciting morning when the sirens went and we were rushed into the Perry Beeches school shelters while looking up at a black German plane with twin engines, black cross and swastikas, flying very low at great speed. I now know it was a ME110 plane which had the range to fly over most of England doing some machine gunning.

One night the sirens went as we were eating our tea but Dad decided we could carry on even though we could hear the sound of many aircraft flying above and the AA guns firing in Perry Barr Park. Suddenly there was a shattering explosion which shook the house and also my plateful of chips and we all rushed up to the shelter. Next day our gang gathered to look at a wrecked block of houses on the north side of Bradfield Rd on the Beeches Estate. The guns in the nearby park supplied us with our jagged pieces of schrapnel which we collected and often took to show off at school.

I think most kids were in a fairly 'blood-thirsty' mood by the end of 1941 but as the night bombing ended, wartime life for us kids became routine although I do remember being rather pleased as the wireless reported that the RAF had carried out a 1000 bomber raid on Cologne. We had the novelty of meeting American GIs from the Pheasey Army base who seemed quite pleased to chat with us even though we were continually cadging chewing gum off them. Later in the war we met some Luftwaffe aircrew PoWs who were temporarily put behind a hastily erected wire fence on our playing field. Our parents were not too happy with this but we were a bit surprised to find the 'enemy' seemed quite normal and a few could speak some english.

Because many parents worked late shifts we had evening school most nights and I remember the large mugs of tea and tasty dripping sandwiches which were served before we played pirates in the very well equipped gyms. Some types of food was in short supply but I look reasonably well nourished in some wartime photos I've put elsewhere on the forum.

Then after marvellous VE and VJ street parties my wartime childhood ended and moved into peacetime ...
 
NOT A DOUBT.
Has it been good to have grown up in Brum ? Is it still good to be growing up in Brum ? Will it be good in the future to grow up in Brum ? For me there's no doubt, Emphatically Yes.
Putting aside the ' The committee ', ' The conference ' and the general " Waffle ' types that can sometimes project us round and round in circles, I believe you just inform the Birmingham folk of ' the problem ', give them the ' means ' and as history has shown " JOB DONE ".
There is a natural underlying talent here in Brum where hard work,ingenuity and determination are predominant in the populus.
IF YOU WANT IT DONE, BRING IT TO BRUM.
The future is beginning to look good again. What better place to Grow Up in.
 
Roy, cannot agree with all your comments I'm afraid. I was born and bred in Aston by Villa Park in the summer of 1930, recently paid it a visit, that is nothing like the Aston I was born in, I found it heart breaking and upsetting will never visit it again. Only my opinion of course others may disagree, we are all different. Eric
 
I have to agree with you Cookie. I was born in 1933 in a house on what we used to call Kingston Hill, Coventry Road, Small Heath and later went to Ansell Road Sparkhill. I rarely go anywhere near the inner ring of Birmingham nowadays and, while I wouldn't swop my difficult war-time upbringing as a Brummie through and through, because it made me the contented, rounded person that I like to think I am at 81 with a large family, I wouldn't want to live in inner ring Birmingham now.
 
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.. to add to my previous comments about Birmingham then and now...I went to Golden Hillock Road school,(1939 - 1943) currently in the centre of the Trojan Horse controversy. Despite being evacuated twice and up throughout the night in an air raid shelter many times, I passed for King Edwards grammar school Camp Hill. Why? Because we were taught the three Rs (not very complicated, was it) and also the 'British Values' that David Cameron has just talked about on lunchtime TV. Can't do that now, can you? And the benefit of that basic education is still with me now, 70 years on. Dennis Shaw (a Brummie at heart)
 
One thing which seems to have changed is during school holidays the young kids of today don't get told like I did most mornings to 'go out and play'.
I can remember when most of us under the age of 10 went on our own miles away from home to parks and sandhills and apart from a quick visit home at mid-day for food we would be out all day making dens and camp fires. Also when visiting an aunt in Perry Barr if the 'grown ups' wanted to chat they often got rid of us for 2 hours by sending us on the Outer Circle bus round trip. Maybe we were lucky !
 
oldMohawk's upbringing sounds pretty much like mine. We played cricket, football, collected train numbers and namers, we hopped on and off local trains to find better spots to see more trains (usually knowing how to avoid paying), we wandered around the railway sheds at Tyseley and Saltley, shamefully as we now know, we climbed trees and collected birds' eggs, we learned how to row a boat on the park pool (Small Heath, Sparkhill, Canon Hill), we collected autographs at Villa Park, St Andrew's and Edgbaston cricket ground, had about a dozen picture houses to choose from, attended a youth club and learned how to ballroom dance getting to hold a girl for the first time (how exciting was THAT). Mothers daren't allow the kids to roam about like that unescorted, now dare they?

I wouldn't swop my childhood for the current computer age, no way...
 
Shawcross said:
.. to add to my previous comments about Birmingham then and now...I went to Golden Hillock Road school,(1939 - 1943) currently in the centre of the Trojan Horse controversy. Despite being evacuated twice and up throughout the night in an air raid shelter many times, I passed for King Edwards grammar school Camp Hill. Why? Because we were taught the three Rs (not very complicated, was it) and also the 'British Values' that David Cameron has just talked about on lunchtime TV. Can't do that now, can you? And the benefit of that basic education is still with me now, 70 years on. Dennis Shaw (a Brummie at heart)
Click to expand...
I wonder what bright spark came up with the phrase The three Rs.? Reading, Writing, & Arithmetic. Must be confusing to someone learning the English language. Another old Brummy saying " Tootie pegs" for teeth.
 
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