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Harborne

Hi Kins
There is a Phyllis Nicklin photograph dated March 1961 of Mrs Hughes in the playground with the caretaker’s house in the background. The photo . It’s accessible on the University of Birmingham repository website ref Harborne St Peters School, HW0086jpg. There is also another one taken at the same time. Happy memories of that school.
 
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I think (but maybe someone can confirm) that the flea pit is now the Harborne Village Social Club - picture here https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&...p=12,293.52,,0,-11.48&cid=4390080705763619834 In my living memory (feels long enough) it has always been the Working Mens club although it does seem to be declining as this year I have moved up to membership number 179. Last time I was up there I noticed with horror that the Kings Arms is boarded up arrggh! as you can see if you click and hold on the image and drag to the right

And another thing...when I was v.small (long before they pulled down the Duke of York and all around it) there was a wonderful old sweetshop on the corner of Serpentine Road - anyone remember it (it may be a figment of my alcohol fevered imagination) or what it was called?
Ye olde village sweete shoppe
 
If you look up The Picture House' you'll see my description of it as I spent my childhood/teen years there. Hardly a flea pit! The sweet shop was Morgan's, a well stocked little place with a distinctive smell.
 
If you look up The Picture House' you'll see my description of it as I spent my childhood/teen years there. Hardly a flea pit! The sweet shop was Morgan's, a well stocked little place with a distinctive smell.
Morgan's must have been a gold mine in those days. Ideal position on that end of the High Street. Opposite across Serpentine Road you'll remember another legendary business, Murray's Greengrocers and Fish and Chip Shop. Harborne was a village in those days.
 
Murray's fish and chips were something else. Coal fired fryers, chips cut from potatoes one at a time right in front of you and just 3d (1 1/2p) a bag, or 4d if you were well off. Alex Murray had a daughter, Gloria. Often wondered what happened to her. I used to get the Harborne Society newsletter to keep in touch with what was happening, but, sadly, the Society closed last year.
 
Morgan's must have been a gold mine in those days. Ideal position on that end of the High Street. Opposite across Serpentine Road you'll remember another legendary business, Murray's Greengrocers and Fish and Chip Shop. Harborne was a village in those days.

Vic good evening did you ever use any of the Jennings shop on The High St ?
 
I was born 100yds from the sweet shop in 1952 and from what I remember it was called Morgan’s and his son took over and the name changed to Tennants. As for Jennings he took over from Murray that was the chip shop a little lower down the high street. It’s true about the social in Serpentine road it was indeed a picture house and just above used to be the Bus garage that ran through into Lonsdale road. There has been a photo that came out a few years ago of St Peters school playground with half a dozen children in it from the 1950’s as soon as my wife and I saw the photo we recognised her from her school days .
 

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It went grocery shop,chip shop ,another shop, then paper shop Mews garage. Always remember the bakery on the corner of Lonsdale road opposite the baths made beautiful crusty bread. I used to attend the church opposite Ravenhurst road and a youth club at the back of church in York Street.
 
I definitely remember the fish shop and I think they had a greengrocers as well but I might be wrong about that.

I thought I'd ask , as the reason is I went to secondary school with the youngest of the Jennings boys . His slightly elder brother was in the stream above us . I'm almost sure there was another shop apart from the fish shop .
 
Just looked and there is mews garage paper shop 2 other shops then the chippy then the grocery shop.looking up the high street towards duke of York and prince’s corner. If you go on to google type in old Harborne pictures you will get 100’s of pictures of old Harborne.
 
Just looked and there is mews garage paper shop 2 other shops then the chippy then the grocery shop.looking up the high street towards duke of York and prince’s corner. If you go on to google type in old Harborne pictures you will get 100’s of pictures of old Harborne.
I expect you can Anthony. many of those photos are here on BHF, either in this thread or threads dealing with roads and places in Harborne. Some came from here, without doubt.
 
It went grocery shop,chip shop ,another shop, then paper shop Mews garage. Always remember the bakery on the corner of Lonsdale road opposite the baths made beautiful crusty bread. I used to attend the church opposite Ravenhurst road and a youth club at the back of church in York Street.
Was the church in South Street? I used to go to a youth club on a Sunday night at the back of the church in South Street 1966/67
 
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Was the church in South Street? I used to go to a youth club on a Friday night at the back of the church in South Street 1966/67
The church opposite Ravenhurst Rd on the High Street was the original Baptist Chapel. The church in South Street was the Methodist Chapel.
 
Anthony

The only memories I have of Albert Walk was the couple of time I stopped off at the antiques shop that was situated on the Harborne Park Rd junction of it in the 70's when paying a visit to my sisters house in Woodgate Valley. Thankfully on both occasions my wife was unable to find anything she liked.

Two photos attached, one looking down the alley from Albert Rd toward the Kings Head, and the other must be "Sids" shop as you describe.

Harborne Albert Walk 1962.JPG


Well this forum is most certainly full of memories, but also now a rather special discovery!

Since coming across BHF fairly recently I have at times dipped in to one part or another just to see what it might bring back to mind, and have often become rather absorbed for a while.

But now ....

There is a very compelling probability that I am the boy in that photograph.

In fact I am only prevented from saying that it is definitely me by the lack of definition in the head/face, plus the annoying presence of that A-board (of which more later) along with a lack of attribution ... Phil: is there any source information available?

Certainly the hair is me and the build is me and from the look of things I'd say the period is appropriate, though on its own a young chap looking in a toyshop window is hardly unusual.

Circumstances, however, shorten the odds.

I can't now remember the precise dates, but from I think around '54/5 up to '63/4 my mother managed the shop and Sid - Sid Thornton - did his barbering in the other section.

The shop was a toyshop but also a sweetshop and as well sold a wide range of cigarettes and tobacco too for the gents coming and going for a their trim.

Mum - Pat - always got on with children and they all called her by her first name, and the kids from nearby St. Peter's ("Juniors" at that time, so from age 5 to 11) and others always filled the shop when school finished. If you were among them I have no doubt at all that you will remember her, and also the clamour for pocket-money sweets and also to see what was on "The Penny Tray", which was an idea of my Mum's and contained a wide selection of 2/3/4-a-penny sweets that always just disappeared!

And if you were one of those children and do remember Pat, you will be pleased to know that she is still with us and still has her sparkle coming up to her 97th birthday in five weeks time!

But back to the photo, and Mum would open-up the shop in the mornings and I would help with a padlocked gate that kept the entrance porch secured. My next job was to put that A-Board out - which I would have no doubt done on the day that that photo was taken either way. Over time I would also put the gum ball machine out and refill one or other wall-mounted chewing gum machine if needed once I was a little older/taller/stronger lol.

I also had a hand in organising the window display, and it was a lot of fun too when visiting the toy-wholesaler every so often to pick things then to be delivered to be sold in the shop ... I got to help spend someone else's money on mountains of toys in my own personal treasure cave :)

And back at the shop, there was a further room across the rear of both sections that was the store room for all the toys being delivered ... so putting a window display together from everything included the difficult task of deciding which treasures to include and which to leave out! :)

And there's a whole bunch more rememberings from around age 7 that I could go on endlessly about, including marvellous early-years school holidays based at the shop a few days a week sometimes, though I was then more often out playing with friends (you could safely do that then!) from St Peter's who all lived around there, and dropping back now and then, or for lunch, or when it was getting close to heading home ...

... though if I began putting all of that down as well I would probably then drone on for years and use up the whole of the Forum's storage space allocation solo!

So then ...

Perhaps I was seeing how the window display was looking so far, or perhaps seeing what I still might add from the stock room, or perhaps checking out the selection of magic-trick bags to see if there were any I hadn't got ...

... or perhaps it isn't me after all, though even if I distance myself from all of these other things it still just plain looks like me anyway! ... though frustratingly without seeing the face properly there can't be an absolute, other than if it dates from '53 or earlier or 64 or later and then it pretty much couldn't be me unless I am misremembering the years.

So thanks Phil for dropping that photo there - can't begin to say how much I appreciate seeing it.

And here's a couple of photos coming the other way .. the first is one I took on my first camera, a Brownie 127 which I think was for my 11th birthday and was bought about 10 minutes earlier (!) from a shop about half way along the way down to the Royalty cinema. Not bad for a first shot, just a little wonky. Mum is on the right, on the left is her friend Elsie who worked at the pet shop you can also see in the photo.

The other photo is of Sid especially for anyone who remembers sitting in his chair, along with Mum and me. It was taken by Dad probably 2-3 years earlier so around '56/7, and was on what Mum laughingly referred to as a Works Outing :) ... one or two times a year the two families would just bundle in to Sid's car and have a day out somewhere ...

On a side-note: Sid had a gorgeous Armstrong Siddeley Hurricane Drophead, so a (generous) 4-seat convertible, and delightfully when he wanted to change it for something else Dad bought it off him! It was one of those cars like-what-they-don't-make-anymore ... this model


but in golden sand with burgundy wings and side-strakes, and black hood and proper wheels. Totally gorgeous and I can't begin to count the number of times I have wished that Dad hadn't traded it when he wanted something else later, and instead had just locked it away in a barn and kept the key in a drawer for me to find one day!



Mum - Shop 1959.jpg


Mum Sid Me.jpg
 

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what a smashing post TQ...i really do hope that lad in the photo is yourself...not many clues apart from its dated 1962 and there is snow on the ground..please keep your memories coming....oh smashing photos as well...thank you

lyn
 
Thank you Lyn. The date works and I guess most of the years in range had snow sometime, but yes it would be nice if there is any source info that might add something one way or the other ...
 
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