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House that Jack Built

I would think it's very early 1970's ? I remember Timpsons being boarded up and THTJB having a closing down sale. Baines was still open on the corner of Phillips Street. I always think it was a lingering sort of death really for what was once the place you could buy almost anything. Newtown shopping precinct was open across the road but although busy, was it really the same? No Prizes for answering that one.
 
You are right Rod, it was a slow death rather like a jigsaw puzzle with the pieces missing. Like a lot of places around that area.
On visits back to Brum from Canada in the late l960's and in the l970's, my parents liked to go to the Newtown Shopping Centre to grocery shop and I went with them several times. Certainly, it didn't come anywhere near the old Newtown Row shopping experience. It was supposed to be a brand new shopping experience. Well, it was the way of the future we were told. Over the years I watched this shopping centre go downhill as the area changed so much. It was sad to watch the neglect because it was very nice when it was brand new. Now there is the Aldi store across from the Crocodile Works and I wonder how that is doing these days.
 
alas the crocodile works no longer exists it's no closed down and all boards up and we are not allowed to take ant photraphs of the inside could be down to health and safety the only chance, maybe when the demolition men move in I have the history of the works kindly given to me by an old employee
The land was bought in 1860 with permission to build a large factory for the production of swords, the council built Alma Street 1859 naming it after the Crimean war,the factory was built on this site because it had water supplied by Hockley Brook,the story makes very good reading the book was called From Swords to Mower Blades, the book is not in print   
 
Thanks for the letter John. Sorry to hear that the Crocodile Works has now gone. It was there for so long and when I was very small and my Mum and I took the Number 5a bus from The Ridgeway or Witton Circle into town quite often and later on myself going to school using that route. I was learning to read and so when we passed the Crocodile Works on Alma Street and I had figured what their sign said, my head was filled with all kinds of thoughts as to what went on at the Crocodile Works from a young child's point of view!! In those days that ride along Summer Lane was very confusing for a small child. The bus often stopped alongside houses that had been severely bombed and from the upstairs of the bus you could see into the houses quite clearly, especially the bedrooms where there were still items on the small mantelpieces of the destroyed rooms, the walls shattered with the wallpaper all torn and the shredded curtains still at what was left of the windows. Those sights along Summer Lane have never left me. These trips often followed going to pick up the newspaper off our step in the morning and seeing, most days, horrible war pictures also ships that had been shelled and in the process of heading for the seabed with their propellers out of the water. It was very bizarre and hard to understand I remember.

A couple of years ago I took that route again coming back from town to
Witton. I sat at the front of the bus and whipped out my camera just on the bend to
snap a photo of the Crocodile Works. I remember that the company built a new addition in the early l960's I think. Lovely to have the photos on the site as well.
 
that dog and duck - i seem to remember ::)that my dad had a photo (ears and ears ago) of him and a mate taken in the back yard of the Dog and Duck my dad  :2funny:holding a dog (canine sort) and his mate :Dholding a duck (quack quack sort)

Lotsaluv  Dotx
 
I was showing my cousin some old photos of Newtown Row earlier today and he told me that the House that Jack Built had a slogan "built on a bob". He was told that an old shilling (bob) was buried in the foundations. I had never heard this story before but he seems to recall that the slogan was etched over the door of the building. Can anyone confirm? or does anyone have a close up photo of the store so we can verify this.
 
Astonian said:
What About The Big Broom On Aston Road North
Click to expand...
Yes, I walked underneath it many times. My nan, aunt and cousin lived round the corner in Holland Road. To the one side - I went to St. Marys C of E for 6 years. To the other side - Astoria Picture House. Then later in life The Star Inn pub was across the road.
Did somebody mention The Big Broom.......?
 
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The system you are talking about was the the Lampson system, still in use today in petrol stations and and big stores to get cash back to a central point. Nothing really technical, just a glorified vacuum cleaner. In Lewis's in Birmingham the vacuum was generated by a large device located in the basement. Lampsons engineer in the fifties in Birngmingham was a man who used to wear a bowler hat, winged collar and a bow tie.
 
oops technical hitch. having probs with this pic. will sort it out and get back. wales.
 
hi pomogolian, hope you,re well ?we had parrafin stoves here there and everywhere we had one in the outside lavvy under the sump of the car and even road lamps to act as parking lights, on the car to save in the battery.
mind you we had the trusty starting handle then, a peg on the choke because it would,nt stay out, i think if i remember right we got our parrafin from across the road from us, and i do remember going to the garage at saltley on the edge of the vioduct.
i,m sure there are lots of us that remember a story like mine? happy days best wishes dereklcg.
 
Wales thanks for posting the photo, so sad to see it like that, must have been the closing down sale. I used my magnifying glass but couldn't see the slogan my cousin mentioned though.
 
It is customary in this country, indeed,( i presume it is worldwide ) that some item is buried beneath a building, for what reason i have no idea apart from those which are carried out today and put into canisters with several items enclosed. In this neck of the woods they put items in the thatch and pennies in window sills or in some area around the house, there have been silver coins and spoons found in old thatches...Cat
Coventry Cathedral has two or it could be four rows of pennies leading from the alter to the back of the Church.
 
The name "The House That jack Built" has been in my brain since a very early age, my mothers parents had the sweet shop on the opposite side of the road.
 
hi catkin,my sister lives in nottingham and she went to cov cathederal the other week she thought she had had a dream that the coins being there were in her head, as it had been a long long time since she was last there when she saw them she was in floods of tears bless her.. best wishes dereklcg.
 
I remember seeing them set into the floor when the new Cathedral was first opened. I'll bet they are worn smooth now but I think they all had the Queen's head facing up originally. (Yes I did try to pick the first one up, thinking someone had dropped it!)
 
Martindales takek sept.2007.I also have a few more pics looking up Alma Street of the older parts of the works if anyone's interested.BobS.
 
hi bob. would love to see any older pics of alma st you may have including any of the old houses. ive got pics of the croc works somewhere as it was being demolished. will sort them out and post them under the appropriate thread. wales.
 
Yes Bob keep them coming my Grans address was there when she got married.
 
hi all..until our member don clive gets the hang of posting pics he has let me post this wonderful pic of a jug that was bought from the house that jack built...on october the 29th 1943 his mom sent him to buy it so that she could mix his one day old baby sisters bottle feed as mom was not producing enough milk herself...how amazing that don still has the jug after all these years and still uses it even now...it cost 6d

thanks don...

lyn
 
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That's amazing Lyn, I can't believe Don still has this jug which must be precious because of it's history. Thanks for posting it.
 
i think its wonderful too wend..THTJB is such a well know store especially for those of us who lived in the area...

thanks again don...
 
An Ad for the shop.
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