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Interesting New Websites

Dennis Williams

Dennis Williams

Gone but not forgotten
For those of you lucky enough to have gone to the King Edwards School in Edgbaston, or KEGS Camp Hill, or lived in Acocks Green or Hodge Hill, or supported the Blues, or are Railway buffs, I suspect these website may evoke some very happy memories. The diaries of life in the early fifties and sixties by these two men is a salutary reminder of that wonderful era. The photos will be of interest to all. I thoroughly recommend a quick peek for ANY old Brummie with a penchant for our golden historic past. Enjoy….I did.

https://www.robertdarlaston.co.uk/
https://web.ukonline.co.uk/brian.david.williams
 
Hi Dennis, Thanks for posting the 2 websites had`nt seen them before, Great stuff looking forward to having long browse. Len.
 
Thanks for posting those, Dennis. I had read some of Brian Williams' school diaries before, but had lost the URL with a computer change. Although I went to Moseley rather than Camp Hill, we were at school during the same period, and what a terrific memory-jogger those diaries are. :)

Names like Stewart Macpherson and W. Barrington Dalby had all but disappeared from my memory years ago. Now they are back there again. Site duly bookmarked! Excellent! :D

Maurice :cool:
 
Dennis. I too look forward to a long browse when time permits. They look very interesting.
 
BazzM said:
Dennis. I too look forward to a long browse when time permits. They look very interesting.
Click to expand...
Hi Dennis, thanks for posting info about those site,s I was born and bought up in Birmingham from 1930
and although I can relate to the time frame their upbringings were both very different to mine. We really
were poor, mainly because my parents were always in the pub, but you have to play the cards that are
given to you. I learnt a long time ago, you can choose your friends but not your relations, Bernard
 
Bernard67Arnold said:
Hi Dennis, thanks for posting info about those site,s I was born and bought up in Birmingham from 1930
and although I can relate to the time frame their upbringings were both very different to mine. We really
were poor, mainly because my parents were always in the pub, but you have to play the cards that are
given to you. I learnt a long time ago, you can choose your friends but not your relations, Bernard
Click to expand...

Bang on Bernard. We were also poor as church mice, as was probably everyone we knew in Stechford and South Yardley just after the war when I entered this world. Working class to a man ( and woman), but I never once realised this until much later. My dad kept the Richmond in takings for most of the late 40's fifties and 60's. Car worker at Mulliners then the Singer. Mom Secretary at Bywaters. So I was drug up by my nan and aunts and loved every damn minute of it. I had mates, a football, cricket bat, and the Park (The Dell) and there were trains and buses to spot and dens to make out of grass cuttings, polly on the mopstick, hide and seek, money to get back on pop bottles, old bombed buildings to explore, the ABC minors at the Ritz, our dog to play with. What more could anyone wish for? Even had a bike eventually... And I still live a mile from where all this happened. Brilliant!!! I am one lucky man.

Thanks anyway Bernie, I read all your posts with great interest and love all your reminiscences. Keep em coming mate...

Den
 
sospiri said:
Thanks for posting those, Dennis. I had read some of Brian Williams' school diaries before, but had lost the URL with a computer change. Although I went to Moseley rather than Camp Hill, we were at school during the same period, and what a terrific memory-jogger those diaries are. :)

Names like Stewart Macpherson and W. Barrington Dalby had all but disappeared from my memory years ago. Now they are back there again. Site duly bookmarked! Excellent! :D

Maurice :cool:
Click to expand...

Moseley Grammar. Our greatest rivals. Always beating us at Rugby and Cricket and having such an even more magnificent School building! Like something out of Teddy Lester books. Not many like it in Crete I suppose? I had lots of school and work colleagues from that wonderful establishment.
 
Thanks for those links, Dennis - both wonderful sites, beautifully written and full of fascinating and moving information. You don't have to have gone to KES or lived in Stechford or Acocks Green to find much in them to enjoy and be informed by.

Are these gentlemen BHF members, one wonders?

Chris
 
There is a new website on line today led by The National Archives, 'Living the Poor Life'. I dont think there is at present anything for Brum, but surrounding areas of Bromsgrove and Kidderminster are included. Its worth a look.
 
Dennis they have been posted before but I'm sure our newer members will find them interesting I've still got mine in my Favorites:)
 
Thanks Alf. Sorry about that. I've only been 'aware' for a few months, and try as I might, not yet read half of the fascinating stuff within this tremendous site. Keep up the good work down there in Suffolk's finest!

Den
 
No worry Den its always useful to see the sites again for the new members.
 
Ah, Dennis you of all should recognise the artistry and fine acting, the poetry of movement. Silvana Mangano should have scaled the heights of Loren and Lollobrigida but that her mother Ivy was from Croydon. Perhaps a longer clip will highlight the appropriate pointers to greatness https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrYmI96o8m4 (I hope her singing voice was dubbed else the dream will be shattered)


<OFF-STAGE - Nurse, I need a double-shot>
 
Aidan said:
Ah, Dennis you of all should recognise the artistry and fine acting, the poetry of movement. She should have scaled the heights of Loren and Lollobrigida... [/I]
Click to expand...

Oh Aidan. How I dreamed of scaling the North Face of Sophia Loren or Gina the Divine in my youth (and even now dammit.......

Den
 
I leave it to you to decide which best represented beauty, charm and joy...


Choose? CHOOSE! One of the joys of growing old is the gradual reversion to childhood, which is self evident on this FH Site in spades. Therefore I am now reverting to type and am throwing my dummy out of the pram UNLESS I GET ALL THREE! NOW!!!!! Pretty please..?
 
Oh dear. Can someone please explain to Postie how we have gone from the musings of an Acocks Green Christian faith healer to the charms of La Lollo, Sophia,and the Mangano in 20 posts? And then perhaps he will let me stay and play a bit more...Sorry Jimbo. It's all Aidan's fault.
 
Guilty as charged, but does it generate much surprise that a 70 year old Banker has shots of Mangano in his back pocket? https://www.robertdarlaston.co.uk/MemoryLane2.htm and I think his musings on sex in the 1940s & 50s and how Italian actresses "awakened" something in him to be of interest if not a universal truth. I submit m'lud that I have been faithful to topic
 
Hi Dennis, I think my days of "Pin ups" ended when I came out of the army, I think Paul Newman was right when asked about affairs with other women, he said"Why
bother with beefburgers when you have steak at home!! I always consider myself very, very lucky to have married Enid and in my eyes she was as beautiful on the day
she died as on that in 1952 when I met her for the first time after being my penfriend all the time I was in Egypt . Bernard
 
Oh Bernard. You are such a nice man. The wedding pics of your beloved Enid on another Thread, and your obvious love for her is so touching. I think you must have made a smashing couple. Would that everyone could be so happy and fulfilled. Especially Cheryl B**** Cole! I am fed up with reading about her and her love life in my papers. I doubt they have a clue what true love is...Anyway, thanks for all your posts, they are always interesting and articulate. Keep smiling through. Cheers.

Den
 
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