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Lozells Road Co-op

silhouette53

silhouette53

master brummie
Its me again - the William Street kid !! LOL Actually I'm over the moon because Lyn ( Astoness ) very kindly hunted down some amazing photos of William Street Lozells for me ( I was born there in 1953 ) and I never thought I would find any. Turns out that we began Alma St infants at the same time !! She was only there for about 6 months though and then moved house and school. What a coincidence though, and therefore it was highly appropriate that it was she who found the photos and I can't thank her enough. It looks to me from scouring this wonderful site that she has provided a similar service for lots of people and GOOD ON YER Lyn !!!! Anyway, I digress - William St came out onto Lozells Rd just across from the Royal Oak pub, now VERY sadly a Bangladeshi supermarket - what a travesty :( :( and there was a Co-op on both sides of the road. I've managed to obtain photos of them and here they are. The one at the corner of William St has a butchers dept and I clearly recall going in there with my mom as a small child. From the clothes in the window on the side of the shop which is in William St, I'd guess that the pic dates from around 1920 or earlier. My memory of it is of a fruit and vegetable dept and not clothing so it must have changed at some point. The other pic is of the other shop on the opposite side of Lozells Rd and was a grocery and provisions store - it remained thus as I remember it to be the same when I was a child. My mom used to buy me a pineapple tart from there :) :) There appears to be a mirror or something on the front of the shop and if you look you can see the reflection of a small boy who was presumably standing near the photographer across the road as he took the shot. The boys dress would also suggest a date of 1920 or even earlier. I hope these pics bring back memories to some of you - I only wish I could get similar quality pics of these Co-ops in the 50s/60s as they were when I was growing up and going into them. Both these photos were very kindly sent to me by a gentleman named Tony Chew who I met at the Radisson Hotel last Sunday at the Carl Chinn local history event

Colin
 
hi colin...what cracking pics they are..ive never seen those before...i will show them to mom and dad as they will be most interested in seeing them..

please there are no thanks needed but thank you anyway...there are many members on the forum (none least than me)who search for ages of photos of where we lived..and very often have very little luck so my reward in helping folk is the happiness they get when something turns up...

lyn


 
My pleasure entirely - any photos which come my way will always be shared here on the site, I know what a great comfort they can be as a link to the past. Everything I remember as a child is locked in my memory forever BUT . . . . to have a photo is SO nice. My whole area in which I was born and grew up is gone, both my parents and my older brother are gone too, my mom at the age of 43 when I was only eleven, so I feel completely adrift in respect of the past and even though I'm married with 2 daughters they have no connection with my Lozells past and just cannot identify with it. For that reason I can't get enough of the old places in photographs. My daughter says I dwell on the past too much and that I should "let it go" - IMPOSSIBLE !!
 
hi col...that youngsters for you....my kids just let me get on with it now.....dont have much choice...lol...and i am working on them....me bro popped round this morning and as usual we had at least an hour talking about the old end...even the cats went out into the garden..lol

lyn
 
Colin they may not be interested now but in later life who knows. I am fascinated with my father's family maybe because he died when I was 15. I am lucky because I have a family bible with BMD's written by my gt grandfather in 1900, he was a baker in Lozells. He died when my Dad was 8. I think I know more about him than my Dad did........strange how things work out.

My son's say I bother the dead and irritate the living.........they are a couple of comedians.
 
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Lovely photos silhouette53 - though they were long gone before my Lozells memories begin. I don't know if everyone feels the same about where they were brought up but I think Lozells holds a special appeal. My family lived in the area for over 100 years and I wish that the Lozells of my youth was still there. I am in the process of selling my parents house which will I suppose be my last link to the area and although I know it must be done, it makes me really sad. I used to drink in the Royal Oak and think it's a crying shame that it is now a supermarket. The area has changed in some parts beyond recognition which is a great pity.
 
there you go colin..we are all the same and you wouldnt want to argue with wendy or jules now would you...lol...you keep the pics and memories coming in....in the meantime here is a lovely pic of the two co ops together on one pic...still searching for later ones for you...


lyn
 
Lyn - lovely photo. But again I am finding it hard to get my bearings with it. I can see St. Pauls in the distance. Is the Royal Oak shown on the photo? Obviously lots of the buildings shown were gone by the time I remember. The road seems much longer than I recall. Probably because of the new 6 ways island. Does anyone know the name of the road shown on the left of the photo? Lyn - you never know some of our relatives may be shown! lol
 
lol jules...i can also see the church but now i am lost...must say i cant see anything that looks like the oak....unless someone else can help us think we shall have to wait for colin to put us right....

lyn
 
jules..ive just had a look on a map..and i think the road on the left is either guilford st or william st...think the oak must be out of the pic...

lyn
 
Thanks Lyn. Also on the other side of the road looks another building which could be a church? I think this picture is fascinating. I just wish you could move a bit further down the road with it - sort of a virtual tour - lol. Of course in the future when hopefully our children's children are looking back at their family history they will be able to do that!!! How I wish I had a time machine and could go back and take the photographs I need. Lucky though - we have you (and others) searching them out for us.
 
jules im wondering if what looks like a church on the other side is gower st school..in which case that road on the left would be william st....no i must stop now..im getting hoplessly lost...everything looks so different..its like when i go down to villa street..it looks so small now wheras when i was a kid the street seemed to go on forever....colin where are you..???? help...lol

lyn
 
You are so right Lyn. Just like the summers always seemed to go on forever and the sun was always shining!! lol. Anyway hope Colin can put us right - I'm off out now so will catch up with this thread later. Have a good day.
 
Silhouette and All,..The present is the first time ordinary people have had the chance to track down the family and their own past.No longer are we ashamed of what our forebears did, far from it, we marvel at the hardships they endured. Some of it within living memory but any one under 40 won't really relate to what we chat about.

Lets face it for all of us the future is getting shorter but that does not mean we cannot grow old disgracefully . Much to the gnashing and grinding of our offsprings teeth. Youth is wasted on the young . I am interested in those things and places I ignored in my youth and so , it appears, do many of you.

So Silhouette climb aboard the BHForum, it travels in all directions at once and you wont find a better group of fellow travellers. Leave the young uns to catch up later...By the way I had my CO_OP divi this morning...£10.

arkrite..still breathing!
 
Jules65 said:
Lyn - lovely photo. But again I am finding it hard to get my bearings with it. I can see St. Pauls in the distance. Is the Royal Oak shown on the photo? Obviously lots of the buildings shown were gone by the time I remember. The road seems much longer than I recall. Probably because of the new 6 ways island. Does anyone know the name of the road shown on the left of the photo? Lyn - you never know some of our relatives may be shown! lol
Click to expand...


The road you can see on the left in the picture is William Street, the Co-op shop is on the corner. The horse and cart is more or less where the Royal Oak should be but this picture must have been taken around 1918 and thats just my ill informed guess, in which case the Royal oak may not yet have been built - I don't know when it was built and we need one of our historians / researchers to find out for us ! The spot where it should be looks to be occuppied by a couple of pretty old wooden fronted buildings so maybe the pub was yet to be built ?? This is getting quite interesting isnt it ?
 
thanks colin..we knew you would know....just as a matter of interest is the building further up on the left gower st school....

lyn
 
Here's a photo of the top end of William Street in 67/68 and the co-op would have been at the end but was gone by then as demolition and redevelopment was going on apace
 
blimey col i am doing well getting the directions right for a change.. you know that block of flats (bet i get this one wrong lol) is it the ones that were pulled down a few years back..they were more or less opp the royal oak...

lyn
yes ive seen that pic before..nice one that....
 
Yes Lyn, I've scrutinised both pics and the Royal Oak is definately on the site occupied by those older buildings in the earlier photograph - i should know as I spent a good few hours as a kid waiting outside 'The Oak' LOL
 
Astoness said:
blimey col i am doing well getting the directions right for a change.. you know that block of flats (bet i get this one wrong lol) is it the ones that were pulled down a few years back..they were more or less opp the royal oak...

lyn
yes ive seen that pic before..nice one that....
Click to expand...

Yes, they were practically right next to the pub - good riddance to them !!! LOL The block was called Clyde Tower and it was built on the site of some lovely old houses that were accessed via a steep sloping alleyway right next to the car park at side of the Royal Oak
 
col..have you noticed how things have come full circle since the smoking ban in pubs started....we now see a lot of customers standing outside the pubs having a pint and a ciggy...takes me right back especially when i walk past the stag on summer lane...that pub just dosnt seemed to have changed over the years...

lyn
 
Yeah, LOL - I used to like it when someone would come out of the pub having obviously 'had a few' and stand there swaying around while they rooted in their pocket and fished out some change to give me
" He'are nip, get yerself some rocks" LOL
 
ahh no col...i thought i had got it wrong as ive just counted the floors..that was a 20 story and i watched that come down....the block i thought it was was the one on the opposite side of the road to the oak...it was 15 storys and me bro lived on the top floor....forgot the name of it now...it will come to me...

lyn
 
nip....another old saying that..sometimes our dad would come home from the pub with loads of sweets for us kids from the guys who came round selling them...mom always had a bag of prawns....

lyn
 
Oh yes !! You know I'd totally forgotten those flats on that side of the road !! The ugly rubbish ( flats, maisonettes and houses ) which they threw up to replace all the old back to backs just never registered with me, they were just . . . . there !!! LOL And how shabby and run down they became and how quickly !!! People can say what they will about the old back to backs but they were built to last and people took a pride in them years ago, as poor as they may have been !! Scrubbing front steps and swilling down the pavement in front of the house - daily !
 
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