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Memories : Trip down Birmingham memory lane

Vivienne14

Vivienne14

Kentish Brummie Moderator
Staff member
I have created this thread so that we can record any past written records giving the author’s views of Birmingham streets and places of the past.

First up

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Source: British Newspaper Archive
 
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A reminder about the purpose of this thread:

I have created this thread so that we can record any past written records giving the author’s views of Birmingham streets and places of the past.

I’d appreciate if members could keep to the thread topic please. Many thanks.

Viv.
 
When I was growing up in the 50,s on Radnor Rd. Being quite close to Handsworth Park, I used to love going to the annual flower show. It was inexpensive (or I would have been able to go), or maybe because I belonged to St Mary’s 120th scout troop. It was more than flowers, it was vegetables Morris dancing and all sorts of stuff. There were lots of people, it was in the summertime and always a great couple of days. I remember also being amazed a how quickly all of the flowers and tents went away! I have read where the park went into disrepair, I hope that the park is back to what I remember for folks to enjoy!
 
I left Birmingham back in the early 1960's and for all sorts of reasons have not returned at all until very recently. What on earth can I say? Talk about a stranger in a strange land. Nothing was recognisable. The city and suburbs I knew as a youngster have not only vanished but have disappeared so completely as to leav me doubting whether or not they ever existed.

I came to see where I had grown up. Unfortunately, although I could see me my Gran's house where I was born, my first home in Aston where my parents were placed after being bombed out has apparently long since gone and now lies somewhere under Spaghetti Junction. However the house I grew up in the quite side roads off the Bristol Road in Longbridge is still there. However it is now a security fenced bastion of middle-class insecurity. Where once we neighbourhood kids used to sit on the low walls and chatter there are quite literally security fences and electric gates protecting those within and their shiny cars.

So much for where I lived lets cross the Bristol Road and wander down Tessall Lane to the bridge over the river (Stream) by the railway track and the wild patch of land behind Kalamazoo where we used to watch steam trains as smaller boys and play our first clumsy attempts at tonsil hockey when we got older. What used to be so quiet is now a huge railway station. Presumably to serve the "Orstin" as we used to know the huge car works. But all that is gone replaced by futuristic blocks like the architect had a Lego fetish. Of course I knew Austin or Rover or whatever had gone, I had not expected it to be obliterated.

Hey Ho, off we go to Northfield. In my memory a sleepy town I walked through on my way to St Laurence's School with its awful outside toilets. The Church and the pound with its strange stone still remain. How we all wondered at school did a stone get into so much trouble it had to be locked up! The Northfield I knew was a grubby sort of place but it was just the grime that seemed to be everywhere in those days. It was otherwise well kept and litter free with interesting little shops and a decent sized Woolworths and two pubs, to show it was a place of some importance. In my time I remember a forge where the odd horse was still shod. Now it seems to have all been replaced by a huge centre that strangely seems to actually sell very little. Odd really, what is it for, who does it serve.

OK. I'll add more later if anyone is interested and continue my journey to a city centre which was so unrecognisable I knew not where I was.
 
The penny [post was not introduced till 1840. Before that the mail was carried on mail coaches and was expensive , and I think it was usual for those receiving to pay. Even so, the cost does seem rather large
 
Richard, prior to the introduction of the 'penny' post in 1840 the cost of sending a letter depended upon size, weight and distance travelled. Letters sent via the Post Office were generally paid for by the recipient not the sender and were proportionately much more expensive than today. Typically the cost from Birmingham to Glasgow could be as much as one penny a sheet. Important documents sent prepaid were much more expensive as they had to be seen to be delivered to the named recipient (troublesome indeed in those days of formal etiquette) and I can only assume that this is what is meant in this article.
 
Further research has led me to the postal museum who indicate that postage of a one ounce missive from London to Edinburgh would have cost four shillings and four pence in 1812. This would be the equivalent today of £20.86p!!!
 
Continuing the subject of mail, this offers a glimpse of postal services over time. Viv.
A3D7B02F-6075-4FFB-BE94-B26ED3F05B44.jpeg
Source: British Newspaper Archive
 
These extracts are from the diary of Esther Fry and give an account of social conditions in Birmingham. Hard hitting extracts from the diary dated the 1850s and 60s were contained in this newspaper article entitled “The Good Old Days” in Birmingham. Viv,

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8AAE4D38-9975-4C66-83A6-6857916EA9CE.jpeg67F2F6C5-DA44-4366-A88D-C4A113F2766A.jpeg
Source: British Newspaper Archive
 
I remember the ridiculously heavy oak furniture that was used in railway stations. Always had a very high gloss to it. This table was made for Curzon Street Station but ended up at New Street Station. Viv.

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Source: British Newspaper Archive
 
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