• Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.

    We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team

Metro Cammell Saltley

The social club was knocked down last week and I wonder if anybody got to save some of the pictures that hung there.
 
image.jpeg May 1939...Air-conditioned coach bound for South Africa.

Does any one remember a chap called Timmy Knight who worked at the Met many years ago, he also used the social club some 20 years ago?
 
View attachment 108315 May 1939...Air-conditioned coach bound for South Africa.

Does any one remember a chap called Timmy Knight who worked at the Met many years ago, he also used the social club some 20 years ago?

Hi Pedrocut.
Timmy Knight was my father, sadly he passed away in 2006.
He really made the most out of his retirement. In fact it was a miracle if you were able to catch him at home.
I remember taking him shopping to the Fox & Goose Shopping Centre, it used to take hours and hours and hours.
We had to stop and chat with so many people.
He knew every other person we walked past. All from the Met of course.
It made my day to see his name here, he would have absolutely loved this site.
Thanks for remembering him.
Annette
 
Hi Pedrocut.
Timmy Knight was my father, sadly he passed away in 2006.
He really made the most out of his retirement. In fact it was a miracle if you were able to catch him at home.
I remember taking him shopping to the Fox & Goose Shopping Centre, it used to take hours and hours and hours.
We had to stop and chat with so many people.
He knew every other person we walked past. All from the Met of course.
It made my day to see his name here, he would have absolutely loved this site.
Thanks for remembering him.
Annette

Lovely to hear from you, Timmy may have spoken to you about his snooker partner for many years at the Barn Social Club!
You would also known Len and Cyril?

Please give me an email via the site correspondence, all the best Peter
 
Hi
I worked with Eddie Warner on the setting out in the finishing shop late forties to middle fifties.
I was at the Metro Cammel Saltley from 1944 until 1955.


Eddie Warner was the Sawmill manager at Midland works when I was there 1973 to 1985.
He was a really nice chap, bud sadly he died I think around 1980. Bill Blackwell was the
Welfare Officer and Club Secretary for most of the time I was there.

The Sports and Social Club was sold to Banks' Brewery around 1985

Kind regards

Dave
 
Last edited:
Do you remember Norman Handley who worked at Metro Cammell Saltley late 50s/early 60s as a finisher on the coaches - in particular the Blue Pullman?
I worked at the Metro Cammel Saltley in the finishing shop from 1944 until 1955. I worked with Frank Spink, Eddie Warner and Percy Jones on the setting-out bench
 
A few years ago my B/in law was made redundant from the Rover and got a job at Metro Cammel Went in on a Monday was showed what he had to do on the carriages.Never went in again asked for his cards.Said it was slave labour.
 
Edit. One of the businesses that was merged to form Metro Cammell in the 1920s/30s was the Midland Railway Carriage and Wagon Co. A thread about this earlier company from 1853 is here:
https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/index.php?threads/midland-railway-carriage-wagon-co.49253/
————————————————————————————————————————————
I have memories of working at Metro-Cammell Saltley. I started my apprentiship as a wood machinist in 1951 anyone else have memories of this great place. I'll sort some photo's out and post them. Wonderful site. Albert Wayne
I worked on the setting out bench next door to the wood machine shop from 1944 to 1955
 
Last edited:
My dad worked for Metro Cammell for 20 odd years until he was made redundant in the 80's. I have this legacy on my garden shed door.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_6142.JPG
    IMG_6142.JPG
    1.8 MB · Views: 48
My father in law Bob Mutlow worked at metro in the early 50's as a coach trimmer. We found this picture just after he passed away earlier this year.

Bob is far right front row.Unfortunately we don't know who any of the others are.
View attachment 88213
I think the man in the suit is Percy Jones who I worked with on the setting out bench early 1950 unti 1955
 
I remember watching the finished coaches pass by along the Coleshill Road near Hodge Hill Common. What an exciting moment.
 
My Uncle Bertie used to work at the MET, I used to watch him trudging up Phillimore Road, he was a chain smoker and the walk home always made him out of breathe. I think some of my other Uncles may have worked there breifly, too. I was young then, and didn't really pay too much attention to where the adults worked.
 
Hi Viv,

Yes, this was certainly the Met Club viewed from the sports field.
When I was at Metropolitan Cammell, I kept the accounts for the
club, I also worked for a while behind the bar, and of course, the
kids loved the Christmas parties.

All gone, - but they were happy days.

Kind regards
Dave
 
Hi Viv,

Yes, this was certainly the Met Club viewed from the sports field.
When I was at Metropolitan Cammell, I kept the accounts for the
club, I also worked for a while behind the bar, and of course, the
kids loved the Christmas parties.

All gone, - but they were happy days
Kind regards
Dave
Yes, companies stopped caring about their employees from the 1970s onwards.
The large and medium sized companies used to have social and sports clubs, with bars and snooker tables.
They would put on Christmas pantos and parties for the employees children.
There was subsidised canteen meals during the day for workers. Coach trips to the seaside.
This all cost money of course, get rid of it and pass on the extra savings to the shareholders, their far more important than the workers. Grrrrrrrr.
Most of those companies were sold on to foreign owners who eventually asset stripped them and closed them down.
What a shame, gone are the days of a family bond with the companies. :(
 
Not all that far from the sports ground belonging to the "Met" would be the Birmingham Gas Department Club and grounds of Hollyfields and also that of the "Delta." It would be interesting to see how many there were in Birmingham and what happened to the land.
 
I hear the Jaguar Land Rover social club and sports ground in Solihull is due to close down soon. Its a well supported club but car parking space is apparently more important.
It just goes on and on.
The people just don't count anymore.
 
Some Brummie products photographed in Scotland by a Brummie bloke in a Scottish regiment!

The tanks are products of Metropolitan at Saltley, photographed in Edinburgh in spring/summer 1919. The photographer is my father, Birmingham born and bred and yet, somehow or other, finding himself in a Scottish regiment and a kilt. He's been wounded in France, repatriated, now recovered and awaiting demob whilst he photographs much of what he sees around him - tanks, guns, barracks, parades and, especially, the lads and lassies who are his friends. Survivors all, well, the blokes, anyway. And as for the tanks.......

Here is an expert opinion as to what these three images tell us.

The two heavy tanks are Mark V* Males (pronounced "Mark V Star"). The nearer tank ("Better Ole") is serial number 10062, training number 933, while what I presume is "Top 'Ole" beyond it appears to be serial number 10034. Both tanks were built by Metropolitan Carriage, Wagon & Finance Company of Birmingham, in the second batch of Mark V* Males. No.10034 has its semaphore signalling device erected - the white stalk with the disc projecting above its roof. We can't see 10034's training number from this angle, but it would also have been a three-digit code beginning with "9".

The photo showing the Mark V* generating a smokescreen is most interesting. The engine must be running because the cloud of smoke is being recycled through the radiator's air intake louvres on the rear left side of the hull. The smoke itself appears to be generated by smoke candles carried on the stowage rack hinged to the rear of the armoured fuel tank, instead of injecting acid into the tank's exhaust pipe, which ends well above the source of the smoke in this photo.


Chris

TankCombo.jpg
 
Back
Top