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Perry Hall Park

My name is Tony Beasley, and i used to enjoy going on these paddle boats with my friends in the late 40s and early 50s. We would also take an old sack with us
so after going on the boats, we would take our shoes and socks off, and drag this old sack through the water and see how many minnows we could catch. Both
my friends and i lived in Carmodale avenue at the time, and also we attended Dorrington road school. Lots of very happy memories from these photos.
 
Thanks for the memories of Sundays spent in that park Dad used to take us to seethe Sunday football games & a trip on the boats for a treat.GREAT DAYS Pic's folks
 
Welcome Tony, like you I enjoyed that park many happy memories.
I was looking on Google Earth at their 1945 view to compare against their 2007 view. The moat (Paddle Boat Pool) can be seen and in the 1945 photo I can see the large pool which had normal rowing boats on it, and it was the pool where I first ever saw people ice skating in the winter of 1947.
The large pool seems to have disappeared in the 2007 view unless it is masked by the trees.
Of interest in the 1945 view are what appears to be group of huts in left side of the photo. Someone did mention about living in huts as a 'post war squatter' in the park but was not sure - I'll search for that thread.
oldmohawk
The view in 1945.
Perry_Hall_Park_1945.jpg


The view in 2007 - I made it black and white to match the earlier view.
Perry_Hall_Park_2007.jpg
 
The query about Army Huts in Perry Barr was from someone who's Dad had been born in an Army Hut in the park.
The topic discussion about post war Squatters is Here
 
Two pictures of the Paddle Boats and the Rowing Boats that were at Perry Hall Park. The white wooden barrier in the first picture stopped the paddle boats going on the larger lake.
Paddle_Boat_traffic_jam.jpg

Boating_on_Big_Lake.jpg
 
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Tony Beasley said:
My name is Tony Beasley, and i used to enjoy going on these paddle boats with my friends in the late 40s and early 50s. We would also take an old sack with us
so after going on the boats, we would take our shoes and socks off, and drag this old sack through the water and see how many minnows we could catch. Both
my friends and i lived in Carmodale avenue at the time, and also we attended Dorrington road school. Lots of very happy memories from these photos.
Click to expand...
Hello Tony and welcome
I also attended Dorrington road infants and juniors (Mr Aspinall) in the fifties and enjoyed the paddle boats, still have the blister scars :friendly_wink:

PS Also Miss Kirkham in the infants, used to direct the morning assembly singing by waving her arms about like a swan.
 
Final Comp The Park Keeper - Copy.jpg I wonder if this is the "parkie" that other readers remember? Taken from the Regina Drive entrance by my brother Mike on a Ross Ensign Full View Super in the 50's
 
I remember a Parkie in Perry Hall Park in the late 50's - can't remember what he looked like though ;-)

If you ever got on the grass by the little stream where the garden bit was he used to shout at you!!
 
That's the one Sparks. He chased me many's a time. His face used to turn blood red with temper. I did catch a few frogs though. Suppose were were the hoody's of yesteryear to the adults but it was just good fun for us.
 
kkjj.jpeg
In 1899 Fire Brigades from many countries attended a Fire Brigades Union Camp on the Perry Hall Estate to exhibit the latest fire fighting equipment.
 
img651.jpg
Are you in one of these Paddle Boats in Perry Hall Playing Fields? 1953.
 
img650.jpg
The same playing fields and Mr. Albert Reeve checks on the instruments before his model 4-6-2 POacific engine named The Mighty Atom, sets out on another run.
The text with this picture says as above "his model". Would that be a figure of speech or did he actually own it?
 
img649.jpg
This is/was the moat at Perry Hall Park after it had been made into a paddle-boat pool for youngsters. 1932.
 
I often went on the paddle boats as I have mentioned here and there in the thread, and also went on the rowing boats on the big lake but it does not appear to be there in today's aerial view.
I also went on the model train a few times. I loved that park, a couple of early 1930 pics below.

In the 1930s first picture below, a lady looks at the paddle boats, wonder what she was thinking.
The white fence was there to stop the paddle boats going on the big lake.
paddleboat1.jpg


In the next 1930s pic a lady walking the dog by the big lake. She has the same style hat as the lady in the other pic, but as Avena has pointed out, it is in the nearby Perry Barr park. St Johns church is in the background although today it does not have the four pinnacles on it's tower which can be seen in this view.
Walking_the_dog.jpg
 
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There were rowing boats on the large lake and I remember being in one. There is a pic of a rowing boat on Perry Hall Park lake here.
The white barrier fence between the moat and the lake can just be seen.
I also went on the rowing boats in Perry Barr Park and have a family pic showing my dad rowing and me with my sister and a friend here.
The lake at Perry Barr Park was almost square, but the lake at Perry Hall was long and narrow.
oldmohawk
 
Don't doubt what you say for one moment just never remember seeing them, would they have been there in the mid fifties ? probably couldn't have afforded them anyway :)
 
I have a feeling that I took my son on the rowing boats and that would be in the early 70's.
I put 1945 and 2007 aerial views in #34 and although the 'moat' can be see in both views, the lake can hardly be seen in either view and I'm not sure it is still there.
oldmohawk
 
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With regard to your two pictures in #34, oldMohawk, I think that, whilst the left hand picture is definitely Perry Hall Playing Fields, the second picture is of Perry Barr Park.
The church in the background is St John's in Church lane and you can just make out the site screen on the adjacent cricket ground. The wall behind the lady is the wall surrounding the beer garden of the Church Tavern.
Needless to say, neither lake is still in existence - that in Perry Hall playing fields is now a stream surrounded by a bog garden and that in Perry Barr park is now (or was) Tennis courts and a rather rubbish strewn stream on its way to the River Tame. Good to see these photos though as they per date my memories of the area - Thank You

Avena
 
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Hi Avena - I think you might be right. I did wonder about it and looked on Google streetview at St Johns and could not see the four pinnacles on top of the tower, maybe they have been removed - someone may know about this.
The other thing I looked at was how narrow the pool was by the lady, but now I remember the Perry Barr pool narrowed down as it spilled through a wall into a long quite attractive culvert, and I can see this narrowing down on Google. Also the position of the wall in the photo seems to be the wall by the culvert. I also now seem to remember the bank by the side of the lady. There were quite a lot of up-to-date photos on the forum but they got lost in the hack.
Thanks
oldmohawk...:encouragement:
 
post #48 r/h picture. the lady is walking away from the cricket picth, she is just by the end of the slight embankment , which ran from the boating lake which would be behind her, think i have got this right, sidwho
 
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Old mohawk re St John's church, the four pinnacles (spires) were indeed removed,as I recall in the early sixties, when I was still bluffing my way as a choirboy there despite my voice being near broken, because we got paid a shilling a wedding! There was uproar in the parish at the time because of the way it would change the church's appearance, but they were unsafe and uninsurable until repaired which was unaffordable at the time. There were even plans to replace them with fibre-glass replicas at one point. Incidentally a fellow choirboy at the time was Stevie Winwood, who went on to achieve fame in the Spencer Davis Group, Traffic and Blind Faith,the latter group including Eric Clapton.
 
Picture showing pinnacles on St Johns tower.Moss
 

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A stunning photo Moss. Was wondering if this is Church Road. And I can't make out what's sticking out of the chimney pot on the middle cottage. The lane looks so rural and peaceful. Viv.
 
Well, it has been an interesting discussion about the church arising from comment about a photo of a lady walking in the nearby Perry Barr park !
There is a previous forum post here with a link which shows many old photos of the church.
 
New to the Forum so would like to say 'Hi'..
I lived in Derrydown Road which over looked Perry Hall Park from 1959 - 1965 approx.
I went to Dorrington Road School in the above years.
My mother use to run the cafe in the park, so we could spend all day on the paddling boats all day free of charge...
Can anyone remember when they use to turn the water in the moat a vivid blue? I think it was to kill off the water plants.
 
Hello GazSutton and welcome to the Forum. I lived in Dewsbury Grove from 45 until 70 and also went to Dorrington road school but obviously before you. Did you know the Saywells or my friend Arthur Kearney who both lived near the right of way entrance between Derrydown and Dewsbury. We used to spend many happy hours in the playing fields but never in the Cafe and rarely on the paddle boats (always skint). My relatives, who I never met, used to live in one of the houses between Derrydown and the entrance to the playing fields in Perry Avenue they also owned a factory on the Walsall road close to Tucker Eyelets but kept their money to themselves :(.
 
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