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Quinton, Selcroft Avenue pre 1970's?

libdan123

Brummie babby
Hi all, I'm new to the forum, so apologies if this is posted in the wrong place.

I lived in Selcroft Avenue houses, Quinton in the late 80's, early 90's. I'm told that before the white flats were built there were houses, and before the houses were built there was a landfill site, and 'sandpits' where local kids would play.

Does anyone have any memories of this road before it was built on, or any old photos?
 
My Mother,Brother and myself moved into the first block of flats in 1965,Selcroft avenue was not even laid as a proper road then and most flats were empty.
I have no knowledge of what was there before hand.
 
Thanks for replies.

Wow, was the little playground with the slide built back then or did that come later? Think it was at the back of Netley House. Ibet the new flats and houses were really modern back then.
 
Hello Libdan 123, Where the flats were built used to be a farm known as Powell's farm. There were sandpits where members of the armed forces used to have target practice, usually on a Sunday morning. This would be during wartime when I was a child. Much later the sandpits were filled in and I think there is now a day-centre of some kind standing there. I was born in Blandford Road and the brook as we knew it ran along the bottom of our garden. We were surrounded by fields and at the bottom of Blandford Road was Welsh House Farm - the road there is named after that farm. Initially, the estate was part of Harborne parish, but later as the estate expanded it came under Quinton, B32.
The small park has been there as long as I can remember because I used to play there and then walked on to play in Queens Park.
Anthea
 
I was born in Bourne Avenue, B32 - when I was a child there was a farm that seemed to stretch for miles that was supposed to be developed just before the war which stopped it - it was developed in late 40's. You could see Woodgate village in the distance which I often walked to.
Sheri
 
Thanks Anthea and Sheri. We lived on Rilstone Road and then moved up to Selcroft. I can just about remember the 'New Road', the West Boulevard connecting Quinton to Bartley Green being built.

Anthea have you moved from Birmingham now? The small park has gone now as I think it kept being vandalised, we often used to pass through on my way home from school! And there is doctors surgery between the flats and houses on Selcroft, the one that moved from Court Oak Road.
 
Hello libdan123, Bringing back memories here. Moved from Blandford Road to Hall Green 1962. West Boulevard was from around where the flats were up to the Monarch public house and Tom Knocker's Wood and Quinton Road West started there. The connection to Bartley Green came much later - maybe in the 1960's/70's?? Our doctor lived at the end of Tennal Lane which went on to Court Oak Road, I believe. It's a pity such places as the little park get taken away because of vandals......things like that didn't happen when I was young; at least, not where we were fortunate enough to live. I used to attend Woodhouse Road school and from there went to Station Road Secondary Modern in Harborne. Baptised and Married at St Peter's Church, Harborne. St Boniface church in Quinton Road West was built much later. I do have some photos of the sandpits etc., but they are on my memory stick and I will have to ask my son for a bit of help as I don't know how to transfer them to the Forum. Hope all this helps.

I now live in Paignton, Devon.
 
Yes thanks Anthea, that's really interesting, and answers a lot of things I didn't know. It is ashame that things get vandalised and ruined. I also attended Woodhouse school however much later, 80's-90's. Was 'The Spinney' there when you attended, around the back of the school? I think the proper name for it is Pitts Wood. We also had a little pond outside the canteen, but that's since been filled in.

Yes I would love to see photos if you do get chance. I'm going to try to attach a couple of old photos which my brother found (hope it works), one is of Selcroft Avenue, I'm unsure of the date but the flats were up. And the other is Blandford Road in 1959. My brother did have some more of what looked like the flats when they were halfway to being finished, I'll find out if he's still got them.

Liz
 

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I think the extension of West Boulevard was at least mid to late 70's as I left when I got married in July 72 and it was not even started then.
In Davids 2nd picture you can see the entrance top Brook Lane where a Warden Controlled complex was built on half of the allotments.
My mother moved into them from Tintern House in 2001 at the age of 80 as we felt living on the 4th floor in Tintern she would be totaly stuck if the lift went out of order.
 
West Boulevard.jpgView attachment 86539View attachment 86540Selcroft Avenue.jpg

Hopefully, a picture of the sandpits before they were filled in. The farm buildings are at the top of the hill where the flats were later built. I hope the first picture can be enlarged ? The sandpits are to the right and the farm buildings are at the top of West Boulevard to the right of the trees.

Woodhouse Road School had a spinney which had a little stream running through and our Headmaster, Mr Strudwick (a lovely kind headmaster) used to take the class on a Friday afternoon to the spinney for a nature lesson. There were wooden huts in the playground which provided two extra classrooms. The school was built in about 1931 ready for the children who were about to come to live in the new estate. My mother's house was built in 1936 and I was born a year later. She lived there for 60 years.

I have a couple more pictures, but they didn't come on here for some reason??? Anthea.
 
I think the banner reads 'We love school' but not sure. The two other pictures I tried to post didn't work for some reason. But I am pleased the main one of the sandpits transferred OK and is a very good photo.

Anthea
 
Brilliant photos, it has changed so much, yet it is still clear to see where it is, the farm buildings have solved the mystery of the houses I saw in the distance in a photo once, we thought perhaps there were houses where the flats were built and wondered why they were demolished. My mum, who can vaguely remember the sandpits, couldn't remember any other houses being there prior to the flats and houses which are currently there.

I was going to do a before and after, but couldn't figure out how to get the pictures from Google Streetview.

I knew the school was built around that time, as I remember us having a 1940's day once, we also loved going to the spinney..
 
libdan123, I am not familiar with the name Pitts Wood as when I was at Woodhouse Road School we children were told that the place attached to the school was called The Spinney.

If you look at the photo of West Boulevard to the left where the policeman is on horseback, you can see some prefabs. If you look to the right where there is a line of old trees lining the sandpits, that is where houses were built sometime in the late 1950's/1960's. There were allotments around there and maybe still are and there was a deep pool which we kids knew as the "death pool". A few years ago I came across an article referring to a man and woman who committed suicide in that pool. Not a nice piece of information, but true nevertheless.

Anthea
 
Prior to Secroft Avenue and the rest of Welsh House Farm estate being built,the area was mainly fields.
There was a sand quarry (sand pits) which was owned by Powells yard.
There was a small fleet of lorries kept there (for delivering sand presumeably)
I used to live in Blandford Road and as kids,that was our playground.
We honed our climbing skills on the cliffs of the sandpits,starting from the easy bits and progressing to the sheer sided part.
Further over the "back" there were the army barracks consisting of mostly black wooden huts.
These were the living quarters for the soldiers including family.
Before Welsh House Farm estate was built,the fields went as far as the Monarch pub,ending at "Tommy Knockers wood".
I lived there in the 50's and remember the whole new estate being built.
Happy days.
 
libdan123, I am not familiar with the name Pitts Wood as when I was at Woodhouse Road School we children were told that the place attached to the school was called The Spinney.

If you look at the photo of West Boulevard to the left where the policeman is on horseback, you can see some prefabs. If you look to the right where there is a line of old trees lining the sandpits, that is where houses were built sometime in the late 1950's/1960's. There were allotments around there and maybe still are and there was a deep pool which we kids knew as the "death pool". A few years ago I came across an article referring to a man and woman who committed suicide in that pool. Not a nice piece of information, but true nevertheless.

Anthea
just came across this post :) I used to live at 90 rilstone road (by the top end) and, when selcroft was built, we moved to the new houses. I remember the death pond. When they drained it for the new flats we rescued a lot of the fish and put them in the Blanford Road brook.Spent hours at the horse stables on top of the sand pit. We played all over there (when kids were able to be out of the house all day, un supervised). I went to welsh house farm school, probably 1958/59, then woodhouse and fourdwellings. There is a picture of the shops on Blanford, I left my bike in the road and Mr Andrews ran over it. Dad kicked up a fuss so he bought me a new bike! ahh the good old days.
 
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