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Sheldon Bombing

Ian Leggett

master brummie
Is there any information of the bombs that fell on Parkdale Road.This was a new road having been built in 1938/9. Apparently a German Bomber was being chased off Elmdon Airpaort and it dropped it's bomb load to gain speed as it flew off. The bombs dropped in Parkdale Road damaging several houses and killing a policeman. There was also a large bomb crater behind the houses alongside the brook backing onto King George V playing fields. This was an allotment and my father used to tell me that his vegetables were blown up here. This was a popular place for us to play hide and seek and coboys and indians. Many houses which had their roofs repaired were done in a different colour slate which is still clearly visible today. On a different tack,most of the houses on the other side of the playing fields were built by German POW's. These houses are in roads running off Church Road but cannot remember the names (ending with "dale" I think)
Regards Ian.
 
Is there any information of the bombs that fell on Parkdale Road.This was a new road having been built in 1938/9. Apparently a German Bomber was being chased off Elmdon Airpaort and it dropped it's bomb load to gain speed as it flew off. The bombs dropped in Parkdale Road damaging several houses and killing a policeman. There was also a large bomb crater behind the houses alongside the brook backing onto King George V playing fields. This was an allotment and my father used to tell me that his vegetables were blown up here. This was a popular place for us to play hide and seek and coboys and indians. Many houses which had their roofs repaired were done in a different colour slate which is still clearly visible today. On a different tack,most of the houses on the other side of the playing fields were built by German POW's. These houses are in roads running off Church Road but cannot remember the names (ending with "dale" I think)
Regards Ian.
Ian, German Pow`s building council houses is not on, only established building companies worked for the city council most of the houses in the area were privatly built pre-WW2, the Elms Farm Estate of council housing and Elms Farm School was built in 1954 as Infants & Junior and amalgamated in 1984 as a Community school & was built after the Pow`s had long gone, Regards Len.
 
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There are a lot of flat roof houses in Common Lane of Church road , they are known as the Jerry built houses.
 
Robert, The Common Lane "flat tops" were occupied as i remember them from 1935 when our Insurance Agent would take me & my older Brother on his round and he collected from some of the houses, the roofs leaked and some years ago they were covered with a leakproof covering, i think they were council houses when built, a lot have been bought. Len.
 
I used to live in Silvermere Road and can confirm that the former Silvermere secondary school received bomb damage.

I don't believe that there was any housing yet built in the road at that time only the school...
 
I seem to think that Silvermere/Mapledene and Berryfield Road had very few houses and that Parkdale Road was the first to have houses off Cranes Park Road. The bombing of the school may well have been the same string of bombs that hit Parkdale as the plane would have come from the airport that way. On the houses built by German POW I am pretty sure that was correct as they were known as the Jerry built houses.They were not council as far as I am aware,I think one road was called Beechdale Road and it ran paralel with the playing field. I thought there may have been a thread already but it did not come up in the search so thought to open it up again. Regards Ian.
 
I think the term Jerry Built means cobbled together rather than built by the Jerries.

Dunno if Lencops is right about in Birmingham, but I once worked on some flats in Coventry which were supposed to have been built by POWs. Possibly Italians, with materials that had been taken from a ship. I dont remember the full story, but I do remember that the internal bricks were like terracotta airbricks, sort of honeycomb inside, the sort that you often see in Spain and Portugal. If you tried to use a hammer drill they just shattered.
 
I think the houses in Parkdale Rd were built just pre war, and the German POW's were used in the making of the roads, the only bombing I know of in the area was Ivydale Avenue. there is a picture of the damage in Alton Douglas's 'Birmingham At War' book.

Nick
 
I think the term Jerry Built means cobbled together rather than built by the Jerries.

Dunno if Lencops is right about in Birmingham, but I once worked on some flats in Coventry which were supposed to have been built by POWs. Possibly Italians, with materials that had been taken from a ship. I dont remember the full story, but I do remember that the internal bricks were like terracotta airbricks, sort of honeycomb inside, the sort that you often see in Spain and Portugal. If you tried to use a hammer drill they just shattered.

Don,t know these houses but there was a time in the middle 60s that these terracotta brick were in common use didn,t last long thank goodness. Dek
 
Hi All,

This thread interested me so I have done a little research into POWs and whether they worked. They were categorised into 3 groups - White, Grey and Black.

The whites were considered trustworthy as they had never been Nazis. The Greys were those who had an interest in Naziism but had never joined the party.. The Blacks were members of the party SS etc. In addition all Luiftwaffe and U boat personnel were categorised Black.

The whites were allowed to work. The greys could work but only on farms etc.. The blacks were not allowed to work on any account.

No one could be made to work but whites and greys could if they wished. The whites worked on farms, roads and construction. Before D Day there were very few German POWs who had served in the army so not too many working. They were not all finally repatriated until 1948.

After the Italian surrender in 1943 Italian POWs could more or less do as they pleased but the majority worked on farms.

Old Boy
 
Thanks, OLD BOY, that reply is very interesting. I wonder if there is a record of the houses being built by POW's in the Sheldon area. Regards Ian.
 
Hi Nick,Yes the houses were built just pre war,my father bought one new in late 1938. It was not these that were involved in POW building but on the opposite side of the playing fields. REgards Ian.
 
I think the term Jerry Built means cobbled together rather than built by the Jerries.

Dunno if Lencops is right about in Birmingham, but I once worked on some flats in Coventry which were supposed to have been built by POWs. Possibly Italians, with materials that had been taken from a ship. I dont remember the full story, but I do remember that the internal bricks were like terracotta airbricks, sort of honeycomb inside, the sort that you often see in Spain and Portugal. If you tried to use a hammer drill they just shattered.
Ah,but which came first,the term,or the POW houses. Could the term have followed the
POW building. Regards Ian.
 
From Dictionary.com :

jer·ry-built

   /ˈdʒɛr
thinsp.png
iˌbɪlt
/ Show Spelled[jer-ee-bilt] Show IPA
–adjective 1. built cheaply and flimsily.

2. contrived or developed in a haphazard, unsubstantial fashion, as a project or organization.

Origin:
1865–70; jerry (as in jerry-build) + built


Jer·ry

   /ˈdʒɛr
thinsp.png
i
/ Show Spelled[jer-ee] organisationShow IPA
–noun,plural-ries. Chiefly British Informal. 1. a German.

2. Germans collectively.

Origin:
1910–15; Ger(man) + -y

The expression jerry-built existed at least forty years before a German was known as a Jerry.
Hope this helps, db84124
 
This is clipped from; https://alt-usage-english.org/excerpts/fxjerryb.html

Jerry-built", which the OED defines as "built unsubstantially of
bad materials; built to sell but not last" is attested since 1869,
and is said to have arisen in Liverpool. It has been fancifully
derived from the Biblical city of Jericho, whose walls came tumbling
down; from the prophet Jeremiah, because he foretold decay; from the
name of a building firm on the Mersey; from "jelly", signifying
instability; from French jour="day" (workers paid day-by-day
considered less likely to do a good job); and from the Romany
gerry="excrement". More likely, it is linked to earlier
pejorative uses of the name Jerry ("jerrymumble", to knock about,
1721; "Jerry Sneak", a henpecked husband, 1764; "jerry", a cheap
 
Don,t know these houses but there was a time in the middle 60s that these terracotta brick were in common use didn,t last long thank goodness. Dek

These were older than that, looked about late 40s to me. But I'm not in the building trade, just fitted the door entry system.
 
Thanks for clearing the subject of "Jerry builders" up. You really are very informative forum members.
I am still fairly sure the houses were POW built though.Interestlingly one forum thread mentioned the Italians who were given a lot lore freedom to move around.After the war many hundreds stayed in the UK and they had a very large community in Bedford working in the brick works. So perhaps there is a link there in that they were the builders. Regards Ian.
 
Greetings one and all. Came acroos this Thread via a contact at Staffs Home Guard.
I lived in Lyndon Road, Sheldon, just up from the Sheldon Cinema. Houses on our side followed the road all the way but on t'other side, stopped at the point where access was provided to the Rover Sports Fields (oposite our house) and then, a dairy farm, up to the shops (Garner's Fruit and Veg was the first).
We had bombs dropped within 200 yards of our house and if the current owners havent made any changes, there would still be shrapnel embedded in one of the upper window frames.

My reason for writing here is to seek some help. My Father was an ARP Warden and I am trying to find any available information related to his Section and his "beat". I had believed the ARP and Home Guard were connected but was wrong.

So my question is, does anyone know where I might find information on the ARP.

Regards, OldBrummie.
 
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