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Sheldon Bombing

What a fascinating thread. Lots of subjects that have jogged my memories. I moved into Greenvale Avenue with my parents in 1952 and lived there until I married in 1970.
I have no recollection of anyone talking about bombs being dropped in Parkdale Rd or Silvermere Rd but as children we played in the "Conker Dell" a large depression at the top of King George V playing fields which was reputedly caused by bombing during the war.
Silvermere School was then a senior school and I went to Mapledene Rd infants and juniors but the teachers mentioned, Mr Barlow, Mrs Onions (pronounced OhNyons and not onions!) were still teaching at Mapledene when I left.
I can remember the shops at both ends of Cranes Park Rd. At the 60 bus terminus end were the newsagents, Adams and then Goodes, a wool shop/haberdashers, a grocery shop, a butcher (later taken over by Frank FitzMaurice who was in the same year as me at Mapledene) and Peters fish and chip shop later to become an ironmongers run by Wally Goode from the newsagents. At the other end, near to Church Rd was a shoe repairers, Savages I seem to remember, Hodriens the Greengrocers, Woodroffes, an ironmongers and sweetshop combined, a wool/baby shop, and a chemists. There may also have been a hairdressers shop but I can't be sure.
I remember one of the contributers to this thread, Neville Phillpot. He lived in the flats just up from my best friend, David Gray in Silvermere Rd.
Wonderful memories of a wonderful childhood.
Completely off thread but did your friend David Gray have a younger brother, John, if so, he started the same dayas I did in Mapledene infants in the late 50s. Our first teacher was Mrs Cadman
 
Sorry only just seen this question. Badpenny is quite right, Dave only had the two younger sisters, Linda and Christine
 
There are a lot of flat roof houses in Common Lane of Church road , they are known as the Jerry built houses.

Hi Robert I lived in one of the flat roof houses in Common Lane when I was a kid till I got married. The street was only narrow and had a wide stretch of dirt on left side going up from church rd to barrows lane there lots of trees and bushes where us kids all played. It was later widened and we lost our play area haha.
We still had an old air raid shelter in the garden.
As a child when they talked about jerry built I thought it meant the germans built them!
My mum still lived there till about 15 years ago.
 
Hi Wendy I lived in the prefabs Church rd end.i remember the trees being cut down, could never figure why they did it it was never a busy road.
 
Would it be prudent to split this thread between posts related to Sheldon bombing and others that refer to everything else?

I believe we do have a Sheldon thread which may better accommodate some of the other posts.

Just a thought
Badpenny..
 
H
Hi Wendy I lived in the prefabs Church rd end.i remember the trees being cut down, could never figure why they did it it was never a busy road.
i Robert I lived in one of the flat roof houses in common lane and my husband lived in the prefabs in Bickley grove. My best friend lived in Hayden grove prefab she is still my best friend 55 years later.
 
Hi Bills
We lived at 97 Common Lane, one of the flat roofed houses built 1935. The houses were all of a similar design but varied in size up and down the street. No.97 started as a two bed but was converted into a three bed by a cinder block wall between the old bathroom (bedroom 3) and the W/C and a new bathroom built at the other end of the landing.
The flat roof design was used all over the country, another group was built out towards the Maypole.
A great little house, good times. Mark.

Hi Bills lad, I lived at 81 common lane(flat roof) as a child , did you live near the Marshalls and the Robinsons?? I think the Robinsons was the last one in the line of flat roof houses. I was friends with Margaret Robinson . Wendy
 
Hi everyone. This is my first post on here. I'm finding all of the pictures and stories on this and other Sheldon threads very interesting and fascinating. I was born in Sheldon in 1981 and lived in Newark Croft (just off Carnford Road) until 2001. When my wife and i got married, we moved to Mardon Road (just round the corner from the Ivydale bombings) until 2008 where we moved to Catherine-de-Barnes in Solihull. I'm always on the look out for old photo's and stories of the history of Sheldon. Although i don't live in Sheldon anymore, i always call it home and have some great memories. My dad still lives in Newark Croft who i still visit every week. I think our house on Mardon Road was built in the 30's, probably around the same time as the houses on Parkdale, Ivydale, Silvermere, etc. It's amazing how much Sheldon has changed, and continues to change going by some of the old pictures other members have put up. I particularly like the pictures of the corner of Arden Oak Road/Coventry Road, where our favourite curry house Shabar now stands.
Just typed in Newark croft on the off chance. My family lived there from about 1955 until 1969. I remember some of the family names - Manleys, Ball, Colonel White, Bute, Ashcroft. We loved playing in the croft, climbing the lampposts, playing knock doors and run, listening out for the ice cream man and the rag and bone man. Sheldon library is still vibrant and there's a good doctors nearby. We were Evans.
 
My Mum or dad never spoke about bombs in Sheldon however mum used to complain none of our doors shut properly after the war. She never ever told us they had been so close. Wendy
 
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This has appeared in this thread before but is a clearer image, recently posted on the B26 community website. There is no indication of the location but looks like Ivydale Avenue, taken from Cranespark Road side looking towards Sheldon Church?

1573983298448.png
 
This has appeared in this thread before but is a clearer image, recently posted on the B26 community website. There is no indication of the location but looks like Ivydale Avenue, taken from Cranespark Road side looking towards Sheldon Church?

View attachment 139204
Reply #38 in this thread gives the location as Ivydale Avenue and picture 126 in Alton Douglas' Birmingham at War gives the same location and is dated 18th April 1941.
 
Reply #38 in this thread gives the location as Ivydale Avenue and picture 126 in Alton Douglas' Birmingham at War gives the same location and is dated 18th April 1941.
I skimmed through the thread but must have missed the comment
 
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,

Did you ever make any progress on this? I have just started researching my mothers time during WW2 for my 9 year old daughters school project. Turns out she lived at 82 Parkdale Road during the war (born 1935). Her quick recollection on a phone call just now is that the house next door but one or 2 was destroyed by a bomb. I don't have any further details right now, but am going up to see her and my father this coming weekend (14/02/20) and will let you know what more I can find out.
 
Ian,
Did you ever make any progress on this? I have just started researching my mothers time during WW2 for my 9 year old daughters school project. Turns out she lived at 82 Parkdale Road during the war (born 1935). Her quick recollection on a phone call just now is that the house next door but one or 2 was destroyed by a bomb. I don't have any further details right now, but am going up to see her and my father this coming weekend (14/02/20) and will let you know what more I can find out.
I had a quick browse around and found this ....
Parkdale.jpg
Source http://ww2talk.com/index.php?threads/birmingham-city-police-casualties.38289/
 
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When this website below does overcome its technical difficulty it should reveal some very interesting information.
One assumes it should be available through the public library service.

 
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An aerial view of the area dated 1945.

No 82 Parkdale Rd is within the circle. I can't see any obvious signs of bomb damage but in those days they were quick at repairing houses in the suburbs as I may have mentioned in WW2 bomb damage posts I've placed in other threads on the BHF.
Parkdale1945.jpg
 
also to go with phils info on post 115 i have this

esults
Last NameForename(s)Date of InjuryLocation of InjuryAgeCivil Defence Status
NixonArthur10/04/1941142 Parkdale Road, SheldonCivilianView
NixonMargaret10/04/1941142 Parkdale Road, SheldonCivilian
 
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