Sheldon

[pjmburns]

The house might have been empty.

 

[lindyloo]

Anybody know the location of the photo of the post office at Sheldon

Hi Elmdon Boy, I'm not sure if anyone has answered your query, but I was looking at this myself today and I believe the Post Office would have been where the precinct is now, not far from the old Municipal Bank site. I will attempt to add a picture.. the top map being 1937 and having the Post Office and Bank marked. The arrow on the far right of the bottom map from 1957, I believe points to where The Sue Ryder Charity shop was with Greggs next door. The post box in the photo is marked as LB on the bottom map.

 

[Elmdon Boy]

Hi lindyloo, thanks for your input and map. Just trying to get my bearings, is that sheaf lane on the RH side coming off the Coventry Rd.

 

[lindyloo]

Hi Elmdon Boy, yes, thats Sheaf Lane. Attached is more of the 1937 map which might help.

 

[Elmdon Boy]

Thanks lindyloo, got my bearings now. The old PO was were you say.
I dont think it was there when I first moved to the area in 1959, at least I don't remember it.

 

[Elmdon Boy]

Anybody remember the gift shop called Studio Cave almost opposite the Sheldon picture house.
I remember buying my sister Christmas and Birthday presents from there. She used to collect miniature porcelain figures of Disney characters like Lady and the Tramp etc. Also small Royal Doulton toby jugs that my Mum collected. This was late 50s early 60s.
Also the Bon Bon sweet shop, next to the Sheldon flicks.
Down the far end of the Coventry Road, past the Wheatsheaf by Wells Road was a music shop called The Music Box, basically a converted bungalow. Remember buying 45s and LPs here.
I used to go in and the owners would play them for you before you bought them if you wished.
On the corner there was Bill Howard Motorcycles, where the tyre fitting place is now. There was a back yard to his shop in Wells Road which was literally stacked high with old second hand motorbikes. Bought my first motorbike from him in 1965.

 

[mbenne]

Thanks lindyloo, got my bearings now. The old PO was were you say.
I dont think it was there when I first moved to the area in 1959, at least I don't remember it.

Looks like the site of the original post office is quite close to where the 3rd Sheldon Post Office was sited when the Wells green shopping precinct was built - I placed a google clip in an earlier post showing where this was. The second post Office was located in the row of shops on the Cov Road near the corner of Coalway Avenue. I found pics of the original Post office on another site and the contributor says when the second post office was opened (1950) the old Post Office became a general stores - see pics below. I don't remember the old shop but its pretty near where Turners was located.
In the view below you can just see the old Wagon and Horses Pub.

 

[mbenne]

Anybody remember the gift shop called Studio Cave almost opposite the Sheldon picture house.
I remember buying my sister Christmas and Birthday presents from there. She used to collect miniature porcelain figures of Disney characters like Lady and the Tramp etc. Also small Royal Doulton toby jugs that my Mum collected. This was late 50s early 60s.
Also the Bon Bon sweet shop, next to the Sheldon flicks.
Down the far end of the Coventry Road, past the Wheatsheaf by Wells Road was a music shop called The Music Box, basically a converted bungalow. Remember buying 45s and LPs here.
I used to go in and the owners would play them for you before you bought them if you wished.
On the corner there was Bill Howard Motorcycles, where the tyre fitting place is now. There was a back yard to his shop in Wells Road which was literally stacked high with old second hand motorbikes. Bought my first motorbike from him in 1965.

Anybody remember the gift shop called Studio Cave almost opposite the Sheldon picture house.
I remember buying my sister Christmas and Birthday presents from there. She used to collect miniature porcelain figures of Disney characters like Lady and the Tramp etc. Also small Royal Doulton toby jugs that my Mum collected. This was late 50s early 60s.
Also the Bon Bon sweet shop, next to the Sheldon flicks.
Down the far end of the Coventry Road, past the Wheatsheaf by Wells Road was a music shop called The Music Box, basically a converted bungalow. Remember buying 45s and LPs here.
I used to go in and the owners would play them for you before you bought them if you wished.
On the corner there was Bill Howard Motorcycles, where the tyre fitting place is now. There was a back yard to his shop in Wells Road which was literally stacked high with old second hand motorbikes. Bought my first motorbike from him in 1965.

Yes Elmdon Boy, I remember the Bon Bon. When going to the cinema my Mom and Dad would buy me sweets from here as they had more selection and were probably cheaper than the cinema? If I was lucky I got to choose sweets from the cinema shop in the foyer - Cadburys misshapes in the plain and yellow cellophane packs or a box of Rowntrees fruit gums - always much better than the packets as they came in the shape of little lemons, limes and orange slices. I also remember the Studio Cave opposite. Never shopped there but after going to the cinema we'd get chips and Mom and Dad would take a look in the shop window as we were walking home. It used to have an iluminated display case outside and when it was raining I used to wish I could get inside rather than take the long walk home or having the inside my legs worn away on Dads coat if he gave me a 'piggy back'. Next to this shop was another bungalow - dont remember much about it but it seemed liked an old cafe with a bit of waste ground for parking up vehicles. It had a Twinings tea logo painted on the wall that faced the Three Horse shoes on the opposte corner of Shoes Lane (as we called it) The site of this bungalow is now where the Prime Point building is.

The Music Box too. Never had a record player but used to go in with my mate where he bought the Russian Saber Dance by Love Sculpture - which would have been about 1968/9. Don't recall the motorbike shop but do recall Murphys Garage nextdoor to the record shop. My Grandad was friends with the owner. His son Andy took over the garage and also owned the car spares shop nearby.

 

[badpenny]

Anybody remember the gift shop called Studio Cave almost opposite the Sheldon picture house.
I remember buying my sister Christmas and Birthday presents from there. She used to collect miniature porcelain figures of Disney characters like Lady and the Tramp etc. Also small Royal Doulton toby jugs that my Mum collected. This was late 50s early 60s.
Also the Bon Bon sweet shop, next to the Sheldon flicks.
Down the far end of the Coventry Road, past the Wheatsheaf by Wells Road was a music shop called The Music Box, basically a converted bungalow. Remember buying 45s and LPs here.
I used to go in and the owners would play them for you before you bought them if you wished.
On the corner there was Bill Howard Motorcycles, where the tyre fitting place is now. There was a back yard to his shop in Wells Road which was literally stacked high with old second hand motorbikes. Bought my first motorbike from him in 1965.

I used to work at Studio Cave on Saturdays before i left school, nice shop...

 

[robert]

I used to know a lad who worked there on a Satuday his name was Noel T----- this would be around 1964.

 

[oldMohawk]

The first pic below of the Wheatsheaf Hotel on the Coventry Road has no date but looking at the coat and long skirt worn by the lady walking on the right I would guess it is earlier than 1920. The features which interest me are the large multi bar telephone poles. 10 bar poles on the left, 12 bar poles on the right, and each bar supports 4 wires so up to 88 wires above the road and some of them show above the hotel. A danger area for low flying homing pigeons ...

A second pic (linked from post#273) shows the hotel as it was c1930. The telephone poles have gone and petrol pumps herald the future ...

And today

 

[Elmdon Boy]

Great photo comparisons oldMohawk, just another case of, is this so called progress. Looks so much more peaceful and with character in the old photos. Soulless now. Oh well what can you expect with homage to the internal combustion engine, and the explosion in population. This area was even pleasant within my memory.

 

[oldMohawk]

Hi Elmdon Boy, the reason I am interested in the telephone poles is connected with a possible mis-labelled photo in a thread here.
https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/index.php?threads/great-barr-cottage.48449/

 

[jmadone]

One of the few rural bits of Sheldon left when I started school was Lower Barn farm which could be seen from the playground of Mapledene Road school. There never seemed to be much activity there except for the odd car traveling along a long dirt track which ran from the cottages at Tigers Island to the farm itself . I was about 7 years old when I and a couple of mates decided to make an unofficial visit one weekend. Again the farm seemed deserted until an Alsatian dog ran out of an open door. I was petrified and took a long dive into some hay in a nearby barn. The dog caught me in mid flight and tore the pocket off my school blazer. Having caught me it lost interest and settled for being patted and stroked. Dread to think what could have happened.

We made another visit a couple of years later when it was due for demolition and tried to make a den in the roof space of the house, taking great pains to refit many of the roof tiles that had been removed. We made several visits until one day we found that it had been partly demolished, great mounds of bricks, collapsed walls and big oak beams pointing skywards, so we stopped going. Later we heard that a local lad was killed by falling debris. Soon after it was demolished completely and the land was swallowed up by Hatchford Brook golf course. I'd love to see a photograph of it but all I canfind is a pencil drawing sketch held by Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery...........

The picture is as I remember it and this view would have been facing out towards the brook and the school. The outbuilding to which I refer was to the far right of the drawing.

I was keen to know who had lived there before but it doesn't appear to be listed in the 1891 Census - I can find Elmdon hall and Elmdon Farm in that area but nothing for the Lower Barn - unless it wasn't named correctly or missed from the census completely.

I too, along with lots of mates from the area, used to go over to the farm. It was always known to us as Bells Farm as there was a farmer Bell who lived there. As far as I can remember the last occupant before it was abandoned and subsequently demolished was a family named, I think, Cross who used to live in Mapledene Road, Sheldon. The boy who was tragically killed was named Billy Moss (R.I.P.) who lived in Greenvale Avenue, Sheldon.

 

[mbenne]

I too, along with lots of mates from the area, used to go over to the farm. It was always known to us as Bells Farm as there was a farmer Bell who lived there. As far as I can remember the last occupant before it was abandoned and subsequently demolished was a family named, I think, Cross who used to live in Mapledene Road, Sheldon. The boy who was tragically killed was named Billy Moss (R.I.P.) who lived in Greenvale Avenue, Sheldon.

Was a sad time and we were all shocked when we heard the news.

 

[Pedrocut]

The first picture of the Wheatsheaf is great for us telephone pole observers. The one near the pup seems to have a one wire and also a two wire stay attached. Others have wooden stays.

A lovely picture of poles disappearing into the distance.

 

[Lottie]

I remember going to the Sheldon Cinema every Saturday morning with my brother. We'd watch 'Look at Life' before the main feature. Once we were queueing up to go in when we realised the film that day was an A certificate so we wouldn't be allowed in without an adult. Luckily a nice lady in front of us heard our worried conversation and said we could pretend we were with her! Also remember seeing Mary Poppins there when it was first released.

 

[Elmdon Boy]

Don't think they would have put an A film on the kids Saturday mornings Lottie. It must have been an afternoon showing.
I went to the Sheldon kids mornings too.

 

[Lottie]

Don't think they would have put an A film on the kids Saturday mornings Lottie. It must have been an afternoon showing.
I went to the Sheldon kids mornings too.

Maybe you're right. I just remember the lady being so kind but we usually went on Saturday mornings. We'd walk across the playing fields opposite for a short cut if we were running late and once I got my shoe stuck in the mud. My brother had to rescue it while I was hopping on one foot. We also used to buy a pomegranate from a greengrocer's van on the way there. He'd cut it in half so we could share and we'd each have a pin in our pockets ready to pick out the seeds!

 

[Pedrocut]

Look at Life...ton up boys.

 

[Elmdon Boy]

Lottie, was the grounds you walked across to the Sheldon the one with a pond near the Coventry Rd, I used to play in this area in the late 1950s. Fishing in the pond. I used to enter the area from Barrows Lane by the side of the TA Army centre.
I lived in Brays Road at the newsagents run by my Mum and Dad.

 

[jmadone]

Hi oldbrit - depends which part of Sheldon you are thinking of as there have been 4 as far as I know - the March Hare which opened in the late 60s and was in Sheaf lane but has been an indian restaurant for over 30 years. There was one at the bottom end of Cranes Park Road next to what used to be Roseberys newsagent. This also opened in the late 60s and is still going. Then there was one at the top end of the road in what became Goodes newsagent. I dont actually remember this one and it certainly wasn't there in the late 50s. There was also a mobile fish and chip van which used to park on waste ground at the top of Cranes Park by the 60 terminus, before new houses were built in the mid 60s.

The chip shop at Cranes Park/Mapledene didn't become Goodes the newsagent, that shop was always a newsagents. Used to run by a family named Adams who moved to Marston Green. Wally Goode took over the shop then and later went on to open a small hardware shop at the other end of the block of shops. Now this shop, when we moved to the area in 1952, was a fish and chip shop named Peters
and was so for many years. There used to be a couple of small tables and seats in there where the bus drivers and conductors used to have a cup of tea. There was a greengrocers in the row of shops run by a family named Sheldon and as far as I know, the first chip van that came there on a regular basis was run by Johnny Sheldon, the son of the greengrocer.

 

[jmadone]

Shops at the bottom of Cranes Park Road, The shop in the centre is Woodroffs. Not sure when this was taken as I remember there being a milk vending machine outside. Never recall it working and don't know who owned it (Woodroffs?)- it just disappeared one day - does anyone remember it.

https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2017/08/who-laments-passing-of-old-milk-machine.html

The chemist was to the far left - not in view, the first port of call for collecting prescriptions after visiting Dr Awad's surgery at no. 27 across the road.

Ah, Dr Awad, what a lovely man. Had such a wonderful "bedside manner" and was great with kids. I remember Woodroffes, there was also Moyle & Adams the grocers who sold tub butter and broken biscuits, Hodriens the greengrocer and the last shop on the row was Savages the shoe repairers. In between Woodroffes and the chemists was a wool shop whose name I can't remember.

 

[robert]

Also between Woodroffes and Westons chemest was a ladys hairdressers and Beale's the butcher.

 

[mbenne]

The chip shop at Cranes Park/Mapledene didn't become Goodes the newsagent, that shop was always a newsagents. Used to run by a family named Adams who moved to Marston Green. Wally Goode took over the shop then and later went on to open a small hardware shop at the other end of the block of shops. Now this shop, when we moved to the area in 1952, was a fish and chip shop named Peters
and was so for many years. There used to be a couple of small tables and seats in there where the bus drivers and conductors used to have a cup of tea. There was a greengrocers in the row of shops run by a family named Sheldon and as far as I know, the first chip van that came there on a regular basis was run by Johnny Sheldon, the son of the greengrocer.

I don't rember the chip shop - only that my mom said there used to be one. I remember the end shop though but it was a sweet shop then. It did have tables and used to serve teas for the bus drivers turning round at the 60 bus terminus. In my last year's at Mapledene the shop was run by a family named Hastilow. Used to have a big rubber mat outside the entrance. When it rained a big puddle used to form and the older lads from Silvermere used to lift the corner of the mat and drop it soaking passers by and splashing the shop window. I only tried it once and Mr Hastilow came out and gave me a clout. Caused a big scene when my nan came up later to give him a roasting. On principle I never used the shop again!

I seem to recall Wally Goode owning this shop and it also being a video rental.

Next door was a butchers that was eventually run by Frankie Fitzmorris. I think he ran it intil it closed. Is now charity shop for Sheldon Commumity Church.

There was also a wool shop next to Sheldons greengrocers. I don't remember the shop having a front door and was accessed from the greengrocers?

 

[jmadone]

I don't rember the chip shop - only that my mom said there used to be one. I remember the end shop though but it was a sweet shop then. It did have tables and used to serve teas for the bus drivers turning round at the 60 bus terminus. In my last year's at Mapledene the shop was run by a family named Hastilow. Used to have a big rubber mat outside the entrance. When it rained a big puddle used to form and the older lads from Silvermere used to lift the corner of the mat and drop it soaking passers by and splashing the shop window. I only tried it once and Mr Hastilow came out and gave me a clout. Caused a big scene when my nan came up later to give him a roasting. On principle I never used the shop again!

I seem to recall Wally Goode owning this shop and it also being a video rental.

Next door was a butchers that was eventually run by Frankie Fitzmorris. I think he ran it intil it closed. Is now charity shop for Sheldon Commumity Church.

There was also a wool shop next to Sheldons greengrocers. I don't remember the shop having a front door and was accessed from the greengrocers?

Can't remember the name Hastilow, they may have taken over from the fish and chip shop and changed the use. Frank was in the same year as me at Mapledene and then went on to Silvermere as did a lot of my friends.
You're right about the wool shop and it was accessed from the greengrocery shop.
The video rental must have come after I had married and left the area.

 

[mbenne]

Ah, Dr Awad, what a lovely man. Had such a wonderful "bedside manner" and was great with kids. I remember Woodroffes, there was also Moyle & Adams the grocers who sold tub butter and broken biscuits, Hodriens the greengrocer and the last shop on the row was Savages the shoe repairers. In between Woodroffes and the chemists was a wool shop whose name I can't remember.

Haven't been to Sheldon for quite a while but took my wife's car to Sheaf lane on Tuesday for MOT. There was a long wait so I took a walk around the precinct, Cov Road, Horseshoes lane, Cranes Park and Whitecroft Road. So many memories. I looked in through the old doctors waiting room window and still has that narrow waiting room. A bit bigger now as the front has been extended. I liked Dr Awad. He used to leave a tin of sweets on the stairs by the surgery door for the kids. Reminds me of the time there was a big queue to his surgery for polio injections. I didn't know what we were queing for until it was my turn. On seeing the needle it took 4 adults to pin me to the floor to give the injection. The only consolation was a sweet on the way out! The next polio outbreak all the kids queued at a welfare centre in Mapledene road for the vaccine to be given on a cube of sugar.

 

[jmadone]

My mom and I were in that queue

 

[mbenne]

Also between Woodroffes and Westons chemest was a ladys hairdressers and Beale's the butcher.

I walked past the other day and couldn't remember what used to be next to the chemist. Woodroffes is now a party accessory shop and up for sale. Used to go into the sweet shop and also buy fireworks and air gun pellets from the hardware shop. Mr Woodroffe allowed us buy fireworks although we were under age. He used to sell parafin from a tap just inside the doorway before the step up to the counter. The whole shop smelled of paraffin.

 

[mbenne]

My mom and I were in that queue

Hope you didn't see the struggle lol.
My mom was great at keeping secrets about medical appointments. Like the time she took me out of school and bought me a cowboy outfit with twin holsters. Sat in a big waiting room admiring my new gift. Then a door opened and my name was called. Stepped inside and saw dentists chair. I put up such a struggle they had to strap me into the chair for two teeth to be removed. That awful smell of rubber and gas. After that event she couldn't get me to the barber's as the seats were the same and I didn't believe it was just for a hair cut. My dad solved problem and bought a pair of hand clippers and did it himself. A perfect basin cut every time!