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Southalls factory

A

Alberta

Super Moderator
Staff member
Another building well known to the residents of Alum rock is at present being demolished.
 
Oh dear thanks for that Alberta all my husbands family have worked at Southalls. End of an era.
 
Southalls factory was just at the bottom of our road, I used to pass it every day on my way to school. I went to Nansen Road Girls School, a building which could/can? (is it still there?) clearly be seen from the park.
 
southhalls

thats a shame, I used to love to hear the bull blow at midday when I was a lad
 
Some pictures I have just taken of Southalls.
Number 1 is the main entrance taken from Foxton Rd.
Number 2 is taken from outside the Brookhill pub.
Number 3 is taken looking down towards Alum Rock Rd.

Sad to see another piece of history disappear.

Hanco
 
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Thanks for posting these pictures Hanco another piece of history gone!
 
History

As a rep I used to call at Southalls in the sixties. The resident engineer was very proud of their artesian well for drawing their own water.

We can't live in the past for ever, Southals is best gone with Austin cars and the three month wait for a shared telephone line.
 
southalls

DribblinWizard said:
Southalls factory was just at the bottom of our road, I used to pass it every day on my way to school. I went to Nansen Road Girls School, a building which could/can? (is it still there?) clearly be seen from the park.
Click to expand...
hi,ya did you live in foxton road ??
my aunt lived at i think it mite have 37.
also a guy who used to drive a lorry for
herringshaws steels lived close by,harry bates
he used to drop me off at his house and i,d catch
the 14 bus to crossfield road and walk up to kelynmead road,
before i had a car or motor bike.
happy days. regards dereklcg.:)
 
No, I lived in Brookhill Road.
But I did used to walk down Foxton Road on the way to school every day. :)
 
Southalls

Hi All,
another factory bites the dust, very sad, Mom used to have a shop at 410 Alum Rock Road,opposite the end of Southalls, selling wool baby wear nylons etc. On Wednesday half day closing during the time when nylons were in short supply, she used travel to Leicester to fill up her large brief case with nylons, the next day she would put a sign in the window advertising nylons for sale and the word went around Southalls like wildfire and during the lunch break there were queues of ladies outside the shop to buy them.
Regards Chris B
 
Did she (or another lady) used to sit by the window hooking up (mending) the ladders in nylons with the minutest of hooks?

I remember that because it used to fascinate me whenever we passed the shop.
:rolleyes: and I can't recall it being anywhere else.


There also used to be a shop along that row owned by two old men. They were brothers, and they sold second hand (or was it antique?) furniture.
 
southalls

Moma P said:
Oh dear thanks for that Alberta all my husbands family have worked at Southalls. End of an era.
Click to expand...
hello moma p, is there any of your family that may have know my aunt & uncle,who worked there,there was dora and john bluck who were there for years? they lived in foxton road opp the main gate??
regards dereklcg. :wave:
 
The only person still alive who worked there is my husbands sister. I will ask her.
 
Nylons.

:D I know a woman who used to be the nylon repairer. She used to sit in either Lewis's or Rackhams window. Is that what came to mind. Bye for now. Jean.:D
 
Hi Dribblinwizard,
no that wasn't Mom, the shop she had was next to Ashtons Toy Shop and Lending Library, corner of Farndon Road opposite Sillitoes sweet shop. I think the lady mending nylons was in a branch of Paynes the shoe repairers, in Alum Rock, also there was one in a shop next to Lewis's store opposite Greys department store (if my memory serves me correctly)
Regards Chris B
 
Oh! yes of course it was, it was Paynes shoe repairs now you come to mention it.
Crikey, talk about dredging up old memories long since forgotten about.

I never saw those in town, years later I used to work in Rackhams...until I left to get married in '73...they'd gone by that time.
 
I took a few photos on the site of Southalls, just before it was fully demolished.
 
Such a shame, Southalls was a landmark at the bottom of Brookhill. I used to go out with a lad who worked there when I was about 16. We met on holiday at Brean Down.
It was a total surprise when it turned out that he worked in the factory at the bottom of our road.
He had an old yellow car as I recall and his name was Phil, but I can't remember what model it was now.
Did Ford Zepher's (I can't spell that!) come in yellow? because that name has just sprung into my mind.
We drove up to Blackpool one night in the pouring rain on the spur of the moment. Wouldn't dream of doing that now!
and it was a jolly good job that our mam didn't know about it too. ;)
 
nice story mate,ford did make a zephyr (zef-fer) in a soft gentle breeze. so it says in collins dictionary. most cars way back when were black which i ,had with red interior -straight six,you could fill it up for less than a fiver, we did things like that go off here there and everyware, happy days regards dereklcg.
 
Sorry, I realised afterwards that it was a Ford Anglia, but I was in bed by that time so couldn't change it.

I'm not sure that I like the term 'mate' though. I'm an old lady ;)
 
Anybody remember Alf's Snooker Emporium opposite Southalls? Often ended up there Tuesday or Thursday nights after an hour or two at the Edmund Road Youth Club behind the Co-op on the Rock back in the early 1960's. By Southalls on the corner of Ludlow Road was a shop that sold records. Really nice lady there would get new stuff in to order. I bought a lot of original Rock 'n Roll there but trouble was you couldn't listen to em first and she wouldn't take em back if they were faulty because you couldn't prove it. We did however change em in Cranes in Corporation Street by asking to hear the same disc in one of their listening "pods" and effecting a crafty switch didn't we. Don't tell me you didn't do that now and again! I didn't think of it by myself.
 
Until she retired a few years ago, a friend of my sister had worked in the offices at Southalls for many years. She always maintained it was a wonderfully generous place to work - although some of the shopfloor staff would say otherwise! ;)

Motorman-Mike ..... I was a regular at that snooker club opposite Southalls in the 50's. It was called 'The Arcadia' and was above 'The Silver Slipper' dance club. I think the manager at the time was named Stan - but it may have been Alf :). Also a regular there was a one-armed chap who would play anyone for money - and usually win too!

Brum's most famous snooker player, Graham Miles, joined the Arcadia club in the late 50's when he was about 17 and later became 'resident' at the Saltley Amateur Gardeners' club on the corner of Havelock Road. He reached the final of the World Championship in 1974. but was beaten by Ray Reardon. [FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] In the mid 70's, Graham won the BBC Pot Black trophy two years running.

miles.jpg

[/FONT]
 
I think I have mentioned before that my husbands family all worked at Southalls. My father in law Alf Partridge worked there for over fourty years and we have his gold watch. His mom worked there as well and that's where they met. After she had my husband and his sister she went back and worked at their subsiduary hospital instruments My husbands sister Margaret Middleton nee Partridge worked in the offices. When my husband left school in 1960 he went there as an apprentice, but in his words as soon as he was old enough to drive he was gone. He remembers the snooker hall but, didn't go there as he has alwasy been rubbish at snooker. He went to Saltley Amature Gardeners club. This made me laugh as he has no interest in gardening, he informs me it was a social club. My sister in law has a lot of photo's, information and documents about Southalls which she managed to get before it closed.
 
Wendy my mother worked in Southall's offices during the 60's I am still in touch with some of her old work colleagues.
 
hi alberta and friends. thanks for letting us know southalls is being demolished. if i hadnt been on holiday last week i would have gone down and took some pics. my ex mother in law used to work there in the 70s as the companies nurse. shame that another building has gone. wales.
 
Thanks Wendy my mom is now in a care home with dementia but i still see some of her old workmates.A few of them including my mom left Southalls in the late 60's and went to the Post Office offices in Fordrough Lane.
 
Pam1151. I am sorry to hear your Mother has dimentia it must be very difficult for you. I will ask my sister in law when we next talk if she is in touch with any of the employees from Southalls.
 
My nan was a supervisor at southalls for about 25 years, and retired due to ill health in the early 80's, the names of her friends who worked thier too was, June Taylor, Joyce Garland and Eileen Timms, thats all the names i remember at the moment.
Wendy.xxx
 
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