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Southalls factory

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

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.
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

Oh dear thanks for that Alberta all my husbands family have worked at Southalls. End of an era.
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 ;)
 
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