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Sparkbrook Shops

tali

tali

master brummie
Info about some shops in Sparkbrook i recall from 1970s please- (sorry for robotically asking for so many - but i thought i 'd get in as many as i could remember !)
Norman Francis(now a supermarket next to St Agathas ) when did that open ? and the same for Fordwater Pump Supplies further up near Camp Hill island
Also what was the name of the tailors on Warwick Rd in 1970s/80s opposite the Mermaid?
Any info on the off licence-Victoria wines? and shop on corner of Osborn and Benton Rd and Ironmongers on Medlicott/Roderick Rd?
Finally does anybody remember the shop /off licence? on Grace Rd run by a very elderly couple and near Montgomery School?
Thanks in advance for any info:)
 
tali said:
Also what was the name of the tailors on Warwick Rd in 1970s/80s opposite the Mermaid?
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I had clothes made there; but the name? I think it was a 'Burton's' outlet but I'm sure someone will know.

Graham.
 
I think it may have been Hepworths, i had suits made there circa 1950`s , they moved to New St (city centre) circa 1956. Len.
 
lencops said:
I think it may have been Hepworths, i had suits made there circa 1950`s , they moved to New St (city centre) circa 1956. Len.
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I think you will find that Hepworths was further up the Stratford Road just past Woollies and before Durham Road and changed to a sex shop in the late 60's.
My Irish mate Jimmy Hurst worked there, A real smart Dude, his famous saying was "This is not mohair its Hop-sack" said with his loverly Irish accent. I wish I could find his whereabouts today as he was a little star around town in the 60's
 
Fordwater Pump Supplies opened about 1980? after Beresfords Pumps closed their business in Kitts Green the were almost opposite Vale Onslows M/cycle spares, i had a friend who worked at Fordwater. Len.
 
Bit late but here goes.Only recently joined the forum and found this thread.Does anyone recall Jones on the corner of Conway Rd and another road that I cannot remember? When we first moved into
Medlicott Rd round the corner,Jones was only a small corner shop but they expanded lengthways and made the place much bigger.Because there were no roads to cross ,it was
the'' first shopping for mom'' expedition I did, and I used to make my trips longer by walking around the full square .
 
Gould's that's the name ive been trying to think of. I knew the last manager there, Maurice such a nice man. Sadly he died about 3 years ago.
 
Shops that I recall from the 40's/50's were as follows. Corner of Palmerston Road/Stratford Road was a baby wear shop (prams etc), then Greens record shop, then Raymonde (florist), then a sweet shop, then the Red Circle Café (where we would often visit after leaving Conway Youth Club evenings) they had very good pin ball machines. Then the Value shop (vests/pants etc), then, I think, Dyson Richards funeral directors, which took you to about the Walford Road. I may have missed out a couple of shops, but I have not been back there in 65 years. Opposite, in Stoney Lane, was a newsagents called Jellymans for whom I delivered newspapers to many shops from Stoney Lane up to Fulham Road. On the other corner of Stoney Lane and Stratfprd Road was a chemist. Hope I have been of some help.
 
Does anyone remember the large double fronted bread and cake shop a little way up from the Mermaid. I believe it was call Wrights??. They had a large room above that you could hire for a function. Iwas a page boy there in 1939 when my uncle Fred Harris the Blues player got married
 
In the old Stoney Lane, just before the old junction with Stratford Road, there was a gents hairdresser, a newagent (Jeyllymans) and a leather shop. In the late 1940's, when I worked as a newpaper boy for Jellymans, I would often look into the leather shop. Never would I go in, because one could not get into the shop for leather goods i.e. handbags, purses, shopping bags, shoes, were piled high, and it was almost impossible to get into the shop. One had to climb over goods! The old man was a real eccentric.

My sisters father in law (who lived in a Stoney Lane house (opposite Highate Road), told us all the story of when he tried to buy a leather jacket. As follow:

Bill: " I want to buy a flying jacket"

Shop owner: "Are you an airman?"

Bill: "No, I am a baker and I deliver bread, and the jacket is what I am looking for"

True story..

Shop "If you are not an airman - sod off, I am not selling you one"!
 
The Junction of Stoney Lane and Stratford Road before the road was straightened out.
 

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That is exactly the spot. The leather shop in question was just about where the large Heinz board is. Great photograph.
 
I can't say that I remember the leather shop, but I remember the horse meat shop. They were one of the last shops to close on that little stretch of road after it was cut off by the alterations to Highgate rd. I used to buy horse meat from there for our guard dog, he loved it.
 
The junction was altered many years ago. The council at one time had an idea that they hoped to form a duel carriage way from the Stoney Lane junction all the way to the Warwick Rd at Olton. They planed to turn Warwick Rd into dual carriage way to Weston Lane up Weston Lane and link up with Olton Boulivard West, and turn both the boulivards into dual carriage ways. Like many of the council brainwaves it came to nothing. The idea was good as it would been a direct cut through avoiding the Acocks Green bottle neck.
 
Was that the shop that evolved into selling everything and it was impossible to get into?
 
It was definitely difficult to get into. You literally had to climb over boxes, cardboard, leather goods. I often wonder how he managed to do business, but he obviously did.
 
yes and the man that owned it would sit in the doorway making the goods in rain snow and sunshine.
 
I well remember both the Leather shop & the Horsemeat butchers, I used to get my haircut & if I am right it had a double name to it. I dread to think how the modern traffic would cope if the road hadn't been straightened out.
 
The barber shop was Eaton Smiths, I remember it well. I had trouble remembering a leatherwork shop so I looked in Kelly's and the only thing that comes near Ace Rubber Co rubber goods mfrs. There is no mention in the 1962 Kelly's Directory of a leather shop in that area of Stoney Lane. Was it earlier or later?
 
Eaton Smiths then a alleyway to a wood yard,jeffries sweet shop,newspaper shop then leather shop and the outdoor on the corner of stoney lane was springs by the post box at the lights and this was in 1960 to 1968 when we left stoney lane have been created at number 46 to live in grantham road.This is when the council wanted to widen the road but it as only just happened.
 
Here is a list of shops from Stratford Rd to Highgate Rd in 1967-1968. The outdoor was at 301 Stratford Rd.


1 Crescent Coffee Bar
3 Grant E. (Fras. Jellyman), newsagt
5 Burton E. F. confetnr
5B, Metal Small-wares Co.Ltd.metal smallware mfrs
5B, Domestic Utilities Co. stitched chamois leathers & mop mfrs
7 Eaton-Smith Ltd. Hairdresser
9 Ace Rubber Co. Ltd.rubber goods mfrs
11/13 Parker A. & Sons Ltd. horse slaughterers
15 Tyseley Car Bodies, motor car body reprs
.. here is Highgate rd
 
I remember the leather shop in Stoney Lane as I went to Golden Hillock Rd school 1950/52 on the No 8 Bus, from Ladypool Rd . You went down Highgate Rd, passed the Bus Depot, waited whilst the driver had to clock in outside the Inde Coop pub( cant remember the name). Turn left into Stoney Lane, look at the horsemeat in the shop window, stamped "Horsemeat Not for Human Consumption" (we swore we had it in our school meal, you could see the blue veins where the beast had been electrocuted)

If you were held up at the traffic lights at Stratford Rd you could watch the man standing in the doorway at the leather shop, usually with a piece of leather in his left hand whilst he was cutting it with a draw knife. The offcuts were thrown over his shoulder onto the pile that filled the area between the door and the counter at the rear of the shop. I once in later life went to buy something (maybe leather boot laces?) and had to wait at the door whilst he climbed over this pile.
It maybe heresay but I think he died in his shop and they didn't find him for days.
The bus then wiggled right then left into Walford Rd. Just on the right in Stratford Rd was a jewellers that had a clock in a glass case that was supposed to be accurate to within mille seconds where my Mom took me to for a signet ring for my 13th birthday (63 years old but not worn, but in safe keeping.
On a another tack I once went to a funny tailors shop near the top of Belgrave Rd. to have a couple of inches taken off a pair of trousers. You went up a couple of big granite steps then into a room where there was the elderly tailor and an even older lady with a very old treadle sewing machine. I was told to take off the trousers and sit with a rug about my legs whilst he produced a huge pair of shears and lopped a piece of each trouser leg. They were then passed or thrown to the lady who did a smart bit of running up and I was given the pants back. Cost from memory 2/6. The link is that the offcuts were also thrown on a heap of bits in the middle of the room, maybe to be used for patches, maybe from ciggy burns!!
 
Hi Tim

I also remember Garners the tailors if you can call them tailors as Sam & his wife specialised in alterations and repairs, they were at the top of Belgrave road just down from the Pawnbrokers. Their shop was always first port of call after buying a new suit off the peg to have the trousers taken in to 13inch bottoms in the days before flares and bell bottoms were the rage and no self respecting teenager would wear trousers that were not drainpipes. I think at that time (early 60's) the fee for this service was 7/6d.
 
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