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Sutton Park

Post #1362 - According to my boss, Boldmere Girls School was in Cofield Road, off Boldmere Road. He went there but it had become a mixed school in later years.
 
Dave M - this would be about the time I last went to that fair. I actually thought the building it was in a worse condition that the picture shows. Strange how you memory plays tricks.
 
This is a 1930s Allday Ltd. map of Sutton Park. On the face of it, nothing too unusual about it especially as most of the features are unchanged to this day.

But what is of interest (well, to me anyway!) is the fact that it was owned during WW2 by a corporal in the local Home Guard who clearly used it as an aid when carrying out his duties in the Park. These would have included nightly patrols over four-and-a-half years, observation, the preparation of defensive positions and so on.

If anyone wants to have a closer look at it, and the mysterious marks which Corporal Rudge has added all over the map, I have uploaded a higher definition version, together with some comments, here.

Chris

SuttonParkMapw700.jpg
 
ChrisM said:
This is a 1930s Allday Ltd. map of Sutton Park. On the face of it, nothing too unusual about it especially as most of the features are unchanged to this day.

But what is of interest (well, to me anyway!) is the fact that it was owned during WW2 by a corporal in the local Home Guard who clearly used it as an aid when carrying out his duties in the Park. These would have included nightly patrols over four-and-a-half years, observation, the preparation of defensive positions and so on.

If anyone wants to have a closer look at it, and the mysterious marks which Corporal Rudge has added all over the map, I have uploaded a higher definition version, together with some comments, here.

Chris

View attachment 115899
Click to expand...

Hi Chris,

Do you already have the pictures from the Birmingham Gazette of 7 July 1941...”Chutists in the Park?”

6th Warks exercise

All the best Pedro
 
Thanks for the reminder, Pedrocut, Yes, I do remember seeing it but can't now track it down. Could you point me in the right direction please?

Thanks.

Chris
 
Regarding the military connections with the park, 'britainfromabove' took a photo of the Powells Pool area dated 1946. Two pics below. (click them to make larger)

The full view shows a military camp top right and other interesting things are a fire engine with pipes going into the pool, a large herd of cows, and people. I can remember seeing the camp but cannot remember whether it was for the Army or for POWs. I certainly saw POWs in the park nearer the Streetly side but they were in tents.
all1.jpg
An enlarged view below of the camp showing personnel standing in line near the water tower. A fence along the road with a gateway top left.
camp.jpg
 
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I went to Sutton Park on Sunday 6th August 2017.

Mainly to find this Big Sleuth bear called Mother Bear (located near the Boldmere Gate)



Wyndley Pool seen from Wyndley Lane



Powell's Pool seen from Stonehouse Road near the Boldmere Gate



 
A Biringham Libraries image of a lane near Wyndley Pool, Sutton in 1892. Assume this lane ran alongside the park. Viv.

image.jpeg
 
This was the panoramic I took of the Wyndley Pool from Wyndley Road in Sutton Coldfield on the 6th August 2017.

 
Apart from the cars it does not look any different from when I used to feed the ducks there in the 1950s and early 60s.
Is the café still there?
 
Unfortunately no, it was demolished quite a few years ago, maybe in the 80s. There is an excellent café a Blackroot pool now, well worth a visit
 
oldMohawk said:
Regarding the military connections with the park, 'britainfromabove' took a photo of the Powells Pool area dated 1946. Two pics below. (click them to make larger)

The full view shows a military camp top right and other interesting things are a fire engine with pipes going into the pool, a large herd of cows, and people. I can remember seeing the camp but cannot remember whether it was for the Army or for POWs. I certainly saw POWs in the park nearer the Streetly side but they were in tents.
View attachment 115932
An enlarged view below of the camp showing personnel standing in line near the water tower. A fence along the road with a gateway top left.
View attachment 115933
Click to expand...
Was not that the barracks for the POWs , near the end of the war I remember seeing all these people I later learnt to be Germans, brown uniforms with big light blue circles on the back of the jacket/coat/top half of the boiler suit they wore?

Bob
 
Hi Bob,
It probably was a POW camp but I wasn't sure. The only POWs I remember seeing in the park as a young child was in a field next to the path from the gate by the Parson and Clark pub. A large number of POWs had been dumped in a field inside a 3ft high wooden palin fence to contain them. We looked at them and they stared back at us and then we walked on with our fishing nets and jam jars to catch 'tiddlers' in one of the streams.
:)
 
One of my old pals, now long dead, told me that he worked on inspecting welding on army tanks in Sutton Park during the war so I guess there must have been some army units stationed there. (He was colour blind as a result of eye damage caused by the work)
 
Post #1391
The area in the Park was also used as a National Fire Service (NFS) Training Camp - Therefore after 1942.NFS - Sutton Park Training Camp - 1940s - Powells Pool.JPG
 
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