• Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.

    We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team
  • HI folks the server that hosts the site completely died including the Hdd's and backups.
    Luckily i create an offsite backup once a week! this has now been restored so we have lost a few days posts.
    im still fixing things at the moment so bear with me and im still working on all images 90% are fine the others im working on now
    we are now using a backup solution

They Were Caught In Our Old Street Pics...

Status
Not open for further replies.
brill pic there phil...just goes to show how even the little uns took pride in our streets...

cheers

lyn
 
The lady in this old forum pic makes me remember the days when you sometimes had to wait to make a phone call, or you were the one in the phone box making a call with someone outside giving you the 'hurry up' look.
DSCF1152old.jpg
 
As I remember it OldMohawk, around that time a phone call cost 4d and wasn't timed so you could sometimes wait for ages. Bit different nowadays!
 
Remember those phone box queues well and the pips going and if you didnt have another 2p it was curtains.
The kids today just havent lived have they folks :)

Great pic of the lady traffic warden - you needed to be of a certain type of material to be one of them
- I think it was cast iron.
 
when l made a telephone call at the post office it was twopence, no that was in the 50s.. .when l worked at Johnny Wrights we were not allowed to use the office phone for personal calls (did'nt know anyone who had a phone) but we did have a telephone box in the building....so one day l tried to make a call and had no answer so l pushed the button to get my money back when lo and behold the box emptied itself it was like playing the slot machine...l ended up with quite a lot of pennies. can'nt remember if l turned them in or not knowing me l was always broke being an early teenager so l may have kept them..Brenda
 
We had a phone box outside the house and if we (the local kids) were playing out in the street and it rang, we would answer it "Harbourne 3196", and we would be asked by the person ringing " would you ask Mr/Mrs at no## to come to the phone please". It was just like having your own secretary.
Oh the good old days.
jimbo
 
I remember making a 'trunk call' to a shop in Glasgow from a phone box in Witton and you had to dia 0 for the operator. When it was going through, I seem to remember the operator counting the money as I fed it in because trunk calls were expensive back then.
 
Silly quiestion but - do we still have in-service working phone boxes (the red old ones) ?
They must be collectors items now.

Mo - My apologies but I have to ask .... How "did" you get an elephant into that phone box ?
 
Stephen0002002 said:
Mo - My apologies but I have to ask .... How "did" you get an elephant into that phone box ?
Click to expand...
You had me worried for a bit - just had to go on Google to see what I was posting about. My long distance call was made before 'Subscriber Trunk Dialing' appeared in 1959. Why they called it trunk, I've no idea !
 
In 1969 I was an operator at Hill St Telephone Exchange, it was a terrible job, even timed when we asked for 'a casual' to go to the loo. Didn't last long there, awful management, loads of old maids working there because not many years before you had to leave if you got married. Would probably last less than an hour now!
 
Anne Watton said:
In 1969 I was an operator at Hill St Telephone Exchange, it was a terrible job, even timed when we asked for 'a casual' to go to the loo. Didn't last long there, awful management, loads of old maids working there because not many years before you had to leave if you got married. Would probably last less than an hour now!
Click to expand...
MyBrother in law worked at Hill St, think he was a TO, in the sixties, he met my Sister who worked at Telephone house in the early sixties. My Mother, who used to be a telegraphist in Manchester, was so proud of my Sister for getting into the GPO. I also remember the pens, message pads and propelling pencils with the special shaped tops for dialling.
 
A long distance call was called a trunk call because it was routed over a trunk line. Just jargon which came into public use. Shorter distance calls to areas around Birmingham were called Toll calls because you paid a toll for the use of the line. Before STD you dialled 0 for Operator, TOL for Toll and TRU for Trunk. (and the most popular call from our works phones was UMP for the test match score).
 
They were demolishing many parts of Lozells in the 1960's and a lone Dormobile Van is parked outside partially demolished houses.
I think I can see a man caught in the pic on a roof inspecting something !
34807887_Lozellsdemolition.jpg
 
Hi Lyn - I'm afraid I don't. The image URL shows it is on the forum server and it is a pic which was lost in the hack. I will see if I can find the post which it was in before it was lost from the main forum.
Phil
 
Hi Lyn - It is Carlyle Road off Lozells Road according to the web site from which is originally came from.
Phil
 
Hi Lyn - I looked on streetview and had doubts about it being Carlyle road. Someone on the web site here down the bottom of the page suggests it is Hartington Road which ran from Carlyle Road to Lozells Road.
Phil
 
thanks phil in that case i would say thats carlyle road running across...

lyn
 
Last edited:
In 1911 you could ride your horse down the middle of Gravelly Lane, that might be the corner of Somerset Road on the left.
1911-GravellyLane-300.jpg
 
That's a heck of a tall horse. I suppose that in those days a horse ride was still an often used mode of transport for the gentry and from there the country fields were not far away.
 
The gap in the houses on the left id where Jarvis Road is now, that would have all been undeveloped land, well before the large Short heath estate. Then you have the Oscott College land adjacent the too.
 
must say that horse does look very tall..would not like to fall off it..great pic though phil

lyn
 
Brumgum - Very interesting to see your Panoramio photos showing that corner building with it's corbel turret still with the decorative top. Apart from burgalar alarms and tv aerials, the upper floors seem very little changed over the 100 years past. I notice on streetview as you go along the road many of the shops now have metal shutters.


Rupert - Perhaps he was the landlord taking a Sunday morning ride viewing his properties. I wonder if anyone ever told him to 'get off his high horse'!
Also someone was rich enough to park their car in the road and it doesn't look like a cheap model 'T' Ford.


Lyn - It is a nice pic, the hats, the horse, and the car caught my eye. All the pics I've put in this thread only appear via text links to all the pics which you and many other members have uploaded.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top