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VE Day on Arlington Road, Yardley wood

N

Nikki

proper brummie kid
I was recently going through some of my Great Aunts pictures, when I came across this picture taken with all the residents (including my Nan and 3 of her sisters) of Arlington Road on VE Day.



Arlington rd.jpg
Hope someone else can find a familiar face in this picture.

Nikki
 
Oh this brought back memories for me. I don't know anyone on there, but in June 1945 my parents married and were living at 39 Arlington Road, which is where I was born, in January 1947. This was taken in the school playground, I remember it well. I suppose I may have known people on there, but I don't recognise anyone. I lived there until 1954.
 
We used to catch the 24 bus at the top end of Arlington Rd.

That looks like Highters Heath school in the background, Nikki.
 
Yes it is Highter's Heath School, I lived just about 15 or so houses up from there - the bus used to come all the way down the road and I used to play outside! What a thought. None of us ever came to any harm though, but I suppose that is because we were used to it and kept well away.
 
Im glad that this picture has bought back some memories for everyone!

Thanks for letting me know it was taken in front of Highters Heath School, im not too familiar with the Yardley Wood area.

My Great Nan and Grandad - Ella May and John McCormack lived on 22 Arlington Road for quite some years along with their children Winifred, Maisy, James, Dennis, Elizabeth and Teresa.
 
Sorry to be pedantic but I think the photo shows the back of the school.

There was a passageway that ran to the school from Arlinton Rd.

Shortie, I was born in '41. Would you be of similar vintage ?
 
Hi Maypolebaz, Sorry, I am slightly younger, born in January 1947.

I would not have called it a passageway from Arlington Road, it was a proper school entrance with gates, but it was the 'back way' rather than a front entrance. I also remember a brick built air raid shelter which scared me to death (never did like the dark), and the toilets (heaven forbid!) were outside too.
 
Certainly there was a back entrance to the school, as for a passage . . . well it WAS a long time ago Shorty !

I wonder if you're remembering the big air raid shelters that were on the patch of ground between the school and that strip of shops (including Flints) ?
 
I remember those too, but there was an air raid shelter at the school. I had to pass it on the way to and from school. I also remember the air raid shelters on Warstock Road. My aunt lived in Grendon Road and they were on the grassy strip in between the road and the houses on the way down toward Grendon Road. I left when I was 7, but still remember lots of things, I have a good memory.

When I was at my cousin's house one day, talk turned to school days, and my cousin's Aunty Cath. I remember her house as being very strange, sort of like a hut. That was on the going towards the church - is it School Lane? Aunty Cath was (and still is) a lovely, outgoing lady, and she did not 'fit' with her house at all. I don't know if you remember where I mean, but when my cousin produced a photograph, I was quite shocked, because it WAS more or less a hut! I think chalet was what it was called, but it was made of wood. That's the war for you, I suppose.
 
In all fairness, I never had reason to use the back entrance to the school very often. I allways went in from Highters Heath Lane.

One of my earliest memories is of being in the Infants and being in a huge wooden building with a lot of other kids. There was a Miss Clegg there, (not to be forgotten !).

At that time, which must've been 1946, there were many power cuts and there would be no electricity for hours on end. When the power went off the kids were just sent home. Dozens of little kids just pushed out into pitch black streets. I can't imagine such a thing happening these days !
 
Well I used to use the entrance all of the time because it was near my house. I seem to remember a Mrs Cherry, who I think was my first teacher, and Miss Hunt, the headmistress who had a gold tooth in the front. She moved later to another school and was there, too, so my headmistress twice. I don't remember very much about it at all, I do remember on birthdays, coloured candles were put in a metal tin/tray and the school would sing Happy Birthday, and the Coronation party in the school in 1953. I remember the hall, used for assembly and PE, that room is very clear in my memory. I don't remember being sent home when there was no electricity. I was not in a wooden building, I think that was Highters Heath Lane side? I was not there for too long, we left about the time I turned seven, in 1954.
 
It's a pity that despite all the interesting memories nobody has so far been able to help Nikki with her original request, namely, can anyone recognise any of the faces in the photo. Surely SOMEONE must know the odd face or two?!!

(Please don't forget that once you have clicked on the thumbnail to get a bigger image, if you click again on that bigger image you will see a further magnified version - certainly detailed enough to allow individuals to be recognised).

Thanks for posting such a wonderful image, Nikki.

Chris
 
Hi all - AFAIK, the "passage" at the back of the school was actually the remailns of a very ancient trackway - do you remember how big the trees were in comparison to the fact that the school was only built in 1933? From the "Birmingham Placenames" website....

"The junction of Prince of Wales Lane and Gorleston Road is the probable site of Highters Heath cross which is documented in a perambulation of Yardley manor in 1495. It marked the meeting point of the manors of Yardley, Kings Norton and Solihull. The term 'cross' may have referred simply to the crossroads, or it may have been a preaching cross.
At that time this was an area of intercommoning woodland shared by the people of the three parishes for grazing pigs or collecting firewood. The woodland diminished rapidly after Tudor times."

So the back entrance to the school ran up the route of the track to Highters Heath Cross.

I remember the Infants and Junior schools very well - I was an inmate from 1961 - 67. Pity that the playground seems to be used as a carpark these days.
 
Hiya,

That's fascinating !

Is there any mention of what POW Lane was called before the pub was built ?

As teenagers we used to haunt the fields behind "The Prince" and I recall a well-defined track that carried on the line of the road, across the fields, finishing up on the Alcester road, not far from the Packhorse, Wythall.
 
There is a track I've walked from near there to Truemans Heath. The pub was there on a very early map I've seen, with farm workers cottages as the only other buildings for miles around.
 
maypolebaz said:
Hiya,

That's fascinating !

Is there any mention of what POW Lane was called before the pub was built ?

As teenagers we used to haunt the fields behind "The Prince" and I recall a well-defined track that carried on the line of the road, across the fields, finishing up on the Alcester road, not far from the Packhorse, Wythall.
Click to expand...

If you go to oldmaps ( https://www.ponies.me.uk/maps/osmap.html ) select map 72 Birmingham - it's from about 1900 - and drag and zoom to the Warstock area you can see the old track from the bottom of Prince of Wales Lane to Truemans Heath. We used to go up there to Berry Mound Camp but as I remember, the farmer was a bit of a **** so you had to keep a low profile.....
 
i remember it well i went to that school i was born in gorleston road & ad lots of friends in arlington road but its to small can't you blow it up for us old 1s please
 
Thanks for the map link Speedy. I can see a lot of browsing coming up !

Coming in from "our end", we used to fork left off the track that led down from "The Prince" to reach Berry Mount, then on over a sandpit to reach "The Ackerdocks".

We were very lucky when we were kids having so many fields to wander across.

I visited Berry Mount again in the 80s and was saddened to find that all the hedgerows had been grubbed out and the two burial mounds at the bottom of the Mount had been ploughed over. Clearly the farmer WAS a bit of a ****!
 
I found that clicking on the picture causes it to enlarge Linda.

I was born in '41 and could only see a couple of kids on the photo that looked around 4yrs old. I couldn't recognise anyone.

We were practically neighbours, I lived in Sladepool Farm road.
 
Which school did you go to Maypolebaz?. I lived in Highters Rd. and went to Grendon Rd. school, then Wheelers Lane. a bit older than ou hough, was born in "37.
 
Hello John, my cousins lived in Grendon Road and went to that school. Valerie Smith, Pat Smith and their brother Carl. Val was born around 1940 and Pat around 41 with Carl coming in in 45 I think. I remember The Dell behind their house and the farmer bringing his cows along Grendon Road and up to The Dell - My, how funny that seems today, cows walking along a road in a residential area. Houses were built there soon after we left.
 
Hello Shortie. I dont recall your cousins but probably knew them, do remember the cows on the dell though as I used to walk across the dell to get to school, and we used to play football over there and fish for newts in the pond, as you say difficult to believe these days.
 
I went to Highters Heath, then Wheelers Lane.

A couple of my mates were nearer your age and went to Grendon Road school.

I wonder if the names Brian Brittle Tony Owen or Roy Herbert ring any bells ?

The Love of My Life (for a while !), lived in Aldbury Rd.
 
The name Roy Herbert rings a bell, I have sent this on to a mate of mine who I met when we started school together in 1942, Micheal Terry, he has a much better memory than me, small world isn,t it.
 
i went over to berry mound we also went to the sand pits we played on old oil tanks from big lorries & back across the pit for hr happy days
 
Was there any military point at Berry Mound (Mount) during II World War? I found a lot of anti-tank defences there and alos something like demolished bunker.
It seems that there was also some narrow gauge railway. Just look at the pictures, any info about this?






 
When we moved to the area in 1973, there was still a number of derelict building there which belonged to the quarry, understand the area was used as a spoil tip from the quarry, never heard of any anti-aircraft installations in the area.

Colin
 
I never noticed those remains when I used to go over Berry Mound, there again I don't suppose I'd have noticed them. That looks like a slab of iron, I wonder what that was used for ?
I've checked and there wasn't an AA site there. I was wondering if there would've been a pillbox of one sort or another, it would have had a good field of fire.
 
Mooching about on the web, I came across a picture of a pillbox with slabs of iron mounted either side of the embrasure.
I imagine they would cut down the risk of enemy shots ricocheting inside.
The slabs in the picture look very like the one on Berry Mount.
 
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