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Woodgate valley

I lived by there cant remember any fair in woodgate valley it would have been a travelling fair similar to one on another thread check out The Onoin fair thread may have been that:)
 
Hi, I think the original poster may be confused with the fair that used to come most years around November for the bonfire at Senneleys.
Hope this helps.
 
hi can recall bob wilsons fair and the family
old bob wilson would always operate the dodgem cars ; and mrs wilson ; known as queenie ; would always operated the walzers ;
when bob died she went onto the dodgems and young bob the son went on to the walzers
youg bob built a fantasic house in memory of his mom and dad ; at the home ground down hay mills wich he owns and all the guys and there show man lived all the year around if you go down the rd where they are you will see this fanstic house dallas systle where he lives i used to know a couple of the lads from the gaff; [ meaning the fair ] ron worrall from from the bee hive cafe on lichfield rd used to be an attendant for queenie ; on the walzers always wore a redneck tie
he always frequented the bee hive and the last chance cafe on lichfield rd is parents lived by the church tavern pub his nick name was copw boy if any body whom frequented the bee hive may recall him and a girl friend in my youth at the fair was the side show the spotted lady ;
we did not last long because the show people do not like out sidersmedling with there familys ; but any way she moved around alot so it wasjust as well ;
but bob and queenie wison was the biggest and the best fair going sadly i think they have shortened there gathering now i know one or two have retired or died but there is atravelling lady whom used to beat the elephants foot out side the show to atract people lives in droitwich worc; astonian
 
I remember the fair which came each year to Senneleys park and me and my sister Marilyn would go, I think it was "Thurstons" but cannot be sure now some 50 yr's later, but all the kids from Bartley Green, Weoley Castle,went we loved it.
paul
 
Hi me old mate Astonian
To know all that about Bob Wilsons are you sure you were not a gafflad. I was my self on the gaff and still see some of the old gafflads like Ringo off the waltzers, Rocka off the autodrome which belonged to Criss Morrisons. There are many names i remember. And yes you are right about Queenie and Bob. There son Willie Wilson smashed up many a new car. Later on they bought the jets, which were like little airoplanes on the end of poles and went round and up in the air. Willie run these
for a while. Hard work for little money but as they say Happy days.

Regards Stars
 
hi stars
what a small world as the saying goes you never know whom you are talking to eh;
yes i know the people you are speaking about and i recall ringo and the gang ; beleive me yes i did do a stunt on the gaffe i was a gaff lad in my younger days yes i remember and the car incidence; when the pair was alive bob , and queeni e those two rides was the fast est and big turn over and bob and queenie knew the ropes of us lads on how to short change the kids out of notes routine as you would know your self on it
theydid not trust any of the lads in the box ; for the being of any short fall in taking ;
yes it was hard work for litle pay them days but its even worse now did you see the house he built it was all in white and it was good as dallas down there in hay millsgo and se for your self if you are that way; the road you want is oppersite kings rd at the coventry rd end
down to the bottom of kings rd and turn right onto cov then emediately turn left and the grounds for there out of season is there through the gates
on the left hand side of the gates in the distance take care best wishes astonian
 
There was also a circus that use to come once a year. As kids we could ever afford to go but would go up to the park and try to see the animals it cost 3d to get in so we just hung around trying to take a peek.
 
Hi, I think the original poster may be confused with the fair that used to come most years around November for the bonfire at Senneleys.
Hope this helps.

It could well have been Senneley's (the name rings a bell, even if I can't remember exactly where Senneleys was!!)
Of couse, Woodgate valley didn't exist back then, it was all open fields - and all downhill from where we lived in Quinton, with a little stream that had to be crossed - led close to Bartley Green Grammar school.........
 
The fair and circus I was thinking of was at Shennely's Park. You could reach it from Bartley green.. Weoley Castle and Woodgate and yes it does have a small stream running though it
 
I remember going along Clapgate lane in the autumn to pick blakberries with relatives who lived in California in the late 40's
then up to the Woodcock Inn for a lemonade and packet of crisps,it was countryside to us in those days.
Only the one side of the road had factories on it, my uncle worked at Birmetals Ltd along there
 
I went each year to Shennelys Park with my sister Marilyn to the fair, and only once to the circus. I lived once at 112a Adams Hill, at the junction of Adams and Romsey road, and if the stream you mentioned ran from the bottom of Adam Hill, all the way through fields and copses to Halesowen, walked it many a time in all seasons.
paul
 
I went each year to Shennelys Park with my sister Marilyn to the fair, and only once to the circus. I lived once at 112a Adams Hill, at the junction of Adams and Romsey road, and if the stream you mentioned ran from the bottom of Adam Hill, all the way through fields and copses to Halesowen, walked it many a time in all seasons.
paul

Adams Hill - would that have been fields in the 60s? At the top was Quinton, there were 3 apartment blocks, and then a municipal housing estate, contructed in the '50s, and also at the top - Tom Nockers wood?!!! Where that name came from, I've no idea - but we were all frightened to go there!!!
 
There was a stream well could have been a ditch with water running though Shennleys park. There was a few wooden crossing points. PamelaY I had forgoten Birmetals was along there
 
The stream that runs by Senneleys Park is the Bourn Brook. It runs through the Valley, then past Senneleys and on eastwards to Selly Oak. I don't know what the brook would be that runs from Bartley Green to Halesowen, as that is downhill from the other side of the high ground at old Woodgate, and if there was one, it would have been cut off by the building of the M5. The water at Halesowen is the River Stour, which rises in the Rowley Hills, I believe, and flows west. The fairs have always historically been held in Senneleys Park, which isn't on the Woodgate Valley. Knockers Wood was destroyed when they built the new road across the valley to Quinton in the late 80s. I saw a few things in that wood when I was a kid!
 
I do believe that there was a small stream that ran by or though the village of "Illey", where the "Black Horse" pub is.paul
 
" I don't know what the brook would be that runs from Bartley Green to Halesowen, as that is downhill from the other side of the high ground at old Woodgate, and if there was one, it would have been cut off by the building of the M5." This could well be the Canal that runs along the bottom of the Golf course by the side of Mucklows Hill?
 
if YOU WALKED DOWN "Adams Hill" in 1958, towards Romsey Road, you pass the school on your right, and as the hill goes up again from the farm on your left, on your right was open fields, cutting across the first field you would come to the brook, keeping the brook on your right and walk about 1 mile it comes out at what was stone house Lane, it then continued across country to sennelys park.paul
 
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