Recent content by Barr_Beacon

I did a bit of research on the history and land use of Streetly around forty years ago. Isolation was needed because if there was an explosion at the ammunition factory, deaths and casualties would be limited because of the site's location in an isolated rural location.

If you look at the 1912 map of Streetly, this was originally a school for the children of the workers in the ammunition factory over the road (Aldridge Road). The old cottages on Aldridge Road today facing the 'school' were the original cottages for some of the ammunition workers. It's also...

This any good...

I remember him. He was working on the roof of a house on the corner of Aylesbury Crescent and Warren Farm Road (opposite the GP's surgery). I was about eleven or twelve but even then I realised he had an amazing voice. I remember his mate's bungalow, It was on College Road (opposite Lucas's...

John Swallow travels on a bus from The Barton's Arms towards Perry Barr with a Birmingham City councillor...

The Parisian was an M&B pub. If you look at the photograph the M&B logo can be clearly seen to the left of the entrance. Eddie Fewtrell owned night clubs and wine bars in and around Birmingham. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-60382766 The Parisian became 'Cagney's' around...

Thanks for that, the picture on the right brought back some memories! Must go now, some dust seems to have settled in my eye...

You might be interested in this.... https://www.reelstreets.com/films/privilege/

Found some stills from this a while back...

This was my old school, St Chad's Junior. I left in 1968 when my house in Allesley Street was the subject of a Compulsory Purchase Order for the building of The Aston Expressway. The pavement behind the motor-cycle had quite a slope. It used to fill me with fear in winter it because it got iced...

Birmingham mid-Seventies, starts at 1m 40s

Birmingham 1970s

Knocking off time, 1984...

Kingston Row near entrance of The Longboat...