Recent content by dav19390

My best friend in the 60s was David Westwood, whose mother was Gillian. I can't remember his father's name but David had a younger brother, Peter. David was a commercial artist. When he married, he moved to another district. I had an Aunt and Uncle, surname Lawson, who ran the Grapes pub in...

As a boy, I lived at a shop almost opposite the Capitol Cinema and I remember the milk bar nearby. It was owned by a Mrs Ball but she did not work in it or live above it. Earlier posts have referred to the grocers called Jesters on Alum Rock Road. My uncle was the manager there during the...

If I remember correctly, the whale was preserved with chemicals and a chilling system. There was a very noisy generator parked alongside it that provided the power for the refrigeration unit. I think by the time it reached Birmingham it was past its sell-by date as it was distinctly smelly!

The photograph must pre-date the start of WWII because I can remember the Fox & Goose from when I was a small child immediately after the war. Even then there was a roundabout at the cross roads, and this is not shown in the picture. It looks as though the photograph was taken from some...

A couple of years ago there was a similar thread on this forum, but not referring to this particular magazine article. Many people mentioned the rubber bricks that were used for the road serface in the Minories, the road spanned by the Lewis's "bridge".

Slightly changing the subject, so excuse me please for that, my wife is left handed amd bemoans the gadgets that work well for right handed people but not lefties - such as, surprisingly to us righties, a serrated bread knife - hence we always have sliced bread. I thought she had finally...

My grandfather also used a cut throat razor well into the 1950's but I only remember my father using a safety razor. I remember that he used to re-use his safety razor blades by resharpening them. He would take the blade out of the razor and rub it along a thick piece of bright red glass that...

My father owned a shop like that in the 1950's on Alum Rock Road, opposite the Capitol Cinema. He had a huge stock of bits and pieces and an enormous shed at the rear that was just stacked with all the knickknacks that old-fashioned ironmongers kept in those days. The shed was about 40 feet...

I attended Saltley Grammar School in the early-mid 1950's and can confirm that the photographs are of that school, in Belchers Lane. I did not know that one of the quadrangles was hit by a WW2 bomb - I started there in 1950 and there was no sign of it then, although some of the classrooms were...

I first went to see the CBSO in the late 1950's and the principal conductor was Rudolph Shwarz - so he must have been succeeded by Hugo Rignold - I never realized that "Jennifer" (as she was always known by on Children's TV) was his daughter.

Hi Astonian My father had one of the shops (an ironmongers) opposite the Capitol Cinema (1938-ish to 1956) and he sold it to your wealthy builder friend. The builder (A.F.?) had a builders yard at the back of the shops and my father owned the lock-up garages that adjoined it. The purchase gave...

I remember as a boy being sent by my parents to the local chemist to get a purgative which they called "Settler's Powders". The chemist wouldn't sell it to me and insisted that an adult came for it. He said they were too dangerous. My father went and got it. When I saw the packet, which was...

A strange coincidence but ---- I've just been shopping at my local Sainsbury's and they have Pukka Pies on offer at the price of 2 for £2. Have bought six!

I remember a cough mixture called Lobelline. It was dark brown in colour and vaguely tasted of aniseed and liquorice. It was widely advertised and sold in the 1940's and 50's. Two doses of it seemed to cure any cough - chesty or tickly, the bottle didn't differentiate between the different types...

Before the war, my father was a skilled coachbuilder at the Wolsley factory in Drews Lane, Washwood Heath, working on the top of the range cars where individual bodystyles could be specified by the customer. When war came he was moved to the aircraft production factory at Castle Bromwich to help...