Recent content by John L

The council who have taken over the running of Aston Hall, said that they wouldn't be selling off any of the "family silver". I trust that still applies? I would have thought that opening the café, would help to meet running cost too, surely someone who lives locally, would be willing to run...

Another nice Ansells advert from an old football programme (1937). Who wouldn't help themselves to a glass?;)

Sometimes a pub called the "White Swan" will be known locally as The Dirty Duck". I know of one such pub in Rugby town centre, that I used to frequent in the late 80s and early 90s, when I lived down there.

The centre pages of the 1957 FA Cup Final programme (our winners against the "Busby Babes"), train timetables for the trip to Wembley/Euston and 2 rail tickets):

Interesting comments by Dr Mike Dring, of the Birmingham Modernist Society and Birmingham City University:: "The government declared a climate crisis aiming for net zero by 2050, Birmingham City Council by 2030, it's not really a choice really, we need to take drastic action if we're going to...

Yes, it's nice to have a look around though and I've bought the odd thing from there over the years, such as birthday cards and Christmas baubles. It does bring people into the city and there are or were, always people milling around there. It might not be for everyone, but it offers something...

Yet more flats in central Birmingham, more office space, although everybody seems to be working from home and more coffee shops/fast food outlets. That will have everyone flooding into the city centre again. The area is already a shadow of what it once was. The continued loss of department...

Birmingham's "heritage" or perhaps they were thinking of Stoke's (as below)? ;)

Yes Alan, the football club did so well in bringing it back to life.

I think these e-scooters and to a lesser extent e-bikes have become a hazard in cities such as Brum and it's outskirts. They are made readily available, with often "climate change" being given as a primary reason for this, but who uses them? People delivering food door to door, with little...

In the infants and juniors, we mostly stayed in the same classroom, with the same teacher (Miss West, Miss Tooney, Mrs Harkin, Miss Staunton and Miss Gaukrodgers, in my case). The exceptions being going to one of the two school halls for morning assembly and for P.E. The senior school at the top...

Another early photo of the school.

It must have been a hot day back then, with all those windows open in the first of the pictures above. Brings back some memories. The first entrance up those steps, is where I walked in for my first day at school and the second, was where the milk crates were left, for us milk monitors to bring...

Just an update on the site of The Cross Keys. Plans were lodged by Erdington Islamic Foundation (EIF) to turn the former pub into a “local community and education centre with ancillary prayer facility” and these were approved in 2024. That appears to be it's current use, it now sports an iron...