Recent content by Mark Tooze

Internet find - go to the Cofton Collection site at www.coftoncollections.net - enter Birmingham in the search engine and over 150 watermark-free photos and cards are returned - most of which I have not seen before. They are based in Birmingham by the way. Few examples:- Bham police 1920s:-...

Happy Birthday!!!!

I dyed our white enamel bath blue by mixing copper sulphate from my Merit Chemistry kit in it - I was about as popular as a fart in a spacesuit.......

Collections Centre open day are also doing guided tours of the Natural History section on the open day (the floors upstairs thar are usually out of bounds). Book now if you want one of those as only 1 of the 3 timeslots had spaces yesterday when I booked our tickets.

Oh boy - would I have liked to have been let loose in here! A photographers dreamland....... Now replaced by some stone steps and the floozie in the jacuzzi.......

If that fails copy the clippings into Word or Powerpoint and print from there. A bit of "trial and error" may be required......... but at least you can set your print dimensions more accurately.

The road and pub have flooded many times over the years. My aunt used to live directly opposite the pub - I can remember a flood around 40 years ago - my cousin and myself had to smash out a brick wall around the top of the brook with sledgehammers to let the floodwater drain off. Water comes...

Sounds like we need to have a forum banquet.........

The other two "local" Odeons from us have found after-lifes - the one on Birchfield Rd is now an Indian Banqueting Palace and the one in Sutton is now - a cinema!! The Regal (as it is now called) has been open for quite a while now and seems to be surviving, despite its car park now being a...

Sadly, I suspect this will "only be a matter of time"....... hope I am wrong.........

Think we've had it bad - you could be in Leeds watching the test match today.....

There are loads and loads and loads of taxidermied birds and animals in the collections centre - I seem to remember one of the staff there saying that the majority were gifted to the museums late in the 19th century. Try phoning them initially on 0121 348 8000 or email them at...

And of course - do not forget Aldridge Transport Museum the weekend after - note free admission:- https://www.amrtm.org/

Talking of Heritage Week - collections centre is open on Saturday 12th September and - GOOD NEWS!!! - admission has been cut to £6 (or free if you live in Nechells!):_ If you have never been here you should really make the effort - it is like going into a timewarp! Pre-booking is required...

End-to-end eclipse - you can see where the clouds came in:-