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WITTON ROAD

Hi Lyn,

wow, love your pics of old Witton Road! I lived in The Broadway until 1971, and nearly all our shopping was done in Witton Road. I remember nearly all the shops in your photos, but who's the suited gent standing opposite The Albert Hall? His face is strangely familiar....

Would you happen to have any pics of the shops near to where the former Empress Cinema stood? I'd be particularly interested in a photo of S Bevan's general store, which IIRC was to the right of the cinema. Sam Bevan was a real character, and we knew him and Ethel his wife very well as they lived opposite us on The Broadway. Their daughter Lynne married former Villa player Bruce Rioch.

The other shop I'd love to see a photo of, if you have one, is the Model Mecca, higher up Witton Road and on the right looking towards Six Ways. It was in a little row of shops close to the corner of Lodge Road, near to a newsagent and a ladies' outfitter. I spent a big chunk of my life (!) in the Model Mecca until it closed in the early 1980's following the death of its owner George Rowand.

Thanks again, Lyn.

G
 
sorry G these are all i have so far of witton road glad you like them...as said if you hover over the photos the date etc will come up...the gent in question is harry phillips could be a coinsidence but ive just noticed an advert on the hall with the name phillips on it...not sure if there is a connection? just posted some photos of aston lane...

lyn
 
Great period photos Lyn. Not a familiar area for me, in fact the north west side of the city was only occasional bus and tram rides.
A few things in the photos remind us of how it was. For instance in photo 1, the chemist is a member of the Pharmaceutical Society, I believe those initials were always proudly painted on the smaller privately owned chemist shops. In 1988 H.M. The Queen granted them the Title Royal. Another things about chemists shops in the past was that they sold cameras and either did printing and developing or were agents for those who did.
The other notable things is the shops who sole outdoor advertising signs mention
cigarettes! Some irony there I guess.
Photo 4. I have no idea who Mr. Phillips was - and what he did - but he does seem to be about to boards a vehicle, which could be a Bedford OB type bus.
Photo 6. All ciggy ads again. ;) Those type of ads are of course consigned to history now. But we have them recorded here on BHF and the thread about those brands we used to smoke).
 
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I found a Harry Phillips who was a Jaguar distributor in the 1960's, but seeing the name Phillips on the poster,
like Lyn I wonder if the gent at the bus-stop is something to do with the Albert Hall. The caption doesn't give a date, but I'd guess the late 40's or early 50's?

G
 
I moved to trinity rd in 1972 and yes all our shopping was done on witton rd or newtown.there use to be 2 launderettes on witton rd one on the corner of bevington rd witton rd and the other opposite the post office on the corner of trinity rd it was a very small one though also down from the post office there was a co op butchers and next to it was a co op grocery shop I know there was a lot of small shops all the way down the road but they have all gone or been demolished it's a right dump now but that's progress !
 
It’s Eastertime at the Candy Box (last photo in the first post) there’re Easter eggs in the window. And there was a pork butchers directly across the road (reflected in The Candy Box window).

The 6th photo shows a bus stop on the corner of a junction. Hope it wasn’t a busy junction.

The detail in these photos is excellent. Viv.
 
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Vivienne14 said:
It’s Eastertime at the Candy Box (last photo in the first post) there’re Easter eggs in the window. And there was a pork butchers directly across the road (refelected in The Candy Box window).

The 6th photo shows a bus stop on the corner of a junction. Hope it wasn’t a busy junction.

The detail in these photos is excellent. Viv.
Click to expand...
Excellent photo and what memories, travelled up and down that road many, many times on either a 5a or a 7. That was a very busy junction, the pub is the Witton Arms ( I think that is what it was called), the bus stop is for the 5a/7 going to town. The road to the right led to Villa Park and the 39 terminus (Old 3x tram route) and the outer circle 11 would come up, overtake any bus at the bus stop and turn left on its way to Perry Barr, just below te bus stop and out of view was the railway bridge in picture 5. The bus stop at Witton was red, because it was a stage, but the one in Picture 5 was one of the older blue ones and also an anomaly as it eas there for Kynochs over the road and the bus stop in picture 6 was 200 to 300 yards further up beyond the bridge. To the right of the bridge was Witton station.
Bob
 
In the photo of Witton Square (Circle?) can just be seen the name on its open gate part of the name The Clifton Case Co Ltd. This was run by the Shorthouse family, and my dad was a friend of Mr Charles Shorthouse, who very occasionally visited our house. The company moved to Shady Lane (in the 1980's, I believe) and is still in business.

In another photo is the front of Oliver's Newsagents, where I had a part-time job as paper-boy, when I was still at school. It was only two days a week (Friday and Saturday), but I hated the early morning starts and soon packed it in. The manager was Mr Allen, who didn't like me...the feeling was mutual!

Great memories!

G
 
I wonder if Ethelfred’s Candy Shop was run by Ethel and Fred ?! Interesting that there’s also the Candy Box using the American ‘Candy’. There was a Candy Stores on Kingstanding Road, so it must have been in popular use for sweet shops in the 1950s/60s. Viv.
 
Big Gee said:
Hi Lyn,

wow, love your pics of old Witton Road! I lived in The Broadway until 1971, and nearly all our shopping was done in Witton Road. I remember nearly all the shops in your photos, but who's the suited gent standing opposite The Albert Hall? His face is strangely familiar....

Would you happen to have any pics of the shops near to where the former Empress Cinema stood? I'd be particularly interested in a photo of S Bevan's general store, which IIRC was to the right of the cinema. Sam Bevan was a real character, and we knew him and Ethel his wife very well as they lived opposite us on The Broadway. Their daughter Lynne married former Villa player Bruce Rioch.

The other shop I'd love to see a photo of, if you have one, is the Model Mecca, higher up Witton Road and on the right looking towards Six Ways. It was in a little row of shops close to the corner of Lodge Road, near to a newsagent and a ladies' outfitter. I spent a big chunk of my life (!) in the Model Mecca until it closed in the early 1980's following the death of its owner George Rowand.

Thanks again, Lyn.

G
Click to expand...
Yes Lyn I love to see picture of Model Mecca I lived across the rd from this great shop
The News Agents was called Pats
The Ladies shop was called Wigleys
 
Don,

A couple of houses down from Wigleys lived the Bates family, who were close friends of my parents. Did you know them by any chance? Walter, Mary and daughter Sue.

We kept in touch for a few years with Nancy Rowand after she sold the Model Mecca and moved into a flat near Brookvale Park. She passed away in the late 1980's if I recall. Nice lady.

G
 
In answer to your ownership question, Ethelfred's Candy Shop was owned by Ethel E. BROMFIELD and Frederick I CLEEVE until the 1965 Electoral Roll when it became a Cyril and Doris!

Maurice :cool:
 
Big Gee said:
Don,

A couple of houses down from Wigleys lived the Bates family, who were close friends of my parents. Did you know them by any chance? Walter, Mary and daughter Sue.

We kept in touch for a few years with Nancy Rowand after she sold the Model Mecca and moved into a flat near Brookvale Park. She passed away in the late 1980's if I recall. Nice lady.

G
[/QUOTrrE]
No sorry I do not recall any people on that side of rd I was only a nipper I recall Mr Mrs Rowand very well
Click to expand...
 

Hi
I just happened by chance on a forum about Witton and was interested because I'm doing my family tree and my Great grandfather Henry Brown had a coalyard at Witton, I think quite a few of my family are buried in Witton cemetery, I have a photo of him with his horses in the coalyard. He died in 1910 and I believe some of the family had farms in the area before it was built up, I know there was a Kingstanding farm and Yew tree farm. I have an old map of Birmingham but have not located any of them yet.
 
JulieR said:

Hi
I just happened by chance on a forum about Witton and was interested because I'm doing my family tree and my Great grandfather Henry Brown had a coalyard at Witton, I think quite a few of my family are buried in Witton cemetery, I have a photo of him with his horses in the coalyard. He died in 1910 and I believe some of the family had farms in the area before it was built up, I know there was a Kingstanding farm and Yew tree farm. I have an old map of Birmingham but have not located any of them yet.
Click to expand...
Hello Julie & welcome to the Forum, a really great and interesting place. Enjoy!!
 
Hi JulieR, welcome. A good place to start maybe to post the image of you have of great-grandfather in his coal yard. The members here are exceptionally good at finding locations.
 
JulieR said:

Hi
I just happened by chance on a forum about Witton and was interested because I'm doing my family tree and my Great grandfather Henry Brown had a coalyard at Witton, I think quite a few of my family are buried in Witton cemetery, I have a photo of him with his horses in the coalyard. He died in 1910 and I believe some of the family had farms in the area before it was built up, I know there was a Kingstanding farm and Yew tree farm. I have an old map of Birmingham but have not located any of them yet.
Click to expand...

Would your ggf be the Henry Brown, coal merchant, Lichfield Road ?

There is a Henry Brown, 234, Witton Lane, coal merchant in 1890.
 
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hi julie and welcome.. if you are able to post it on this thread it would be lovely to see that photo of your grandad at his coalyard in witton..

:)
if you need any help with your family ancestry..ie gt grandad henry brown could i suggest that you start new thread under the surname interests section of the forum

lyn
 
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Pic 2 c/o Witton Road/Albert looks like the old Art School I went to in 1947/8, could be wrong, it was over 70 years ago. Eric
 
Does anybody remember the 'corn' shop on the corner of Witton Road and Manor Road? I had an amazing smell inside probably as a result of stocking all mom manner of feeds and hay etc. My most vivid memory was being in the shop as a ten year old with Mom on Christmas Eve 1959 when the proprietor of the described in almost forensic detail the dreadful circumstances surrounding the Stephanie Baird murder which occurred on the previous night. It made a long lasting impression on me but I often wondered how she knew so much about the case particularly as the press in those days were far more restrained in the reporting of the details of such events. I guess kids these days have to deal with exposure to far more graphic stuff that they can access on Youtube etc. Some people, I suppose, would say it is all part of growing up!
 
Yea I did upgrade to one of those pea firing pistols I forget there name they came with 50 gold plastic balls you got a lot of misfires because of misshaped peas the corn shop sold them by weight you ended up with a giant brown paper bag full very hard to hide from your parents lol
 
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