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Memories of Streetly

ChrisM

ChrisM

Super Moderator
Staff member
STREETLY MEMORIES

Anyone who knows Streetly will almost certainly know that part of the Chester Road which stretches from the Parson & Clerk, on up the hill, to the Manor Road/Bridle Lane crossroads. (I know most of it is outside the City boundary by several hundred yards or more but those of us who were born there still regard ourselves as honorary Brummies!)

I had a walk up there the other day and jotted down what I saw and felt (and heard and smelt as well!) I don't know if you'd like to have a glance at it and see if it ties in with what you notice about that part of Streetly when you drive up and down the road. I have to confess that when I say "the other day", it's stretching it a bit, to be honest. In fact it wasn't last week, in April 2022, but rather a sunny afternoon in late August, 1944. I was with Mum and we were coming back from a nice walk in Sutton Park.

It's too long by far to post here. But if you want to glance at any of it, and get an idea of what that part of the world looked like then, as seen through the eyes of an eight-year-old, there's an index to the sections of it here:
http://www.staffshomeguard.co.uk/L8StreetlyMemories.htm (A WALK UP THE CHESTER ROAD).
(It's quite safe to click on!)

Even though it has to be viewed off-Forum, unfortunately, it would be good if any comments/discussion could be seen here, in this thread. Does anyone else remember this, or is it all as remote as Crecy and Agincourt?

Chris
 
Chris,

I just found this post as I grew up in Streetly and lived on Chester Road from 1965 until 1977. I lived at number 113, a few doors up from yours. Having read your recollections from 1944 (well before I was born), there are some things I recognise, but many have been long gone. The Parson and Clerk remains the junction of Thornhill Road and Queslett Road with Chester Road was substantially remodelled in the 1960s incorporating a roundabout, as Queslett Road was dualled. The petrol station on the north west corner of the roundabout still exists, but the fields on that side going up the hill were built upon in the late 1950s and through the 1960s, First on the left is The Streetly Academy - the Streetly School when I attended it and then the Hundred Acre estate which includes most of the land bounded by Chester Road, Queslett Road, Aldridge Road and Bridle Lane. There were adventures to be had there when it was being built. On both sides of Chester Road going up the hill towards Manor Road, the gaps have been filled with housing and all of the fields between Chester Road and Thornhill road were developed between the 1950s and 1970s. 93 Chester Road was lost to the development of Kings Croft in the 1960s which occupies the field behind your house and others up to 117 Chester Road.

I do recall some of the people you referred to. Mrs Coulton taught me at infants school in the 1960s and remained in her cottage until the 1970s when it was acquired by the adjacent garage owner who demolished it to increase their forecourt. Mr Milne was another person I remember as he knew my parents and was also a Governor at The Streetly School. As I recall, he was retired and a JP.

As regards memories from 1944, I do not have any, but you piece did stir my own memories of living on Chester Road. I think that it is fair to say that the Chester Road was much busier in the 1970s than in the 1940s and whenever I have revisited the area in recent years I am amazed at how much busier it is now than I remembered from my youth.

Paul
 
I'm delighted to see your post, Paul, and thanks very much for it. It's only taken three years for someone here to pick up on the original post! Your words are more than welcome. And thank you for providing what is effectively an update to my own earlier scribblings. Whether we shall ever get, for comparison purposes, a description by someone doing the same walk just recently, I very much doubt. Apart from anything else, does anyone walk up and down it these days? And survive?

A few comments on your detail. Your time at no.113 overlaps very much with that of my parents – my father died in 1974 and my mother continued there until she moved away in 1979 at the age of 80. I was a fairly regular visitor throughout that time. I have been trying to visualise who lived at no.113 at the time of my childhood – 103 was Bacon, 105 Lyon and 107 Morgan but all I can say about who was then beyond is that in the two pairs of semis there certainly lived a Markwick (our local ARP warden) and probably an Allum. I have no idea when most of these people moved away. But the Milne family lived at no.148, including three children, exactly opposite us and I knew them well. I think they even preceded my own family's moving into our house in 1931. And I suspect that they were still there when my mother moved away and I lost all contact with the area.

I've probably covered the question of traffic pretty thoroughly already. It built up significantly after the war and I well remember the Matty's (electrical shop) van, parked outside our house while the engineer tinkered with our new telly - which was going wrong BEFORE the official opening of the Sutton transmitter in December 1949 - being clipped by a passing lorry and somehow threading its way diagonally through the gateposts of no. 99 and ending up on their lawn. As the years passed the accidents got more regular and sometimes horrendous. (It was one of those lethal three lane roads in those days with the centre lane encouraging overtaking in both directions, with inevitable results. No speed limit of any kind, of course).

In the years prior to that Dad would regularly stop the family car with the rear end projecting out into the road while he climbed out to open our wooden front gates. Different world!

(It's strange that you should have discovered this thread just two days after my work of several years to leave some sort of record for the family archive was finally completed. The last Streetly Memory article which I have written was launched on the 17th, the day after VJ Day, when I said cheerio to everyone. I was going to post a brief mention of all that here on the BHF but have not so far got around to it. The index is still accessible via the earlier link and I hope that you can find there some other stuff about an earlier Streetly which might interest you. Thanks again for posting).

Chris
 
I worked at Hawthorn garage there in 1950 when I was fifteen, just out of school, down from Kingstanding and turn right at the Parson and Clerk, it was a workshop with petrol forecourt and an orchard round the back with a few pre-war cars parked among the trees.
Used to watch the red squirrels running along the top of the Sutton Park fence opposite,
Petrol was all Pool the wartime basic stuff although the pumps had the trade name globes on them and one shilling and eleven pence a gallon.
 
Chris,

Thanks for the prompt response. I still have cause to visit Streetly occasionally and have driven up Chester Road from the Parson and Clerk on a number of occasions, but not recently; I must do so again soon!

Whilst much of Streetly as it is now is down to developments in the 1950s to the 1970s, it does keep getting added to, particularly with infill developments. Much of the Hundred Acre estate, built in the 1960s was on Kynoch's test range off Bridle Lane, but it extended down towards Queslett Road before spreading west towards Aldridge Road. The London Export Packers factory on the corner of Bridle Lane and Aldridge Road was developed after I left Streetly, as was the plastics factory further down Aldridge Road towards Queslett Road. I also recall that there was a sand pit/quarry a bit further along. A significant number of houses have since appeared on each spot. Foley Road infants school, which I also attended, was closed in the early 1980s and similarly redeveloped. Satterthwaite's commercial vehicle garage on Chester Road near Foley Road and Cutlers of Streetly, the BMC dealer near the Hardwick Arms also went.

When I first moved to Chester Road in 1965, the commercial activity at the Chester Road/Manor Road crossroads comprised a small general store with a newsagent and a sub-post office, B Slim and Sons, (presumably the successor to the Puddepha's store you referred to) together with a barber shop one one corner (NW), a block of flats accommodating police officers and families on another (SW). Opposite (SE) was a row of shops including a Co-op, a wool shop (Beryl Hicks), a butchers and a hardware shop (Townsends) which were set back from the corner allowing a modest car park. The shops remain, although all of the businesses have long since closed. On the NE corner, there is now housing.

Beyond Slim's, on the west side of Chester Road going north, there were a couple of cottages and then an M&B public house, The Buccaneer, which was a popular watering hole, though never likely to compete with the Hardwick Arms or Parson & Clerk (both Ansell's pubs in the 1970s). I closed some time ago and has also been redeveloped.

In may last year or so at school, I worked on the forecourt at Mead's garage which was the garage that acquired Mrs Coulton's cottage. At that time, it was a Leyland dealership and sold Texaco fuel (I think. as it had previously been a Regent retailer, but it may have Jet - the memory fades). After the oil crisis of 1973, the 4 star petrol was sold at 75 pence per gallon in 1976 and you got Green shield stamps. You tell the young people of today that, and they won't believe you!

Next time I am in the area, I will drive up the hill from the Queslett Road island and get an up to date view.

Paul
 
Chris,

One final point which results from some further research. Your memories regarding the names of your near neighbours has been confirmed by a look at the National Register, taken by HMG in September 1939. Mr William Markwick, (subsequently the local ARP warden) and his wife Irene lived at 113 at that time. Clearly, I have too much time on my hands!

Paul
 
As another Streetly lad, who has lived in Streetly and on the Chester Road, more often than not since 1957, could I suggest that Google street view is an easy way to see the length of the Chester Road and all roads off it, without actually walking it (which I did regularly with my Labrador dogs from the mid 60's to the early 80's). It's a lot easier than walking these days. ;)

I lived between The Buccaneer and Satterthwaite's garage on that side of the road and we travelled up and down the Chester Road to my father's shop in Erdington on a daily basis. My grandfather bought our bungalow just after the war. We had a very large back garden and kept geese as well as chickens. I have much enjoyed reading your "Streetly Memories" Chris and haven't things changed over the years, they have even stopped the bus service going down the hill and past Sutton Park!
 
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