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Yes, deffo worked with horses, or mules ... he's carrying a mule 'switch' and not a swagger-stick.

Barrie I knew a 'Chambers' family who lived CranleIgh Crescent, Broadway, Hill Top, West Bromwich, and others at Hill Top proper. Any relations of yours perhaps?

I have an old photo/post-card of a poor unfortunate carried slung beneath a pole by two Malayan head-hunters! I don't know where they were taking him exactly, but it was probably to a fate worse than the No. 74 to West Bromwich! (or was it the 72?) :( Sorry, I don't know why this has appeared...

I have an old photo/post-card of a poor unfortunate carried slung beneath a pole by two Malayan head-hunters! I don't know where they were taking him exactly, but it was probably to a fate worse than the No. 74 to West Bromwich! (or was it the 72?) :(

My father said the same, but he always qualified it by saying that he'd made so many mistakes in life that he'd become an expert in 'what not to do'!

A thousand years ago we 'knew who we were' because the bards sang of our family lineage in the mead-halls. Now, it's as Postie says: if we don't do it, who will?

Bernard, one of my old teachers. a Mr. Price, kept his collection of canes in a golf-bag; they were numbered as golf-clubs. You didn't want a swing from his mashie-niblick! (7 iron)

Morris Dancer...... that's a truly sorrowful story! To go through all that and then to succumb to polio ... it's somehow strangely worse than having died of wounds. I suppose conditions on the beach were highly unsanitary, as must have been the waters off the beach, with so many men forced...

I once had an old, all-steel, flintlock pocket-pistol of around 1820 and subsequently converted to percussion-caps. I believe the caps contained fulminate of mercury, rather than the old black powder.

My mother made our tooth-paste from soot, salt, bi-carb, and china-clay, with a dash of eucalyptus, or oil of cloves oil. I prefered the eucalyptus oil as the oil of cloves sometimes numbed the tip of my tongue. She was always experimenting with different combinations, some more succesful than...

Yvonne - the name 'Harry Greensted' seems a possible Jewish derivitave too. Paul, 'Alberts' were more usually worn across the lower waistcoat pockets; wearing them from the upper pockets was a more European fashion; ditto the closed lower-button of the waistcoat. Whether or not the...

I think the 'fur coat and no knickers' refers to social pretension rather than to the 'red hat' scenario ... aligned to 'all kippers and curtains' etc. Now, where did I leave my red cap...

'Goldswain' has a certain 'Jewish' ring to it; could some of the people in the photograph be foreign relatives/friends? I did think that the stout, lady sitting left-front, had a possible touch of the Jewish 'Matriarch' about her ...something about the hooped-detail on her sleaves too, that...

Thanks Dek, I must have confused memories as I don't think I've ever been to the Nechells area.

My father wore plus-fours as a young man during the 1920's. I'll sort-out some photo's.

I'd agree, they don't look British.... no Brit would wear a fob-chain so high up the waistcoat, as do two of the men.... thus suggesting it was a 'fashion' and not an individuals eccentricty. Further, they wear their bottom waistcoat button closed; another non-Brit' trend etc. Belgiques perhaps?

Hi, where exactly was Lupin Street? It looks strangely familiar to me, but I just can't place it.

Re: John(Jack) Hood Boxer Brenda, are you sure it was 'Summerfield'? There was was a boxer during the 1920's called Ronnie SUMMERTON .... just a thought ... ?

Remember those long bars of laundry soap, they were about (if memory serves me well) 12''-14'' long? There was a coarse, green soap (it had bits of grit in it) and a more gentle, yellow 'Starlight' soap. I remember my mother grating-off curls of soap for the laundry boiler/wash-tub. No...

Harborne?