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Re: Castle Bromwich Areodrome I remember cycling over to the Aerodrome from Sutton in the late 50's or early 60's and there was a section you could get into through the fence which contained wrecked 'planes from WW2, British and German. They were little more than scrap but for a lad brought up...

We had a TV for The Coronation and the neighbours came in to watch, (through a glass darkly in those days). It must have been my mothers idea as the concept of The Royal Family was certain to send my father incandescent with rage. He was arrested in Derby Town Square in the 30's for breaking the...

I knew the Kitchen son when I was a teenager in Sutton. The family did very well out of it, the son had a Morgan kit car still in the crates stolen from the garage and it was months before he noticed. He also had a Lamborghini Miura stolen and when he went to report it at Sutton nick they were...

Re Nortons in Erdington Mr Norton who owned the shop was married to Olive M Norton who wrote books, also under the names Kate Norway, Bess Norton, Hilary Neal, in particular nurse stories based on her past as a nurse. They and their 3 children lived in Holly Lane, Four Oaks, Sutton Coldfield.

Oh the memories ! All of those and more. I was good friends (and for a while went out with) the daughter of the younger Mr Gill who was a class mate of my wife in later years.You omitted all the balsa aircraft which took hours to build and often demolished themselves on the first flight in the...

I was an ABC Minor at the Empress on the Parade in Sutton in the early 50's as was my elder brother. We won a fancy tie competion with ties from an American uncle of ours. Coombes, that wonderful sweet and tobacco shop just across South Parade was where I used my sweet coupons.In the late 40's...

They made specialist oils for industry, they also had the British concession for Cosmoline as used for wrapping guns etc. They specialised in cutting oils for the metal trade and would develope new oils as requested . I worked there for a while in the mid 60's. My boss, the chief chemist always...

Wasn't Walls Ice Cream dreadful? It was pretty well all there was otherwise they would have gone out of business. No flavour at all in their so called vanilla, an entire generation grew up thinking vanilla meant without taste. Thank the Lord for Trows Ice Cream in Sutton, now that was...

As an aside to this thread, Phillip Harris supplied all Birmingham schools with their science glassware (I broke a lot of it in Sutton schools) and also I used it in the lab at Edgar Vaughan, Specialist Oil Makers. One of our chemistry teachers was their best customer as a more ham fisted...

There are two "lanes" in the immediate area, one off Trinity Hill which was a metalled road that runs between the two school buildings up to the Parish Church on one side and the Vicarage on the other. Half way up the Hill on the left is a lane which runs alongside the raised playground and then...

You are right about Susan Maughan although the time frame is somewhat confusing as she was born in 1938 and her pop hit was in 1962. However in the early 60's the first coffee bar in Sutton which was open after 6 was The Snackery just up from the Cottage Hospital before you got to While Road. It...

That sports field was part of the Moat House complex, then the Educaation Offices and was used by Town County Senior and later Junior Schools as they didn't have any of their own. Bedford had very extensive playing fields, so large that they could in recent years build the replacement for the...

Sorry you are wrong, it was The Snackery, a den of iniquity where you could drink frothy coffee until as late as 8.30 at night (shock horror) Susan Maughan of Bobbies Girl fame was a waitress there. Corner of Victoria Road was the Methodist Church with Keyes School behind it then a little car...

That was Maney Church Hall,next to St Peters, Maney where I was a choirboy. The Beatles played there. There was a gang of thugs from Kingstanding called The Broadies who caused a fair bit of troublein Sutton, they were disrupting a dance there when the police were called. One of them said to the...

Yes it is. Jon

Yes, it was a yearly event for the circus to be on the Meadow Platt. Once in a while there would be one in Rectory Park as well.Living just off the Parade,in Victoria Road I often got free tickets. It was either Billy Smarts or Bertram Mills circus each year.

I must confess to a rather mean trick played on Freddie of Freddie and the Dreamers when they played a B'ham gig in the early 60's. We hated him as a "girly" singer so we let his tyres down on his Jag (personalised plate so easy to spot) and waited. Out he came saw them and 3 of us leaning on a...

Yes it was addictive, like watching a car crash.

I had a friend who auditioned for Crossroads but he didn't get the part because he kept remembering his lines.

The Castle Bromwich plant was built as a "shadow factory" starting in 1938 and had not produced anything prior to the war. It was built on Air Ministry land The car industry took it over after the war. Fisher and Ludlow were I think the first users, then Pressed Steel Fisher, then Rover and...