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    Ghost signs of Birmingham

    I was going to suggest that this might have been where the undertakers were.
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    Telephone history: Telephone Service in Birmingham

    just put Phone Book into your search engine. I do it through Google but so many people these days are ex directory.
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    Telephone history: Telephone Service in Birmingham

    There was a trick to it. Most people would try from the open side of the directory. The trick was to break the spine first which I usually did across my knee then just pull it apart.
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    Telephone history: Telephone Service in Birmingham

    I have to say that I was surprised a few weeks ago to receive my Birmingham South West 2023/2024 directory. I did not think that they were still issued. For years now I have not been able to do my party trick of tearing one of the old-style directories in two.
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    Moseley Kings Heath Line

    There would certainly be more facilities for reversing the train at Longbridge as I understand the plan at the moment is to reverse the train in Platform 4 at Kings Norton which could cause conflict with the Redditch and Bromsgrove trains. They will certainly need to do something before they...
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    Scams: telephone, email, texts 2023, 2024

    Is this a record? I have had three emails today about packages being held by Royal Mail. Everyone was from a Gmail address which was a dead giveaway to start.
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    Computer Security.

    I have been getting several phone calls from named people at BT Open Reach about my internet connection and the fact that they had noticed faults lately. I just put the phone down. Now the calls could be genuine but I think it safer to not respond to them. BT know my email address so they can...
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    Windsor Terrace Hagley Road

    Those gate posts were an entry (probably a rear entry) to Windsor Terrace, a gated terrace of Regency(?) houses. The main pedestrian entry was off photo to the right. I don't know if the houses are still there. I have gone back on Street View to Sept 2008 but there is a bus shelter in the way so...
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    Canals of Birmingham

    I may have mentioned this in the past but some years ago I led a walk for the Black Country Society along the Dudley No.2 Canal on the parts that are in Birmingham. We started in the California area in Stonehouse Lane. There is a grassed area there which I see from the map is called Old Quarry...
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    Canals of Birmingham

    Map of the Dudley No. 2 Canal as it passes through the Parish of Hales Owen in Shropshire c 1792. No, I haven't got that wrong. That was the way Halesowen was spelt back then and it was an exclave of Shropshire not becoming Worcestershire until 1844. For orientation purposes, the road running...
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    Telephone history: Telephone Service in Birmingham

    My parents had a party line with a neighbour half way along the road. Only very occasionally did we pick up the phone and the other party was on the line. We had different numbers so our phone never rang for their calls. We never had occasion to ring each other but I believe we might have had to...
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    New Street City Centre Birmingham

    When I lead guided walks, especially in streets with shops, I always tell people to look up above the shop front.
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    New Street City Centre Birmingham

    Lyn, If you look at the building level with the back of the Sandon Road bus, you will see that the corner is cut away and that is the first building on the left in the present day photo. The buildings on the right are also unchanged except for the ground floor shop fronts..
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    Blue Coat School, Birmingham

    Sorry don't seem to be able to post video that I wanted to show
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    Blue Coat School, Birmingham

    The Blue Coat Schools were set up to educate poor children so their first duty would be to cloth them other than in the rags that they would likely to have been wearing when they entered the school. The only real choice as there were no particularly children's clothes would be scaled down adult...
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    New Street City Centre Birmingham

    That building is King Edward House. I recognised it by the Midland Red bus shelter and then checked the windows on the first floor. I remember Littlewoods on the Big Top site as a good place to have lunch.
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    Telephone history: Telephone Service in Birmingham

    The reason the operators were so close together was that each operator had access to both her own board and the boards each side. Women worked the day shift, men took over for the night shift. Years ago, I served on a committee where the chairman was a night telephone operator so meetings always...
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    Scams: telephone, email, texts 2023, 2024

    Some calls can be genuine but how do you know? Yesterday I had a phone call 'This is an urgent call about your gas bill. Press any key to hear the message.' I just put the phone down. However, later I did go online to pay my gas bill. Before you ask I do not authorise a direct debit on my gas...
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    Canals of Birmingham

    All this work costs money and is included in the cost we hear of HS2. No credit is ever given for these non railway benefits to the environment.
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    Ghost signs of Birmingham

    Lyn, If you find the report, perhaps you should send a copy to the city planning office. I don't know if they still have an archaeologist in the planning department checking these things or perhaps that is a job that has gone.
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