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Hi, The expression 'as mad as a hatter' comes from felt hat manufacturing. The process of making the 'hoods' of felt and moulding them over hot formers involved the use of some noxious substance - I think it was mercury. Long term exposure sadly affected the mind. Kind regards Dave

Hi Viv, A job that needed quite a bit of training! I used to work in an office with 2 Comp operators, but I don't remember much about their operation except that they would add, subtract, multiply and divide, and the handle on the side is to clear the display. I do remember that addition was...

Hi Pete, So did I in the late 60's. I lived not far away in Tilton Road at the time. It was a very friendly pub then. Kind regards Dave

Hi PA739 and Pete, Many thanks for your replies, - the association with Wolseley's is interesting, I wonder if this is where their 2 wheeled car was built. I have seen some text in the past regarding that car saying that the test route included Adderley Park. The suggestion that this might...

Hi, I had never heard of this company until I found an old brass 'Ticket' , and after brushing a large amount of corrosion from it, was just able to decipher the above text, plus a short word I cannot read followed by 'Ticket'. Its also stamped with B148 so presumably this was an individual's...

Hi Viv, As mentioned, the condition of the badge is very poor, and I only managed to read the text by judicious brushing to remove some of the corrosion, and shining a light diagonally across it. I've taken a number of pictures of it and selected the "best" (trust me!), but the image is so...

Hi, Just been going through a load of metal detector finds from several decades ago, and came across an old shield shaped badge. Although very difficult to read through corrosion, the badge reads Saltley Mill Cycling Club, with Cycling across the top left, Club at the bottom right, and Saltley...

Hi, I knew a bus conductor in the 1950's who usually worked the Outer Circle. I think he was based at Acocks Green. His badge from memory was BB30547. I seem to remember he told me it was issued in Yorkshire, but in the time I knew him he never wore a DD badge. Kind regards Dave

Hi Arthur, Surely this is a different pub, - aren't you thinking of the Hope and Anchor in Edmund St? Kind regards Dave

Hi Pete, Nice pic of the 1154/1155 sets, and of course the B40. You mentioned the Acocks Green shop where you bought some of the heavier stuff. - I wonder if this was Centre Electronics in Stockfield Road. Howard Turner had many B40s back in the 1980s/1990s, I've got a photo somewhere of a...

Hi, I'm sure that there was a music shop just round the corner from Broad Street at the beginning of Baskerville Place. I'm thinking early 60s. Kind regards Dave

Hi, The picture in post 73 does show the railway as L M and S. I have finally scanned the other properties on the drawing, and they are attached below. Kind regards Dave

Hi Pete, I used to shoot at the Fernbank range by the entrance to the TA barracks in the early 60's. The rangekeeper was a Mr Flook, and he lived in the big old house set back from the road. I'm not sure if the house was the old farmhouse, or the barracks, or if they were one and the same...

Hi Mandy, If I'm not wrong, you were a CBer back in the day, and your dad had a handle which suggested he had taken Holy Orders. Perhaps you remember Skyking and Ratbreeder? Kind regards Dave

Hi oldMohawk, Much respect to you and anyone else who built one of those very sophisticated receivers (for the time). That was a pretty advanced project. Kind regards Dave G0ELJ

Hi, I remember walking down Queens Road one evening in the early 1960s, and a motorcyclist trying to take that bend much too fast didn't succeed. He hit the lamp post on the pavement on the inside of the bend, and wrecked the bike and his leg. He wasn't concerned about his leg, only the...

Hi, David Grain's excellent picture of the railway systems around Saltley prompted me to take a look at an old linen blueprint I have of the Birmingham properties of Metropolitan Cammell . Unfortunately it is not dated, but must be 1960's or before. Fortunately it shows all the private...

Hi Andrew It was indeed on 208 Radio Luxembourg. Horace Batchelor and his 'Infra-Draw' pools system. Only seems like yesterday! Kind regards Dave

Hi Janice, I worked at the Toby Jug in Castle Bromwich in the 1970s, and we used metal thralls for both aluminium and wooden hogsheads. Those old wooden ones were a weight. Kind regards Dave

Hi Alan, They certainly had a good few in the early 1950s before the little green Morrison Electric vans gradually took over. I lived not far from the Co-op bakery in Manor Road Stechford, and remember the horses being led each evening from the Bakery down to their stabling at the bottom of...