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I always liked cricket as a game, but only on two occasions have I seen it 'live' - first a county match at Edgbaston when I nearly went to sleep, and later a test match at Edgers (against Australia) which was marginally more exciting. In my view, cricket is a game made for TV - when it gets...

Big Bee?? When you were at Premier my old company traded as E V Naish Ltd. After a merger with another textile manufacturer the name was changed to Naish Felts Ltd., based in Wilton near Salisbury. Beater heads, etc., were dropped when the company decided to concentrate on the automotive...

I visited Premier from about 1990 until some time before the end of production in Leicester. The only one of your names which rings a faint bell is Phil Middleton. Was he a buyer? Sorry to be vague, but I had nearly 500 customers to visit both here and in Europe and nowadays can remember only a...

This may be of passing interest to drummers, but prior to retirement I was Sales Manager for a technical-textile company. One of our 'sidelines' in years gone by was manufacturing bass-drum beaters from hard wool felt, and also cymbal washers from a softer felt. Over the years we built up quite...

Hi Nick, I've done bit of 'research' and the only highwayman called Tom King that I can find operated around Epping Forest mostly and was an 'associate' of Dick Turpin. Both characters are mentioned in 'Rookwood' by Harrison Ainsworth. So where Betty Smith got her info about a highwayman called...

Not likely! When I worked at Foseco on Long Acre there was a greasy-spoon on the other side of Long Acre known as Greg's Caff. He did a bacon-and-tomato sandwich to die for, far superior to Foseco's canteen! Most mornings at 'breakfast time' there'd be an exodus across the road to Greg's. He...

In the 1970's I sold chemicals and additives to the metals industry, and made a couple of visits to Tubes Ltd. During one of these visits it was early morning and the chap I met asked me if I'd like a bacon buttie. Not 'arf! He sent someone over the road to 'the caff', who came back with a...

Hi Nick, Interesting tale. I know of two old (ish) buildings which used to be pubs in the general area you mention, but I don't know what they were called when they were still pulling pints. There is of course The Irish Harp where the Chester Road crosses Little Aston Road on the outskirts of...

I thought I knew of all the supposed ghosts in Sutton Park, but obviously not. The book states definitely that this Tom King came from Birmingham, so I guess he was a different rogue to the other King down in Essex and London. And burned to death? By design or accident? G

Hi Nick and everyone, I've just read an old book called 'Ghosts Of Warwickshire' by Betty Smith, which Mrs Big Gee picked up at a car boot. In it, there's a short chapter on the supposed ghosts of highwaymen, including a guy called Tom King. This knight of the road came from Birmingham, was a...

I may have posted this before, but back in the late Sixties we used to go to The Salutation in Snow Hill for the Friday night jazz. Two or three times when we came out there was a scruffy bloke hanging around on the corner of Snow Hill and Summer Lane. He'd shuffle up and say "Got a quid for a...

Thanks for your post, Willey. I do recall the name Southall from All Souls, but can't be certain if that was Sylvia's surname. I believe she took one of the Sunday Schools for older kids. G

There was a Lloyd's Bank between The Broadway and Bragg Road. I don't know when it opened, but it closed maybe 25 years ago. It was my bank, and everything was moved to the Witton branch next to the main gates of IMI on Brookvale Road. G

Well, I said I was taking a risk and I was wrong again....oh well. England's it was, of course. But I am stretching my memory back more than 60 years. Time for nice lie-down, I think. G

At the risk of being proved wrong (again...!) Clarkes' was indeed the shoe shop on the corner of Aston Lane and Birchfield Road. It sticks in my mind because even when I was at primary school I had outsize plates, and Clarkes was the only local place that catered. I remember one of the...

Hi Mohawk, that's the place! I'm surprised it's still there. Even more surprised that the original sign is still there! I can't make out the word under the sign, though. One of these fine says I'll pluck up some courage and have a drive around the area where I grew up. As Bob Dylan sang...

Mrs Big G has just reminded me that after it closed as a dance-hall The Albert Hall was empty for a while then became a carpet warehouse. G

Hi Pedrocut, if you stand by Aston Library and look up Witton Road towards Six Ways, The Albert Hall was I think the last large building on the left of Witton Road before the church. It was quite an impressive building as I recall, with a grand staircase leading up to the door, and at one time...

My mother liked to shop along Lozells Road when she didn't want to go into town. One of her favourite shops was Robinson's Haberdashery, which I think was at the Villa Road end of Lozells Road. I'm friendly with a member of the Robinson family who owned that shop, where he worked until it...

Nice pic of Birchfield Road from its junction with New Inns Road, Mohawk. I also remember that half-timbered building on the corner of Heathfield Rd, but don't know what it was. On the opposite corner of Birchfield and Heathfield is a sheltered accommodation where my parents lived out their last...