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Another amazing sunset in Sutton Park last night - at Wyndley Pool:-

And finally - a set of portraits of ATS Recruitment Staff in the Birmingham Recruitment Office in 1942 - most are from this office but some from places like Coventry, Dudley and Kidderminster:- Once recruited and trained, ATS personnel performed such tasks as storewomen:- And Ack-Ack...

Now a random selection of female war workers all from the IWM website:- Fire Guard Boxfoldia Bournbrook 1943 Army Equipment Exhibition Birmingham City Centre 1944 Female "Bargee" (think this is the correct term...) Tipton Green Cotterill Colliery Branch Birmingham Canal 1942...

Here is a puzzle - the captions all say "Great Central Railway Birmingham" - but the Great Central came nowhere near Birmingham from what I can research - Rugby or Leicester were about as close as it got according to this map from Wikipedia:- The only thing I can think of is that the locomotive...

OK - from last nights quiz question - so who and where is this????? No - it was not the latest act in the circus, but the Coventry Ordinance Works in 1917 (just over the border but close enough)! The girl (who I assume was selected purely for her size) was being inserted into the barrel of a...

Hi Vivienne - posed shots - in most cases I think yes. Wolseley - not sure - as I said at the top because of the nature of the subject some do not have much detail on the captions. I have copied sets for Kynochs, Canal work, Railways, ATS recruitment and a munitions factory in Coventry which I...

Thats all for tonight folks - will try to post more tomorrow including an explanation of what the £$%& is about to happen to this poor girl.....

This set is from a "Glass Cutting Factory" somewhere in Birmingham in 1918:- Glass Cutting Glass Flattening and Bottoming Miners Lamp Glass Cutting and Grinding Sand Preparation Crystal Bowl Cutting Medical Measure Flattening Machine

Now lets go to the Austin Motors Factory which, in 1918 was making aeroplanes for the war effort - again with lots of female labour:- Fuselage Stitching Fun in the Carpentry Shop!!! Spray Painting Painting Distinction Markings Group photocalls! Airframe Manufacture Canvas Doping...

Some more under the same heading:- Shell Weighing 1918 Soldering Cigarette Tins 1918 Shell Gauging 1918 Shell Brass Plug Manufacture 1918 Priming Pin Sorting 1918 (what a belter of a job this must have been.....) Copper Band Cut Gauging 1918 Gauging Fuse Manufacture 1918...

To the first world war now, and the highly dangerous job of working in the Birmingham munitions industry. Most have no captions from the IWM website as I guess this info was highly classified at the time:- 1918 Aeroplane Frame Tug Welding 1918 Turning Gas Mask Angle Tubes 1918...

Next to Flint Green Road Nursery in Acocks Green 1942:- And - this is how those terry nappies were dried out.....

Anyway - now to some photos - firstly from the Carnegie Institute on Hunters Rd / Nursery Rd (Lyn's back yard) - these were from 1941 when it was being used as a war workers nursery:-

I have spent the last few nights browsing through the photo archive on the Imperial War Museum website www.iwm.org.uk/collections. Its only a tiddler (so far over 1 million images online it says......) but even a simple search on "Birmingham" looking only at those records with digitised media...

Don't worry about the accuracy of the captions Steve - I can often not decipher my own captions on my own negatives that I shot meself......

And cats in the garden too:-

One of our chickens in the garden yesterday:-

Three contrasting local views this week:- Firstly from Sutton Park on Monday evening - lovely sunset and crescent moon:- Then a lovely tree in blossom from Newhall Valley Country Park yesterday:-

I also remember seeing a Vulcan (the last one to fly) over Sutton Coldfield some years ago - superb site. Not as loud as when Concorde overflew East Drive at Fort Dunlop back in the 80's though - that WAS loud as it had just took off from Birmingham Airport (I think it could only fly with a...

Brilliant - like going back in a time warp!!