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This one works for me: https://www.blackcountryhistory.org/

So do I. Good to see something so obviously locally based. (However....I must have had a very sheltered and fortunate professional life but I have to say that I have never, ever had to work in such a toxic atmosphere where almost everyone seems to be doing their best to be unpleasant and...

Could be, John, who knows? Such a pity I can't remember the squadron markings on the fuselage. If I ever even noticed them. But it WAS an awfully long time ago! Still like to dream that they MIGHT have been a couple from 617 Squadron..... Chris

There’s a distant roar, ever growing. It seems to be approaching us. Dad and I are in our dining room, at the back of the house on the Chester Road in Streetly, where we spend most of our evenings because there are easy chairs there and a table and the wireless set. And it’s a warm room in...

STREETLY MEMORIES Anyone who knows Streetly will almost certainly know that part of the Chester Road which stretches from the Parson & Clerk, on up the hill, to the Manor Road/Bridle Lane crossroads. (I know most of it is outside the City boundary by several hundred yards or more but those of...

Welcome to the Forum, Susan. Let's hope you can tell us more about the family business. Chris

Sorry to yank you back to the topic in question, chaps. Please try to keep this thread to the subject in hand. I know it’s a problem when there are a lot of different memories bubbling up, but see if you can formalise them a bit and put new posts in the appropriate section (or add to existing...

If you do decide to exchange information by a different route, gentlemen, do please remember to try to share as much of it as feel able to, later, on the Forum. It will always be of interest to other members and it will add to our permanent, accessible store of knowledge of these institutions...

Somewhere in the family archives there survives a menu from the Third Annual Staff and Foremen's Dinner in the Central Restaurant, Selly Oak, on 25th November 1927. Amongst those who have signed the card are one H. Davis (who, my late brother must have discovered, lived into his 90s in the...

I don't know a lot about this business, Terry. My only connections with it are the following. I was working at Marston Excelsior (another IMI Company, in Wolverhampton), in the Wages Office, in 1960. For some reason that office had responsibility at that time for doing Elliot's wages and I...

It looks like a 1939-1943 model which would tie in with the Palestine adventure, Janice. (All or most of my pictures would have been taken by another 1930s Kodak model, this one a folding one with bellows. And a pain to operate. It produced large negatives - 120 size - which gave remarkable...

Strange, that, Viv, we were on a ridge too, hence the name my parents gave to the house - Windyridge. My playground extended into the ploughed field behind - still farmed then but later buried under what is now Kingscroft, off the Chester Road. Beyond that, another field, "the Riding School...

Dad was intensely proud of his garden, created by his own hands in a burst of enthusiasm following his move from Croydon Road, Erdington with its little back garden to the vast open spaces of rural Streetly. From little more than a ploughed field in September 1931 To a maturing, colourful...

Yes, Viv, we had a Webb just like that. A Wasp I think. Hard work and I was quite an age before I could manage it. Was always told to keep my fingers WELL CLEAR. (Just like with Mum's mangle outside the kitchen door). And look at the price, nearly ten pounds. I don't know the date but it's...

Fast forward 6 years - July 1942. Same people, same garden, it's just the quality of the film which has gone backwards. Dad loved Russell lupins. And so did I. In that drab, black and white world, they took my breath away. Chris

And my sister again, possibly on the same day because she's wearing the same dress and the sun's still out. (Sunny days but with clouds looming for those who cared to see. Less than three years later the bird table on the right would have been moved and, where it stood, Dad would have been...

Here's a picture of me at a few months old in ours in Streetly. The first and only genuine (i.e. not colourised) colour photo of me at that age. Nothing remarkable about that, normally, but it WAS the summer of 1936 and so I suppose that makes it a bit unusual. (With my elder brother and...

If the history of this appalling year in Ukraine is ever written, we shall know whether any organisation was ever formed there which was equivalent to our Home Guard in 1940. Whilst we laugh at Dad's Army, it's easy to ignore the looming fear that EVERY British Home Guard man had to live...

Back to your earlier comment, an interesting question, Pedrocut. I am not aware of cases of HG membership. If any did exist anywhere it would have been a tiny number - not because of prejudice but simply because of the lack of candidates. Chris

Very sad news indeed and thanks so much, gingerjon, for letting us know. We shall miss Mike’s contributions greatly and I, amongst everyone else, send my deepest condolences to his family, should they see this thread. Chris