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I remember gooing to Great Yarmouth on holiday as a boy in the late 1940's - early 50s. I remember being scared to death on the roller coaster there which, I believe, was built by German prisoners of war. Probably tame stuff compared with the monsters we have today but quite enough for me at...

It was the subject of a BBC4 TV program "Dead Chuffed" within the last couple of weeks.

Thanks for posting the pictures. The one of Alum Rock Road was taken from the top of the hill leading down to Saltley and Nechells. The church in the right foreground was a Methodist church and had a boy scout pack attached that met in the church hall at the rear. This was in the 1950s but the...

The school certainly was Saltley Grammar School - I went there in the 1950's. It is now called Saltley School and, if I remember correctly, the school is listed as such on Friends Reunited, but the records on there go back to when it was a grammar school. To find it, walk up Belchers Lane from...

I went to Thornton Road School until summer 1950 and I just about remember Mr Petherick. The previous headmaster was a Mr Hall and he must have retired the summer before, so I was only in his charge for twelve months or so. I'm afraid that the only thing I can recall of him was that he was, as...

I used to drive up to Nottingham regularly in the 1960s and and would pass the Burton's Biscuit Factory. They used to sell boxes of broken biscuits at the gates to passers by. They were superb - fresh out of the factory and because of this, tasting better than any you bought in a shop. They...

My family lived at 757 Alum Rock Road from about 1935 (family name Galpin). It was one of a small row of shops a few doors along from 787. I lived there as a boy from 1945 to 1956 and confirm that there was no war damage to the houses on that side of the road. A bomb did land on a corner shop...

It's an Armstrong Siddeley. See https://www.rolls-royce.com/history/heritage/offices/coventry_evo1.jsp for the history of the marque.

There are several monologue sites - here's a page with three of Stanley Holloway's famous ones on it : https://wuff.me.uk/monologues/P10.html Funny, but when I read them to myself, I can always copy the Lancashire twang in my head, but can't speak it out loud.

My memories of Sunday afternoons, just after WWII when petrol was still rationed, was for my parents and I, together with one or other of my friends, driving out to Stonebridge on the A45 Coventry Road, have a picnic and sit and watch the traffic go by. My, what unusual entertainment we had in...

In the Odeon, New Street, there used to be the Paramount Mountain symbol, (as used at the start of their films) worked into a pattern on the low barrier that separated the stalls from the screen when it was a one- screen cinema. I noticed it when I was a boy and often thought it suggested that...

When I was a boy, I had a friend who would delight in riding his bike behind one of these trucks and reaching out and hanging on to the back of the trailer and allowing the truck to pull him along. One day, while he was doing this, the truck hit a bump, the tailend lifted off the ground and...

Yes, Chris, you resurrect several similar memories for me from 1946 - 1956. I also would walk through the park to the library on Washwood Heath Road. Reading your post, brought back the unique smell of the library with its polished shelves and tables and of the books. Looking back, it seems...

Regarding buying a new printer instead of a replacement cartridge, you should be aware that many printer manufacturers (particularly HP) supply their printers with a first-cartridge that is not full - typically only two-thirds full. The contents are marked on the cartridge, but it doesn't...

Yes, Wilfred Pickles did read the news during WW II but was moved out of that job because his Northern accent (Lancashire?) was not cultured enough to fit in with the other newsreaders' Oxbridge pronunciation. His programme "Have A Go" was a radio quiz show with members of a studio audience...

Hi Moma P I went to see Billy Cotton at the Birmmingham Hippodrome when I was a child. I remember them playing "I've Got A Lovely Bunch of Coconuts" which ended with them throwing cotton wool balls into the audience and then having them thrown back to them - it ended up as a good-natured...

I have just visited the chemist to have a prescription made up and, while I was waiting, what did I find on the shelves? - a display of Germolene. They have two types of Germolene - one in a blue and yellow tube and one in a pink and blue. The list of ingredients of each is different but the...

Alex's Pies Charlie, I remember Alex's van outside Snow Hill Station but I don't think he sold Fleur de Lys pies. - not in the 1950s-60s. The meat pies he sold when I was a customer were OK, but flat and mushy inside, not deep and chunky meat like FdLs. I think Alex's Fleur de Lys pies were a...

Yes, I can confirm the pink is still available - in tubes, though. We bought some last week from one of the big supermarkets. I introduced it to my wife when she couldn't find any cure for the dry skin splitting on her heels. It worked like a charm. I'm sure it cures anything - I don't know why...

Grey's Hi Brenda I wouldn't know the names of other people at Greys but I will try to find out if any of the names you mention jog Gladys's memory. I think her long term memory is not too bad - it is her more recent memories that are blurred. I will get back to you, but it might take...