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George you are a bit hard on your fellow historians, and I think you are right to some extent. Conditions were grim and insanitary, due largely to poverty and neglect. But I'm afraid what was put up to replace the old buildings (in the spaces left after Sir Herbert Manzoni had finished with his...

Sylvia, I think the new M&S store in the High Street was completed in 1957-8, but I can't remember whether the old building had been bombed, although it's highly likely it would have been damaged. I remember it was completed about the same time as that jagged building which is now Barclays...

Although I was only 7 or 8 at the time, I have a fairly clear memory of a daytime raid on the houses at the north end of the Ridgeway. The damage was less than on houses in College Road nearby, and rumours spread that it was machine gun fire, but looking back, I would guess it was just a smaller...

I don't know whether I have written about this before, and it's not strictly bombing Brum either, but I thought someone might be interested to read about what records they have of air raids in the National Archives at Kew. I few years ago I did a favour for someone interested in air raids over...

Andy, And more possible leads on your question - St John's Church, in Church Road (I was a choirboy there in WW2) had a cemetery, but also I seem to remember the Crematorium a little away from Perry Barr on the same side of the road also had a 'Garden of Remembrance' (where I think ashes were...

Thanks to Winston for the link, and to Lyn for the first photo, which I think could run and run until someone comes up with the answer. Those upstairs windows were very wide, and divided into three with two narrow bays either side. That should be unusual, I would think. Oh, by the way, when we...

Tardebigge, Isn't it at Breedon Cross, the bus running anticlockwise round the Outer Circle, out of Pershore Road into Fordhouse Lane? Happy New Year by the way. Peter

The 1956 Kelly's shows two recruiting offices in James Watt Street - the Army place at No 14, on the north side of the street, just below Dalton Street, and the Navy place over the Crown pub on the other side of the street at the corner of Corporation Street. The recent colour photos are of the...

On the gas bus topic, I have no photos of my own, but attached are three by Les Perkins, which appeared in a little book published by the Birmingham Transport Historical Group in the late 70s, entitled 'Memories of Birmingham's Transport'. I remember the scene quite well, as I was given a...

Yes - it's an excellent series, which only strengthens my feeling that history is an exciting combination of good strategy and tactics, a lot of hard work, and also just luck. After the event we can judge people's actions or achievements, for what that is worth, only according to how many of...

Lloyd, I was interested to see your comments on the bollards outside Yardley Wood garage. The reason is that I remember going round the back of Miller Street garage - opposite the tram shed where they kept the tower lorries and breakdown trucks. behind that was a small foundry where they cast...

That was interesting, Rupert. When I was little my dad used to be the organist at St Mark's, Washwood Heath (also as guest at the Beaufort Cinema), and - as we were lucky enough to have a car before the war - we used to get there from our house by Witton Cemetery along Electric Avenue...

Just caught up wigth this thread.What grieves me is the loss of the old chimneys. People are prepared to pay thousands of pounds to fuss about with reproduction door and window frames, but are scared to keep chimneys and especially chimney pots, which I used to think in Brum were the crown of...

Just caught up with recent post - all very interesting to me. Of Degsy's previous set of pics (for which, thank you very much, by the way) I think Ragga was nearly right with the Erdington location, but the road was called Gravelly Lane. On the last lot of pictures, being a North Brummy, I can't...

Yes, those are smashing pictures - thanks a lot, Bammo. I rather think Jennyann was right first time about the skeleton of a building - I reckon it would be in that kind of position. the Big Top site would be round to the right, off the picture. Peter

Just seen the correspondence about watermen. Certainly in London it often meant the same as lightermen, as they were called in the capital - people working on the boats moving goods to and from bigger sea-going ships. But in built-up towns, a waterman was usually someone who drove a horse-drawn...

Thanks, Bammot for the list of firms in 1950. I think it was Zenith of Smethwick which designed and produced a successful motor for model railway engines, and later the Zenith motor bogie, both of which were used a lot by model railway buffs in the 1950s. As far as I know their products were...

And what about Brighton? Just over 60 years ago to this very day I was staying with my great aunt in Saltdean, I was on a 12 bus, and who got on but my mate Terry Birch (probably no relation to you-know-who), three doors away and his parents. And my old flame Jean, from down the road, and her...

The picture of 126 on the tipper has me fascinated, as it is oviously very new, and in its pre-October 1939 livery with a cream roof. It was not built until 1938, and Hockley Garage was not usable by buses until well after the trams had finished service there on 1 April 1939 (some four months...

I never went drinking along the Tyburn Road, but I was on the last 79 car to leave Pype Hayes on Saturday 4 July 1953 (a day after my 20th birthday, standing next to the driver, my neighbour Gerry Thompson who later gave me his copy of "The Electric Tramcar Handbook", by W A Agnew, dated 1911...