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It was probably the late 50's when I first went to the Shalimar in the basement of Kings Hall. One of the other customers was a mustachioed, rather-florid gentleman. He was probably a military man who had served in India. He shouted at the waiters and terrified them, because his plate was hot...

BHF is wonderful for sparking off memories. About 50 years ago I saw one of the most hilarious posters ever. It was on a hoarding near Bordesley station. There was a man at a table playing a trumpet. He was rather burly, unshaven, close cropped hair and wearing a singlet. He might have had a...

Here are the other four advert pages from the Yardley Parish Church Magazine for February 1935 There has been some dicussion of the printers of this magazine. So I had a closer look at it. It is really three seperately printed items. The cover and pages adjacent to the cover are the...

My parents were married at Yardley Parish Church in December 1934. They kept the parish magazine that recorded this. There were 8 pages of adverts. With any luck I will be attaching scans of 4 of them below.

1936 ... born 394 Green Lane, Small Heath 1942 ... went to Earby, Yorkshire 1945-1947 ... 130 Bankes Road, Small Heath and Bournemouth 1947-1964 ... 128 Bankes Road Ever since Hertfordshire. Those 1940s dates are approximate only, it was a confused period.

"When I was a lad I came with my dad. Now I'm a dad I bring my lad." The Don, boy's outfitters.

THE BIRMINGHAM TEA CEREMONIES An anthropological study Note The observations reported here were made five or six decades ago. The practises described may no longer be used. The most wide spread ceremony is conducted by someone known as Mother. Often Mother is a female, though male...

The nearest I ever got to the temperance movement was on May Day, Whit Sunday or something similar when there was an excuse for a parade. The temperance Band of Hope had a girls marching band. There must have been a drum or two but most played kazoos. Not just 'soprano' ones but perhaps...

Thank you Phil for the photo. Just as I recall it. MWS, I did not mention names other than Joe Fox. Apparently he boxed under other names Young F. and Joey F. Someone claiming to be a relative said his actual name was Judah Zelickman!

In the late 1940's/early 50's, going home from KEGS Camp Hill, I would catch the 15/17 bus in High St Bordesley just before it went under the railway bridge. Near the stop was a sweet shop I sometimes used. It was run by a man with a multi-lined face and built along the lines of a jockey. His...

I have various memories of Chance's. In the early 1960's I went their factory in Smethwick. They were making tubing for fluorescent lights by the 100 foot. It was extruded from a pot in a gulley. A man followed the machine pulling the glass. When he thought the tube was of the correct diameter...

Here's the wedding photo I should have sent earlier. Incidentally, I too lived at 128, from the late 1940's until 1964.

The Porters lived in Victorian Digbeth and then various parts of Small Heath. They arrived at 128 Bankes Road after the 1911 census but were well established by 1914 it seems. The last of their descendants that lived there, my mother, left in the mid 1980's. The photo was almost certainly taken...

Hello, I've got an A1 street atlas (published by Geographia) it covers Birmingham and the Black Country with a separate section for Coventry. It is undated but I must have bought it in the early 1960s for 6/-. Its title is Birmingham and the West Midlands.

I well remember the Model Aerodrome in the town centre and remember another. It was in Walford Road between Golden Hillock Rd and Stratford Rd. This would have been there in the 1940's, I must have been still playing with lead soldiers. I, bought a lead cowboy, it was all the rage. Horse mounted...

Am I dreaming it but did I once see an old advert for Birds Custard that said something like "manufactured beside a river in leafy Warwickshire"? Strictly speaking this was correct but the implication that the manufactory was in a rural, bosky situation was hardly correct.

My father was a friend of Norman Edwards when they were at Somerville Road School. They would meet up at various events and featured in one of his cartoons (below). It must have been in the early fifties. I've also got NE's history of the Blues. When they were Small Heath Alliance their...

I like a graffito I once saw "old soldiers never die; only young ones".

Funnily enough, I still have my 'tea' in late afternoon/early evening. It is my main meal. No actual tea though. Wine with and coffee after.

After sending my post I began to dig deep in my memory banks. How did I know about this gun? In Autumn 1941, after just 2 weeks at Marlborough Road Infants, I went to Yorkshire. My father was in a reserved occupation and had been sent there. We returned to Small Heath sometime after VE day...