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I attended 58 - 64. I've tried explaining to my friends and family about Porky Walker and his violence. A Yorkshire phsycopath who'd raise your forelock , slap your face or punch you in the back if you didn't know how many beans made five. He'd be under lock and key today. I was at GD from...

My old man never said a lot about his work, but I do recall him saying he was spending time doing some kind of maintenance in the Titanium Division. I know he spent a lot of time at IMI on a general basis, and he liked it as he could walk there and back home for lunch! G

Hi Genmac, my father Eddie Bryant worked for Birlec in those days, and did a good deal of furnace installation and serving at IMI. Much later I was sales manager for a small company supplying high-temperature materials, and we did some business at IMI, my contact being Alan Bratt. Do these...

That's a great photo! In the late 60's and early 70's I worked for Triplex Safety Glass, just up the road from the Co-Op. I'm sure I went to a colleague's wedding-reception in the Co-Op Hall, but it was so long ago I could well be mistaken. I always thought that the Pershore Road South down from...

Thanks, Pedrocut. 'Rescue' sounds a bit ominous to me... G

Ref: my earlier post, Mom used to say about Heathfield Maternity that some of the staff gave her the impression that she'd 'done something wrong' - which makes me wonder if it was originally built as a maternity home for unmarried mothers! Anyone know? G

I was born there in 1946 and spent the first few months of my life in and out of various hospitals with one thing and another. My mother used to say the conditions at Heathfield Road weren't very good, and she thought this was why I had breathing difficulties at a very early age. Could be. Does...

I had a bike (my brother's old one) when I was a nipper, but after I came off it that was that - Mom grabbed it and gave it away and I never had another. But I love to watch Le Tour, and also Le Tour de Yorkshire. In both cases I usually know some of the places the riders pass through. We had...

OK, this might sound like a load of old you-know-what, but it isn't. Way back in the Sixties, the Salutation Arms (corner of Snow Hill and Summer Lane) was a favoured Friday night spot for trad jazz. A load of crazies and weirdoes gathered there, but few so barmy as a bloke who was a genuine...

That reminds me of years ago when 'Panorama' did an 'investigation' of the French telephone service, which was far-famed for being dreadful. They used the Le Mans circuit, and began a phone-call from the starter's box to the other side of the circuit at the same time as a car left the...

Only just the 1960's, but my old man's company gave him a Vauxhall Victor Mk 1 out of the pool while his usual company-car (and I've forgotten what it was) was having something serious done to it. The Victor looked quite flash (for the period) but it was a dog. It regularly over-heated, and the...

Re: Viva HC. I had two. The first was K-reg bought second-hand and it was a really good little car, if somewhat under-powered. I never had a serious problem with it and sold it to my father (who wrote it off....). I replaced it with another, newer, HC, I think N or P reg but can't really...

The small sign to the left of the LH dormer window in the photo says 'Known as (?) The Lad In The Lane'. G

Speaking of the NSU Prinz, round about 1967 or 68 a girl-friend had a red NSU Prinz, I think the 4. It was actually quite a good car....considering. We were invited to a wedding in Brighton, and as my knackered split-screen Moggie Minor wasn't up to it, we went in her Prinz. No problems on the...

Eric, if that's a Skoda Octavia, a friend of mine had one in the late 1960's and it was great! Well, great-ish. It was noisy, heavy on fuel, not very comfortable, but built like a tank. Mechanically he never had a problem with it. In fact, it was so good it was nicked and he never got it back! G

The chap who owned the Bella Pais also bought The Old Irish Harp at Aldridge, down the Chester Road, and turned it from a lovely atmospheric old-fashioned pub into a so-so eatery. Such is progress..... G

Way, way back in the early Fifties when we lived on The Broadway, an elderly man knocked the door one morning to ask Mom if she'd like him to Cardinal Red the doorstep for a few pence! So he did, and did a few more houses along the way...and was never seen again after that. There was also a...

It was me who wrote about the 'girl I later married', but she worked at Dudley's Furnishings and I met her in the late summer of 1968 when she came into the sports shop. Our first 'date' was lunch at the little cafe on the same side of Soho Road, just past the Town Hall buildings. I can't recall...

The Barrell - that was the pub I used occasionally. Not The Bull. G

Lisle 'Toffee' Sharp was far and away my favourite teacher at GD. 90% of my dear classmates were bored stiff with English and English Lit, but it was my favourite subject. I always got good marks off Toffee for my essays, and he really tried to encourage me to take up a career in something like...