Search results

As I recall it in the square shaped one there was a lockable section in the bottom section of it into which there was enough room to put a cape or mackintosh, if one was out and the weather improved. Oft one found that the bobby on an adjoining beat had beaten you to it and put his in. The...

I was trained as a clerk personnel at RAF Hereford in 1956. Presume your typing and shorthand course was organised there. willey, or had the RAF moved on by then and left it to the SAS. I was then home posted for the rest of my National Service to RAF Hillingdon - cushy life there after. Will.

Story of one of my daughters, on her first shopping trip for my wife, at a local shop. My wife wrote on a slip of paper 1lb old potatoes. May have been down to how my wife wrote it but going into the shop, we were later told, my daughter asked for "11 bold potatoes". Been a standing story...

There is a lot of folk lore associated to the times of the Krays. The information that the Krays were, by their emissaries, intending to muscle in on Brum night life came from a source of mine, at another club, and not from the Fewtrells. If the Fewtrells informed another officer it was not...

Old Boy, My late elder sister took me and my mate on a tour of the establishments in North Wales in the early 1950's. Recall the chores of cleaning and washing up before one left en route to the next place. Walking and cycling was the deal except we cheated and with an attractive sister...

Have not worn a hat regularly since the early sixties. Tomorrow, if the sun is as hot as of recent times, I will be wearing my old panama to go to a garden fete. Must protect the old napper these days. Hope I remember the etiquette expected when wearing one. Trouble is one could forget, with...

It was part of the dress, of the day, in the late fifties to wear a trilby style hat in the detective branch. I bought myself a green coloured one with a dainty feather on its side. One evening the sergeant, who was a beast of a man in size had lost a case at court and knew that the 'lucky...

When coming off night duty and catching the bus from Handsworth to the city centre just after six in the morning. The strong smell of curry permeating the whole vehicle. Would enjoy it normally but not at time of the morning on an empty stomach

My formative years were spent in Cleeve Road, Yardley Wood but then at the age of seventeen I got the call to serve for god and country. Here they gave me a roof over my head at Cardington- Padgate- Hereford - and then Hillingdon in Middlesex. On demob in 1958 lived in Digbeth then on my...

In the mid to late 50's, as one can see from the old films, the detectives always wore a trilby together with suits and collars with ties were the dress. Remember 'Lockhart of the Yard'? Now look at them! It is called 'progress'

Apologies for being off topic but briefly to answer Astonian's query. Some twenty odd years out, my friend, for I was there in the late 1950's and gone by 1960.

Astonian, You have a good memory - no that has long been delivered to some scrap yard and ended up in the steel mills of South Wales. Who knows it may form part of the tin lids around - is it Debenhams in Brum.?

I have very fond memories of Judge Michael Argyle. One day I went into his court whilst waiting for a case, I had, to come up in an adjoining court. I have no idea then or now of the details of the case, he was hearing, and he was adjourning the court as I entered. Instead of leaving the...

Here is a card posted by one brother to another (my uncles) Both were serving originally in the Warwicks but for some unkown reason Jim joined the Leicester Regiment at the end of the 14/18 war. The name on the card, and which he used to join the Leicesters, is false (note the initial 'W' and...

There appears to a few "Yardleywoodites" on the site at this time. I too lived in Cleeve Road from my birth to when I did my National Service in 1956. Although my parents continued to live there until the death of my father and subsequently when my late mother went into a care home in 1992...

My aunt and uncle - Florence and Ernest Turner had two shops close, as I now recall, to your gt.grandrents home in the 30's to the 50's. The shops were next door to each other and Florence sold wool for knitting and Ernest had a sweet shop. Who knows if Esther knitted then she could have got...

After thirteen weeks of training at Mill Meece Police Training centre in 1956 I returned and, as I recall, underwent local statute training at Digbeth Police Station for about two weeks. The layout was in the form of a simple room decked with desks but nothing that made it a formal college. Will.

My late father in law was employed by Gaskell and Chambers as a bar fitter. Clearing out some of his tools came across this lapel pin that I can only assume came from that company. Does anyone know what it signifies please? The numbers shown are 20/30 Will.

Astonian, When I served on the squad from the Newton Street office we used that pub as a daily meeting hole. I knew it as 'Gilhooley's' Sp? Think it was named, by us, after a previous licensee. Will.

Thirteen is a unlucky number, as we all know, and it sure was for me. The word 'Mediterranean' has that number of letters in it and guess what? - When I was at Yardley Wood in the early fifties, I misspelled it. One teacher and a grand teacher he was made me bend over and as I spelt that word...