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Your photo #3 is the same building as shown in the photos in post #10. I'm thinking that all the buildings pictured so far are on the same western side of Lichfield Road and were demolished in 1961, Ansells having consolidated its operations at Aston Cross, where a tall extension was being built...

I have no memory of this scene at all during the period 1964 to 1971. However, quite by chance I've just been looking at a photo of the same building described as "the offices of Ansells Brewery" being passed by one of the last trams in 1953 (ref "Birmingham City Transport" by David Harvey page...

You've beaten me to posting that I've now had a chance to study your map in post #3. I was never aware of a brewery on the west side of Lichfield Road, as highlighted on the map, so it could have been demolished in 1961 as stated. My memories from 1964 to 1971 are of the east side of the road...

I remember the brewery standing empty awaiting demolition. The whole area was obliterated by the building of the Aston Expressway in 1971.

Yes, on the old building wall facing Lichfield Road on the same side as the Vine it still had the painted words "Frederick Smith's Maltings" to the upper storey up until demolition. I used to see it every day on the way home from school in the 1960s. The actual building was by then occupied by...

Pedro you've asked an essay question, which I will gladly answer in due course on the 'Moor End Lane' thread rather than the 'High Street' thread, because there is a wealth of history attaching to that particular area. In very simple terms you only have to look at it to date it, but its actual...

That restaurant was called the 'Lotus House'. Back on the library side was Wilton Road, which hosted 'Colmore Depot' and a music shop. I recall that the garage extended back to a showroom that opened on to the High Street where the old 'Picture House' had been (possibly the same building knocked...

Isn't that a very desirable Vauxhall VX490? Erdington still looked very respectable in the 1960s, but note the empty bottle having been dumped in the right foreground.

When I was young a Bakers Removals van was routinely parked in Mason Road opposite the swimming baths. Maybe one of the drivers lived there.

I'm going to come out all guns firing here, as this is my patch. These are two conjoined cottages known as 'Shipley Cottages', which stood in Moor End Lane from around 1600 until 1936, whereupon they were bulldozed in favour of the Berkswell Road development. They stood opposite to what became...

Sorry to hear about Jenny Ann. I wish that I'd found this thread earlier.

Yes. The High Street travels along high ground that dips down sharply towards Spring Lane. Rainfall would take the same path and rose as a spring now concealed under the gardens of Fern Road. It was piped under the houses to the other side of the lane, where it emerged in the field behind Briar...

I can date that photo for you. The brick extension to the Roebuck was built in 1962, and everything you see was demolished 2 years later in 1964.

I remember how my Mum used to drag me around Erdington shopping during the 1950s before supermarkets existed. I recall a grocers at the upper end of the High Street called either the Maypole or Perks where she would often buy a quarter of broken biscuits. I also remember my Mum coming home from...

I have collected a number of photos of the Orphanage over the years, but they are all from publicly available internet sources rather than originals. However, the photo that you refer to was copied to me by the above mentioned Betty Foster. I have since found a better copy of the same photo...

My uncle Vic Piggott spent his working life at Hardy Spicer turning down driveshafts on a lathe. They must have operated around the clock, because he regularly worked nights.

I'll brain dump what I know before I go. My father worked on the Spitfire Mk 1X production line at Vickers Armstrongs (now Jaguar) during 1943. At the ripe old age of 16 he was team leader on assembly of the tailplanes, assisted by two even younger girls who had come down from Sunderland for...

For 'Tyburn' I would read Tyburn House pub, so this church was probably built on Kingsbury Road not far from the Chester Road.

Changing the subject, there was a tin chapel called St Ethelreda's Mission Church in Moor End Lane, Erdington. It was opened just prior to the first world war, and, as a child, I vaguely remember it prior to demolition in the 1950s. The site remained vacant for many years until a modern house...

When the Orphanage land was sold in 1964 the trustees used the money to fund a home in Olton, Solihull. My father went with a former schoolfriend to a commemorative lunch there some 15 years ago. I think it was in honour of Founders Day. Betty Foster definitely had connections with that place...