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ALSTON ROAD SCHOOL
- Thread starter GEFF
- Start date
Pat Sattar-Jennings
master brummie
My mother went to Alston Road School. 
Pat Sattar-Jennings
master brummie
Top photo is mom with circle drawn on her dress and bottom photo, mom is sitting at the end wearing dress with lace collar.
Pat Sattar-Jennings
master brummie
Added 2 photos of Student photos Alston Road.
Pat Sattar-Jennings
master brummie
Hi Lyn, thanks for suggesting that, I will give it a go. Cheers
I think I arrived at the school in 1953. Spent 1 year in infants then up to the Junior school. The photos suggest that classes were not mixed at the time they were taken. I don’t think we would have looked so different but I don’t have any school photos from my time there. Thanks Pat they have thrown up lots of memories for me this morning. Tinpot
Pat Sattar-Jennings
master brummie
Can't work how to do it, can you advise me please Astoness? Will have another look before I log off. Cheers.
Pat Sattar-Jennings
master brummie
Glad you liked the photos, just glad I kept them Tinpot. Happy memories I hope.
Pat Sattar-Jennings
master brummie
Pat Sattar-Jennings
master brummie
It would be great if someone, one day, recognised one of the girls as being one of their family.
Trevor Rainsford
Guest
Anyone on here from the Ward End era 1960 through to 1970 ..particularly Overpool Road, Clover Lea Square, Washbrook Road , Wall bank Road, St Margaret's Ave, Northleigh Road area ..we lived in Overpool Road previously Washbrook ..our father ran the Clover Lea club, some nights, after he came home from his job at Joseph Lucas Chester Street, for a few years
love to hear from anyone
love to hear from anyone
Pat Sattar-Jennings
master brummie
I lived in the maisonnettes in Overpool Road adjacent to the community centre and went to Ward End Hall school from 1964 as we had just moved there when I was aged 13years and stayed on a year and got my CSE's.
Dave C
master brummie
I have come across the official School Log book kept by the headmaster at Alston Road School Bordesley Green from 1926 until 1954.
Note it does not have children’s names but it does include teachers names and information on important events that occurred pretty much every day.
Anyone with relatives attending at that time as a pupil or a member of staff would find it interesting and I have arranged to take it into the Archives & Collections Department at Birmingham Library for safe keeping but also for proper public access.
As a background my dad Phil Carr attended the school from about 1931 and was still there at the beginning of the war. The book includes the arrangements for evacuating pupils. This happened several time as families would often bring children back if it felt safe or indeed if they felt the conditions for their children in the evacuation homes were unsatisfactory. Many children including my dad felt they were brought back just in time for the heavy bombing of Birmingham, as along with the rest of the family he saw quite a lot of raids from the back garden air raid shelter in Eastfield Road!
Note the the nearby BSA factory was an important target for the Luftwaffe.
At various times pupils were evacuated to Evesham, Broadway and Caerphilly. In dads case on one occasion he walked from Birmingham to Caerphilly over several days to join his mum!
Looking back its hard to imagine the very real difficulties and downright stress that families in Birmingham must have felt during that time.
Anyway, back to the Headmasters log book. Some of the events are listed below but there is much more.
First Paragraph; The first department of this school was opened on Monday November 8 1926 to accommodate children from 5 to 11.
1 September 1939. ‘The school evacuation party left Adderley Park at 12-2 pm today. It consisted of 171 children, 11 teachers and 10 helpers. The train arrived at Evesham at 1.30 pm.’
3 September 1939. ‘War declared against Germany”. (A rather poignant statement by this Birmingham Headmaster!)
11 October 1939. ‘Parents meeting this afternoon at which the scheme for proposed home teaching was explained to the parents.
24 October 1939. ‘Parents meeting to explain the scheme for reopening the school on a voluntary basis. The conditions the parents agreed to were;
1. Each child must have its identity label stitched to its clothing. (Children were “its”)
2. Each child must bring its gas mask, with name and address marked.
3. Each child must remain at school I the event of an air-raid signal being given.
24 January 1940. ’The heavy fall of snow almost entirely dislocated transport in the city.’
9 April 1940. ’Air raid drill was taken this afternoon. The entire school was in its allocated places in two minutes.’ (Newly build air raid shelters).
25 May 1940. ‘Air raid shelter drill was taken this morning. All children were under cover in 65 seconds!’
29 November 1940. ‘The school (and the District) is still without water and children attending were sent home and the staff registered further names for evacuation.’
4 December 1940. ‘A school party of 55 children was evacuated to Worksop.
9 May 1941. ‘During the night there was a severe Raid. One of the school shelters was demolished and considerable damage caused to the roof and ceilings.’
21 May 1941. ‘Owing to war damage five of our classrooms are unusable.’
21 November 1941. ‘News received that Mr Reeves, a member of our staff, was missing after an operational RAF flight.’
30 and 31 July 1942. ’School was closed to children by the police as there was a delayed action bomb overt the premises. (presumably a parachute mine, were teachers expected to remain??)
5 August 1942. ‘An incendiary bomb fell through the ceiling and floor of a classroom down to the cloakroom below where it was extinguished.’
24 January 1944. ‘Today we received some American gifts of toys and sweets. They are sent from the British War Relief Society of America.’
12 September 1944. ‘The system of firewatching by the staff at school was discontinued today’
7 May 1945. ‘Provisional arrangements were made for the celebration of V.E day. Tonight the radio announced the end of the European War and that tomorrow and Wednesday would be national holidays.’
13 June 1945. ‘Wrote to the office today requesting the restoration of a timber fence and the re-asphalting of playground surface damaged or destroyed by enemy action on 9 April 1944’.
7 November 1945. ‘School closed all day on the occasion of the visit of the King and Queen.’ (Presumably to Birmingham as a whole!).
I hope that you have found this interesting, note that the actual book will be in the Birmingham Library Archives & Collections Department from the middle of October (2024).
Note it does not have children’s names but it does include teachers names and information on important events that occurred pretty much every day.
Anyone with relatives attending at that time as a pupil or a member of staff would find it interesting and I have arranged to take it into the Archives & Collections Department at Birmingham Library for safe keeping but also for proper public access.
As a background my dad Phil Carr attended the school from about 1931 and was still there at the beginning of the war. The book includes the arrangements for evacuating pupils. This happened several time as families would often bring children back if it felt safe or indeed if they felt the conditions for their children in the evacuation homes were unsatisfactory. Many children including my dad felt they were brought back just in time for the heavy bombing of Birmingham, as along with the rest of the family he saw quite a lot of raids from the back garden air raid shelter in Eastfield Road!
Note the the nearby BSA factory was an important target for the Luftwaffe.
At various times pupils were evacuated to Evesham, Broadway and Caerphilly. In dads case on one occasion he walked from Birmingham to Caerphilly over several days to join his mum!
Looking back its hard to imagine the very real difficulties and downright stress that families in Birmingham must have felt during that time.
Anyway, back to the Headmasters log book. Some of the events are listed below but there is much more.
First Paragraph; The first department of this school was opened on Monday November 8 1926 to accommodate children from 5 to 11.
1 September 1939. ‘The school evacuation party left Adderley Park at 12-2 pm today. It consisted of 171 children, 11 teachers and 10 helpers. The train arrived at Evesham at 1.30 pm.’
3 September 1939. ‘War declared against Germany”. (A rather poignant statement by this Birmingham Headmaster!)
11 October 1939. ‘Parents meeting this afternoon at which the scheme for proposed home teaching was explained to the parents.
24 October 1939. ‘Parents meeting to explain the scheme for reopening the school on a voluntary basis. The conditions the parents agreed to were;
1. Each child must have its identity label stitched to its clothing. (Children were “its”)
2. Each child must bring its gas mask, with name and address marked.
3. Each child must remain at school I the event of an air-raid signal being given.
24 January 1940. ’The heavy fall of snow almost entirely dislocated transport in the city.’
9 April 1940. ’Air raid drill was taken this afternoon. The entire school was in its allocated places in two minutes.’ (Newly build air raid shelters).
25 May 1940. ‘Air raid shelter drill was taken this morning. All children were under cover in 65 seconds!’
29 November 1940. ‘The school (and the District) is still without water and children attending were sent home and the staff registered further names for evacuation.’
4 December 1940. ‘A school party of 55 children was evacuated to Worksop.
9 May 1941. ‘During the night there was a severe Raid. One of the school shelters was demolished and considerable damage caused to the roof and ceilings.’
21 May 1941. ‘Owing to war damage five of our classrooms are unusable.’
21 November 1941. ‘News received that Mr Reeves, a member of our staff, was missing after an operational RAF flight.’
30 and 31 July 1942. ’School was closed to children by the police as there was a delayed action bomb overt the premises. (presumably a parachute mine, were teachers expected to remain??)
5 August 1942. ‘An incendiary bomb fell through the ceiling and floor of a classroom down to the cloakroom below where it was extinguished.’
24 January 1944. ‘Today we received some American gifts of toys and sweets. They are sent from the British War Relief Society of America.’
12 September 1944. ‘The system of firewatching by the staff at school was discontinued today’
7 May 1945. ‘Provisional arrangements were made for the celebration of V.E day. Tonight the radio announced the end of the European War and that tomorrow and Wednesday would be national holidays.’
13 June 1945. ‘Wrote to the office today requesting the restoration of a timber fence and the re-asphalting of playground surface damaged or destroyed by enemy action on 9 April 1944’.
7 November 1945. ‘School closed all day on the occasion of the visit of the King and Queen.’ (Presumably to Birmingham as a whole!).
I hope that you have found this interesting, note that the actual book will be in the Birmingham Library Archives & Collections Department from the middle of October (2024).
Attachments
Dave C
master brummie
Hi Mrs Mayo, I appreciate its a bit late now but I have just posted something on this thread about Alston Road that you might find useful.
Icarus
Ancient Brummie
Great post Dave. I was at Alston Road school 1945 -51 after moving from Colonial Road from where I'd attended The Rosary 1941-45 to Eastield Road.
During my final year I was tasked with printing the school magazine on an Adana printer in which one of them included a list of classrooms holding senior boys and teaching staff names for year 1950-51. I still have that page.
Your post mentioned a teacher named Reeves. I wonder if he was the Mr Reeves who was my woodwork teacher?
During my final year I was tasked with printing the school magazine on an Adana printer in which one of them included a list of classrooms holding senior boys and teaching staff names for year 1950-51. I still have that page.
Your post mentioned a teacher named Reeves. I wonder if he was the Mr Reeves who was my woodwork teacher?