Aston Brook

[flowershopgirl]

Has anyone heard of a very dangerous passtime undertaken by the lads of Aston?

My brother told me that one of the initiation rites for some of the Aston kids was to follow the Aston Brook under the roads from somewhere above Aston Cross and come out down the bottom of the Lichfield Road, I think somewhere by the swanpool taver. He said they had to becareful because if it rained it filled up with rainwater.

Does this ring any bells?

My friend had a house on Phillips St (I think) that had the brook at the back, they used it as a bin for years and any toys or prams they didnt want or had broken was chucked over the wall into the brook.

I was fascinated!

 

[Rod]

We have been down in the Brook, many times, usually when workmen opened the little red door in Telford Street Cul De Sac or in Elkington Street, and put a ladder through down into the culvert. We would collect peices of wood from outside Wallins the Builders and use them in the same way children play Pooh Sticks nowadays.
I know that a gang of lads who will remain nameless nicked the ladder one time? and shut and padlocked the red door.

In our part of Phillips Street the main thing going into the brook was balls, for the wall that contained the little red door, was also a makeshift goal for the lads who played footy, the air turned blue with the colourful language whenever a ball met its watery end

In summer there was a particular smell to the brook? and it became a gangy greenish sort of colour? We made up stories to scare each other that monsters lived in the tunnel which was very dark!!

 

[flowershopgirl]

Hi Rod
If you went throught the red dor did you eventually come out down the bottom of lichfield road? Seems to me it would be a long way in the dark or did it surface somewhere.

I can only remember looking over a wall that seemed to go a long way down with a bit of water in the bottom.

Mind you its a long time ago i was going to St Mary's Jnr and infant school at the time and it closed when i was about 9. A very long time ago

jill

 

[gingerjon]

we used to climb over the wall in Inkerman Street from the old bomb peck it as quite high it was a mere trickle most of the time while the weather was dry we were told that thay used to ring a bell when the workers were down there in case of flash flooding we must have been mad going down in to those dark foreboding tunnels waiting for the light to appear knowing we had got to Talford Street cul de sac and if the door was closed it meant either going back or on to Elkington Street
my brother David fell from the ladder in Elkington Street and landed up in the bottom of the culvet with many broken bones he looked looked one of those hospital comic scenes with arms and legs all strung up in plaster of paris and pulley's but he was not laughing, he is still around coming up to his retirement

 

[Rod]

I took a photograph of one of the few entrances that have survived. The door has been replaced and the wall fixed up a little but in essence its still pretty much has it was when I was a kid. Click below for picture.

Brook Door Elkington Street

 

[John Young]

The BROOK of Hades Tunnel

Vivid flashbacks just occurred to me on reading your wonderfull
Aston Brook notations, I was one of them Aston lads who did,,,,,,,
"The Trial" the Brook itself, the culvert from Inkerman St to Lichfield Rd
with THE Tunnel from Hell, Phillips St to Elkington (I think?) along that
treacherous slimey way, mostly knee high & some parts wading & praying
inside (Show no Fear-rather Die), We usually armed ourselves with spears (For the Rats) penknives tied on to Moms clothes prop & bulls eye
torches at the ready for the dreaded Tunnel.
Did it but got a slap from Mom for breaking her prop Then a real belt off my Dad who knew the danger involved, Even on dry days that tunnel could rapidly fill, HP & Ansells used thousands of gallons of cleaning
water & often emptied causing sudden backwash flooding.
Well We were all "Rambos" then Eh! Ok John