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Aston - View From My House

jennyann

jennyann

Gone but not forgotten. R.I.P.
Here is a photo taken in the late l950's from the back bedroom window of our house. In the distance we could see part of Kynochs, the Trinity Road Stand at the Villa grounds, where on game days the sounds of the crowds would just roll across the landscape so that you could almost hear the play by their reaction and when a goal was scored....well. You could see so much more from that window it was a great place to look through binoculars. Hidson Road, where we lived, is on a very high ridge. From the front of the house upstairs you could see Oscott College in the distance.

The garden was particularly good that summer when the photo was taken. My parents loved gardening.
The left hand fence was always being blown down in the winter storms we often had. The house was built in 1935 and my brother and I still own it.

I have lived abroad for four decades now but I have kept in touch with my immediate neighbours and friends in the area who were much younger than my parents. When I visit I have quite a few people to see around there. It hasn't changed that much really in the immediate area but Stockland Green, which was our local shopping area for many years, is virtually unrecognizable. Marsh Hill Junior School has been completely rebuilt in recent times and the Hare and Hounds is now called The Mill House. The Stockland Inn, such an amazing building, is now a Chinese Restaurant in one part of it.
 
The garden looks beautiful and the roses are lovely Jen. :smitten: :smitten:

I have just cut ours and brought them in to save them being zapped by the frost.
 
:angel: What a great pic' Jenny , we never had a garden in any of the houses we livedin until we moved to Pype Hayes. Then the washing line took up all the back garden and the front one was the size of a Ladies hanky. Although my sister and I had to cut the front lawn with scissors once (No lawnmower in our house) and then it seemed the size of the Villa Ground.

Pom :angel:
 
A lovely photo Jennyann. You were looking towards our house in Witton, which was off The Broadway. :)
On match days we and the rest of Witton were the car park.
 
What a lovely picture Jennyann, and what a good colour photograph for the time.. hard to believe that it is overlooking Aston. I wonder how different the view is now from the house.

Where I work (in Aston) the view is of the M6 and warehouses although I can just about see the spire of the church poking out through some of the concrete structures :(

Janny
 
Well Di...I know that you lived in Broadway and I would have been looking your way for sure. Witton Circle was a place I always seemed to be because I changed buses there for years. I used to spend a fortune at Payne's Shoe Repair getting those evil spike heeled shoes fixed. I would also buy a copy of the "Reveille" from time to time at the newsagents right on the Circle. A fascinating shop that seemed to be the hub of the area...always stopped to have a look at the wedding photos outside. The Co-op dry goods section was often my last resort for a present when I couldn't find anything suitable in town. My father who lived in Wyreley Road growing up, always used take me for rides around the Witton streets showing me all the things that meant so much to him. If I had to mail something he always drove me to Manor Road Post Office. I understand it all now, of course.

I used to go to Perry Barr quite a bit because my brother and I went to the Odeon ABC minors on Saturdays. Later, in my teens I used to shop for shoes at either the Saxone or
Dolcis that was built on the corner of Aston Lane and Birchfield Road in the mid l950's.
I bought some very high spikey shoes in black suede once and thought I was the
"cats meow".
 
Jannywanny, thanks for the compliments about the garden. That tall tree that you can see in the picture is huge now and blocks out some of the view but you can still see the
Aston Villa grounds in all their white glory and some of the new taller buildings in the City.

My youngest brother Bill, who lives in Sutton Coldfield, has been fixing the house up for sale. He loves gardening also and has kept the garden going. It's more green now and I can only remember one rose bush. I will have to look out a photo I took of it about 5 years ago.
That garden went through many phases over the years. It was pretty wild during the war years when the Anderson air raid shelter went in at the bottom and the vegetable garden went in also. My parents had no children for several years when they first moved into the house in l935 they made the garden like a rustic type garden which was all the rage then it seems. They erected rustic poles all over the place. The garden is on two levels and my father wheeled over 200 barrowfuls of soil from the field behind the house to landscape the bottom of the garden. We had a dog who dug everything up at one time. Eventually, when we all grew up the garden was revived. The Webb Lawn mower
that my father bought in the l930's has been renovated perfectly by my brother and still works like a dream.
 
Pom, glad you liked the picture of the garden. I forgot to mention in the history of the garden, the washing lines. Very important indeed. The two huge props we had which
were so hard to handle at times and I got splinters from them often. We had a washing line running down that garden, in fact there were two at one time and then one short one across the area close to the house which stayed up for quite a while and was, if I remember a dangerous garrot if you didn't watch out. The two main lines came down after a major wash and then went back up again for the next wash. Frozen clothes, broken lines, laundry in the mud...we had it all. I remember cutting the lawn with my father's wallpaper scissors when I was small so I know what you mean.

I have a great portable umbrella washing rig that can be set up in a special slotted
hole in the lawn for the times when I want sun dried laundry but mostly it's the washer and dryer especially in the wintertime.
 
Sakura....The roses were lovely for several years in that garden even though they got blown around a lot. My Aunt in Peterborough, Ontario used to cover her roses with sacking to protect them over the winter.
 
We have been lucky in the last few years and we just put straw around the bottom and up about a foot of the plant. Peterborough is an hour north of us and as you know the snow line starts at hyw 7 so they are well above it. They probably get harder and longer frosts than us, we tend to be protected by the lake. O0
 
Jenny ann, the newsagent on Witton Circle was Buckleys, no relation to Allfie he tells me.

Did you ever take stockings for repair to Paynes, they were 10/- a pair which was a lot of money, so I would stop a run with nail varnish if it was hidden by my skirts but if I was hard up and couldn't afford a new pair, I would nip into Paynes. Oh those steel tipped heels, if you lost one you seemed to be walking with one leg in a hole. My favourite pair were pink with 4" heels ::) I know the shop that was on the corner of Aston lane, I used to meet a boyfriend there sometimes, the doorway was a good shelter if it was wet or cold.
 
Di, about those nylon repairs. I saw the ads but I never had any nylons mended. It was the biggest racket going...no, not Paynes, just the price of the nylons and people used to pick on women who had "ladders" in their stockings which was very spiteful. I too carried a bottle of nail varnish to repair small ladders, like you say those that were hidden under your feet or above the skirt line. Some girls used to repair them themselves and that was not always successful.

I used to go to the market and buy the cheapest fully fashioned 10 denier that I could find. Remember when everything had to be fully fashioned to be any good? Women would buy items and the words "It's fully fashioned" had to be recited in order to make
people think it was an excellent product. They bought FF Cardies and jumpers, etc.

Sometimes, those cheap nylons were seconds and had a run somewhere in them already when you bought them. It was a nightmare especially when you were running late and had one pair of stockings and your nail went through them as you were putting them on. My Mother had a Lloyd Loom chair in her bedroom with a cushion and she used to stuff all her nylons under the cushion. This was my source of nylons if all else failed. I could usually manage to match up a pair from her pile under the cushion but I had to do it carefully so that she wouldn't find out.

Thanks for the newsagents name Di....Now I wouldn't have remembered Buckley's on Witton Circle by the name but I used to like going in there because there was often some action with the paper boys and the owner...let's say a bit lively.... also I got caught many times in there and the Outer Circle to Erdington would come and go making me wait until the next group came.
 
1950s . Remember the Butchers on the corner opposite the Witton Arms, We used to buy His home made meat pies which he would take from the heated oven O THAT GRAVY. Then go with my workmates from GEC Switchgear works Relay Shop. Over to the the Snooker hall for one or two frames & a nice cup of tea. All this in our lunch hour.
More HAPPY MEMORIES.
ASTON
 
Right Di but my Uncle George Windle had the Butchers Shop for years a couple of doors up from Buckley's, he was my Moms brother. :)
 
I remember the Butchers shop, Alf. I never had any reason to go in there but I certainly remember it very well. How amazing that the butcher was your Uncle George. That building along the Circle was in awful shape last time I was there a couple of years ago and it actually had holes in the roof. So sad. I like to remember the area when everything was kept up and people used the area for daily shopping. Someone from the
Witton area who lived there at this time should write a description of all the stores that used to be on Witton Circle starting from the early l950's. I am not sure of them all but I did write a description of all the shops on Stockland Green from the early l950's for the "Your Memories" a British History website in 2001. You can read the stories at https://www.pasttimesproject.co.uk/lsl_search.php?subsite=ll&page=name&name=Nicol
 
jennyann,The area were I posted about the witton butchers pies has all been rebuilt the whole corner looks new and clean,
If I have not made my self clear as to were this Butcher was, it was on the corner of Witton Rd & Aston Lane just before Jolly's radio & TV shop.
Is that the one your Uncle GEORGE had Alf?. Tall dark haired Guy nice man.
 
Hi Aston: Thank goodness the building has now been fixed up on Witton Circle...it made me very sad to stand at the No. 11 Bus stop and look at that decay. I remember Jolly's Radio and TV shop which was next to the Butchers.
 
I am sure you are right Aston about the Barber's shop. I wish I could remember all the shops
on and around the Circle in those far off days. Di might remember the barbers.
 
In my first days as a GEC Apprentice the Guys I worked with introduced me to a little cafe in Manor Road I think it was by what is now Manor Road Post Office,There the Lady who owned it would serve up the most delicious stews, the gravy was so thick you could all most have eaten it with your fork, this also came with a door step slice of bread.I much better than the meals the GEC served up at the Magnet Club.
Ho my mouth waters just at the thought of It.
 
I've tried to picture all of the shops on the circle, I can do better further up Witton Road, but I'll have a go.

The pork butchers was Browns, Aston. My mom used to buy chitterlings and pigs trotters there. Next to it was Buckleys the news agent, and then Jolly's.. Then I think the barbers where  I took out little son to have his first haicut. Alfies uncles butchers shop must have been next, and was there a sweet shop on the corner. Right across the road was the coal yard, and then the old post office, but of course the Co-Op was the biggest shop in Witton. The first shop past the Witton Arms was a greengrocers, with all the fruit and veg out on the pavement as it always was in those days. On the opposite side was a shoe shop, I think it was called Smiths, and I think there was a  cafe right on the corner of Manor Road, with steps up to the door.

The last shop on the left before the lodge belonging to ICI an old lady kept a funny little sweet shop, A friend from work told me she would let me into a secret if I promised not to tell - hidden in a cabinet over the counter were the first Cadbury's flakes I ever saw, they sat in a piece of frilled brown paper. Rationing was still a recent memory and those little bits of heaven were scarce, so I really did keep them a big secret. I think there was a jewellers clsoe by, and one shop was boarded up, I don't think I ever saw it open.

The only cafe I went into was Sids next to or close by the bank, some times I would go with my girl friends at lunch time, we worked at ICI. The chippy in Manor Road  appeared after I left Birmingham, but when we went home for Villa matches we would all have fish and chips, and mom would send us there.

That's about the best I can do Jennyann, time sure does dull the memory. I waked to work every day for four years along that route. :)
 
Just seen Jennyann's picture of her lovely back garden at Stockland Green. It reminded me so much of the view from my bedroom. We lived about a mile away, just to the north of Witton Cemetery, and were on quite high ground, so that I could see almost the whole of North Birmingham. My dad was a keen gardner, but it never looked as immaculate as Jennyann's though.
Peter
 
Would that be close to the Ridgeway, Peter, where you lived? The view would certainly have been very similar. It really was a good one too and this photo would certainly remind you. When I come back for the house sale next Spring I will bring my portable telescope and have another look through the back bedroom window at all the changes and also take some photos for one last time.

Re: the garden. As you know it went through several era's but at the time the photo I posted was taken, my father who liked gardening very much, was a Switching Engineer with the Midlands Electricity Board and worked shift work mainly, so for relaxation from a very stressful job i.e. keeping top of the electrical power that the factories used to produce their goods in the Erdington and Aston area, he used to garden before he went into work in the summer months. Mom also got out there and that was the result.

Later on I will post some photos of how the garden looked in the l930's and how it looks now and also how in the l980's it was left to grow completely wild and you would never believe it was the same place. This garden certainly has history after the house being owned by the same family for 70 years.
 
Hope this is in the right place :idiot2:
Has anyone any information at all about THEADORE STREET, ASTON?
Does anyone know someone who lived there during the 1940 -1960s?, or any on the shops in the street, trying to find lost family, any help would be great.
Thanks O0
 
I know Theadore St was heavily bombed in the Blitz but all you would have to do is get the Electoral Roll for the whole Street for the date you want and you will find them if they lived their
 
Re: Theodore St Aston

Hi Anthony and Jackie.
Below is a copy of the 1943 Kelly's Directory.

THEODORE STREET (19), 113 Summer lane. New Town row. MAP G 2 & 3.
WEST SIDE.
12 & 13 Twigg, Charles (Builders) Ltd. building contrctrs
16 Alneco Ltd. electric heating appliance mfrs
17 to 21 Humpage & Moseley, bakelite mould tool makers
Wakefield. John & Sons Ltd. lamp & burner mkrs
... here is New Town row ..

EAST SIDE.
46 & 47 Lawden & Poole coppersmiths
48 (back of) Motor Rewinds & Repairs Ltd. electrcl. engnrs
ST. EDWARD'S SALVATION ARMY HALL
58 (back of) Knight Rt. & Wm. ships' tackle mfrs
59 Hawkes Jn. shopkpr
60 Timms Mrs.Emily,florist
67 Richards Miss E. shopkpr
68 (back of) Carter Geo. bricklyr
75 Vellvic Ltd. machinists

Any help?
Peter
 
I can add a few more of the shops to my earlier post on the circle, thanks to my sister Jenn. On the left hand side below the Witton arms there was a fishing tackle shop, and on the right was a gents outfitter a ladies hairdressers where she used to get her hair cut, and a newsagent. She remembners the day that a fire engine took the bend on the cirlce too fast and ran into the Co-Op, that was when it had to be rebuilt. She reminded me that the Co-Op had a butchers and an oufitters as sparate shops to the left side of the grocers.
 
hi di,i bet you wouldnt want to shop on the witton now,this is taken from the corner of manor road
 
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