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BCT Garages

N

Novelty

knowlegable brummie
I have just picked up on this topic and hopefully the following will be of interest:
In the mid 1950's there were 18 service garages in BCT ownership as follows :

Selly Oak. Harborne, Quinton, Roseberry St, Hockley, Miller St, Wellhead Lane, Birchfield Road, Washwood Heath, Lea Hall, Highgate Road, Liverpool St, Acocks Green, Yardley Wood, Moseley Road, Cotteridge, Barford St & Coventry Road.

Hope this is useful.
 
Not to forget the overhaul works on Tyburn Rd. I think the only garage to have closed by then was Tennant Street, to the west of Broad St, which was taken over from Midland Red in 1914 but could not house top covered double deckers.
The former tram depot at Witton was used for storing spare buses, but like Tyburn Rd never operated them in service.
 
I,ve just thought of a bus station but it may have been M.R. the top end of Sheepcote St behind the bank on Broad St I remember getting an obstruction ticket for parking in front of the entrance at 3 oclock on a Sunday morning appealed and got away with it. Dek
 
My mom worked as a clippy from the BCT Harborne depot, and I remember the BCT Selly Oak depot which I believe was on the Bristol Road, not far from the railway bridge.
paul
 
No, Selly Oak Garage was in Harborne Lane at the bottom of Chapel Lane on the Outer Circle Route. There was an old tram depot on the Bristol Road in Bournbrook which became a a wood yard.
 
thanks novelty I remember the double green doors on the bristol road site thinking back to the mid 50's I don't think I saw them open!
paul
 
Hi
I have come across 2 photo's of Roseberry st Hockley. The first is a photo of when Roseberry st was a tramways Depot
in 1939


Image6_Roseberry_St_Tram_Depot_1939.jpg






The second photo is the same as the first but 29 years later. If you look closely above the tram photo
you can see on the brickwork tramways Depot. Now look at this photo with the buses and you can just about make it out.

Roseberry_Street_Bus_Garage_1968.jpg




Regards Stars
 
Visits to see family members who lived in Ladywood meant, if time permitted, a quick visit to Roseberry Street bus depot to see what was in there. :biggrin:

I was once accompanied by an aunt who got a trifle agitated being stood for a while outside the depot. I did not know why (well I was about 12 years old) but have since realised that her presence outside the depot might have been misunderstood by some of the bus staff. :biggrin:
 
hi radiorails
i was jst thinking about rosemary st depot and you have beatened me to it and it brougt memories back to me
when i was young and we used to play around there by the depot and running in and being abit cheeky with it to the lads the mechanics and any
inspectors knocking about and even when we got abit older going in and asking if therey ever needed night time cleanes for the buses
and watch them drive though the jet was springlers they had there and we would run in and press the bell a couple of times on as many buses as we can ; also some memorie of a couple of young ladies i courted down rosemary passage and doing abit of snocking down in the george street west wreck park
o the round about and swings ; cor blimmey the things we done when we was little whipper snapper rosamary street as all gone along with the colledge pub ;
i went up that neck of the woods about six months ago and took snaps you would not beleive the way they have changed it ; uh;
best wishes astonian
 
It is pretty sad to think of all those wonderful garages, especially the tram ones, and unless I am mistaken, the only places left with actual visible tracks are Miller Street and the ex Aston Manor site, the later of course having an extensive track layout with points and the overhead. I wonder how long that will last? Ain't progress wonderful?
 
There are no tram track visible at Miller St, there may be track under the road surface but but none can be seen, there is or was track visible at Aston, the tram track is still visible at the former Highgate tram/bus garage (but only if the doors are open ) like when this photo was taken https://www.flickr.com/photos/transport_photos/5957804916/in/set-72157626339774888 this former garage has recently had a new roof and is being refurbished, the rumour and it it is only a rumour that it will become a market, next door to the former garage looks like it will be a cinema
 
Greetings Astonian.

I read your reply post with interest and a smile. Our memories vary, some happy and joyous other not so. I only recall a few, what might loosely be termed, girlfriends. Two lived near The Baldwin PH in Hall Green, another in Wilmcote near Stratford upon Avon. My first, and only deeply true love is the one I met after Air Force Service in my Devon town. We will celebrate our Golden Anniversary, by the Grace of God, next year. I have only visited Birmingham twice since 1960 and I know some areas have changed beyond recognition; especially some the inner city areas.

Countryside views change little, however and driving towards Birmingham from Warwick in 1979, via Henley-in-Arden and Shirley, I was pleased to recognise so may places that we drove past. I suppose that was due to the fact that I had spent a large part of summer school vacations bicycling around many Midland, particularly Warwickshire, Counties. The furthest I ever traveled by bicycle, in one day, was to Tenbury Wells and back. My bicycle odometer read 105 miles. Two of us left at 9am., lunched in the park overlooking the river and Cathedral at Worcester, tea at Tenbury, puncture at Kidderminster - on the way home - arriving home via a circuitous route at 11pm. Then of course came the inquest by those waiting up for us. That journey was in 1951 or 1952 when roads were less congested that today. I loved cycling: that's maybe why I have been an avid aficionado of the Tour de France for many years.
 
Bringing the thread back to its title - oh boy! what a thread drift - I note that the original post did not mention Kyotts Lake Road. It was in use for special uses most surely in the mid-fifties. I expect once the tramcars were extinct it had a short life afterwards.

But, for sure, someone here will know. lol
 
My father worked for Birmingham buses at most garages during 50's, 60's and 70's as a maintenance plumber. Anyone remember the Stadium in Billesley. I think it is still there. I remember summer parties there and sports days.
 
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