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Birchfield Road Perry Barr

According to Kelly's there were police cottages at Greenhill Rd, two in Kingstanding Rd and one in Handsworth Wood Rd. So would it have been one of these?

Phil
 
I posted the same police station picture with that date a few weeks ago and this discussion took place then.
 
The old police station, Perry Barr. Situated near Birchfield Library, the building was removed in the early 1950s when the road was widened. Sorry caption should have gone with above. From Handswoth Digital. How correct that is i do not know.
 
I probably saw more of Birchfield Rd and Perry Barr in the 1950s than at any other time and I cannot remember that Police Station near Birchfield Library. Maybe someone has a map which can show it's location. However, it is a nice photo.
 
Here is a Police Station photo with a clear caption, would it have been in Canterbury Road ?
perrybarrpolice.jpg
 
Oldmohawk. Your photo of the police station is the Canterbury Road one that replaced the earlier one in photos # 206 and 212. Although the old police station maybe wasn't demolished until the 1950s perhaps it had long ceased to be a police station by the 1950s and had some other function. Viv
 
if you look to the right you can see 2 children peering through the railings of the school next door, canturbury cross.
 
oldMohawk said:
I probably saw more of Birchfield Rd and Perry Barr in the 1950s than at any other time and I cannot remember that Police Station near Birchfield Library. Maybe someone has a map which can show it's location. However, it is a nice photo.
Click to expand...

I also knew Birchfield Road in the 50's but I don't remember the police station - it would have been demolished before I was old enough to remember.

Will ask my mother when I speak to her at the weekend as she lived in Perry Barr from the late 30's.
 
Astoness said:
willey here is another good one..the cinema is on the left just in front of the bus..again the library next to it and in the distance i can make out holy trinity church...it really is hard for me to believe it looked like this before the powers that be decided to wreak havoc on the birchfield road

lyn

library.jpg
Click to expand...

When I was little I was taken to England's Shoe Shop for my shoes. It was just past the Birchfield Cinema on the left of Lyn's photo, and was near the corner of Aston Lane and Birchfield Road. I remember absolutely nothing about these trips to buy shoes (must have been very, very young) but have a vague memory of a shoe measuring machine in a dark wood with rubber things into which you put your feet. The machine was quite a big contraption. That may have been at this branch, but not too sure. Viv.
 
Yes, Birchfield Road in those days was more like a village high street than a main road - the A34 to be precise. It became extremely busy and a nightmare at peak periods largely because of all the new housing that was built in Kingstanding and Great Barr. I agree that the flyover and underpass are monstrosities, but unavoidable, sad to say.

Viv, I was also taken to England's for my shoes. A family friend worked there - I think her name was Sylvia and she attended All Souls Church on Wenlock Road. I recall the foot-measuring device only too well, because I had mega-big feet for a child, and also my left foot was a size larger than my right....me all over, that is.

Big Gee
 
I can remember the feet measuring machines in shoe shops when I was a child (possibly in the Englands shoe shop in Perry Barr mentioned but also in Day's in town I think).

They were phased out in the UK in the 70's as the x rays were thought to be dangerous to health.
 
Thanks Lyn - I've just had a ride up the road on street view and am surprised the building is still there looking good. I notice the right hand sash windows are slightly open, so maybe it is still in use. In the 1907 pic there is a small sapling tree planted outside the front door - I wonder whether it is now the big tree outside the front door ?
Phil...
 
phil i would say there is a very good chance its the same tree...if memory serves me right the late and very much missed mike-g worked out of canterbury road police station...

lyn
 
A Sparks said:
Love that photo!

My mother worked at Wilkes, the little wool shop next door to Dodds when she left school and she used to take me in to visit the ladies who ran it when I was a child.

Re the circus photos, it definitely looks like the Trinity Road end of Birchfield Road.
I used to go to ballet classes in one of the big Victorian houses up there - they were beautiful places.
Click to expand...

I remember the wool shop with all it's bits and pieces. I also loved going into Dodds, the smell, the assistants in their brown cow gowns and so much stuff on the shelves. That photo shows an alleyway behind which was some sort of workshop where they made wicker shopping baskets on wheels. I remember my Mother going there and buying one, must have been 53 or 54. I used to ride in it as she pulled me along for her daily trip to the shops.
 
Mentioned this before but I still have a spade that my Mother bought from Dodds in the fifties, still has Dodds written in ink on the handle.
 
A 1916 view of Birchfield Road. I can't work out exactly where this would have been on Birchfield Road. And what a lot of people in the queue. Must have been something good on offer, or maybe Christmas? Viv.


ImageUploadedByTapatalk1340654805.210362.jpg
 
hi viv cracking pic and i posted this one a couple of years back..would have got lost in the hack..for the life of me i cant remember what the caption said..nice to see it again..

lyn
 
Lyn
Unfortunately the caption on the bottom of thephoto did not completely explain it as it was aprtly cut off. It read:
Simpson & sons 224 Birchfield rd (on the corner of Heathfield rd). The message dated 22nd April 1917 reads "They are not giving anything away, it is for potatoes. There's a long long trail a winding all for 2 pounds of spuds". they... & the next line is cut off. I remember that, due to U-boat activity in WW1, they reckoned that in summer 1917 the uk was down to stocks of only a few weeks of grain, so possibly food waas so short that people queued for potatoes
 
oh thats great info mike...goes a long way i think to explaining what was happing in that photo..

lyn
 
Yes thanks for the info Mike. It doesn't look like a casual photo, the shop owner/attendents are posing outside, well at least they're very aware of the camera. I think the photo looks like it must have been taken in relation to something very topical. Viv.
 
Think I'd have been tempted to have a look at this place if it was still there at 96 Birchfield Road. All those health benefits to riding a moped! Mr Powell's 'Joybike' looks fun! And note "Ten minutes peddling a day, keeps the undertaker away". This site might be of interest to moped enthusiasts too.

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1353589013.096096.jpg
This was extracted from the website below. Viv.

https://www.icenicam.ukfsn.org/articles4/pics012.html
 
Hi im new to this site- joined to research my old employer- rf sweeney radio.. It has been mentioned here.. The perry barr branch was at 274 wellington rd..opposite crown and cushion.. Not sure what it is now.. Maybe a small supermarket ? The manager there was also an 'andy' .. Hee made me a video pirate of 'bluethunder
' i recall ! Lol circa 1984 xx
 
Never seen so many 100e Fords in one photo, or is one a consul, even though I bought one in 1964. Anyone remember the Market hall in Perry Barr, my Mother used to buy the little plastic bottles of beer shampoo whenever we visited.
 
Great photo Topsy. When I was little I used to get my feet measured for shoes at that Englands shoe shop. There's a newspaper stand in the foreground, forgotton about those. I think the vendor used to stand inside the box. Viv.
 
Blimey, that's brought back some memories! I also had my feet measured at England's Shoe Shop, and the assistant was rather puzzled when she measured by left foot a size larger than my right. But that's how it was, and still is! If I recall correctly, that assistant was called Sylvia, and she was married to Peter Leicester who was connected with All Souls Church.

I think the car on the extreme left is a Consul, and the car right behind it on the Birchfield Road is an Austin A55. You can also just see Roy's Bakery on Aston Lane.

G
 
Big Gee. Peter Leicester married the late Yvonne Le Roux. I think your "Sylvia" may have been Sylvia Southall who attended All Souls Church. What do you think? Regards. willey
 
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