• Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.

    We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team

Birmingham in 1950s

  • Thread starter Thread starter Kandor
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
I liked the idea of being a "Ted" but my Dad would've soon beaten THAT out of me !

Eventually I think I'd have become a Mod but joining the army put a stop to all that malarkey.
 
I've just had a flashback.
Do those Hari Krishna characters still trot around the city centre, clinking their little cymbals ?
 
maypolebaz said:
I've just had a flashback.
Do those Hari Krishna characters still trot around the city centre, clinking their little cymbals ?
Click to expand...
They used to be in Cov, I worked in Corporation Street and my Glaswedian colleague shouted "there's a coo in the street." They had a big black and white bull and they were all dressed in orange robes and sang with tinkling bells.
 
Hi

Yes for some joining the Army/Navy or Air force transformed their lives.
Unfortunately the 1950's was the era of the last of the draft or call up.
The last draft was in 1960 and the last demob was 1962. In effect the gradual
reduction of Call ups were generally felt by the Military thinkers of the day has
too short. In effect the general complexity of Military equipment and after training
they were shorty to be discharged.
To offset the loss of National Servicemen (note women were exempt) that wouldn't
be the case today a more realistic system of Service timings were introduced with
a huge increase in the TA Regiments.
In effect what we have today. The arguments rage on over these issue but it was
a better use of Public Money and a longer time in the Various Units of the Military.
Sorry it had nothing to do with Discipline that could easily be given at TA establishments.
Not an easy subject Hanging has a Similar thread.

Mike Jenks
 
mike jenks said:
Hi

Yes for some joining the Army/Navy or Air force transformed their lives.
Unfortunately the 1950's was the era of the last of the draft or call up.
The last draft was in 1960 and the last demob was 1962. In effect the gradual
reduction of Call ups were generally felt by the Military thinkers of the day has
too short. In effect the general complexity of Military equipment and after training
they were shorty to be discharged.
To offset the loss of National Servicemen (note women were exempt) that wouldn't
be the case today a more realistic system of Service timings were introduced with
a huge increase in the TA Regiments.
In effect what we have today. The arguments rage on over these issue but it was
a better use of Public Money and a longer time in the Various Units of the Military.
Sorry it had nothing to do with Discipline that could easily be given at TA establishments.
Not an easy subject Hanging has a Similar thread.

Mike Jenks
Click to expand...
They are still called up in France or you have to do something else deemed worthwhile like forestry for example.
 
Hi

I think they the French and the Germans have given it up other
than TA systems. Armed forces these days are highly Technical
and TA or much longer training areas within the Armed Forces are
required. Some areas require up to 7 years to even get a look in on
a front line Jet. Its the way of the World.

Mike Jenks
 
mike jenks said:
Hi

I think they the French and the Germans have given it up other
than TA systems. Armed forces these days are highly Technical
and TA or much longer training areas within the Armed Forces are
required. Some areas require up to 7 years to even get a look in on
a front line Jet. Its the way of the World.

Mike Jenks
Click to expand...
I know they have great difficulty in obtaining work in France if they have low school grades as they don't have paid training schemes. It has taken someone I know13 years to get a paid job. He did it for no wages as he was glad to be accepted and then trained as a gardener and eventually passed exams, some in latin, which is hard if you are not academic. He was deemed as not academic but passed his driving test straight away which has helped with his new job. My cousin in Hull has been put on one and if he gets a job at the end of the four years training, the employment agency gets paid.
What subject is this?
Nico
 
I remember as a child my mom and 2 older sisters and myself all sitting together making rag rugs made from cutting up old coats etc., we had a large piece of hessian and bodgers to pull the pieces of cloth through. In the last few years I have seen these rag rugs on sale at quite high prices in craft type outlets.
 
Just to follow up from Astonian #385. Predating beatniks in who appeared in the mid fifties, we had beauxs - a slight change of spelling but short for bohemians. They frequented Birmingham central pubs like the Trocadaro and the Windsor, coffee bars like the stage door; they date back to the nineteen century. In the mid fifties they took the American label beatniks. The hippies did of course appear in the sixties but in Brum, didn't tend to come at first from the colleges and university, rather the unemployed and druggies. They tended to take over the Trocadaro, filling the place but not spending much. Eventually they redecorated the Trocadaro and banned hippies. You would be thrown out just for wearing a great coat, which were fashionable at the time. You would find Brummie hippies scoring in the Greyhound. Apologies to any ex Brummie hippies, but I didn't find them as colourful as the American and London hippies at first. Drifters rather than rebels. By the mid the mid sixties things improved, the drifters drifted away and we had colour and life added to the Brum hippies.
 
I drank a lot in the "Troc", early 60's 62/63. a lot of the beatniks used to sleep rough and sit around the fountain near the Council house, with other weirdo's like the British Nazi party and the like.
paul
 
paul stacey said:
I drank a lot in the "Troc", early 60's 62/63. a lot of the beatniks used to sleep rough and sit around the fountain near the Council house, with other weirdo's like the British Nazi party and the like.
paul
Click to expand...
I remember Afghan coats and big floppy hats for both sexes. Gladiators. Hippy bands. There was a friendly crowd of people living in a rented house in my street circa 1963. One used to have a live kitten sitting on his hat under a massive mop of bushy long hair, a guitar slung over his back. They wore bright coloured clothes, unusual for men then, which I liked and they smiled at you. Nan said they were students and that's what students did. My mate got re housed and moved in to a former art students' property just after that, each wall and door was a different colour. Later on we used to go and see 'the students' and some of my mates dated them, I was too young, and some married them. If they were older than you they were your auntie, and you were their nephew, a student thing I was told.
I went to the Troc but it was in Bulkington, near Bed'th. (Bedworth) which is near Nuneaton.
My older half brother danced rock and roll at the Moseley Dance Hall. You may know it.
Nico
 
Michael_Ingram said:
Just to follow up from Astonian #385. Predating beatniks in who appeared in the mid fifties, we had beauxs - a slight change of spelling but short for bohemians. They frequented Birmingham central pubs like the Trocadaro and the Windsor, coffee bars like the stage door; they date back to the nineteen century. In the mid fifties they took the American label beatniks. The hippies did of course appear in the sixties but in Brum, didn't tend to come at first from the colleges and university, rather the unemployed and druggies. They tended to take over the Trocadaro, filling the place but not spending much. Eventually they redecorated the Trocadaro and banned hippies. You would be thrown out just for wearing a great coat, which were fashionable at the time. You would find Brummie hippies scoring in the Greyhound. Apologies to any ex Brummie hippies, but I didn't find them as colourful as the American and London hippies at first. Drifters rather than rebels. By the mid the mid sixties things improved, the drifters drifted away and we had colour and life added to the Brum hippies.
Click to expand...
Does anyone remember Brunners? In Moseley. It's either a chocolate shop or a gilders. Not much difference eh? Would have been in the 50's.
 
Michael_Ingram said:
Just to follow up from Astonian #385. Predating beatniks in who appeared in the mid fifties, we had beauxs - a slight change of spelling but short for bohemians. They frequented Birmingham central pubs like the Trocadaro and the Windsor, coffee bars like the stage door; they date back to the nineteen century. In the mid fifties they took the American label beatniks. The hippies did of course appear in the sixties but in Brum, didn't tend to come at first from the colleges and university, rather the unemployed and druggies. They tended to take over the Trocadaro, filling the place but not spending much. Eventually they redecorated the Trocadaro and banned hippies. You would be thrown out just for wearing a great coat, which were fashionable at the time. You would find Brummie hippies scoring in the Greyhound. Apologies to any ex Brummie hippies, but I didn't find them as colourful as the American and London hippies at first. Drifters rather than rebels. By the mid the mid sixties things improved, the drifters drifted away and we had colour and life added to the Brum hippies.
Click to expand...
Yow baynt changed mooch av yow?
 
Hi Nico, No mate, never danced up the Moseley road side, but I did hear it was quite a scene once, but although I never drank in Nuneaton I did drink in Atherstone a few times,
paul
 
I remember my nan making rag rugs. I've never made one myself but have made a wool rug. Making a wool rug was, to my surprise, a very expensive project. Which makes the idea of making a rag rug very attractive, so might be giving that a go. If you use bold colours in blocks (according to Kirsty's Homemade programme) it gives it a modern twist. Viv.
 
Sylvia, my friends nan still "rags" and makes a huge profit at craft fairs, which she donates to local charities, also, the peg dolls sell like wildfire at the school fetes, she has made a Jubilee set which is being auctioned to raise funds at the local school, so make do and mend still has its advantages.
Sue
 
paul stacey said:
Hi Nico, No mate, never danced up the Moseley road side, but I did hear it was quite a scene once, but although I never drank in Nuneaton I did drink in Atherstone a few times,
paul
Click to expand...
Me neither I used to get to Braunston by the canal, The Rose and Castle if I had a lift
 
I have to say I /we seem to be selling a lot more hessian of late, as people make things instead of going out and buying the finished product. Mind you buying a peg rug is not easy these days.
 
Hi Sue, Sylvia and Old & Grey. It's good to hear more and more people are taking up these things again. I've always loved crafts, gone through many types of projects but I always come back to sewing. And if I can make things out of discarded materials, all the better. You get a real sense of achievement. Viv.
 
Playing with my young grandchildren, and looking at their multi coloured toys with buttons and music, I thought back to when we used to make our own
toys. I told them I could make an aeroplane from a sheet of paper.
Click to expand...

Congrats on the quality of said aircraft, oldMohawk. I used to make the same thing but never that well !
We used to modify ours I recall, folded up wing tips-a' la modern long haul jets and a piece of string tied to the tail, (helped with the stability).
Click to expand...

I have folded thousands of these over the years and was always surprised by people saying they had not seen it before, i've taught nephews and nieces and made sure my g/kids know how to do it, great to see others folding a superior flyer lol


bren
 
Things we kids made for ourselves tended to be a bit dangerous too.
We used to make a kind of dart from a piece of bamboo and fix cardboard flights to it. With a piece of string, knotted at one end, you could launch the dart a surprisingly long way. (a variation of the aborigine spear thrower I suppose).
Being the sort of kids we were, it wasn't long before the head of a proper dart would be screwed onto the end of the cane, rendering it potentially lethal.
I don't know how I ever survived my childhood !
 
I sense a battle in the skies looming! Lol ...... and a valid excuse to be kids again ........ Viv.
 
bren said:
I have folded thousands of these over the years and was always surprised by people saying they had not seen it before, i've taught nephews and nieces and made sure my g/kids know how to do it, great to see others folding a superior flyer lol


bren
Click to expand...

The fingers had to be placed in a certain way to throw it properly, don't forget !
 
Hi nico ;
glad you mentioned the old grey hound i presume you meant the old grey hound pub ; and not the one redelveloped further down the rd ; because when the sack of pototoes was built thats where they drifted to ;they was not allowed in the new moderen grey hound
and just to jogg your memory the old grey hound at the top of hollow way head was directly opersite the crooks paradise
meaning the bowling green pub where the old jo anna never stopped playing only whemn a copper walked in ; or should i say cid
keep them rolling i say nico ; astonian ;;;
 
Astonian said:
Hi nico ;
glad you mentioned the old grey hound i presume you meant the old grey hound pub ; and not the one redelveloped further down the rd ; because when the sack of pototoes was built thats where they drifted to ;they was not allowed in the new moderen grey hound
and just to jogg your memory the old grey hound at the top of hollow way head was directly opersite the crooks paradise
meaning the bowling green pub where the old jo anna never stopped playing only whemn a copper walked in; or should i say cid
keep them rolling i say nico ; astonian ;;;
Click to expand...
I didn't mention the Greyhound but I did go in the Sack of Potatoes and The Corn Exchange. My mate used to go to Matthew Bolton College so he would know more pubs than me. I used to visit my mum in hospital and go out with him after at the weekends as he knew the Brummie pubs. Then we got the last train back to Cov. I went in the Swan at Yardley once after an interview. A lot of my older mates went to somewhere with a name like Annabelles or Rebecca's as they had motors. I relied on lifts. And the Night in or Night Out, I forget.And was there a Kings and a Tin Tins? I managed Bubbles in Hinckley in my battered Cortina and the Chesford in Kenilworth, but it wasn't worth the trip. Maybe it was Holloway Circus I went to with shops underneath to get to the hospital. I remember 100's of starlings and pigeons in New St. Squawking and pooping. Nico
 
maypolebaz said:
The fingers had to be placed in a certain way to throw it properly, don't forget !
Click to expand...
I could not teach my grandkids how to throw the paper aeroplane but they are all pre-school so have time to learn.
Thinking back, when the 'pea-shooter' season came round I had not got a metal pea shooter, so I made do with a lupin flower from the garden, stripped the flowers off and used the hollow stalk as a pea shooter.
 
My mad parents - known to some of you from meets - have been known to have competitions with equally mad friends and family for the best paper plane - Dad always won, plane maker extrordinaire, Kate has shown one of the classes she taught on placement how to make them as part of their science lessons!
Sue
 
I went to the Night Out to see Danny La Rue. Very good show and all while I had a meal at the table. Great evening out.
 
I remember 'making do' with two thin sticks, a reel of cotton, a sheet of newspaper, some flour and water for paste, and soon I had a diamond shaped kite. Made the tailings while the paste dried and then off out to fly my kite...:friendly_wink:
 
The mention of cotton reels reminds me of something we girls did. You'd bang a few small nails in one side of the reel and weave wool or thick cotton usung the nails to make stitches. Eventually you'd have a long, thin knitted rope-type thing coming out the other side of the cotton reel hole. But I can't for the life of me remember what this was called or what we used it for ! Probably just for the fun of it. Viv.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top