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Birmingham Newspapers 1939-1945

Radiorails said:
We had brick air raid shelters at my school so we did not heed to crouch beneath desks. I assume that was an inner city thing.
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My aunt lived within spitting distance of Kynoch. There was a shelter but she said they had to cater for all circumstances.
 
This article is in July 1940 and my aunt remembers that their practice was before any actual bombing of Birmingham. I believe that bombing started in the next month of August. Not sure of the actual date but a bomb hit a house 2 doors away in Manor Road, Witton, and the family were in a shelter at the time. Luckily for them they could be moved to an undamaged house very close by.
My aunt had been evacuated but her father had brought her back when he was not happy how she had been treated.

During the pandemic my aunt kept asking the question…”Why are the children not at school, we had to go every day ?”
 
Pedrocut said:
Interesting question Smudge. Tried asking Google, and this came up.

thebirminghamallotmentproject.co.uk

Allotments in Birmingham: history, policy and statistics – 1960s to the present day | The Birmingham Allotment Project

An exciting new project by General Public exploring the heritage of allotments in Birmingham from the 1960s to the present day.
thebirminghamallotmentproject.co.uk thebirminghamallotmentproject.co.uk
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Interesting Pedro. Reading some of the weather notes of the allotment users not that unusual, blazing hot summers followed by cool wet ones. I used to sell some of my old dads produce from a barrow at the Brookvale pub Erdington. Surprising what you can sell to someone `slightly imbibed`
 
Smudger said:
Interesting Pedro. Reading some of the weather notes of the allotment users not that unusual, blazing hot summers followed by cool wet ones. I used to sell some of my old dads produce from a barrow at the Brookvale pub Erdington. Surprising what you can sell to someone `slightly imbibed`
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There is a special presence or smell or something about allotments. I can't explain it. They have a stillness especially big ones. and wildlife. We never had one but our neighbours did. They were always there. Sometimes I went along with their children. There was a goose too. On the 'lotments.
 
Pedrocut said:
On September 2, 1940 the Birmingham Gazette and Mail report, children including some from Birmingham, saved at sea…

View attachment 189903View attachment 189904View attachment 189905
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That was a happier outcome than the one later in the month when the City of Benares was sunk with the loss of many lives including those of children.

At around that time, an American friend of my father offered my sister and me a safe haven in the USA for the duration. I wasn't aware at the time of the earnest debate which must have ensued between my parents as they weighed up the pros and cons and the frightening unknowns of which there were many. We were lucky to have the opportunity of escaping from an ever-increasing air raid threat and, beyond that, the unimaginable horrors of a German invasion/occupation; but what a decision for any parent to have to make. They decided that the risks of the crossing were too great and that we should face everything together, for better or for worse. Hindsight tells us that it was, for us, the right decision, but there was no way that they could be certain of that at the time.

I'm not sure when this was all shared with me - perhaps a year or two later, by which time things were looking rather less bleak. Can't remember, now, how much I thought about the whole subject when I was told or whether there was any disappointment that it hadn't come about. Probably just a shrug of the shoulders - there was little surprising about anything at all which you found out about in those extraordinary times.

Chris
 
Astoness said:
i had not realised that children were evacuated as far away as canada...they were very lucky

lyn
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Some were not sadly Lyn. They were sent to work like slaves. I was surprised as it was in WW2 also. The late Jim Highland who was a researcher for period films and books told me. He helped me in my family research. Anyway, one of his relatives was. One of my half sisters in laws was sent to Canada as a drudge as a child, from Ireland. My birth relatives relatives by marriage ended up in Canada l There is a maybe fictional not sure book out I bought last year called the Boy With The Suitcase. Dealt with this. Very good. He came back.
 
“Lucas, Ltd.-S Block-Spitfire Fund dance at the Crown and Cushion, Perry Barr, Birmingham. Here are some of the 200 guests who contributed nearly £20 to the fund.
(Birmingham Gazette Oct 1940)

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Birmingham Must Have More Men….SOME of Birmingham's civil defence services are far below strength, and recruits are urgently wanted.
(Birmingham Gazette Oct 1940)

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